Une enquête que nous avons réalisée parmi les professeurs de l’Université de Montréal a permis de déterminer que ceux-ci parcourent en moyenne 33 000 km par année dans le cadre de leurs activités professionnelles, majoritairement par avion. Les stagiaires postdoctoraux et les étudiants aux cycles supérieurs voyagent aussi dans le cadre de leurs travaux de recherche et pour présenter leurs résultats, à raison de 13 600 km et 5 900 km par personne, respectivement. Plus...
Les humains ne sont pas faits pour être heureux. Alors arrêtez d'essayer
Même lorsque tous nos besoins matériels et biologiques seront satisfaits, un état de bonheur durable reste un objectif théorique et insaisissable, comme l'a découvert Abd-al-Rahman III, calife de Cordoue au Xe siècle. Il était l'un des hommes les plus puissants de son temps, appréciait les réalisations militaires, l'art et la culture, ainsi que les plaisirs terrestres offerts par ses deux harems. Plus...
Universities in South Africa need to rediscover their higher purpose
For over two decades South African higher education has been dominated by three successive and contending waves of thinking and organisation. They are: neo-liberal managerialism the decolonialisation of knowledge and, most recently, the idea of a Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). More...
Why indigenous knowledge has a place in the school science curriculum
Is indigenous knowledge important in education? Can it be discussed in the formal science curriculum?
I posed this question to university foundation students for a research project into place-based science learning. The group of about 18 isiZulu-speaking students told me one after the other that their “local knowledge” was irrelevant. No, they weren’t interested in traditional ways of knowing. Their grandparents may have had “indigenous knowledge”, but this wasn’t for them. More...
Physics is taught badly because teachers struggle with basic concepts
Kinematics describes the motion of objects through numbers, diagrams, words and equations and is taught in schools around the world as part of the physics curriculum.
But our ongoing research in Mauritius shows that the people who are meant to teach kinematics in the classroom – physics teachers – don’t understand the concepts that underpin it. More...
Coding in South African schools: what needs to happen to make it work
South Africa is training a group of teachers to learn how to code and how to teach coding. The subject will be piloted at 1000 schools across five provinces, starting in the 2020 academic year. The announcement has resulted in debates around the country's ability to deliver on such a commitment, particularly when considering the low literacy and numeracy skills of learners. More...
International students rank Melbourne and Sydney in world’s top cities – but we can make them feel safer
Australia has been ranked as one of the top destinations to study internationally. The QS Best Student Cities Ranking released yesterday, which incorporates feedback from more than 87,000 current and prospective international students, ranked Melbourne as the third-best city to study. Sydney came in ninth. More...
Indigenous art centres that sustain remote communities are at risk. The VET sector can help
Among the many touching gifts following the March 2019 shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, were two paintings by artists from South Australia’s remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. More...
Government funding will be tied to uni performance from 2020: what does this mean, and what are the challenges?
This means next year, only about A$80 million of funding will be subject to performance measures. The proposed scheme would grow year-on-year above 2017 levels until a maximum of 7.5% of a university’s funding is allocated on a performance basis. More...
If you have a low ATAR, you could earn more doing a VET course than a uni degree – if you’re a man
A new report from the Grattan Institute – Risks and rewards: when is vocational education a good alternative to higher education? – looked at the employment outcomes for students leaving school with a lower Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) (their main entry criteria into most undergraduate university programs). More...