Inaugural lecture gives insight into the discipline of economic management sciences

Prof TEB (Tom) Assan of the North-West University in the Faculty of Education and Training recently delivered his inaugural lecture titled: "Towards an alternative pedagogy in economic and management sciences (EMS) education". The lecture was held on campus and staff, students and members of the community attended.

Prof Assan is an accredited assessor and moderator with more than 34 years as an academic in Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) Education, Research Project Management and e-learning. Twenty-six of these years have been spent in the NWU where he has specialised in economic and management science education. His research interests are in school improvement initiatives with specific focus on classroom instructional practice and curriculum initiatives.

In the introduction to his lecture, Prof Assan referred to the concept of school improvement with specific reference to classroom activities which have been on board for a long time. He highlighted the initiatives using theory and practice to improve effective learning and teaching within pre-service and in-service teacher education with reference to EMS education.

He indicated that the purpose of EMS education is to equip learners with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that will enable them to participate, contribute and adapt to the complex economic society. He explained that effective learning and teaching in an EMS classroom does not ignore the ways in which learners make sense of the world around them and the ways in which they bring to and use their everyday knowledge in the classroom. "Learning and teaching therefore constitutes the core object of learning which is to get learners to reflect on the differences between what they know and believe and what the teacher and other learners know and believe," he said.

In summing up the essence of application of the variation theory in teaching, Prof Assan recommended that teachers be assisted to package the discipline content by putting similar files in one folder. "This assists the teacher to expose the critical aspects of the phenomenon during lesson presentation helping learners to create awareness of various components of the main topic or theme. Learners should not see related concepts as individual compartments," he concluded.