В последние годы, с постоянным усилением влияния Китая, изучение китайского языка становится все более популярным. Актуальной задачей является разработка программ по развитию навыков речевой деятельности, включая письмо. Изучение трудностей письма на китайском языке и их решение имеет большое значение для улучшения навыков письма у иностранных студентов, может способствовать повышению их квалификации при работе в межкультурной среде, связанной со знанием китайского языка. Цель исследования – предложить методику развития навыков письма на китайском языке на начальном этапе обучения. Объект исследования – процесс развития навыков письма на китайском языке на начальном этапе обучения. Предмет исследования – методика развития навыком письма на китайском языке на начальном этапе обучения. Научная новизна исследования состоит в определении потенциала использования игровых и компьютерных технологий при обучении написанию китайских иероглифов на начальном этапе обучения. Полученные данные обоснованы теоретико-методологической базой исследования. Практическая значимость исследования: полученные результаты могут быть использованы в качестве методических рекомендаций и практических материалов на занятиях по написанию иероглифов на начальном этапе обучения. В первой главе диссертации описана теоретико-методологическая база исследования, обучение письму в трудах российских и китайских исследователей, история, происхождение китайских иероглифов, их взаимосвязь с культурными реалиями. Во второй главе диссертации предлагается методика обучения написанию китайских иероглифов на начальном этапе обучения, включающая игровые методы, компьютерные технологии, способствующие развитию навыков написания китайских иероглифов, уделяется внимание повышению квалификации преподавателей. / In recent years, with the increasing influence of China, learning Chinese has become increasingly popular. It is an urgent task to offer programs to develop speech skills, including writing. Studying the difficulties of writing in Chinese and solving them is important to improve the writing skills of international students and can help improve their skills when working in an intercultural environment related to the knowledge of the Chinese language. Purpose of the study: to propose a methodology for the development of writing skills in Chinese at the initial stage of learning. Object of the study – the process of developing writing skills in Chinese at the initial stage of learning. Subject of the study – methodology for the development of writing skills in Chinese at the initial stage of learning. Scientific novelty of the study consists in determining the potential of using gamification and computer technologies in teaching the writing of Chinese hieroglyphs at the initial stage of learning. The findings are based on the theoretical and methodological basis of the research. Practical significance of the study – the results can be used as guidelines and practical materials in classes for writing hieroglyphs at the initial stage of learning. The first chapter of the thesis describes the theoretical and methodological basis of the research, the teaching of writing in the works of Russian and Chinese researchers, the history, the origin of Chinese hieroglyphs, their relationship with cultural realities. The second chapter of the thesis proposes a methodology for teaching Chinese hieroglyphs writing at the initial stage, including gamification methods, computer technology to help develop Chinese hieroglyphs writing skills, attention is also paid to teachers’ professional development.

