M.Ed. / This research aims at the description of a therapeutic approach relevant to the adolescent underachiever in whose case the cause of the problem is often overlooked because it is not self-evident. In this specific case there seemed to be no clear reason why the adolescent was not achieving academically according to his potential. An in-depth study was necessary, involving also the family of the respondent. From conversations with educational psychologists, the history of the adolescent and the literature, it seems as if the focus of the intervention in cases where there do not seem to be overt reasons for the underachievement, was on the adolescent only. Courses in motivation and study skills were offered, but were not effective. Because the adolescent is a member of a family, the research is aligned to a systems approach. I wanted to explore the the possibility that the cause of the problem could be found in the style of parenting and resulting family dynamics. A qualitative, investigative, descriptive and contextual design was used. One adolescent was deliberately chosen according to set criteria, and subjected to the utilisation of multiple data-gathering sources and methods. These included interviews, document analysis and observation. The parents of the underachiever as well as his register teacher, were also interviewed. A case study report was compiled according to the processed data. A cross-validation report was compiled, using notes which were taken when I was dealing with the cases that first aroused my interest. Hereafter literature control was applied to compare the results of this study with other available research, and to point out new insights into a family's educational style as a cause of underachievement, gained from the study. All data were submitted to an independent consultant for analysis. After the data were analysed, I concluded that the educational style of parents can be a cause of underachievement. From an integrative systemic perspective, an educational psychological therapeutic programme was described. It is hoped that, aided by this programme, the educational psychologist may make a contribution towards helping the underachieving adolescent and his/her family to overcome their problems so that he/she may realise his/her full potential.

M.Ed. (Tertiary and Adult Education) / This empirical study forms part of a team research project which was spearheaded by the Bureau of University Education at the Rand Afrikaans University. The aim of this study was to establish whether significant differences between the aptitudes of succesfull and non-succesfull freshman engineering students could be determined. This study consists mainly of two parts. Firstly, a literature study discussing the concepts aptitude and aptitude testing was undertaken. Secondly, an empirical study to establish differences in various aptitudes of the above-mentioned student groups was undertaken. According to the literature study, aptitude can be seen as a combination of factors which enables an individual to achieve a certain level of performance or to develop a certain skill with the necessary training. From the literature study it is apparent that aptitude is inherited, and also influenced by environmental factors. In early childhood it varies considerably but stabilizes in later years. Although slight similarities between aptitude and intelligence exist, a very clear distinction can be drawn. Differences between the aptitude patterns of men and women also appear. In the empirical study a random sample (N=388) was taken from the 1989 - 1991 freshman engineering students of the Rand Afrikaans University. The results of the Senior Aptitude Test (SAT) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) were used to indicate d ifferences between the above-mentioned student groups. Students t-test was used to establish significant differences between the two groups. The data which was already available, was processed by means of the BMDP-3D computer programme. Significant differences between the two groups were identified, proving/indicating that aptitude should be taken into account during the process of student selection for the engineering course.

The current landscape of South Africa’s education system is one riddled with many challenges. Young people studying in this unfavourable climate have become disillusioned by the failing system and this has resulted in negative attitudes towards schooling. A shortage of teaching personnel and a lack of resources further exacerbate the situation. In recent years however, it has been found that a significant number of young people seem to have “beaten the odds”, in spite of these unfavourable conditions as they have seen themselves being granted entry into tertiary institutions. The dearth of information on academic resilience and the increased number of “educational success stories” led the researcher to embark on this qualitative study. The aim of this exploratory, descriptive and contextual research study was: to enhance understanding of the academic resilience and subsequent academic success at school, as experienced by first year NMMU students from disadvantaged communities, by exploring their constructions of academic resilience. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory as well as Resilience Theory was used to examine the phenomenon of academic resilience. Purposive sampling techniques was utilised to draw participants within the NMMU’s School of Behavioural Sciences and data was collected by means of narrative accounts by participants. The two phases of narrative analysis were applied to analyse the data collected and Guba’s model for trustworthiness was used to verify the data. The findings of the study indicated that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors contribute to the fostering of resilience.

