Associate Professor in Cellular Biology, Professor André Vosloo, has received a Distinguished Teachers’ Award (DTA) for his constructivist and learner-centred pedagogy, technology-enhanced instruction and interdisciplinary approaches.
Currently the Academic Leader of Teaching and Learning in the School of Life Sciences, Vosloo joined UKZN in 2007 from the North-West University, his alma mater, where he began using the biomarker approach in metal-polluted environments in the North West Province during his PhD studies, detecting physiological responses in aquatic organisms to environmental stressors such as pollution or temperature changes. The collaboration of one of his students with the abalone aquaculture industry aligned well with his work on stress markers and led to investigations into whether the measured stress markers have fitness consequences. Applying this science to the aquaculture industry supports its survival, which depends on producing animals under conditions matching their physiological capabilities.
Vosloo’s research involves ascertaining stress responses in animals by understanding their specific expressions of stress through physiological, cellular and metabolic deviations from the “norm”. By identifying these indicators, Vosloo infers the presence, degree and cause of stress as well as the consequences for the individual and population. This ranges from laboratory studies on heavy metal effects to environmental monitoring, picking up signs of pollution. Identifying reliable biomarkers is important for animal welfare considerations. At larger scales, stress responses can refocus energy from growth and reproduction, impairing performance and production in systems such as aquaculture, where Vosloo has focused considerable research.
He has investigated temperature effects and environmental change on ectothermic animals and aquatic invertebrate communities using tools such as metabolomics and RNA sequencing to develop biomarkers and diatom-based indices, with applications ranging from climate change adaptation to aquaculture innovation, including patented feed additives that enhance abalone and finfish production.
Vosloo integrates his research as well as technology into teaching, catering to different learning styles as he does so. He is committed to fostering students’ curiosity and critical thinking, encouraging them to participate in their own knowledge construction and apply their learning practically, introducing interdisciplinary collaborations in his Biology modules and developing innovative teaching materials, assessments and support mechanisms. He has integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools into teaching and learning practices and addressed the ethical considerations associated with their use.
Vosloo adopts a dynamic process to engage students using strategies that evolve according to the changing social, socio-economic and digital world students inhabit. He makes use of social and personal contexts to illustrate course content so students can effectively assimilate, package and store new information they can easily retrieve and apply. This has ranged from broad social contexts such as referencing the popular television show Chernobyl to teaching the causes and effects of radioactive pollution, and the COVID-19 pandemic to emphasise aspects of immunity, immunisation and the global consequences of pandemics.
Vosloo also successfully and rapidly adapted his teaching to the remote, online format during the pandemic, leading and supporting other staff in developing online resources and interactive digital tools.
He has supervised eight PhD and 15 master’s students, published 41 articles, two books and three book chapters, and three editorials.
Receiving the DTA has left Vosloo humbled – he says it was the influence of both excellent and bad teachers that helped him develop effective approaches to teaching.
He credited his wife, Dr Dalene Vosloo who has also received a DTA at UKZN in 2023, for her invaluable support, encouragement and advice, and thanked staff in his School for inspiring him to be a better leader in teaching, learning, and acknowledging them for their wealth of expertise, excellence and student-centred caring.
He paid tribute to Dr Shelley Barnsley from the Student Support Services for sensitising him to the significant psychosocial conditions students are navigating to generate greater empathy and understanding and improve his teaching.
Words: Christine Cuénod
Photograph: Sethu Dlamini
