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The need for university lecturers to possess the pedagogical skills that can empower students to acquire 21st century skills and take responsibility for their learning in a process of co-construction of knowledge was highlighted at the opening plenary session of the Partnership for Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PedaL) West African hub training which took place in Accra, Ghana in August.

Over 140 academic staff from African universities representing all Sub-Saharan regions attended the training hosted by the University of Ghana and co-convened by the Nairobi-headquartered Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and PedaL partners: Institute of Development Studies and the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom; African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA); University of Ibadan; University of Dar es Salaam; Uganda Martyrs University and Egerton University.

Participants called for regular updates and refresher training in pedagogical leadership for teaching staff to ensure that teaching and learning are adequately responding to the challenges of globalisation, while also addressing local needs.

African-led initiative

PedaL is an African-led initiative and one of nine programmes supported by Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovations and Reforms (SPHEIR) under the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. Since its launch last year, it has witnessed unprecedented growth as university academics from across the continent seek to enhance their teaching practices.

To date, PedaL has trained over 800 academic staff drawn from 40 universities across Africa. It is evident that PedaL’s target of training 1,000 teaching staff in three years will be surpassed due to demand.

The pedagogy encompasses varied approaches aimed at transforming the learning experience and achieving improved outcomes in graduate social science programmes. The skills gained include technology-enhanced learning, constructive alignment of courses, a range of student-centred pedagogies such as case study teaching, threshold concept tools, as well as a range of problem-based learning strategies and innovative assessment strategies.

Commenting on the importance of the training, Dr. Beatrice Muganda, PASGR’s director for higher education and PedaL team leader, said: “The emphasis placed on 21st century skills means that teaching excellence espoused in PedaL for faculty development has become even more central for attainment of university missions.”

Professor Tade Aina, PASGR executive director, described PedaL as a home-grown solution that promotes excellence in teaching and learning based on global standards.

“PedaL is subverting teaching and learning in African universities and the policy environment on the continent is ripe for this transformation,” he said.

Mainstreaming

Highlighting PedaL’s multi-stakeholder approach, Professor Kwame Offei, pro-vice-chancellor for academic and student affairs from the University of Ghana, said African universities need to produce graduates who can respond to the needs of the continent and contribute to its social and economic development. He urged other African universities to embrace pedagogical innovations to broaden and deepen learning outcomes. Offei said PedaL was gaining popularity across Africa and that plans were already underway to mainstream PedaL in academic programmes at the University of Ghana.

Professor Kwesi Yankah, Ghana’s minister of state for tertiary education, said improving the quality of teaching in African universities will produce excellent researchers to drive the continent’s development agenda. Yankah, who is a professor of linguistics and oral literature, and a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, said African universities should include effective teaching in the criteria used to promote academics.

He noted that African universities almost exclusively concentrate on research and publication when it comes to promotion, and sometimes consider effective teaching only as an afterthought. “We need to shift,” Yankah said, arguing for more partnerships between academia and the private sector to help bridge gaps between academia and industry.

Modern technology

PASGR’s Founding Chairman and ARUA Secretary-General Professor Ernest Aryeetey urged universities to increase investments in modern technologies that could help to meet the expectations of students.

“Every African university should realise that the way students are trained globally has changed from simply lecturing,” said Aryeetey, adding that Africa has to catch up with the rest of the world.

Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah, provost of the college of humanities at the University of Ghana, said creating an environment for teaching excellence required leadership, the allocation of resources, improvement of facilities and the provision of robust technology.

He revealed that plans were underway for the University of Ghana to open a centre for teaching and learning that will enhance student-centred innovative teaching and learning. “My hope is for faculty development to flourish and be seen as critical to the goals of higher education,” said Agyei-Mensah. He said PedaL will be critical in the new centre.

