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The National Association of Distance Education and Open Learning in South Africa (NADEOSA) Biennial Courseware Award was presented at the 10th Anniversary Gala Dinner. Four submissions were received for the awards. The materials were adjudicated by representatives from the 2004 winners, namely UNISA and the University of Fort Hare . Professor Wendy Kilfoil of UNISA, who co-ordinated the courseware awards on behalf of the Executive Committee, presented the following citation.
The winner of the NADEOSA courseware awards for 2006 is Module 4 - Understanding Language and Literacy Based Barriers in the Classroom of the ACE LSEN programme offered by the Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand.
It is a pleasure to recommend these materials for the NADEOSA Courseware Award.
The courseware is particularly deserving of the award because it has been carefully and sensitively designed to meet the specific needs of a particular group of education students. The nature of this student body has clearly been taken into account in the design and development of the module, and students are offered the necessary support and encouragement throughout to help them make the paradigm shift required by the new concepts.
The materials are very creative and innovative in their use of an interactive narrative approach to present content. This approach encourages students to reflect on new concepts as well as on their own beliefs, perceptions and attitudes, to engage actively with the content, and to consider their classroom practice in the light of new insights.
The presentation of material in the module is an imaginative mix of styles and formats, with appropriate illustration, which not only sustains interest but also replicates authentic dialogue between different educational paradigms. This presentation style allows the author to introduce new concepts sensitively and gradually, to anticipate and address students' reservations or possible sense of threat, and to reinforce and build on the concepts while progressing to new ones. This aspect of the material definitely represents an exciting contribution to the broader community of open and distance learning.
The module addresses students' own immediate academic needs but is also designed to have an impact on their classroom practice as teachers. The Photo Study and Tracer Study that accompany the submission are evidence of the success of the approach taken.
The assessment methods employed reflect and support the principles of the course design and are woven into the processes of conceptual and cognitive development. As a result, they directly support the processes of reflection required by the module.
Further information on the current and previous courseware awards is available on the NADEOSA website .
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