Learning & Teaching

Learning and Teaching

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."
Albert Einstein

I believe that eaching is a performance art. The knowledge and skill deeply embedded and then engaging the audience with humour, excitement and empathy.
"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre."
Gail Godwin

Feedback from Students and Coordinators
I have received both formal and informal feedback from Students on my lecturing and presentation of workshops. I have never had a student rating below 80% overall since 2001. The qualitative feedback from the students, however, carries more weight for me.

"If there was a 6 (5 point Likert scale) I would rate her as the most [in]credible lecturer I have ever had." (Student)

"Thank you for opening a new world for me! Your informal presentation style is very refreshing and facilitated the wonderful learning experiences. (Student)

"Your passion, knowledge, insight, attentiveness and genuine desire to make a difference will live on in me." (Student)

"Thank you! Now super excited to go on with my dissertation." (Student)

As with the student feedback, I truly value the feedback from colleagues and coordinators. Repeated invitations for presentations and teaching are a good indicator of my proficiency.

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"I have known Dr. Archer for over 10 years as a professional colleague through engagements at the University of Pretoria and UNISA. I do not have access to feedback from her teaching but I have witnessed first-hand her teaching qualitative research methodology to post-graduate students in seminar settings. It did not take long for me to be thoroughly impressed with her expertise in qualitative research methodology. Not only does she have a deep philosophical understanding of the field of qualitative research but she also possesses exceptional insight into the design and execution of high rigorous qualitative research. (Prof S Nkomo)

"I just finished my end of year assessments with MARC students. They were very appreciative of your workshops and your style of working with them. Thank you for coming through and working with them, we could see that they learnt from your time with them. You made them aware of the shortfall in their qualitative data management and got them thinking about ways to compensate for these. The first step on the road to recovery is realising you have a problem …thank you for helping them to this realisation." (Course coordinator, Masters in Research Psychology, UNISA)

Some 1 500 Honours, Masters, PhD students and staff trained
During my 20 years in consultation, I have supported numerous students, staff and professionals in research methodology. Between the workshops and private consultations, I have supported over 1 500 students to date. Institutions include, amongst others, the PhD project Addis Ababa, Ghana, University of Zimbabwe, Tshwane University of Technology, University of Johannesburg, Wits, the University of Pretoria, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and Vaal University of technology.

"I know Dr Archer in her capacity as researcher, facilitator, supervisor and human being over the last decade. As a colleague at UNISA, she became actively involved in the facilitation of qualitative research method workshops (specifically Atlas,ti) in our MA in psychology with specialisation in research consultation (Marc) programme. She continued to assist a number of our MA students and graduates to qualify as Atlas. ti consultants and facilitators." (Prof E Fourie)

"When I served as Deputy Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies at the University of Pretoria, I hired Dr. Archer to conduct qualitative research workshops for our Faculty as well as postgraduate students. She has also done similar training across South Africa and in Ethiopia. Dr. Archer is the person I refer my colleagues and doctoral students to when they have qualitative research questions and/or dilemmas." (Prof S Nkomo)

"Our paths crossed when I attended a workshop that she presented a workshop on qualitative research analysis in 2010 – at that time, I was working on my Doctorate degree and Dr Archer’s knowledge and expertise most definitely contributed to my growth as a researcher and the quality of my thesis. As a teacher, she impressed me with her knowledge – but also with her sharing of that knowledge in a humble and unselfish manner. I recall many instances over the 9 years where she was readily available to offer expert advice and guidance – not only to me, but also to our postgraduate students. Based on my experiences with her teaching, I contracted Dr Archer to serve fellow researchers and postgraduate students through the Office of Graduate Studies and Research in the College of Economic and Management Sciences. In this role, she hosted various capacity building workshops and offered research guidance." (Prof A Davis)

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Contribution to curriculum development
I have been involved and developed multiple curriculum developments. At UP, this ranged from the final year for the BEd students, to contributions to the MA in Educational Psychology, the PhD Edu, Education Management and Research Methodology for all PhD students in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. At UNISA, I developed the block sessions for PhDs in Research Methodology for Ethiopia, as well as for all PhD and Masters students across disciplines. All the curriculum developments have had a lifespan of over 5 years (although support materials were updated).

I have also contributed to the Syllabus for Qualitative Methods in Evaluation of Public Health Programs, which has been presented in Mexico, Ghana and South Africa. Within two months, the open curriculum and support material had been downloaded over 1 000 times. I was also the course coordinator for this 10-day course in South Africa in 2018. This work was done in auspices of USAID, GEMNet and Measure Evaluation.

Integration of Scholarship and Teaching

I am a firm believer that robust scholarship and quality learning and teaching are intimately intertwined. I have integrated all my research on learning analytics and student success into the my teaching. Pedagogically I integrate the work of John Hattie, with a constructivist approach, creating an optimal Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky). I employ humour and narratives to reduce anxiety and maintain concentration, maximising working memory.