Professor Idowu Olayinka, the vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan and ARUA chairman, said every university on the continent needs to put its academic staff through PedaL training. He said his university had fully embraced PedaL and had started cascading the PedaL training to various faculties. He said all the university’s postgraduate programmes were undergoing review to incorporate PedaL innovations.

Professor Sulyman Abdulkareem, vice-chancellor of Nigeria’s University of Ilorin, said faculty development was important because good learning can only happen after effective teaching. “Just giving pieces of information or knowledge through lectures should not be considered teaching,” he said.

Blend of tradition and global best practice

Speaking to University World News, Abdulkareem said the strength of the PedaL approach was that it blended traditional methods of teaching in Africa with global best practice, helping with self-assessment and improved teaching. He argued for the use of student assessments of lecturers as one of the tools to measure learning effectiveness. “Such assessments should not be used to punish lecturers but to help them improve,” he said.

Abdulkareem said PedaL strategies helped students with practical learning and to conceptualise what they are taught. “If teaching is done properly, African universities will churn out graduates who can innovate and create solutions to the problems affecting the continent.”

He urged universities to shun abstract teaching and embrace simulations and practicals in their academic programmes.

“I came here with a problem and found a solution; I will be a PedaL champion in Nigeria and beyond”, Abdulkareem said.

On the future of PedaL, Muganda said the programme had successfully mobilised resources from participating universities to broaden access for a larger number of academic staff than was initially planned and with additional resources.

“The potential to shake every part of this continent with pedagogical innovations is imminent,” she said.

This has been reposted from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190918130200403

Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Professor Sulyman Age Abulkareem, has said the high level of poverty in Africa is the biggest disadvantage to advancing higher education.

He noted that: “We definitely have never had the adequate tools to do the right type of teaching and learning at the university level.”

Professor Abulkareem said this at the ongoing workshop tagged, ‘Western hub training,’ jointly organised by the University of Ghana (UG), Legon and Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PedaL) and Master of Research and Public Policy (MRPP), supported by the United Kingdom Department for International Department (DFID), under the Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform (SPHEIR), at the Swiss Spirit Hotel and Suites, Alisa, Accra, Ghana.

Speaking further, he said: “African governments must work on harnessing educational aid from international organisations to put us on the same platform with the Western and other developed countries.”

He said that the methods of teaching and learning, especially in Nigeria, would have to go through serious changes, such that facilitators of teaching and learning at all levels must lookout for the best ways to communicate their teachings through and with relevant technologies.

“Today, lecturers are deficient in needed skills and technologies to actually take the students to the top, where they can compete favourably with their colleagues in the rest of the world, hence the need for them to improve and equip themselves in some certain skills,” he said.

He expressed joy for being part of the pedagogical leadership crusade that is ongoing on in Africa through PASGR’s PedaL team, saying that, “the innovation was timely and necessary at such as time as this in the history tertiary education in Africa.”

He enjoined participants who were drawn from African countries with the University Ghana playing the host, including other 12 participants universities in the sub-region to take the training seriously, as as to equip themselves with relevant innovations and methodologies to enhance effective teaching and learning in their various universities.

The vice-chancellor, University of Ibadan, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, who doubles as the chairman of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA),  on the occasion,  said it was imperative that researches carried out by the academic staff in universities must begin to influence teaching and learning, otherwise, the university will not be different from a glorified secondary school.

He charged university teachers to leverage more on technology to aid teaching and learning, noting that “the world outside there is becoming competitive by the day; therefore, lecturers need to challenge the students on the usage of technology, rather than for them to be engaged in radical unionism alone.”

Dr. Paul Effah, the president of Radford University College, Legon, Accra while speaking on the topic: ‘Faculty development’ advised university teachers to be deliberate about producing “students who can change the world, as well as activity-concerned citizen, who will turn out to be critical thinkers and ethical leaders.”

