About Department of Education

The Department of Education welcomes you as a learner to the Faculty of Human Sciences at the Vaal University of Technology. As teacher education undergoes increased scrutiny and is pressed to demonstrate its contributions to teacher and student learning, we are compelled to engage in continuous learning and development to stay ahead of new developments. In  teacher education scholarship we address persistent issues of urgent concern to the field, for improving teacher education policy and practice in the following areas: providing rigorous and educative clinical experiences; preparing teachers to serve students with diverse cultural and experiential backgrounds; supporting teachers to understand and apply theoretical perspectives on teaching and learning; articulating well-designed, evidence-based pedagogical practices in teacher education; and/or developing and implementing new approaches for assessing and evaluating teachers’ practices in pre-service and in-service settings.

We offer the following programmes: Bachelor of Education (Senior Phase and Further Education and Training Teaching), a four-year, full-time degree, specialisation in Science, Mathematics, Electrical and Mechanical Technology. Entrants requirements are a bachelor’s pass in matric. We also offer the Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (PG Dip HE), and entrants requirements are an undergraduate degree in any field or a diploma with five years teaching experience for Recognition of Prior Learning. In the PG Dip HE we offer the following Modules: History of Transformation of Higher Education in South Africa; Innovative Student Learning in Context; Professional Development as Researcher; Assessment in Higher Education; E-Learning in HE; Leadership and Management in Higher Education; Module Planning & Materials Development and Learning Facilitation in HE.

This department will continually strive towards integration of existing knowledge with new knowledge in the field of schooling and higher education to afford you the ability to:

• analyse both the basic and higher education context (at international, national, institutional, departmental and disciplinary levels) to understand the developmental needs of teachers and academics in their contexts and that of their own students;
• develop a high level of theoretical engagement and intellectual independence with regard to in-depth knowledge of the conceptual domain of the dynamic, complex higher education environment, including the philosophy of higher education, theories of learning (and teaching), theories of knowledge (knowledge management, globalization,  internationalisation, Africanisation and decolonisation), social theories, critical race theories; leadership and management theories, information technology philosophies; student assessment strategies and module planning and materials development;
• undertake research-based undergraduate and postgraduate studies with an understanding of a range of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches, methods, techniques and technologies and an ability to select these appropriately for a particular research problem in an area of specialisation;
• critique current research and advanced scholarship in an area of specialisation; an ability to make sound theoretical judgements based on evidence;
• engage with knowledge and research related to the practice of teaching in higher education including curriculum development processes, assessment of student learning, integration of ICTs in teaching and learning and academic literacy;
• demonstrate advanced reflection and development by means of a systematic survey of current thinking, practice and research methods in an area of specialisation;
• consolidate and deepen expertise in a field of schooling and higher education;
• present and communicate academic professional work effectively, catering for a range of audiences by using a range of different genres appropriate to higher education contexts.

We hope that you will find these programmes and their courses intellectually stimulating, meaningful and applicable to your work context.