En gymnasielärare i teknik i den svenska skolan påverkar och påverkas av samhället utanför skolans väggar. Samhällets digitalisering kan påverka tekniklärarens relativt stora möjligheter att välja det tekniska innehållet i kurserna, i olika grad. För att vara konkurrenskraftig i samhället behöver framtida tekniker ha goda kunskaper om de just för stunden aktuella teknikområdena och tidigare studier har visat att skolans resultat i hög grad beror av vilka kunskaper läraren har. I den här studien undersöktes tre tekniklärare på olika gymnasieskolor i Sverige, med avseende på synen på deras kunskaper i att undervisa om artificiell intelligens (AI), sakernas internet (Internet of Things - IoT) och robotteknik. Vidare studerades vilka undervisningsmetoder de avsåg att använda, samt vilka begränsande ramar de kunde se i detta uppdrag. Via enkät och intervjuer samlades data om frågeställningarna in. Rådata transkriberades och analyserades med utgångspunkt i Shulmans teori om Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK – ibland kallat ämnesdidaktisk kunskap på svenska) och även med stöd av ramfaktorteori och läroplansteori. Resultatet visar att de deltagande lärarna har behov av kompetenshöjning inom dessa tre teknikområden, samt att valet av undervisningsmetoder är beroende av de ramar som bland annat i form av tid och ekonomi påverkar undervisningen. Resultatet skiljer sig inte från liknande tidigare studier genomförda på lärare i grundskolan. / A technology teacher in the Swedish upper secondary school acts and is influenced by society outside the school walls. The digitalisation of society more or less influences how the technology teacher will choose the ways of implementing the curriculum, with respect to the technicalcontent of the courses. To be competitive in society, future technicians must have goodknowledge of the current technical areas, and previous studies have shown that the school's results largely depend on what knowledge the teacher has. In this study, three technology teachers at various upper secondary schools in Sweden were examined, regarding their view of their knowledge in teaching about artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics. The study also investigated their intended teaching methods and the framing factors they perceived when trying to perform this task. Through a survey and interviews, data on the issues were collected. Raw data were transcribed and analysed based on the theory of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), by Shulman and with the support of frame factor theory and curriculum theory. The results show that the participating teachers need more competence in these three technology areas, and that the choice of teaching methods depends on the resources provided, for instance in the form of time and finances. The results do not differ from similar previous studies conducted on primary school teachers.

Актуальность исследования определяется тем, что арабский язык в настоящее время активно популяризируется среди русскоязычной аудитории. Однако для неносителей языка его изучение становится затруднительным. Представленное диссертационное исследование сосредоточено на изучении различных стратегий, используемых для обучения арабскому языку, а также факторах, влияющих на результаты. В рамках диссертации проведена апробация выбранных методик, описаны результаты исследования, предложен алгоритм обучения письму и чтению на арабском языке на начальном этапе. / Relevance the study is determined by the fact that the Arabic language is currently actively popularized among the Russian-speaking audience. Arabic is one of the most widely spoken languages in the Middle East. It is widely used in daily life as well as in religious texts. However, for non-native speakers, learning it becomes difficult. Our dissertation will focus on the study of the various strategies used to teach Arabic. We will look at the different types of training as well as the factors that can influence the results. As part of the dissertation, the selected methods will be tested on a group of students, the results of the study will be described, and the most effective methods for teaching and learning Arabic for native Russian speakers will be identified.

Актуальность исследования обусловлена нарастающей потребностью в разработке инновационных методов преподавания лексики на уроках русского как иностранного языка (РКИ). Цель исследования состоит в разработке и апробации методики преподавания лексики для китайской аудитории с использованием мультимедийной платформы LearningApps. Объект исследования: процесс обучения иноязычной лексике. Предмет исследования: применение интерактивной платформы для изучения иностранной лексики. Научная новизна Разработан и апробирован комплекс интерактивных упражнений для эффективного запоминания лексики с помощью интерактивной платформы LearningApps， который интегрируется в занятия РКИ с китайскими студентами первого курса. Теоретическая значимость исследования заключается в том, что были обобщены результаты российских и зарубежных исследований относительно применения современных информационно-коммуникационных технологий онлайн-сервисов в преподавании иностранной лексики студентам вуза. Практическая значимость исследования состоит в том, что результаты опытно-экспериментальной работы и разработанный комплекс упражнений с применением мультимедийной платформы LearningApps может быть использован для обучения китайских студентов лексике в рамках преподавания РКИ. / The relevance of the research is due to the growing need to develop innovative methods of teaching vocabulary in the lessons of Russian as a foreign language (RCT). The purpose of the study is to develop and test a methodology for teaching vocabulary to a Chinese audience using the LearningApps multimedia platform. The object of the study the process of learning foreign language vocabulary. The subject of the study is the use of an interactive platform for learning foreign vocabulary. Scientific novelty A set of interactive exercises for effective vocabulary memorization has been developed and tested using the interactive LearningApps platform, which is integrated into Russian as a foreign language (RCT) class with Chinese first-year students. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that the results of Russian and foreign studies on the use of modern information and communication technologies of online services in teaching foreign vocabulary to university students were summarized. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that the results of experimental work and the developed set of exercises using the LearningApps multimedia platform can be used to teach Chinese students vocabulary within the framework of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RCT).