The lack of the visible and practical involvement of parents in schools that are in previously disadvantaged communities is not only depriving the present learners and their parents of their democratic right to participate in shaping their future, but that of the coming generation and leaders of tomorrow as well. South Africa as a country is about twenty years into democracy and already the education system has been chopped and changed about four times but with no success. The schooling system in previously black communities is deteriorating. The government of the day has been prioritising education for about fifteen years now, the budget for education is equal to the budget for the whole country in some of the neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe but the quality and standard are far worse than in those countries. The cost of the current problems in education mostly in previously black township schools is far too much to imagine. The main challenge seems to be the nature, character, skills and capabilities of parents serving in school governing bodies. This study is so important because of the situation that exists in schools that are situated in historically disadvantaged communities where the parents who get elected to school governing bodies are still, despite workshops and training offered by the Department of Education, unable to manage and govern schools and thus render the school governing body ineffective. The Department of Education through its programmes does conduct governance, financial management and policy formulation workshops. These efforts from the government side do not seem to bear any fruit because parents, after attending the training and workshops are still unable to create well-managed and properly governed schools. The primary objective of this study is to improve the organisational performance of schools in previously disadvantaged communities in the Uitenhage District of the Department of Education situated in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality by investigating how effective school governing body governance could contribute to such performance. More specifically, the study investigates the relationship between effective school governing body management, as a dependent variable, and parental/community involvement, finance and resource management, school governance, learner discipline/conduct, and quality education as independent variables. The population of the study was high school principals and school management team (SMT) members in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality focusing mainly on historically or previously disadvantaged schools in the Uitenhage district of the Department of Education. The study used convenience sampling where seventeen (17) high schools were selected. In each school, school management team members and a principal were requested to fill in a questionnaire. In total 105 questionnaires were distributed and 85 were fully completed and returned. Questionnaires were collected, data captured and analysed and a report was written. The empirical results revealed the following weaknesses in the SGBs of high schools in the Uitenhage District of the Department of Education in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality: the SGBs do not effectively formulate school policies; the SGBs do not effectively provide support to educators in performing their professional duties; the SGBs are not fully involved in supplementing resources supplied by the state in order to improve quality of teaching and learning; and the schools are weak on community engagement. On the other hand, the following positive elements of SGBs were highlighted in the empirical results; the schools are rated good regarding the following variables/issues: quality of teaching and learning, utilisation of school resources, school governance, professionalism of staff and extra-mural activities; the SGBs know and participate in the academic and extra-mural programmes of the schools; the SGBs successfully prepare the annual budget for the schools; the SGBs are effectively governing the schools; the SGBs do appoint auditors to audit the school's books and financial statements; the schools have achieved audited financial statements without a disclaimer; the schools have a disciplinary committee that deals with the learner code of conduct and attends to disciplinary problems. The study highlights areas in school governance that should be improved, as well as recommendations on how to improve them. Recommendations for future research are also provided.

A research report submitted to the WITS School of Education, Faculty of Humanities; University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education by combination of coursework and research, Johannesburg, 2017 / Student success at university is dependent on various academic and non-academic factors. Some students may face barriers to their success due to these factors. Academic development for students and staff, as well as student support programmes can play an important role in helping students to overcome the barriers they may be experiencing. This study aims to differentiate between different forms of academic development and student support, and their functions as well as to understand how these types of programmes or initiatives were conceptualised and operationalized at WITS. An important aim was to understand the provision of academic development and student support from the top-down, through examining WITS‟s policies on these issues. This was done through a comparative case study of two Schools in different Faculties at WITS. A series of interviews was conducted with practitioners working within programmes, at Faculty and School-level, and those who have had extensive experience within the field. What emerges from this research is that there are different programmes or initiatives in place in both Schools. These include teaching and learning development initiatives, student academic development programmes and student support programmes. However, without a policy or guidelines, the nature of academic development and student support tends to be uneven and each of the practitioners had varied perspectives based on their experiences in the field. There are various challenges faced by the programmes, but these are navigated differently by the practitioners given their context and agency. This unevenness and the varied experiences of the practitioners in this study tend to suggest the need for a policy to guide the implementation of academic development and student support. / XL2019

