Objective: In this dissertation the differences between NCAA athletes and other college students who participate in sports at various levels (i.e., club sports and intramural) were examined. The effects of different types of academic socialization received and the primary source of these messages on grade point average and professional sport expectations were also studied. The weekly hours spent on school and sports during the season and offseason were tested as potential mediators of the relationship between professional sport expectations and grade point average. Method: The sample consisted of 448 college students (NCAA = 122, Club = 104, Intramural = 119, No Sport = 103) ranging from age 18-25. Participants self-reported GPA, professional sport expectations, athletic identity, weekly time spent on school/sports during the season/offseason, academic attainment aspirations/expectations, academic involvement, educational encouragement, the value of education, and most influential socializer of academic messages. Results: NCAA athletes reported greater academic involvement by others, but had lower GPAs than the other students. They also reported academic counselors/mentors and parents/family as their two primary socializers, while students from the other groups indicated parents/family as their only primary source of socialization, as they relied on themselves second most. Also, weekly time spent on sports during the offseason was found to significantly mediate the negative relationship between professional sport expectations and grade point average. Conclusions: The academic experience of NCAA athletes is different from all other students on campus. Collaborating with others on campus to help athletes explore other avenues for future success can lead to less emphasis on playing a professional sport and more academic success. This would be beneficial considering so few NCAA athletes end up having successful pro sport careers. / text

Magister Educationis - MEd / Writing is an important skill throughout learners’ schooling trajectory because it is through writing that learners need to situate meaning and sense-making across the curriculum. Writing proficiency becomes even more important when learners access tertiary studies. Yet studies suggest that most students struggle with academic writing. Various authors suggest that writing has not been taught appropriately especially in secondary schooling contexts in South Africa and that writing becomes even more daunting for Second Language speakers of English when they reach tertiary education. There is abundant literature on students’ challenges with academic writing and ways to address academic writing challenges but the use of digital storytelling in relation to academic writing development is recent and distinctively underexplored in the literature. In this study, I seek to explore the potential that digital storytelling has in the teaching of undergraduate academic writing skills. I will focus on first year students' academic writing skills, how they are taught currently and how technology in the form of digital storytelling can help first year students improve their academic writing skills. The theoretical framework for the study is largely based on the New Literacies Studies which is championed by members of the New London Group such as Street and Street (1984) Lea and Street (2006) among others. The theoretical framework will draw on the notion of literacy as social practice rather than a set of reading and writing skills which explains why educators need to find new ways of teaching academic writing skills. I use semiotics and multimodality as a foundational concept for using digital storytelling in academic writing. That is because semiotics and multimodality further support the idea that literacy goes beyond words but that audio and visual elements are also part of learning and can help engage students in their academic work. The main aim of this proposed research is to explore both students and lecturer practices of digital literacies in the teaching and learning of academic writing at The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

Magister Educationis - MEd / Writing is an important skill throughout learners’ schooling trajectory because it is through writing that learners need to situate meaning and sense-making across the curriculum. Writing proficiency becomes even more important when learners access tertiary studies. Yet studies suggest that most students struggle with academic writing. Various authors suggest that writing has not been taught appropriately especially in secondary schooling contexts in South Africa and that writing becomes even more daunting for Second Language speakers of English when they reach tertiary education. There is abundant literature on students’ challenges with academic writing and ways to address academic writing challenges but the use of digital storytelling in relation to academic writing development is recent and distinctively underexplored in the literature. In this study, I seek to explore the potential that digital storytelling has in the teaching of undergraduate academic writing skills. I will focus on first year students' academic writing skills, how they are taught currently and how technology in the form of digital storytelling can help first year students improve their academic writing skills. The theoretical framework for the study is largely based on the New Literacies Studies which is championed by members of the New London Group such as Street and Street (1984) Lea and Street (2006) among others. The theoretical framework will draw on the notion of literacy as social practice rather than a set of reading and writing skills which explains why educators need to find new ways of teaching academic writing skills. I use semiotics and multimodality as a foundational concept for using digital storytelling in academic writing. That is because semiotics and multimodality further support the idea that literacy goes beyond words but that audio and visual elements are also part of learning and can help engage students in their academic work. The main aim of this proposed research is to explore both students and lecturer practices of digital literacies in the teaching and learning of academic writing at The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

