The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) promotes teaching as a scholarly endeavor, engaging individuals in designing, conducting, and publishing research on teaching and learning. SoTL is promoted by the AKU-wide Network of Teaching and Learning (TL_net) housed in the Office of the Provost. TL_net supports faculty by providing teaching and learning support, developing communities of practice around teaching excellence, promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning and enabling evaluation, accountability and outreach on teaching and learning that is “of and for the developing world.”
The bi-annual SoTL conference organized by TL_net was last hosted in 2017 and resulted in an invitation by the academic journal SoTL in the South to guest edit a Special Edition on Student Learning experiences in Pakistan. The journal is an online, open-access and peer-reviewed journal dedicated to fostering dialogue and research on teaching and learning in higher education in the global South, or about the global South. SoTL in the South dedicated their April 2019 edition to showcase the research of AKU faculty. The special edition is edited by TL_net faculty Drs Tashmin Khamis and Jane Rarieya as well Dr. Geraldine Van Gyn from UVic. There are six papers featured, on the topics: nursing students’ perspectives on clinical preceptors; rubrics to assess critical thinking in multidisciplinary contexts; mobile learning environments; blended learning in medical education; argumentation-based teaching and; indigenous environmental thought and re-education.
These papers present insightful discussion on important matters within Global South education. For example, Khowaja et al. (2018) presents the way in which clinical preceptors can provide a solution to the growing number of nursing faculty who move to the West, which addresses the important and recurring issue of the ‘brain drain’ in academia. An example from Naseem (2018) discusses how mobile learning environments in the study of bioethics can mitigate limitations of societal issues such as gender inequality, and that this technology could be a pioneering technique coming from the developing world, evolving teaching and learning in this field. In addition, Ali (2018) researched how an indigenous view of nature, ecology and society can project strong local voices in a globalizing world and how this knowledge is a valuable part in each of us, contrary to the hegemonic perspective that indigenous philosophy is outdated.
Other papers provide solid foundations for future research to improve teaching and learning in the Global South, such as Bhutta et al. (2018), who created a critical thinking rubric which acts as an anchoring point to inform the ways that instructors can advance the promotion of critical thinking in their classrooms. Other examples are from Rashwan et al. (2018) who identifies the need for relevant pedagogical training to adapt blended learning in medical education, and Anwar et al. (2018) who offers Pakistani-context insight on the discussion of argumentation-based teaching, which was previously absent.
Overall, these papers offer innovative and reflective perspectives on education and provide recommendations for future development where quality of teaching and learning in the Global South context can continue to be enhanced in a way that appreciates and respects the important historical, cultural and social contexts these institutions operate within. You can read the April 2019 special issue by AKU Faculty
here.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) promotes teaching as a scholarly endeavor, engaging individuals in designing, conducting, and publishing research on teaching and learning. SoTL is promoted by the AKU-wide Network of Teaching and Learning (TL_net) housed in the Office of the Provost. TL_net supports faculty by providing teaching and learning support, developing communities of practice around teaching excellence, promoting the scholarship of teaching and learning and enabling evaluation, accountability and outreach on teaching and learning that is “of and for the developing world.”
The bi-annual SoTL conference organized by TL_net was last hosted in 2017 and resulted in an invitation by the academic journal SoTL in the South to guest edit a Special Edition on Student Learning experiences in Pakistan. The journal is an online, open-access and peer-reviewed journal dedicated to fostering dialogue and research on teaching and learning in higher education in the global South, or about the global South. SoTL in the South dedicated their April 2019 edition to showcase the research of AKU faculty. The special edition is edited by TL_net faculty Drs Tashmin Khamis and Jane Rarieya as well Dr. Geraldine Van Gyn from UVic. There are six papers featured, on the topics: nursing students’ perspectives on clinical preceptors; rubrics to assess critical thinking in multidisciplinary contexts; mobile learning environments; blended learning in medical education; argumentation-based teaching and; indigenous environmental thought and re-education.
These papers present insightful discussion on important matters within Global South education. For example, Khowaja et al. (2018) presents the way in which clinical preceptors can provide a solution to the growing number of nursing faculty who move to the West, which addresses the important and recurring issue of the ‘brain drain’ in academia. An example from Naseem (2018) discusses how mobile learning environments in the study of bioethics can mitigate limitations of societal issues such as gender inequality, and that this technology could be a pioneering technique coming from the developing world, evolving teaching and learning in this field. In addition, Ali (2018) researched how an indigenous view of nature, ecology and society can project strong local voices in a globalizing world and how this knowledge is a valuable part in each of us, contrary to the hegemonic perspective that indigenous philosophy is outdated.
Other papers provide solid foundations for future research to improve teaching and learning in the Global South, such as Bhutta et al. (2018), who created a critical thinking rubric which acts as an anchoring point to inform the ways that instructors can advance the promotion of critical thinking in their classrooms. Other examples are from Rashwan et al. (2018) who identifies the need for relevant pedagogical training to adapt blended learning in medical education, and Anwar et al. (2018) who offers Pakistani-context insight on the discussion of argumentation-based teaching, which was previously absent.
Overall, these papers offer innovative and reflective perspectives on education and provide recommendations for future development where quality of teaching and learning in the Global South context can continue to be enhanced in a way that appreciates and respects the important historical, cultural and social contexts these institutions operate within. You can read the April 2019 special issue by AKU Faculty
here.