<p>The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which the B.Cur. programme at the University of the Western Cape prepared graduating learners for professional competence. The results of the study indicated progression in competence did not occur as students progressed through higher levels of their training, except the third year of study.</p>

The purpose of the study is to assess whether a psychological test of learning potential can predict supervisory rating of different components of learning potential for the low level worker-This exercise would be done ascertain the relationship between the learning potential by using the TRAM-2 battery Ca learning potential assessment instrument) and supervisory rating of the sample of workers. A sample of 60 employees with levels of education ranging form grade 8 to 12 inclusive was used. It is hoped that the findings would predict or identify employees with potential for development which would then lead to planning how that potential is developed to, empower the employees to improve their performance and self actualise their objectives. This would enhance the realisation of aims and objective of skills development and employment equity plan of the company. The findings and their implications and suggestions would be discussed in this study. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

The main aim of this study was to identify those elements in a child's home background that assist him to become schoolready. The secondary, though closely related aims were to determine whether significant cognitive and linguistic differences existed between schoolready and non-schoolready children. The study, moreover, sought to establish whether the parents of these two groups of children differed in their views about the manner in which children should be reared. The sample of children comprised the following two groups: (a) The Preschoolers, who were due to enter Class i in 1990 had had approximately one year's preschool experience. On the basis of the results of a test of schoolreadiness, these children were divided further into two groups - a "schoolready" group and a "non-schoolready group". Each of these groups comprised thirty children. (b) The Non-Preschoolers, who were also due to enter Class i in 1990, but lacked preschool experience. These children were divided into a "schoolready" and a "non-schoolready" group on the same basis as the Preschoolers. Each group comprised twenty children. Cognitive ability was tested by means of the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices and language ability by means of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. The results of this study highlighted the role of the home as perhaps the single most important educational agency in a child's early years. A stimulating home environment plays an important part in helping the child to become schoolready. The following aspects were found to be particularly influential in this process: low educational level of the parents, poor housing, low income and poor reading habits of parents. A second major finding of this study was that children who had had preschool experience were better equipped to meet the demands of the formal school situation. Moreover, cognitive development is highly dependent upon the kind of verbal interactions between parents and child, and this, in turn, has a marked impact on the child's scholastic performance. The study also revealed that the parents of non-schoolready children are, by and large, more authoritarian in their relationship with their children and in their views about how children should be reared. The report ends with an indication of various steps that can be taken to promote schoolreadiness among preschool children. It is suggested that the implementation of these steps would lead to a smaller number of non-ready six-year- olds seeking admission to Class i at the beginning of each year. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1990.