Poor academic performance and high failure rates in South African tertiary institutions have lead to a need for intervention of some sort. Academic performance is said to be strongly influenced by one’s academic writing ability. Therefore, this study aimed to determine how much influence academic writing ability has on academic performance. It also aimed to establish which measure - the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II (WIAT-II) - is a more accurate measure of academic writing. Lastly, the research aimed to determine whether any differences between English First Language (EFL) and English Additional Language (EAL) students’ exist. A convenience sample of 125 first-year Psychology students from the University of the Witwatersrand wrote argumentative essays that were analysed quantitatively using the IELTS and WIAT-II scoring system. Correlations and t-tests, as well as regression and reliability analyses were used to investigate the aims and establish the results. From the results it was evident that the IELTS and WIAT-II are both adequate measures of academic writing. However, the results showed that academic writing ability is not a major predictor of and contributor towards academic performance. Significant differences in performance were noted between groups of EFL and EAL students on all measures. The results also showed that failure rates were not as high in this sample as in previous statistics. Further investigation is required in order to determine other factors that contribute to one’s academic performance. Other aspects of academic literacy such as reading and speaking, as well as previous preparedness or intelligence, may need to be considered as determining factors of academic success.

Akademiese onderprestasie van universiteitstudente bly 'n aktuele vraagstuk en dit wil voorkom asof 'n oplossing in die verband navorsers steeds ontwyk. In die onderhawige studie is daar by wyse van 'n omvattende literatuurstudie, asook 'n empiriese ondersoek, aangetoon wat die aard en omvang van die onderprestasieproblematiek op tersiere vlak is. Hierdie proefskrif illustreer teenswoordige afstandsonderrigpraktyke, die aard en struktuur van VUDEC as afstandsonderriginstansie en 'n verskeidenheid faktore wat akademiese prestasie be'invloed. Die diversiteit en kulturele relatiwiteit van kennis, asook die wye interpretasiemoontlikhede van teks, veroorsaak 'n radikale probleem wat onderrig in Suid-Afrika, 'n land met 'n verskeidenheid kulture en gevolglike leerinhoudmoontlikhede, betref Die invloed van postmodemisme word toenemend in verskillende vakke waargeneem, maar onderrig in hierdie land is steeds hoofsaaklik in die sfeer van die modemistiese paradigma gelee. Die kritiese teorie van Habermas, wat modemisme be!nvloed het, bevraagteken realiteit, sowel as die geldigheidskriteria wat legitimiteit aan inhoud moet gee. Die hipotese wat gestel word, veronderstel dat die hoe onderprestasiesyfers in afstandsonderrig moontlik toegeskryf kan word aan die veronderstelling dat die meerderheid afstandsonderrigstudente 'n sosio-konstruktivistiese denkraamwerk het, terwyl afstandsonderrig steeds hoofsaaklik positivisties is. Die navorser stel die postmodemistiese paradigma as moontlike oplossing voor. Modemistiese onderrig moet nie totaal afgeskaf word nie, maar moet verbeter word deur noodsaaklike veranderings en aanpassings te maak ten opsigte van onderliggende persepsies van kurrikuluminhoud, onderrig- en evalueringsisteme en die implementering hiervan. Tradisioneel dosentgesentreerde en statisties gedefinieerde onderrig en evaluering moet met onderrigstrategiee vervang word wat gedeelde verantwoordelikheid vir prestasie nastreef en waar minder klem op die onderwerping van individue aan inhoudsgebonde onderrigpraktyke geplaas word. 'n Paradigmaverskuiwing na 'n postmodernistiese paradigma sal die weg vir afstandsonderriginstansies baan om betertoegeruste leerders die wereld en toekoms in te stuur, deur 'n basis vir die bereiking van voortreflikheid in en deur onderrig te bewerkstellig. / Academic underachievement at university level remains a topic of current interest and concern. Despite unceasing efforts to combat student wastage, a solution in this regard appears to evade researchers. In the present study an extensive literature study as well as an empirical investigation was undertaken to shed light on the nature and extent of the problem. This thesis illustrates present teaching practices, the structure and nature of VUDEC as a distance teaching institution, and a variety of factors that influence academic achievement. The diversity and cultural relativity of knowledge and the wide range of interpretative possibilities of texts, cause a radical problem with regard to teaching in South Africa, which embraces a wide range of cultures and learning contents. The influence of postmodernism has increasingly been observed in different subjects, but teaching in this country is still largely located in the sphere of the modernist paradigm. The critical theory ofHabermas which influenced modernism, questions reality as well as the criteria of validity which legitimize content. The hypothesis stated is based on the assumption that the high dropout rate in distance education may be attributed to the fact that many distance learners work within a socio-constuctivist paradigm of thinking, while teaching by distance educators is positivist in nature. The author holds up the postmodern paradigm as a possible corrective. The project of modernist teaching should not be totally suspended, but should be improved by introducing essential adjustments and changes in terms of underlying perceptions with regard to curriculum content, teaching and evaluation systems, and the implementation of these. Traditional teacher-centred and statistically defined teaching and assessment must be replaced by teaching strategies which accomodate the shared responsibility of achievement, placing less emphasis on the subjection of individuals to content-bound teaching practices. The shift towards a postmodern paradigm will pave the way for distance teaching institutions to send better-equipped learners into the world and into the future by creating a basis for the achievement of excellence in and through education. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didaktiek)