1/7

"She is fun, amazing and patient, which makes it more easy to listen and understand the concepts being taught."
(PhD Student)

Post Graduate Diploma in Analytics and Business Intelligence
The one year (full-time) or 18 month (part-time) course demonstrates UWC's thought leadership. Responding to the needs of our knowledge driven economy.

I have been involved since the launch of the programme as both industry and project supervisor and have delivered nine UWC students to date.

Mentorship
I have been blessed with many opportunities to mentor bright new academics. While sharing my knowledge, skills and guidance, I also learnt so much from them.

I have been thanked in many ways for my guidance from my mentees. This ranged from a still-warm chicken wrapped in newspaper from a farmer, coffee for the long nights of writing, traditional earthenware to a framed painting. All worth much more than any awards and recognition.

My personal favourite, however, has to be a Star Wars themed thank you!

Supervision

Doctoral

Fynn, AWR - PhD (Psychology) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof Archer, E. Co-supervisor: Prof Terre Blanche, MJ.
Terblanche, T - DCompt (Auditing) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof B. De Clerq Co-supervisors: Dr E Archer (Winner best PHD in Accounting Sciences in RSA, 2019)
Young, K – PhD (Psychology) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Dr A Fynn Co-supervisor: Prof E Archer
De Hart, K – PhD (Education) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof E Archer. Co-supervisor: Prof B De Clerq
Janse van Vuuren, HJ - PhD (Psychology). Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof E Archer
B Ndimande, PhD (Educational Psychology). Status In Progress. Supervisor: Prof E Archer
D Hendricks, PhD (Educational Psychology). Status In Progress. Supervisors: Prof E Archer & Prof A Phadmanabanunni

Masters

Van den Broek, L – Masters in Research Psychology. Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof E Archer

Learning and Teaching

I believe that eaching is a performance art. The knowledge and skill deeply embedded and then engaging the audience with humour, excitement and empathy. "Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre." Gail Godwin

Feedback from Students and Coordinators I have received both formal and informal feedback from Students on my lecturing and presentation of workshops. I have never had a student rating below 80% overall since 2001. The qualitative feedback from the students, however, carries more weight for me.

​​"If there was a 6 (5 point Likert scale) I would rate her as the most [in]credible lecturer I have ever had." (Student)

"Thank you for opening a new world for me! Your informal presentation style is very refreshing and facilitated the wonderful learning experiences. ​(Student)

"Your passion, knowledge, insight, attentiveness and genuine desire to make a difference will live on in me." (Student)

"Thank you! Now super excited to go on with my dissertation." (Student)

As with the student feedback, I truly value the feedback from colleagues and coordinators. Repeated invitations for presentations and teaching are a good indicator of my proficiency.

"She is fun, amazing and patient, which makes it more easy to listen and understand the concepts being taught." (PhD Student)

Mentorship I have been blessed with many opportunities to mentor bright new academics. While sharing my knowledge, skills and guidance, I also learnt so much from them.

Supervision

Doctoral

Fynn, AWR - PhD (Psychology) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof Archer, E. Co-supervisor: Prof Terre Blanche, MJ.

Terblanche, T - DCompt (Auditing) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof B. De Clerq Co-supervisors: Dr E Archer (Winner best PHD in Accounting Sciences in RSA, 2019)

Young, K – PhD (Psychology) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Dr A Fynn Co-supervisor: Prof E Archer

De Hart, K – PhD (Education) – Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof E Archer. Co-supervisor: Prof B De Clerq

Janse van Vuuren, HJ - PhD (Psychology). Status: Conferred. Supervisor: Prof E Archer

B Ndimande, PhD (Educational Psychology). Status In Progress. Supervisor: Prof E Archer

D Hendricks, PhD (Educational Psychology). Status In Progress. Supervisors: Prof E Archer & Prof A Phadmanabanunni

Masters

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I believe that eaching is a performance art. The knowledge and skill deeply embedded and then engaging the audience with humour, excitement and empathy.
"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre."
Gail Godwin

Feedback from Students and Coordinators
I have received both formal and informal feedback from Students on my lecturing and presentation of workshops. I have never had a student rating below 80% overall since 2001. The qualitative feedback from the students, however, carries more weight for me.

"If there was a 6 (5 point Likert scale) I would rate her as the most [in]credible lecturer I have ever had." (Student)

"Thank you for opening a new world for me! Your informal presentation style is very refreshing and facilitated the wonderful learning experiences. (Student)

"She is fun, amazing and patient, which makes it more easy to listen and understand the concepts being taught."
(PhD Student)

Mentorship
I have been blessed with many opportunities to mentor bright new academics. While sharing my knowledge, skills and guidance, I also learnt so much from them.