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Passion for creating a robust and imaginative teaching and learning environment recently earned Walter Sisulu University (WSU) lecturer, Trust Chikera, a prestigious international teaching award.
Chikera, a senior lecturer at WSU’s Buffalo City Campus Accounting and Finance Department, has been elated since the announcement at this year’s Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Excellence Awards, in the “Teaching Excellence Award” category.
The annual CIMA awards recognise educational institutions and individuals globally for going above-and-beyond to shape the next generation of Chartered Global Management Accountants and lead the accounting profession into the future.
“This award has greatly encouraged me to continue working hard in improving the learning experiences of my students. Management Accounting is not a favourite subject for most accounting students as they consider it complicated. That means management accounting lecturers must first work on changing these negative perceptions held by students and then break down the complex subject principles in a manner that captures and engages the students,” said Chikera.
In mitigating the challenges, the lecturer has devised numerous strategies, ideas and interventions to ensure that students enjoy the course and fully grasp the academic concepts therein.
Since arriving at the university in July 2021, Chikera has sought to incorporate dynamism and imagination into his lessons – paying careful consideration to the context and lived experiences of his students and then tailoring his teaching methods accordingly.
“I always aim at equipping students with lifelong skills, such as critical thinking, digital/analytical mindset, research, and ethics. As such, my students often appreciate the value-add from my classes. When students are happy, they achieve more and speak more about the lecturer and eventually someone will take notice of the work you are doing and your commitment to it. In addition, I am obsessed with improving myself, I reflect on my every class to identify areas of improvement and areas that engage students the most,” he said.
Another key intervention close to Chikera’s heart has been to drive a mindset change – as such a paradigm shift can significantly influence how individuals navigate through the many judgements and decisions they make throughout the course of their careers.
He said a well-developed analytical and digital mindset for accountants will therefore enable them to be inquisitive and creative, with the ability to ask novel questions, engage in data exploration and data visualisation, develop an ability to unearth unpredictable data patterns and make data-driven judgements and predictions.
“So, I always expose my students to activities that not only require them to recite theory from memory but also to ask the right questions, extract relevant data, analyse the data, and interpret the results and use these results to support their arguments,” concluded Chikera, who is in the final stages of his PhD in Accounting Studies.
This PhD investigates the liquidity decisions of South African-listed corporates and to what extent these decisions are driven by the macro-economic environment that exists in the country.