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a significant difference in the academic performance of students who received career counselling and those who did not. Other factors that were investigated were the relationships between academic performance at university and matric results, gender and mother tongue. The third aim of this study was to determine if a significant relation exists between the first year averages of the subjects and above trend to change courses. According to research literature, career counselling, matric results, gender and mother tongue are factors that play an important role in the prediction of academic success at university level. The sample consisted of 118 subjects. All subjects were students at the Universtity of Stellenbosch. The most important findings are as follows: There was no significant difference (p>0,05) between first year averages of subjects who received career counselling and those who did not. There was a positive correlation between first year averages and matric results. There was a significant difference (p<0,05) between first year averages of the different sexes. Female students show better academic performance than male students. There was no significant difference between first year averages of Afrikaans speaking and English speaking students (p>0,05). The results of the study show that various factors influence the academic success of university students. Multiple measures must be used in combination to predict academic success.

M. Tech. Education / The intention of this study was to establish the use of the Annual National Assessment (ANA) results in improving learner performance in schools and to further establish the understanding and interpretation of the national assessment policy at school level and at circuit/district level in General Education and Training (GET) settings of Casteel schools, Bohlabela district. The literature supported the fact that available ANA results have identified certain challenges which require specific interventions to improve current skills in Literacy and Numeracy. Despite these concerns and the fact that the results do not achieve the set target of ensuring that 60 percent of learners achieve a pass mark of 50 percent, the results of the study indicated that the primary teachers, principals and circuit/district officials remained generally positive in their perception of turning the situation around.

Thesis (MPhil (Sociology and Social Anthropology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / In the TIMMS-R report, which compared the performance of a South African cohort of learners with international peers in Science (and Mathematics), Howie (1999) highlighted that: • The biographical information of the South African cohort who performed below par in comparison with international peers indicated that they wrote the TIMMS literacy test in a second or third language. • Non-primary language learners spend considerably more time on homework compared to primary language learners. • There is no linear relationship between the amount of time spent on homework in Science and the average literacy level in the learning area amongst South African learners. Leveraging on the TIMMS report cited above, this study sought to establish the interrelationship between learning and being assessed in a non-primary language on one the hand and related performance on the other. Specifically, this study sought to establish the performance of non-primary language learners compared to primary language learners in the Natural Sciences Common Task for Assessment (CTA). There is a groundswell of evidence mounting that tends to suggest that primary language learners outperform their non-primary language counterparts in batteries of assessment instruments. This, however, is always clouded by other extraneous factors, chief amongst which, in the South African context at least, is the strong correlation between studying in a non-primary language and family socio-economic status (SES). SES has been identified elsewhere as a determinant of scholastic achievements(Blignaut, 1981; HCDS –WC, 2006).