Lizette de Jager participates in TAU programme

Dr Lizette de Jager from the Department of Humanities Education was elected to promote strength, courage, leadership and even wisdom and protection. She was invited to participate in the TAU programme. The aims of the TAU programme are to contribute towards the enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education in South Africa. This is enabled by supporting the development of a cadre of academics across institutions and disciplines as scholars, leaders, and mentors in their fields.

The programme enhances the status and stature of teaching and popularises the understanding of teaching excellence in varied institutional and disciplinary settings. TAU is modelled on the highly successful Philadelphia-based Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education Research (FAIMER) programme – see http://www.faimer.org/education/ fellows/index.html,and on the work of the South African branch of this programme, SAFRI.

TAU works with experienced academics who are recognised for teaching excellence, to build a cadre of teaching and learning leaders who could serve as role models and who could support the professional development of their colleagues within their department or institution. For this purpose, TAU provides an opportunity for high-level engagement for some 50 participants from across South Africa, from all public universities and from a wide range of disciplines. TAU seeks to maximise participant involvement by regular group engagements with a wide range of topics and issues, and specifically through placing each participant in an enquiry group, which supports their work on individual and group projects.

Each enquiry group is further supported by an advisor with considerable experience of educational development and the higher education system. The programme is structured in terms of the three TAU golden threads: deepening the understanding of teaching excellence in local contexts: the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL), and becoming a change agent. The contact sessions combine inputs around current pressing debates, group discussions, and creative sessions, with time for participants to become acquainted and to reflect.