Reflection 1

Case study title: How to effectively creative a community of practice at Food Technology amongst all lecturing staff, especially promoting reflection and a platform for sharing.
Institution name: Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Author of case study: Dr Maricel Krügel

1. Background

I work at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) at the Food Technology Department.  Although I am a lecturer I am also the curriculum officer  (CO) for the department, part of the Faculty of Applied Sciences.  Part of my passion and also key performance areas as CO is to promote teaching and learning practice and activities amongst the other staff members. I have done so successfully in the past.  I was the first one to attend the CPUT teaching and learning program (now compulsory for new staff members).  The wealth of information I was taught, I shared with the other staff in an informal manner.  The enthusiasm amongst the staff led to permanent T&L fixed agenda points. Unfortunately due to many other commitments and re-curriculation issues reflection and sharing has been left behind and the T&L time slots made way for re-curriculation.

2. Intended outcomes

I hope that I will be able to introduce  a platform where staff can share and reflect on their T&L practice and experiences, good or bad with other staff members. I was thinking to either use Google drive or blogging for this purpose. Food Technology, although part of the sciences, is a very specific discourse, and lecturers strive to communicate of facilitate the various subjects in Food Technology in an integrated holistic approach to students. A platform to share the various teaching tools, assignments, rubrics, scenarios etc. with each other will assist lecturers in that holistic integrated approach.

3. The challenge

The previous ad hoc, informal chats in the tea room where lecturers shared their "stories" inspired me to have a specific platform to properly reflect and share. Although we had time slots for T&L on the agenda sometimes other burning issues demanded more attention in meetings and was sometimes left on the back burner. We always say "this year we are going to have more regular T&L meetings where we reflect and share as a department" ...... The challenge then for me is to create a place of community on the www!