The profession of chartered accountancy (CA) is critical to the economic, social and cultural development of South Africa. It has the potential to play a broader leadership role in the development of the financial skills the country needs so desperately. Extensive research has shown that South Africa has far too few CAs to satisfy the needs of the economy. The profession itself is, however, facing numerous challenges especially given the high expectations of employers of newly qualified CAs and the image of the profession in South Africa in regard to transforming professional demographics, a vestige of the apartheid regime. Many commentators agree that the fundamental flaw in accounting education is that it has remained static while the profession has changed. There is growing consensus among accounting professionals that recent accounting graduates do not adequately meet the standards set by potential employers in the modern, globalised business environment. One university that offers an accredited CA programme is the North-West University (NWU) which is perfectly placed to draw students from rural and urban areas alike; it has the potential to make a significant contribution to the accountancy skills shortage of the country and, hence, contribute to the economy and broader society. However, being newly formed as a result of government‟s merger of various historic institutions, the NWU faces some tough challenges in its endeavours to contribute to the delivery of CAs. The NWU must identify and break down the barriers, limitations and weaknesses that prohibit its students from achieving optimal results, especially the barriers that can, at least partly, be controlled or influenced by the university. The various studies reported on in this thesis are all built around this pivotal theme, i.e. they all endeavour to reveal the hurdles the institution needs to overcome or the areas that require improvement to ensure that the NWU successfully delivers as many as possible CA graduates of the highest quality and to the optimal benefit of employers and broader society. Ultimately, this study wishes to provide the NWU with the information it needs to reform its CA programme in line with this goal. In broad terms, this study, therefore, aims to establish the extent of the barriers to success of the CA programme at the NWU and to make recommendations on appropriate interventions to address such issues. To address the broad aim of this thesis, it is divided into five subordinate research projects, each designed to identify areas in the NWU‟s CA programme that necessitate amelioration. The first project has the primary objective of comparing and critically analysing differences in curriculum, teaching and learning methods, and assessment between the NWU CA programme and the professional accountancy department of a comparable university in the United Kingdom (UK) (so as to identify possible interventions for the NWU programme). It would be imprudent for any organisation not to look first towards international best practice in search of interventions, and a comparable UK institution is an obvious choice given the similarities in degree structures, the South African higher education framework having originally developed from the UK framework. The method employed is a case study involving the comparison of the qualification frameworks of the two countries involved and of two specific accounting degrees in regard to curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment, including the inspection of institutional documentation and an analysis of focus group transcripts involving academic staff from either institution. The remainder of the projects delve into more specific internal concerns regarding the NWU‟s CA programme. The second project has the objective of identifying and gauging the strength of possible barriers to student achievement (as identified in the literature) in the NWU‟s CA programme and, with a view to gaining insight into transformation constraints, the third project aims to assess whether there are differences in the perceptions of the NWU‟s CA students from different campuses and different ethnic backgrounds regarding the efficacy of various students achievement drivers. Both these projects involve a written survey on student perceptions on achievement barriers affecting the NWU. The participants to these projects were 790 CA students and the results are analysed statistically. The strength of achievement barriers and transformation constraints indicated in the accounting education literature might not reveal the complete picture of the reasons why students fail, especially at the first-year level where failure and dropout are often of great concern. To, therefore, determine the full range of barriers, the fourth research project has the objective of diagnosing any possible reasons for student failure (that are not necessarily addressed in the literature) and, more specifically, failure to complete the first year of CA studies at the NWU successfully. This project is approached in a wholly qualitative manner through a discursive analysis of four separate focus group interview transcripts involving a total of 29 randomly selected failed CA students. The first four research objectives reveal a number of weaknesses in the NWU‟s CA programme in need of amelioration, and various recommendations are made in this regard. A major theme arising is the lack of skills development and assessment opportunities afforded to students in the NWU CA programme. The thesis then explores the use of integrated case