Transcript SUPPORTING STUDENTS AT UJ - University of Johannesburg

Supporting students at the University of
Johannesburg
Presentation by Prof Jenny Clarence-Fincham
February 2010
Aims
To identify the available services within ADS
Think about the language problem and Academic
Development in the context of UJ
Centre for Academic Professional Staff
Development: Director Dr Riette de Lange,
Extension 3749
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Teaching and module evaluations
Teaching philosophy workshops
New staff workshops
Research and Development workshops
Individual and departmental consultations
Assistance with material development
Assistance with preparation of teaching portfolios
Centre for Psychological Services and
Career Development
Overview
A wide range of professional and confidential services,
ranging from therapeutic services, psycho-educational
services, career services, people with disabilities and Work
Integrated Learning.
All services in PsyCaD are completely free
to students
Therapeutic services
General Therapy
Services to Campus Health / Occupational Health (Counselling
aspect):
– HIV/VCT
– Termination of pregnancy
Trauma: 24-hour crisis line – 0800 777 000
Support groups
Academic Services
Office: People with Disabilities
– Testing for additional time
– Assistive technology (Braille, voice recognition etc)
Faculty Liaison
– F5 and F7
– Admissions
– First year Experience and Orientation
Work integrated learning support
Career Development
Career Resource Centres – for job searches, posting of CVs
Career counselling
• Assessment
• Testing
• Counselling
• Career workshops – CV writing, Interview skills
Graduate Recruitment Programme
• On-campus talks / career fairs
• Career portal
Contact Points
APK – C Ring 1; B5
APB – Impala Court
DFC – House 4, Louis Street
SWC – Block C (Old Science Building)
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Centre for Technologically Assisted Learning:
Director Dr Marlena Kruger
Extension 3558
Edu-link – a learning management system
Computer proficiency training Edu-link training for
students and staff
Student assistance in computer labs
Individual assistance to staff
Academic Development Centre: Dr Pauline
Machika
Extension 4024
• Language development modules
• Tutor training and development (staff and
students)
• Study skills modules
• Time management
• Extended curricula
Question
What do you understand by the language
problem in the context of UJ?
Task
Think of a traditional western fairy tale:
 Name the heroine; describe her
 describe her mother/aspirations for her
daughter
 describe the heroine’s suitor/s
 What happens at the end of the story?
 What are the values that inform the
landscape of fairy tale?
Now the modern version
My two daughters have always enjoyed traditional fairy tales and can pretty much
retell all of the well known ones without any problems. As much as they like these
stories though, they much prefer modern day fairy tales which always seem to have
an original and comical slant on the stories they are based on. One such story . . . is
Prince Cinders by Babette Cole.
This is a fabulously funny picture book that tells the story of our hero Prince Cinders
who lives with his three big hairy brothers who make him do all the work while they go
to the Palace Discos with their girlfriends. Prince Cinders (who is very small and
weedy) wishes that he could be big and hairy too and it looks like his wish may just be
granted when he is helped by a dirty fairy who comes down the chimney! She
attempts to turn a baked bean can into a smart sports car and his raggy clothes into a
suit and make the prince big and hairy too. Unfortunately her magic spells do not
exactly go according to plan - the car is tiny, the suit is a swim suit and Prince Cinders
looks like an enormous hairy monster.
However, he does not realise this because when he looks in the mirror, his reflection
is a handsome prince! He sets off to the palace disco using his car as a skate board.
He meets a pretty princess who thinks that she is about to be attacked by a great big
hairy monster. Luckily though, at that very moment, midnight strikes and Prince
Cinders is turned back into himself and the princess thinks that he has saved her. He
is too embarrassed to be seen as he normally is and runs away but as he does so he
leaves his skinny jeans behind leading to a kingdom wide search to find the owner.
Eventually Prince Cinders is found and on discovering that the jeans fit, the lovely
Princess Lovelypenny proposes to him and they both live happily ever after!
What has happened here and why is this
amusing?
What has all this got to do with our
students at UJ?
Observations
• Language is a social construct which shapes rather than reflects
the social world
• As long as we have had access to them, we can recognise and
predict the patterns and conventions that are common to particular
text types and which help to classify them.
• This applies to all texts, whether a fairytale or a scientific text.
• We also recognise that conventions have been subverted and that
is why the second fairy tale version is humourous.
• Language embodies values and beliefs – the two versions of the
same fairy tale show us different representations of the world
through different lexical choices and different sequences.
• Different disciplines value different things and the language they
use embodies this
• We need to understand far more than the words in the sentence or
the grammar – we need also to understand words, conventions and
values
The more often we use particular textual conventions, the
more they seem to be natural and common sense.
But they are highly constructed which means the
the familiar is not obvious
The world of the university and the languages it speaks are
not obvious to our first year students
Languages in the world of the
university
information overload
strange languages
Tutorials, lectures, pracs
new disciplines, referencing
plagiarism, institutional silence
admin and academic staff
difficult accents, note-taking
hidden expectations
incomprehensible texts
Identify these texts
Text 1
• 5 ml of water was added
• Possible disciplines: Science, Engineering NOT Home Economics,
ceramics
• Values: brevity, clarity, objectivity, measurement, accuracy passive
voice, no personal identity markers
Text 2
• On reflection, it was my “visceral experience” (Butler 2005) of
being humiliated as a pupil in a classroom that led to my negative
response to the participant.
• Psychology, Education, Social Science.
• Reflection as an explicit value, personal, personal experience but
evidentially based
There is a fundamental link between “the culture of
knowledge and the language by which is
maintained and expressed” (Ballard and Clanchy
1988: 7).
The “language problem” re-visited
• Students entering the university for the first time are
challenged by not one but many languages
• This applies to all students but is compounded when
students are speakers of English as an additional language
• “The language problem” extends way beyond grammar and
syntax and reaches into the domains of disciplinary
knowledge bases and the values underpinning them
• Students need to be taught by a disciplinary expert who is
fluent in the language and expectations of the discipline and
can make that language explicit to the novice student
The role of academic development
staff
The role of academic development staff is to
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understand the nature of “the language problem”
themselves
then to develop that understanding in
collaboration with the academic staff
It is only by working alongside each other that these
challenges can be addressed and we can develop
interventions that result in students acquiring the discourses
they need to succeed at university . . . and it is only when we
develop a common understanding of the complexities of “the
language problem” that we will create an educational context
in which this can happen.
Read this text!!
A few observations
Thank you