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WSU’s assessment policy has come under scrutiny from one WSU academic following his extensive investigative research and analysis into challenges plaguing the prevailing teaching and learning methods and strategies of the university.
Senior lecturer in the institution’s Department of Accounting and Finance, Dr Obed Matarirano, has in the past few years sought to unravel, through investigative research, some of the seemingly insurmountable challenges that continue to see a large number of students struggling with certain subjects in the accountancy programme.
One of those glaring issues, Dr Matarirano posits, is the ineffective and outdated assessment strategies such as writing tests and assessment that ultimately often prove ineffective as they’re susceptible to students memorizing, and not understanding, past question papers, as well as copying by Googling answers to questions that have long been in circulation.
“We need to move away from the use of tests and assessments and start developing strategies that test the students’ understanding of what they’re learning on a continuous basis. Maybe we can start making use of continuous assessment portfolios for students, incorporate work-integrated learning and bring problems and case studies that are prevalent and appropriate at that specific time to the society and let students investigate, analyze and find solutions to those real-life issues,” he said.
Dr Matarirano said he’s ultimate goal in suggesting a change in the assessment policy is to create a caliber of student that’s a life-long, critical thinking individual who understands exactly what they’re studying and how this knowledge can be translated to creation of solutions within society, and possible livelihood for the student.
The aforementioned aspirations are borne out of a troubling and sobering trend faced by the lecturer with regards to ineffective teaching and learning strategies that have facing students who’re failing in big numbers in certain subjects.
The troubles mentioned previously are what jolted Dr Matarirano to suspend his interests in the field of business management studies and venture into the discipline of teaching and learning so as find solutions to the problems and thus help himself improve the experiences of students.
Dr Matarirano said: “Central to my research was to establish what issues contribute to the high failure rate of students, which meant venturing into possibilities such as my own method of teaching; a possible barrier because of communication and/or language; a disinterested student populous; or possible inadequacies in the types of approaches that students employ.”
Over and above his invaluable contribution to teaching and learning, as well as research, Dr Matarirano know full well the importance of placing the above mentioned activities within the context of a community engagement.
He said the university must be an “impactful” university that begins to make a meaningful contribution to its surrounding communities so that it’s not seen as an ivory tower that survives outside the challenges and upheavals of the communities within which it operates.
“Communities surrounding universities must reflect that. It can’t be that a community that exists right next to a university doesn’t bear the fruits of that co-dependent relationship,” said Dr Matarirano.
The esteemed academic proudly boasts of his involvement in a programme with the National Construction Incubator, wherein he, together with other academics, empower small contractors to be business savvy and smart when it to finances and the balancing of books.
Dr Matarirano was recently recognized at the University’s BCC Research and Innovation Day as the campus’ most prolific researcher after scooping top prize under the category “The Most Productive Researcher at Buffalo City Campus.
By Thando Cezula