studies and business simulation assignments as educational tools to address this problem. Faithful to the fifth research objective of developing and evaluating a prototype of the most needed tool recommended as an educational intervention, an actual inter-disciplinary integrated case study and business simulation assignment is developed to enhance students‟ professional skills. The success of the assignment is evaluated by having 56 third-year CA students actually complete the assignment and then testing their experiences thereof utilising an adapted questionnaire designed for this purpose, followed by statistical analysis of the data. The contributions of this thesis are manifold including, but not limited to, the identification of a variety of areas for amelioration in accounting education practices, being one of very few comprehensive studies that investigates many achievement barriers holistically. This thesis sheds new light on some themes that have not yet been sufficiently researched in prior literature, including the value of career-oriented communication, transformation in accounting education, student failure in South African accounting education and the usage of inter-disciplinary integrated case studies or simulations in accounting. It further contributes a new empirical questionnaire, the reliability of which has been confirmed, making further research possible in various other settings. It benchmarks South African accounting education to that of at least one developed country; such international comparisons are scarce in the accounting education field, especially involving Africa. Moreover, it offers explanations for the drivers of pedagogical approaches in accounting education with reference to various forces rooted in institutional theory and education theory. The author, however, believes that the most practical contribution of this thesis is the actual inter-disciplinary case study and business simulation assignment which can be used or adapted by accounting educators to develop and assess professional skills and which provide some evidence of students‟ experiences of such an assignment that can inform the development of future assignments. Inter-disciplinary integrated tools are scarce in this field. The thesis is of managerial value for the NWU, but its findings are not confined to the domain of this institution, as they should provide useful insight for other institutions and accounting educators, as well as government(s) and professional bodies as the guardians of the profession. Delivering a higher quantity of better qualified CAs, especially from the designated population groups, are to the benefit of the whole country. Most of all, this thesis provides evidence of efforts to make a difference in the continuous quest to ameliorate accounting education one step at a time. / PhD (Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The profession of chartered accountancy (CA) is critical to the economic, social and cultural development of South Africa. It has the potential to play a broader leadership role in the development of the financial skills the country needs so desperately. Extensive research has shown that South Africa has far too few CAs to satisfy the needs of the economy. The profession itself is, however, facing numerous challenges especially given the high expectations of employers of newly qualified CAs and the image of the profession in South Africa in regard to transforming professional demographics, a vestige of the apartheid regime. Many commentators agree that the fundamental flaw in accounting education is that it has remained static while the profession has changed. There is growing consensus among accounting professionals that recent accounting graduates do not adequately meet the standards set by potential employers in the modern, globalised business environment. One university that offers an accredited CA programme is the North-West University (NWU) which is perfectly placed to draw students from rural and urban areas alike; it has the potential to make a significant contribution to the accountancy skills shortage of the country and, hence, contribute to the economy and broader society. However, being newly formed as a result of government‟s merger of various historic institutions, the NWU faces some tough challenges in its endeavours to contribute to the delivery of CAs. The NWU must identify and break down the barriers, limitations and weaknesses that prohibit its students from achieving optimal results, especially the barriers that can, at least partly, be controlled or influenced by the university. The various studies reported on in this thesis are all built around this pivotal theme, i.e. they all endeavour to reveal the hurdles the institution needs to overcome or the areas that require improvement to ensure that the NWU successfully delivers as many as possible CA graduates of the highest quality and to the optimal benefit of employers and broader society. Ultimately, this study wishes to provide the NWU with the information it needs to reform its CA programme in line with this goal. In broad terms, this study, therefore, aims to establish the extent of the barriers to success of the CA programme at the NWU and to make recommendations on appropriate interventions to address such issues. To address the broad aim of this thesis, it is divided into five subordinate research projects, each designed to identify areas in the NWU‟s CA programme that necessitate amelioration. The first project has the primary objective of comparing and critically analysing