Reflection on Teaching and Assessment Strategies in the Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education Program

In this paper, we present views on how our students in the Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education programme in one university of technology in South Africa, experience our teaching and assessment strategies and what lessons we can take to improve content delivery. The objectives of this study are two-fold: (i) to unpack the meaning of reflective practice; (ii) to examine how students experience our teaching and assessment strategies so that we can improve. The qualitative research method and a case study were adopted for this study. Data were analyzed through document and thematic analysis. We found that reflection on teaching practices is a core characteristic of the Reflective Professional in higher education. Result also revealed that it is important to incorporate reflection in the programmes that are offered at the institution to enable teacher professional growth and development, as well as student learning. The study recommends that within postgraduate studies at the university, students should be taught reflective practice and how to connect this to critical engagement with the learning content.

Keywords: Pedagogical reflective practice; transformational student learning; active learning; psycho-social factors; formative and summative assessment