No description available.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Writing is an important skill throughout learners’ schooling trajectory because it is through writing that learners need to situate meaning and sense-making across the curriculum. Writing proficiency becomes even more important when learners access tertiary studies. Yet studies suggest that most students struggle with academic writing. Various authors suggest that writing has not been taught appropriately especially in secondary schooling contexts in South Africa and that writing becomes even more daunting for Second Language speakers of English when they reach tertiary education. There is abundant literature on students’ challenges with academic writing and ways to address academic writing challenges but the use of digital storytelling in relation to academic writing development is recent and distinctively underexplored in the literature.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Writing is an important skill throughout learners’ schooling trajectory because it is through writing that learners need to situate meaning and sense-making across the curriculum. Writing proficiency becomes even more important when learners access tertiary studies. Yet studies suggest that most students struggle with academic writing. Various authors suggest that writing has not been taught appropriately especially in secondary schooling contexts in South Africa and that writing becomes even more daunting for Second Language speakers of English when they reach tertiary education. There is abundant literature on students’ challenges with academic writing and ways to address academic writing challenges but the use of digital storytelling in relation to academic writing development is recent and distinctively underexplored in the literature. In this study, I seek to explore the potential that digital storytelling has in the teaching of undergraduate academic writing skills. I will focus on first year students' academic writing skills, how they are taught currently and how technology in the form of digital storytelling can help first year students improve their academic writing skills. The theoretical framework for the study is largely based on the New Literacies Studies which is championed by members of the New London Group such as Street and Street (1984) Lea and Street (2006) among others. The theoretical framework will draw on the notion of literacy as social practice rather than a set of reading and writing skills which explains why educators need to find new ways of teaching academic writing skills. I use semiotics and multimodality as a foundational concept for using digital storytelling in academic writing. That is because semiotics and multimodality further support the idea that literacy goes beyond words but that audio and visual elements are also part of learning and can help engage students in their academic work. The main aim of this proposed research is to explore both students and lecturer practices of digital literacies in the teaching and learning of academic writing at The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). I propose the following research objectives: (i.) elucidate current academic writing scaffolding in academic modules; (ii.) draw on the use of digital storytelling in a first-year undergraduate course; (iii.) shed light on lecturers and students’ perceptions of the ways digital storytelling impacts on first-year academic writing; (iv.) highlight the implications of infusing multimodality into academic writing in this context; and (v.) explore the ways first-year students’ take on new writing practices and how these new practices are facilitated by the ii lecturer. I plan to use a qualitative research method to achieve my set objectives. I have opted to conduct action research, as both participant and researcher. The qualitative research method allows me to use the following research tools: document analysis; questionnaires and interviews. I analyse 15 student essays in order to elucidate current academic writing scaffolding in academic modules. These essays are divided into three categories: high performance; average performance; and low performance. Then questionnaires are distributed to students through a Google Forms link. Of the 40 student participants; 32 students filled in the questionnaires. The interviews were conducted with three lecturers across two departments at CPUT. These interviews, together with questionnaires that the students filled in served to address the following objectives: draw on the use of digital storytelling in a first-year undergraduate course; shed light on lecturers and students’ perceptions of the ways digital storytelling impacts on first-year academic writing; highlight the implications of infusing multimodality into academic writing in this context; and explore the ways first-year students’ take on new writing practices and how these new practices are facilitated by the lecturer. All the ethical considerations were adhered to for my research. I categorized my findings according to the research questions that I posed in the study. There were three research questions which serve as the three main themes of my data analysis. However, during the process of analyzing the data, a fourth theme emerged. The first finding indicates that academic writing scaffolding in academic writing modules is adequate for students who have essays in the high-performance category. However, it is inadequate especially for students who wrote essays in the low performance categories as they could not meet the demands of academic writing. The second finding indicates that students are able to use digital storytelling to help them with various aspects of academic writing. They are able to improve language and grammar; the structure of their writing, that is, the introduction, body and conclusion. The third finding illustrates that lecturers also feel that there are academic writing benefits to when using digital storytelling. Even though that may be, the use of technology for the medium of digital storytelling proved to be somewhat difficult. That is mostly because students did not have access to various technology such as internet connection or even equipment to complete the digital stories unproblematically. Then the fourth finding emerged during lecturer interviews, that is, fees must fall protests and the impact it had on the traditional university structure across. Fees must fall protests led to disruptions in academia because one key aspect they highlight is the need for decolonisation of the curriculum The use of digital storytelling then not only addressed the student academic writing challenges that are highlighted by this study, but also speak to decolonisation of the curriculum because it is an innovative way for students to engage with the demands of academic writing. The conclusion of my thesis is that as useful as digital storytelling is in academic writing; those who wish to use it as a teaching tool need to be well versed with technology as it can have challenges if not used adequately. The most pertinent of the factors revealed is that there is a need for innovative ways to teach the 21st century student.