The relationship between language proficiency and academic success in university studies is of major concern in educational institutions throughout the Western world. The particular focus of this study is the situation in the Republic of South Africa. This problem is of critical importance at this stage in the history of South Africa when universities have publicly stated their commitment to admit any students with merit or potential to succeed at university. In order for students to succeed at university they need to be communicatively competent in the language which is the medium of instruction. It has been assumed that this ability can be assessed by means of a formal test and it is this issue on which this dissertation focuses in order to establish how reliable such tests are as predictors of academic performance. The empirical research covers a six-year period from 1982 to 1987 and investigates two tests. One is a particular language test which was designed specifically for the selection of students for courses of academic study of English at university. The other is the senior certificate examination which provides the statutory admission requirement for university entrance in South Africa. An extensive review of relevant studies both within South Africa and overseas has been undertaken. In addition an unstructured questionnaire was sent to English departments throughout South Africa in order to establish the current practice with regard to the selection of students for first-year courses. The conclusion seems to be that in the context of a homogeneous population language proficiency as measured on a formal test is predictive of academic success in first-year courses in English. In heterogeneous student populations, like that of South Africa where the majority of prospective students may be described as being "disadvantaged", however, this is not the case. Academic success cannot be predicted with any degree of confidence on the basis of language proficiency. Extreme caution is necessary in the implementation of any language test for the selection of students for academic study at university in the present changing nature of university student populations in South Africa. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1988.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how language affected the teaching and learning of mathematics for English second language (ESL) learners in five Further Education and Training (FET) schools in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, with a particular focus on word problems (WPs). In 2010, fifteen learners (nine boys and six girls) doing mathematics grade 11 from five different FET schools from Mtubatuba District in Northern Kwazulu-Natal participated in the study. Five teachers teaching the same learners from these five schools were also the participants in this study. The researcher’s teaching experience of eleven years as an FET mathematics teacher had taught her that many English second language learners were not able to correctly translate word problems into mathematical equation. This was what motivated the researcher to conduct a study on the impact of English to the teaching and learning of mathematics, especially Word Problems. The study was mostly framed around theory of Social Constructivism. The research instruments used in the study were: learner worksheets, learner interviews (individual and group interviews), teacher questionnaires and lesson observations. Some common challenges in the teaching of WPs were drawn from the analysis of the teachers’ responses: Many learners are unable to translate English statements into mathematical equations. The manner in which WPs are phrased generally pose some problems for many learners. There is lack of mathematics vocabulary such as ‘consecutive’, ‘twice as much as’, ‘doubled and then added to’, ‘squared’. From the learners’ responses, the following could be deduced as challenges in learning WPs: There is very little exposure of learners to word problems. Failure to write English statements mathematically. Less exposure to English due to teachers accepting the use of isiZulu more than English during teaching and learning. Too much wording in the WPs which ends up confusing. Little exposure to mathematical terms such as ‘consecutive’, ‘integers’. Both teachers and learners gave some strategies that they thought could help in the teaching of WPs, namely: Giving more time for learners to construct mathematical statements on their own. Engaging in one-on-one teaching with some struggling learners. Code-switching from English to isiZulu when necessary. Letting learners work through the worked examples first for proper understanding. Rephrasing the problem and breaking it into sections. Use of diagrams and illustrations. Giving learners more activities on WPs. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Language teachers have multiple responsibilities in that they teach a subject which fits into the framework of the school curriculum as well as being the medium through which the majority of that school curriculum is taught. Literacy is also a requirement for the citizenry of the country to function effectively in our society. A further responsibility which is not always perceived is that language has power in that it is often the medium through which social, political and economic discourse occurs. Critical theory contends that competing ideologies seek to make their discourses dominant and in this way have control over relations of power in society. Consequently, language education is the means by which we can educate young people about these ‘discourses of domination’. The focus of this study is teachers and the language assessments which they produce. Are these language assessments simple testing devices intended to gauge learners recall and understanding of the content of the text or can they go deeper than that? Can teachers engage with their learners on a Critical level to understand where texts come from and who created them and what was their purpose in creating them? These questions are in line with Critical literacy, so as to understand power relations in society and to mitigate against the domination of a particular ideology. To merely analyse assessments would be insufficient thus this study goes further to try to understand how teachers’ personal paradigms impact on the assessments which they produce. The purpose here is to gain some understanding of whether or not teachers want to and are able to educate learners about more than just the content of the texts which are taught in the language classroom. This is achieved through the analysis of language assessments and then by semi-structured interviews with the producers of these assessments. The data achieved from this mixed method research is analysed through the lens of Critical Language Testing with the intention of trying to determine if the assessments produced, come from individuals who are concerned with social justice and equality; individuals who are aware of social, political and economic discourses in society among other. The study also sought to determine if these are reflexive individuals who are also ethical in their approach to language teaching and assessment. The thesis attempts to achieve these aims whilst always maintaining a self critical view point. This is done by engaging with the premises which underpin this research and trying to understand the motivations for this research. By attempting to deconstruct my own personal bias and ideological underpinnings the hope is to achieve a study which fairly represents how teachers assess language in the classroom. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Objectives: To assess the role of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in the diagnosis of hypertension in general practice. Background: Hypertension is usually diagnosed by casual office blood pressure readings. However, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring has shown that a significant proportion of patients diagnosed as hypertension in fact do not have hypertension. Method: Sixty four Indian patients diagnosed as having mild to moderate hypertension by casual measurements were subjected to a twenty four hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. A blood pressure load of >35% was classified as true hypertension and < 35% as white coat hypertension. White coat hypertensives were compared to the hypertensive group with respect to various demographic characteristics, and to correlate ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and casual blood pressure readings. Results: A prevalence of 23.44% white coat hypertension was found. In addition, the demographic profile of such patients show a preponderance of non-obese females (73.33%), the majority of whom are on concomitant medication (60%). A poor correlation was found between the casual office blood pressure readings and the twenty four hour ambulatory blood pressure readings in the white coat hypertensives as compared to the hypertensive group. Conclusion: White coat hypertension is common in patients diagnosed as having mild to moderate hypertension by casual blood pressure readings. There are no reliable clinical indicators to identify patients with white coat hypertension. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring has been shown to be a useful method for differentiating white coat hypertensives from true hypertensives. / Thesis (M.Med)-University of Natal, 1997.

