Category: The Scholar’s Way Blog

Autoethnography: What is it and how do you do it?

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Autoethnography has become an increasingly popular research methodology, particularly within the humanities and social sciences. I use it regularly because of its emphasis on personal experiences, reflexivity, and storytelling which allows for a deeper exploration of complex experiences and societies. So what is autoethnography? The name autoethnography comes from three core aspects:
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Building a sense of belonging for students who do not live on campus

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Students who do not live on campus and commute to university (often termed commuter students) can experience a sense of detachment from the university community, which can adversely affect their student experience. Juggling travel, studies, and other commitments means that these students can feel like they are visitors to their own campus.
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Fostering AI literacy as students, teachers, and researchers

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Credit: This blog post is an adapted form of a recent paper I wrote. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been present in society for several years – think, for example, of computer grammar-checking software, autocorrect on your phone, or GPS apps. Recently, however, there has been a significant advancement in AI research with the
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Improving students’ understanding by building a culture of academic integrity

Author: Lynette Pretorius. Credit: This blog post is an adapted form of a case study I wrote for Advance HE. Universities have been cracking down on cheating and all sorts of dishonest academic behaviour recently. They’ve rolled out a bunch of strict rules related to academic integrity and use fancy software to keep an eye
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Benefits of doctoral writing groups

Author: Lynette Pretorius. For many years now, I have been working to improve the experiences of PhD students. One practice I’ve found particularly useful is incorporating collaborative and peer-based learning through doctoral writing groups. My work with writing groups started way back in 2013 and, over more than a decade, I have further refined my
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Developing students’ critical thinking and clinical reasoning through problem-based assessment

Author: Lynette Pretorius. In clinical education, the challenge is to not just impart content knowledge, but also help students develop critical real-world clinical skills. This is particularly true when it comes to critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. In a paper I recently wrote with colleagues from a midwifery unit, we demonstrate how constructive alignment
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Trauma, anxiety, depression, solitude: The impact of COVID-19 on academic identity

Authors: Basil Cahusac de Caux, Lynette Pretorius, and Luke Macaulay. Credit: Text and images have been republished from an article in the Monash Lens, https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2023/04/28/1385557/trauma-anxiety-depression-solitude-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-academic-indentity COVID-19 brought about unprecedented changes to society, causing widespread disruption to many aspects of our lives. The pandemic has impacted people from all walks of life, but particularly hard-hit have been
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How the pandemic shaped academic identity: Stories of resilience and struggle

Authors: Basil Cahusac de Caux, Lynette Pretorius, and Luke Macaulay. Credit: Text has been republished from an article in Monash News https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/how-the-pandemic-shaped-academic-identity-stories-of-resilience-and-struggle A new book shares the stories of PhD students, early-career researchers, and established academics during the COVID-19 pandemic to shed light on the struggles faced by those in the industry. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted
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