Doctor Educationis / Writing is an important skill throughout learners’ schooling trajectory because it is through writing that learners need to situate meaning and sense-making across the curriculum. Writing proficiency becomes even more important when learners access tertiary studies. Yet studies suggest that most students struggle with academic writing. Various authors suggest that writing has not been taught appropriately especially in secondary schooling contexts in South Africa and that writing becomes even more daunting for Second Language speakers of English when they reach tertiary education. There is abundant literature on students’ challenges with academic writing and ways to address academic writing challenges but the use of digital storytelling in relation to academic writing development is recent and distinctively underexplored in the literature.

The current study investigated the role of racial identity dimensions (racial centrality and private regard), academic identity, and parent socialization (specifically, academic and ethnic/racial socialization: cultural socialization and preparation for bias) in promoting success among a diverse sample of Black students. The study aimed to examine how parent socialization and academic identity mediated the relationship between racial identity dimensions and academic achievement. Data was collected nationwide from 685 Black students through an online survey conducted in Spring 2022. Path models were employed to explore the relationship between racial identity dimensions and academic achievement. To account for contextual factors, the analyses incorporated academic identity and parent socialization (academic and ethnic/racial socialization, including cultural socialization and preparation for bias) as mediators, while gender was considered as a moderator. However, the mediation analyses did not yield statistically significant results, highlighting the need for further research to investigate the nuanced relationship between these factors. In addition to the path models, supplementary analyses were conducted, including bivariate correlations and exploratory factor analyses of the scales used: Identification with Academics (IAS, Osborne, 1997), Identification with School Questionnaire (ISQ, Voelkl, 1996), Education Socialization Scale (ESS, Bempechat et al., 1999), and Parent Ethnic/Racial Socialization (PERS, Hughes & Chen, 1999). The results of the exploratory factor analyses and subsequent evaluation of psychometric properties revealed inconsistencies between the factor structures suggested by previous studies and the current study for the Identification with Academic, Identification with School Questionnaire, and Education Socialization Scale. This suggests the need for further refinement and validation of these measurement instruments. However, the exploratory factor analysis of the Parent Ethnic/Racial Socialization scale aligned with existing literature, indicating its appropriateness for use with Black students. Bivariate correlation analyses demonstrated small-to-moderate relationships that were consistently observed across most variables. Academic identity demonstrated a strong and significant correlation with private regard and a moderate and significant correlation with racial centrality. GPA demonstrated a moderate and significant correlation with academic identity and private regard and a small but significant correlation with racial centrality and parent academic socialization. Students who endorse a stronger academic identity and racial identity (private regard and racial centrality) are more likely to have better academic outcomes, including higher GPA. Furthermore, the findings related to parent academic socialization suggest that parental support and engagement may continue to have some influence on the academic performance of Black students, even in adulthood. The implications of the findings were such that fostering a strong academic identity and a positive racial identity contributed to better academic outcomes for Black students. Further, the findings highlight the sustained influence of parental support and engagement on the academic performance of Black students, even as they transition into adulthood. This underscores the significance of ongoing parental involvement throughout a student's educational journey. / School Psychology