differences in curriculum, teaching and learning methods, and assessment between the NWU CA programme and the professional accountancy department of a comparable university in the United Kingdom (UK) (so as to identify possible interventions for the NWU programme). It would be imprudent for any organisation not to look first towards international best practice in search of interventions, and a comparable UK institution is an obvious choice given the similarities in degree structures, the South African higher education framework having originally developed from the UK framework. The method employed is a case study involving the comparison of the qualification frameworks of the two countries involved and of two specific accounting degrees in regard to curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment, including the inspection of institutional documentation and an analysis of focus group transcripts involving academic staff from either institution. The remainder of the projects delve into more specific internal concerns regarding the NWU‟s CA programme. The second project has the objective of identifying and gauging the strength of possible barriers to student achievement (as identified in the literature) in the NWU‟s CA programme and, with a view to gaining insight into transformation constraints, the third project aims to assess whether there are differences in the perceptions of the NWU‟s CA students from different campuses and different ethnic backgrounds regarding the efficacy of various students achievement drivers. Both these projects involve a written survey on student perceptions on achievement barriers affecting the NWU. The participants to these projects were 790 CA students and the results are analysed statistically. The strength of achievement barriers and transformation constraints indicated in the accounting education literature might not reveal the complete picture of the reasons why students fail, especially at the first-year level where failure and dropout are often of great concern. To, therefore, determine the full range of barriers, the fourth research project has the objective of diagnosing any possible reasons for student failure (that are not necessarily addressed in the literature) and, more specifically, failure to complete the first year of CA studies at the NWU successfully. This project is approached in a wholly qualitative manner through a discursive analysis of four separate focus group interview transcripts involving a total of 29 randomly selected failed CA students. The first four research objectives reveal a number of weaknesses in the NWU‟s CA programme in need of amelioration, and various recommendations are made in this regard. A major theme arising is the lack of skills development and assessment opportunities afforded to students in the NWU CA programme. The thesis then explores the use of integrated case studies and business simulation assignments as educational tools to address this problem. Faithful to the fifth research objective of developing and evaluating a prototype of the most needed tool recommended as an educational intervention, an actual inter-disciplinary integrated case study and business simulation assignment is developed to enhance students‟ professional skills. The success of the assignment is evaluated by having 56 third-year CA students actually complete the assignment and then testing their experiences thereof utilising an adapted questionnaire designed for this purpose, followed by statistical analysis of the data. The contributions of this thesis are manifold including, but not limited to, the identification of a variety of areas for amelioration in accounting education practices, being one of very few comprehensive studies that investigates many achievement barriers holistically. This thesis sheds new light on some themes that have not yet been sufficiently researched in prior literature, including the value of career-oriented communication, transformation in accounting education, student failure in South African accounting education and the usage of inter-disciplinary integrated case studies or simulations in accounting. It further contributes a new empirical questionnaire, the reliability of which has been confirmed, making further research possible in various other settings. It benchmarks South African accounting education to that of at least one developed country; such international comparisons are scarce in the accounting education field, especially involving Africa. Moreover, it offers explanations for the drivers of pedagogical approaches in accounting education with reference to various forces rooted in institutional theory and education theory. The author, however, believes that the most practical contribution of this thesis is the actual inter-disciplinary case study and business simulation assignment which can be used or adapted by accounting educators to develop and assess professional skills and which provide some evidence of students‟ experiences of such an assignment that can inform the development of future assignments. Inter-disciplinary integrated tools are scarce in this field. The thesis is of managerial value for the NWU, but its findings are not confined to the domain of this institution, as they should provide useful insight for other institutions and accounting educators, as well as government(s) and professional bodies as the guardians of the profession. Delivering a higher quantity of better qualified CAs, especially from the designated population groups, are to the benefit of the whole country. Most of