Dates for 2012
| 1st semester | 2nd semester |
| 19th & 20th January 2012 | 09th & 10th July 2012 |
| 04 April 2012 | 03 September 2012 |
| 21 May 2012 | 24 October 2012 |
Introduction
NAPP was first introduced in 2004 to provide a supportive environment for new full time academics at UCT with not more than 5 years teaching experience in higher education. The programme has the following aims:
To induct new academic staff through a holistic programme of professional development which includes their roles as researchers and educators.
To provide new academic staff with resources and basic skills necessary for their development as researchers, educators and members of the UCT community, in order that they might fulfil their responsibilities as academics with confidence.
To provide new academic staff with a variety of opportunities for community building with colleagues across the campus.
To orient new academic staff to the challenges which academics face in the context of a changing higher education environment, in particular the challenges of transformation.
Principles informing this model of 'induction':
The induction of new academic staff should be seen as the collective responsibility of a number of units, most importantly, that of the department and faculty, with the assistance of HR CHED and the Research office.
Academic staff are professional adult learners who bring with them a variety of experiences which need to be acknowledged and accounted for in whatever forms of 'intervention' are put in place.
Academic staff will be motivated to participate in programmes which they perceive to be directly contributing to their own personal and professional needs.
The role of NAPP is to provide an integrated professional development programme for academic staff that supports and complements a variety of initiatives which are already on offer at UCT or in various stages of development.
The professional practices which new staff are being inducted into should be seen holistically, i.e. they include teaching & learning, research, management, administration and community outreach
An effective programme needs to be conceptualised as a series of opportunities which are available to new staff over a designated period of time and not as a one-off event.
NAPP is run twice each year with two cohorts of approximately 20 participants. The programme consists of a 2-day residential where we focus on issues of teaching and research. Topics include: Research planning, Micro-teaching, Teaching in diverse classrooms, How to align your curriculum. This followed by two 1-day UCT-based workshops during non-teaching times which focus in more depth on teaching. Participants may also join the Emerging Research Programme's suite of workshops. UCT's Human Resource department also provide professional development opportunities through the Staff Learning Programme.