Abstract
One of the biggest challenges that South African universities are faced with is the under-preparedness, and consequently high failure and dropout rates at first-year and undergraduate levels. The university of South Africa requires students to take progressive responsibility of their own learning and research, but diverse backgrounds, social and economical circumstances, insufficient basic education, and unequal levels of competencies and capabilities seem to set students up for failure. Although higher education aims to support students to become responsible, active citizens with sound morals who can act as positive change agents in their communities, national statistics shows a constant degeneration of society. The three pillars of effective education (teaching, learning and assessment, Huerta-Macias, 1995) are expanded in the e-learning context to student-centered teaching, blended learning and transformative assessment. Through transformative assessment strategies, underprepared students can be 1) met on their level of competency, 2) made aware of the skills needed to be successful graduates in a fast-changing environment and 3) motivated to, in addition to mastering the course content, also actively explore the opportunities created through assessment tasks designed to assess both learning outcomes and critical life skills. Some of the transformative assessment outcomes that are implemented to support student development are positive behavioral change, transferable skills such as digital literacy, communication skills, critical thinking skills, creativity and innovation, capacity and capability building, cognitive flexibility and emotional intelligence development. Assessment should move away from a measurement model towards one of student empowerment and the development of lifelong learning.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Under-prepared, Drop-out, South-Africa, Assessment, Critical Skills
