Transformative Teaching

Abstract

At the start of the COVID19-induced lockdown, academics in traditional contact institutions like the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) had to engage digital technologies commensurate with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to prepare students for the world of work. Besides facilitating the development of disciplinary expertise, academics, including those in the School of Education (SoE) at UKZN, were expected to engage students with technological and other cross-functional skills needed to succeed as global citizens in a digitized society. Cross-functional skills such as critical thinking, innovative and creative thinking, analysis and problem-solving abilities, and interpersonal skills enable tomorrow’s transformed workforce to create a more cohesive and productive world amid exponential technological advancements. However, the extent to which academics in the SoE are developing teachers with requisite TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge) and other cross-functional skills remains largely uncertain. Premised on the theories of connectivism and TPACK, a mixed-method research approach using data from questionnaires distributed to all 130 academics in the SoE will be employed to understand how academics prepare future teachers for the digitized 4IR classrooms. Thereafter, zoom recordings from class observations of six undergraduate courses representing each disciplinary cluster of the SoE will be analysed thematically to assess academics’ online pedagogical practices in developing tomorrow’s teachers. The sampled courses will include discipline-specific content modules and teaching method modules. The outcome of this research will provide valuable insights to academics, especially those in teacher education regarding their pedagogical pursuit, the SoE in their quest to produce teachers fit for the 4IR classroom, and the scholarship of digital transformation in general.