This has been reposted from https://tribuneonlineng.com/high-level-poverty-killing-education-in-africa-unilorin-vc/

Title: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Open to: Kenyan Nationals & Residents

Application Deadline: September 11, 2019

Background

Pedagogical Leadership in Africa (PedaL) is one of nine partnerships supported by Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform (SPHEIR). SPHEIR was established by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to deliver systemic and sustainable change within higher education systems, enabling them to meet labour market needs and generate the job-ready, entrepreneurial graduates needed to accelerate development, build inclusive societies and promote strong economic growth.  SPHEIR partnerships seek to transform the quality, relevance, access and affordability of higher education to achieve sustainable, systemic change.

The PedaL partnership implements a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plan to track, assess and report progress made towards attaining the desired outputs, outcomes as well as impact. The MEL plan also facilitates the harnessing of lessons from emerging intentional and unintentional results to enhance the expected impact of PedaL.  The MEL work cuts across interlinked activities in PedaL partner institutions and other participating universities. It also involves working closely with the University PedaL Implementation Teams responsible for implementation of PedaL in respective partner universities.

PASGR is an independent, non-partisan pan-African not-for-profit organisation established in 2011 and located in Nairobi, Kenya.  Currently engaged in more than 12 African countries, PASGR works to enhance research excellence in governance and public policy that contributes to the overall wellbeing of all.

PASGR is recruiting for the position of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Officer to be situated in the Higher Education Programme.  The right candidate should be able to provide technical expertise and overarching support for successful implementation of the MEL plan reporting directly to PASGR Director of Higher Education who provides oversight for successful implementation of the MEL plan.

Role Profile

Summary of Key Responsibilities:

Coordinate implementation of MEL plan across the partnership:

  • Monitor progress and effects of PedaL against strategic priorities;
  • Support UPITs to monitor and evaluate progress and effect of PedaL in respective universities as well as coherence with the overall strategic priorities; and,
  • Facilitate monitoring of cross cutting issues by all stakeholders at all levels.

Ensuring quality and accountability of MEL:

  • Ensure the systems used to collect data on indicators and to generate relevant MEL reports comply with established quality standards;
  • Analyse lessons learned for quality and accountability; and,
  • Facilitate external reviews/audits as agreed with UPITs and PedaL Steering Committee.

Provision of technical support to each of the UPITs to:

  • Monitor and evaluate implementing partner universities contributions towards PedaL indicators of success and set milestones;
  • Develop and use simple and value-adding monitoring strategies and tools;
  • Identify best practices as well as opportunities for MEL capacity building;
  • Undertake reporting responsibilities ensuring coherence with existing reporting requirements.

Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing on MEL:

  • Lead on the analysis, interpretation and reporting of MEL results;
  • Identify and formulate MEL findings, lessons learned and recommendations and avail results for decision-making processes and further project development;
  • Facilitate dissemination of lessons learnt across the PedaL partnership, other SPHEIR partnerships, donors and other stakeholders as need arises.

Information Management:

  • Design and frequently update the PedaL database;
  • Liaise with UPITs to provide data; lead the aggregation of data across the partnership and facilitate access.

Any other duties that the PASGR Executive Director and Higher Education Programme Director/PedaL Team Leader may assign you.

Summary of Key Responsibilities:

Coordinate implementation of MEL plan across the partnership:

  • Monitor progress and effects of PedaL against strategic priorities;
  • Support UPITs to monitor and evaluate progress and effect of PedaL in respective universities as well as coherence with the overall strategic priorities; and,
  • Facilitate monitoring of cross cutting issues by all stakeholders at all levels.

Ensuring quality and accountability of MEL:

  • Ensure the systems used to collect data on indicators and to generate relevant MEL reports comply with established quality standards;
  • Analyse lessons learned for quality and accountability; and,
  • Facilitate external reviews/audits as agreed with UPITs and PedaL Steering Committee.

Provision of technical support to each of the UPITs to:

  • Monitor and evaluate implementing partner universities contributions towards PedaL indicators of success and set milestones;
  • Develop and use simple and value-adding monitoring strategies and tools;
  • Identify best practices as well as opportunities for MEL capacity building;
  • Undertake reporting responsibilities ensuring coherence with existing reporting requirements.

Facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing on MEL:

  • Lead on the analysis, interpretation and reporting of MEL results;
  • Identify and formulate MEL findings, lessons learned and recommendations and avail results for decision-making processes and further pro

Information Management:

  • Design and frequently update the PedaL database;
  • Liaise with UPITs to provide data; lead the aggregation of data across the partnership and facilitate access.

Any other duties that the PASGR Executive Director and Higher Education Programme Director/PedaL Team Leader may assign you.

Competencies

  1. Education:
  • Master’s Degree or above in the social sciences or any other relevant discipline

2. Knowledge / skills:

  • Knowledge of principles and current approaches to MEL;
  • Strong skills in collecting, analysing, interpreting qualitative and quantitative data;
  • Knowledge of stakeholder engagement;
  • A high level of written and verbal communication, including an ability to write clear and concise reports; and,
  • Sound knowledge of design and delivery of higher education programmes.

3. Experience:

  • Minimum of five years professional experience in a senior MEL position responsible for implementing MEL activities of international development projects;
  • Hands-on experience at the national or international level in design, monitoring and evaluation of complex projects, preferably across multiple locations;
  • Proven capacity to build the MEL skills of colleagues and/or partners;
  • Experience in evaluation of higher education programmes; and,
  • Experience in the use of office software packages and handling of web based project management systems.

4. Personal characteristics:

  • Excellent interpersonal and intercultural skills and ability to interact professionally with partners, donors, stakeholders and staff at all levels of the organisation;
  • Skilled at multitasking and prioritising, working independently with minimal supervision, leading and designing projects autonomously;
  • Team player, facilitating open communication in the team and building relationships;
  • Flexible and adaptable: willing work irregular hours in accordance with the needs of the role;
  • Initiative taker, makes sound judgment, creates synergy and manages conflict; and,
  • Open to learning and sharing knowledge.

5. Functional Competencies

  • Building partnerships: maintains an established network of contacts for data collection as well as general information sharing and remains up-to-date on partnership related issues;
  • Innovative: documents and analyses innovative strategies and new approaches for purposes of updating the MEL plan; and,
  • Stakeholder orientation: establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships within the work unit, partnership, and with internal and external stakeholders; anticipates the needs of partners and addresses them promptly.

Salary

This position attracts a competitive package that includes basic salary, medical, group life and group personal accident insurance and provident fund up to pre-set limits.

How to apply:

Applications must be submitted electronically via email to PASGR (recruitment@pasgr.org) by 11/09/2019, at 1700hrs. Canvassing will lead to disqualification.

All applications must contain:

  1. Application letter stating why you are best suited for this role
  2. Curriculum Vitae with a list of 3 references

PASGR is an Equal Opportunity Employer

A four-year leadership training programme aimed at vice-chancellors, principals and deans of 54 African universities has proved popular among university leaders and a third phase is planned, according to its organisers.

Participants of the Capacity Strengthening Programme for Leadership in African Universities, funded by the Mastercard Foundation and implemented jointly by the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), said the training had helped them to reflect more deeply on their characteristics and effectiveness as leaders.

“African universities need to recognise that there is no replacement for thought leadership as innovation and advancement at universities is dependent on the quality of its leadership,” said Dr. Anthony Egeru, RUFORUM’s acting deputy executive secretary for programme development and implementation.

Quality leadership

According to Egeru, for Africa to have quality universities, there must be quality leadership. “Thus a deliberate training approach and immersion programmes in African universities should be started, and those that exist need to be further strengthened at the university level,” Egeru told University World News.

Egeru said for a long time universities had been viewed as places for developing great ideas. “However, they have not been able to earn credibility as places for turning ideas into actionable solutions, which would help them create avenues for influencing societies, government, and the global environment.”