all, this thesis provides evidence of efforts to make a difference in the continuous quest to ameliorate accounting education one step at a time. / PhD (Accountancy), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This research investigates the relationship between the attitude of senior secondary mathematics educators towards school and the achievement of their learners. A literature study examined research into the relationships between an educator's attitude towards his or her school management team, colleagues, learners, parents, the subject of mathematics and the factors influencing mathematics achievement. An empirical investigation used a quantitative research design to collect data from selected senior secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A questionnaire was used to gather data and a statistical data analysis was conducted to calculate frequencies and test hypotheses. Findings indicated the existence of a relationship between educators' attitudes towards school and the achievement of their learners. It was therefore recommended that school managers should be very sensitive to the climate prevailing in their schools in order to encourage mathematics educators and thus, indirectly, learners in this vital subject. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

This research project explores the views of secondary school Development Studies teachers on the subject in Swaziland. Development Studies as a school subject, was designed to integrate environmental education into the secondary school curricula in Swaziland. The study followed a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual grounded theory design. Face-to-face individual interviews were carried out where the respondents expressed their thoughts, concerns and feelings about Development Studies as a school subject. Eight Development Studies teachers and one curriculum designer were interviewed. Only one question, followed by relevant probes was presented to the respondents. The question asked was: What do you think of Development Studies as a school subject? This study followed Tesch's approach to data analysis. The study revealed that Development Studies teachers in Swaziland were generally not trained in environmental education. Recommendations are made. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.(Environmental Ed.)

This study is an attempt to determine the impact of teachers' attitudes on their classroom behaviour and therefore on their implementation of the Communicative Approach. A descriptive case study was conducted at six secondary schools in Harare, Zimbabwe (as ESL environment) to determine the effect of 38 O-level English teachers' attitudes on their classroom practice. Quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, including a questionnaire, an observation instrument and a semistructured interview were used to gauge teachers' attitudes, assessing the extent to which attitudes are reflected in their classroom behaviour, and eliciting teachers' verbalisation of how they conceive of their professional task. The findings show that the effective implementation of the Communicative Approach was critically dependent on teachers' positive attitudes towards this approach in the five categories covered by this study. / Linguistics / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

Effective implementation of the principles of the National curriculum Statement (NCS) for Life Orientation has various requirements. Thus, with a specific focus on Life Orientation in grade 10, the study aimed at investigating various issues around the implementation of these principles. To this end, a mixed-methods approach was used. In the quantitative phase, questionnaires were used. In the qualitative phase, focus groups and interviews were used to collect data. Similar questions were asked in both phases. The sample was a group of 48 Life Orientation teachers from 48 secondary schools in the Gauteng West district. Ethical issues were considered. Techniques to ensure validity and reliability were also taken into account. The results showed that, in general: • the introduction of the NCS in Life Orientation had resulted in too much paperwork and administration for the teachers; • the principles of the NCS had not helped to transform education from the apartheid era system of education to the present democratic system of education; • the teachers were poorly trained with regard to implementing the principles of the NCS in the sense that there were not enough workshops and follow-up support provided; • the principles of the NCS were not implemented at schools, among others because there were problems with the distribution of policies to the teachers via the school management; • the implementation of the principles of the NCS did not make the envisaged impact on learner attitudes since the attitudes of many learners were often negative; • the implementation of the principles of the NCS did not make the envisaged impact on learner respect for other cultures; • the principles of the NCS did not have the ideal impact on morals, values and standards; or impact significantly on crime rate, learner pregnancy or disrespect at school; and• the principles of the NCS did not support learners well to acquire life skills. • However, the principles of the NCS in Life Orientation were more successful with regards to helping address barriers to learning. In line with the above, recommendations were made and the limitations of the study were pointed out. / Further Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)