Reflections

I want to thank all of my colleagues and friends in Port Elizabeth.  This has truly been a most remarkable and rewarding experience.  I learned so much from everyone.  It was wonderful to have David as my partner on this journey, and I am so grateful for his ever present support.

Thank you to everyone at NMMU and especially to Anette Knight.  She is forever my "guru".  To close, I am sharing Anette's letter that sums up my visit. 

Dr. Anette Knight

Dear Prof Iona

Dr Silverman will return to Chicago soon and we just would like to thank you for being her hostess, for supporting this project and also getting the funding sorted out for her stipend via Prof Piet Naude. Thank you Prof Piet for your immediate assistance in this regard.  Thank you to Dr Andre and Marina de Jager for their assistance with her accommodation.

In my capacity as the team leader of the Anatomy and Physiology group on Missionvale campus I have worked relentlessly since 2008 to motivate for a visit by Dr Silverman to our campus. Since my first correspondence with her she was keen to return to the NMMU and re-kindle some old educational ties (as she visited the old UPE on many occasions before especially in the time of the Sharing Cultures project with Elize Naude) and to share her expertise and work with us in her capacity as a Fulbright educational specialist.

We are privileged and grateful for her foresight and goodwill to have planned her visit through regular contact with us and making this project happen with such success. Thank you also to my team at Anatomy and Physiology (Missionvale) for your enthusiasm and support. Every workshop and seminar slot we prearranged with our colleagues at Missionvale and the other campuses was technically well prepared, the media in place and the venues ready; many thanks to colleagues who organised and supported these slots; all the workshops and seminar were very well attended and after every encounter we got reports of praise for Dr Silverman’s educational charisma and enthusiasm back from students and lecturers alike.

We want to thank Sharon for her wonderful positive way in which she has given us a new look at ourselves and our practice. She has influenced, transformed and touched many students and lecturers educational mindsets and has set a pace of energy and motivation amongst our first year students during the orientation period. We thank her and David for their absolute dedicated and exciting daily participation. The angle and approach of Sharon’s workshops and seminars were filled with new ideas; she also included the latest research on educational practice and these new concepts gave continuous hands-on practical advice for all. She made us work hard to get to the core of our own practice critically, but at the same time did so with hope and anticipation, never doubting that we can do it. Eg. For me, it meant that I could make changes immediately in aspects of my teaching which has altered student’s participation and learning in my classes.

An example of what Dr Silverman conveyed to NMMU lecturers during her first public lecturer at Missionvale on the 31^st January:

‘In our teaching, we should not emphasize what students lack....... but rather emphasise their abilities, their wealth of previous experience and their humanity,  this with the idea of  moulding their knowing as thriving individuals ; lets rather discount their risk quotient in the ‘academic account’

Furthermore let’s make our students share the responsibility of their learning by avoiding being the SAGE on the STAGE. Make learning meaningful with guidance on the sidelines and remember what is not visible in your classes might plays a mighty role in your students’ thriving quotient and eventually influence their futures and throughput rates.

Watch their mindsets and remember yours too. Focus on student self-regulation and make them check their self-reliance; teach with hope in your daily teachings and especially your voice and normalize help seeking by expressing your own experiences. Many of these could be difficult and negative experiences which will make students appreciate that you are also fallible.’

Dr Silverman’s magic in our lecture halls will be echoed and portrayed in our own changed teaching this year and we just hope that the NMMU will be able to bring her back to help with more integration and workshops on student identities and in particular with the ‘on the edge educational virtual learning’ in the new ‘blended learning era’ the NMMU has taken on with great determination.

Many thanks

Kind regards

Anette

Dr A K Knight

Lecturer: Anatomy and Physiology

Department Biochemistry (CES)

Missionvale Campus

NMMU

Port Elizabeth