International visit strengthens action research ties

Posted on September 20, 2015

Prof Pieter du Toit, lecturer in the Faculty of Education’s Department of Humanities Education, embarked on an international scholarly trip to share his expertise and to further expand his research network.

During this trip, Prof Du Toit visited the University of Edge Hill in Ormskirk, where Prof Mark Schofield, Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning hosted him. He then presented a workshop at the University of Nottingham and presented two papers at a conference in York, the one entitled ‘Transforming learning and teaching: The value of applying a comprehensive whole brain model at a higher education institution’, with Prof Ann de Boer and Prof Theo Bothma as coauthors, and the other entitled ‘The value of self-directedness as virtue in developing scholarly communities of higher education practice’, which Prof Elsa Mentz coauthored. He concluded his international tour with a visit to the University of  Antwerpen, where he met with Prof Peter van Petegem and Prof Vincent Donche.

A highlight of this trip, was the invitation by Prof Andrew Townsend,  Associate Professor in Educational Leadership at the University of Nottingham’s School of Education, to offer a workshop on action research for academic staff. The workshop, entitled‘ The marriage between scholarship of teaching and action research scholarship: Making our claims of practice-based evidence of innovation public’, was attended by academic staff and postgraduate students.

According to Prof Du Toit, the interactive workshop was focused on action research, a field venturing into the subject of practice innovation regarding learning theories such as whole brain learning and contructivism, with the goal of creating sound practice theory. Action research is considered practitioner research, during which the practitioner takes responsibility of researching his or her own practice rather than involving external researchers to do so.

“The workshop aimed to develop scholars by creating scholarly communities of practice, with the goal of bridging the gap between ‘scholarship of research’ and ‘scholarship of teaching’. Communities of practice are established through participatory action research initiatives. The workshop in itself was innovating as theoretical concepts were practically applied and the idea of whole brain research and peer mentoring was discussed,” he says.

Like Prof Du Toit, Prof Townsend is a specialist on the subject of action research and the professional development of academic staff. Through this scholarly partnership, the universities of Pretoria and Nottingham can mutually benefit by presenting international workshops and externally evaluating postgraduate studies.

Prof Du Toit has another international visit planned for November, when he will visit the University of Masya in Turkey to share his insights on action research initiatives and serve on the editorial team of two of their journals. He is also involved in an NRF-funded project in collaboration with North-West University on cooperative learning strategies to promote self-directed learning. 

- Author Petronel Fourie

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