The purposes of this study is to determine: (a) the relationship between the dependant variables, (b) the relationship between the Borg pain scale and the performance tests, (c) the difference in performance between involved and uninvolved extremities, and (d) the effects of the three different therapeutic exercise treatments on selected performance tests and pain free isometric strength testing. Fifty subjects with physician diagnosed anterior knee pain (AKP), completed initial performance testing and 14 subjects completed initial testing, therapy and six weeks later final performance testing. The 14 subjects were randomly assigned to one of three therapeutic exercise treatment groups. The performance tests included; pain free isometric strength tests (90, 60, 45, and 15 degrees knee flexion), stair test, timed hop, triple hop, crossover hop, Figure 8 and Borg pain scale rating for each performance test. The results indicated a significant correlation between performance tests and pain free isometric strength tests. There was no relationship indicated between the performance tests, Borg pain scale ratings. The contrast between the injured and uninjured extremities performance test values of the fifty subjects that completed the initial testing indicated no significant (p< 0.05) difference. The results of this study indicated that there was no significant difference between the therapeutic exercise treatment groups. In conclusion, the three anterior knee pain treatments had no effect on strength and performance. / School of Physical Education

This research study had two primary purposes. The first purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of professional development training sessions with early childhood educators by measuring the emergent literacy skills of their students. The second purpose was to begin to establish concurrent validity for a fairly new skills-based instrument with an established norm-referenced instrument.A pretest-posttest design to assess the children's emergent literacy skills was utilized. After the pretest was conducted with the subjects, ages 3-5 years old, their teachers from the experimental group attended professional development sessions to address emergent literacy strategies for their early childhood classrooms. The teachers in the control group did not participate in the professional development sessions. At the conclusion of the intervention period the children's emergent literacy skills were posttested.The pretest and posttest assessments were conducted following best practice guidelines for early childhood education assessments. The early childhood educators who knew the children well completed the skills-based instrument through an observation process with a rating scale. The primary researcher conducted the norm-referenced instrument with each of the children in a one-on-one situation at the child's early childhood center.The scores of the two instruments were analyzed to evaluate the gains of the children, the significance of independent variables, and to examine the relationship between the two instruments. The data showed that the children in the treatment condition did make significant gains over the control group in the area of Readiness skills, but not in other areas assessed. Additionally, the independent variables of subject's gender and teacher's years of experience were significant for few of the subscales of the assessment tools. This study did begin to establish concurrent validity for the Language Arts Objective Sequence (LOS) with the Test of Early Reading Ability-Third edition (TERA-3). The LOS did possess internal consistency and demonstrated a positive correlation with the TERA-3 at the pretest. Further studies to establish concurrent validity with posttests as well as pretests need to be conducted. / Department of Special Education

The process of social problem-solving appears to consist of several general stages including problem orientation, problem definition, generation of alternatives, and decision making. A significant number of studies have found that depressed individuals have a more negative orientation towards their problems and generate a smaller number of less effective solutions on pencil-and-paper measures. Rumination in response to a dysphoric mood has been found to exacerbate feelings of sadness and social problem-solving deficits, while efforts at distraction have been found to reduce or eliminate these effects. To date, nearly all of the research on social problem-solving has utilized pencil-and-paper measures of how individuals feel they would respond to hypothetical problems. The current investigation was designed to evaluate the social problem-solving ability of dysphoric and non-dysphoric participants while talking with a counselor in an analogue counseling interview.More specifically, this study examined the effects of dysphoria and the use of temporary distraction techniques on the social problem-solving ability of 84 female undergraduate students. A structured problem-solving interview and corresponding coding system was designed to measure D'Zurilla and Goldfried's (1971) stages of problem-solving. The coding system yielded high levels of internal consistency, content validity, and construct validity. Forty-one dysphoric females and 43 non-dysphoric females were randomly assigned to either a rumination or distraction task. Dysphoric participants in the rumination condition reported increased levels of sadness, whereas dysphoric participants in the distraction condition reported decreased levels of sadness. After engaging in the rumination or distraction task, each participant was asked to talk with a female counselor during a structured problem-solving interview. Results of a 2 (dysphoric/non-dysphoric) X 2 (rumination/distraction) MANOVA yielded a non-significant interaction effect and a significant difference for the main effect of dysphoria on participants' ratings of problem severity and confidence in solving the problem. Dysphoric participants, whether given a rumination or distraction task, reported a more negative orientation towards their problems, but did not display any deficits in their ability to describe the problem, generate effective solutions, or choose an effective solution. The current findings underscore the need for more naturalistic, behavioral measurements of problem-solving ability and call into question the assumption that depressed individuals exhibit social problem-solving deficits. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services