Based on the feedback from a survey received in June, university leaders believe there is also a need to train university council members as this could help improve relationships between the universities’ governing councils and management. “They need to come together and make joint decisions to improve service delivery in both the academic and administrative fields,” Egeru said.

In the survey, leaders reported that the training had enabled them to better rally stakeholders to share their vision and had helped to improve standards in teaching and examination administration, to motivate research leaders and to enhance leadership capacity at lower levels.

Universities as complex entities

The leadership initiative had its roots in a meeting of university vice-chancellors held in Cape Town, South Africa, four years ago. A number of issues facing university leadership were identified in search of a pathway to achieving the goals of the First African Higher Education Summit held in 2015 in Senegal, requiring African higher education institutions to commit themselves to excellence in teaching and learning, research and scholarship, public service and the provision of solutions to development challenges and opportunities.

“Leadership in our universities needs to respond to and be proactive about both internal and complex issues and partnerships and the external drives including problems such as climate change, mass migrations, and the rapidly changing technologies and cultures,” said Professor Tade Aina, PASGR executive director and a mastermind of the initiative. “We started this initiative based on the need for strategic management of complex organisations … seeing universities as complex systems in fast-changing times,” said Aina.

According to Dr. Beatrice Muganda, director of higher education at PASGR, issues identified by vice-chancellors at the Cape Town meeting included resource mobilisation, management of spiralling enrolments, aging professoriates, the challenge of forming and sustaining partnerships, and managing conflict. “External interference, as well as tribal and racial politics in the management of universities, ranked high on the list of bottlenecks,” she said.

Programme design

RUFORUM Executive Secretary Professor Adipala Ekwamu said the programme was designed to enable university leaders to “champion transformation of African universities into effective research and training institutions with strong frameworks and mechanisms for implementation of the vision and mission of their universities”.

Ekwamu said the basis of the leadership initiative was to enable people to “examine their own potential; their strengths and weaknesses and how they can be strengthened”.

According to RUFORUM and PASGR, the Mastercard-funded training has been critical in providing an avenue for dialogue and feedback from principals, deans, and vice-chancellors.

“The deans acknowledge that leading from the middle is quite challenging and their voices are often not heard in the right places or at the right time,” says Muganda. “This often leads to a time lag in translating ideas into actions.”

Mainstreaming leadership training

Ekwamu said there is also a need for leadership training for mid-level leaders such as directors and heads of departments, and to this end, RUFORUM had built leadership training into its Ph.D. and post-doctoral training so as to “mainstream” leadership capacity building.

Egeru, who is also the programme manager for training and community development says that RUFORUM is linking with other partners strategically to deliver the training onwards to more university leaders and managers.

Additionally, the RUFORUM board has approved the establishment of the African Agricultural Research and Policy Academy that will in part anchor leadership training for the Africa region besides the policy analysis for the region.

“We are also building a cadre of early-career scientists through the leadership training programme as part of grooming the next generation of university managers,” said Egeru.

The third phase of training will take place from 2-6 December this year at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and more vice-chancellors and deans will be invited to reflect upon and learn from their leadership experiences, according to Muganda.

This has been reposted from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190819080452427

AAU Talks host, Kwesi Sam interviews Dr. Akosua Agyemang, Department of Social Work, University of Ghana on her PedaL journey.

Kwesi Sam- AAU Talks hosts Dr. Ekua Ekumah, Immediate Past HoD, Department of Theater Arts, University of Ghana.

AAU Talks host, Kwesi Sam interviews Dr. Antoinette Tsiboe- Darko, Research Fellow, CSPS, University of Ghana on her PedaL journey.

Coverage of the PedaL & MRPP Week in Mombasa, Kenya. This Session focuses on the pedagogical Journeys of the Economics & Sociology Group.

Coverage of the PedaL & MRPP Week in Mombasa, Kenya. This Session focuses on the pedagogical Journeys of the Political Science Group.