For Dr Martin Venter, one of the recipients of Stellenbosch University (SU) Teaching Excellence Awards 2020–2021, teaching is a tough but rewarding profession.
This senior lecturer at the department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering received an award in the category 'Developing Teacher'. These annual institutional awards recognise excellent teaching of lecturers in two categories, 'Distinguished Teacher' and 'Developing Teacher', based on their experience and leadership in the scholarship of teaching and learning.
“Stellenbosch is a great place to improve as a teacher and many lecturers, who are actively building their teaching skills, are willing to share it. Peer-mentorship works for lecturers too."
Sharing information is an interest that led him to the lecturer's position. “I have always enjoyed learning and get a kick out of sharing what I have learned. Often this takes the form of hands-on breaking and making of things, which is how I also ended up in engineering. Here I learned that there is a particular joy in solving hard problems and that is why I have chosen to stay."
When he was younger, he would never have guessed that one day he would enjoy teaching. For him then, teaching was just an activity of standing in front of a group of people, repeating the same information year on year. A dull, tireless thing, he says.
However, as he started teaching, he realised that teaching was actually fulfilling. He also realised that there was no perfect teaching system.
He says lecturers should always be using a few different teaching methods. “It makes the system more robust and if something unexpected happens it is less likely to break the entire system."
During his years of teaching, he found that collaborative learning and peer-mentorship were universal and typically underused. “We have a large number of students, all of whom are trying to achieve similar goals. We can use them as an effective resource; we just need to create spaces like student forums where students can ask and answer questions."
This way a student can learn to be critical. They can see that there are other ways of thinking and a collection of mistakes exists that they may not have made themselves, he says.
His fondness for learning and accumulating knowledge strengthens his passion for teaching.
“A university is no longer only a place to find knowledge. Ubiquitous access to information, from books and the internet, allows anyone who wants knowledge, to find it.
“What makes a university different is that you are not alone when you find it (knowledge) and that you can share your excitement easily with others. As a result, my core working principle is that students should pursue knowledge and share what they learn with their peers," he says.
