M.A. / Research on Type A behaviour has produced many contradictory results. Some studies, for example, have found that Type A individuals experience less work satisfaction, and others that they experience more work satisfaction. In the light of these contradictions, some researchers are of the opinion that Type A behaviour has to be explored as a multidimensional instead of a global construct. Some components of Type A behaviour have been proved to have healthy consequences, while others have been proved to be "toxic" and therefore have different correlations with personality factors. This study explored the differential relationships of I wo components of Type A behaviour, namely -achievement-striving and impatience-irritability, with academic achievement, self concept and preference Ibr sensation, a Jungian personality factor. Two groups of students, in Accounting and Psychology respectively, served as research subjects. Data for 25 men and 24 women taking Accountancy 1, and 19 men and 68 women taking Psychology 1, was gathered with regard to achievement-striving, impatienceirritability, academic aptitude, scholastic achievement, self-concept and preference for sensation. As predicted, achievement-striving correlated positively with academic achievement for - most groups. Impatience-irritability correlated negatively with academic achievement for some groups. Achievement-striving showed a positive relationship and impatienceirritatability a negative relationship with self-concept, also as predicted. Achievementstriving showed a positive relationship with preference for sensation and impatienceirritability correlated negatively with preference for sensation. No prediction was made with regard to the direction of the relationship for preference for sensation, yet the negative correlation found between preference for sensation and impatience-irritability came as a surprise. Attempts have been made to explain this finding. Subject groups were small and the abovementioned relationships were not statistically significant for all groups

M.Ed. (Tertiary Didactics) / In the Republic of South Africa (RSA) the high failure rate among first-year students, in particular, and the fact that more and more students are streaming to the universities, have dramatically increased the cost of a university education. The failure of a first-year student is a financial burden that the universities cannot afford. A first-year student who has failed has a negative attitude towards further study at any tertiary institution, leading to the loss to our country of the manpower we need for technological advancement. ..

M. Ed. (Tertiary Didactics) / This study is part of a more extensive research project undertaken by a number of M.Ed.-students. The Bureau for University Education at the Rand Afrikaans University has accepted the question of the development of selection mechanisms with a view to accepting students for a university course as part of its assignment. The problem concerning a selection process for students can have dire repercussions, not only for those students who fail as a result of inadequate or erroneous selection, but also for the university as well as for the community. Individual members of the research team have devoted their attention to the evaluation of the existing selection criterium currently being implemented in order to select first-year students for further study in the various faculties. The objective of this research effort is particularly to determine whether the current selection programme, according to which first year students are selected for the Faculty of Education, is effective. An extensive literature study on existing selection procedures at universities abroad as well as at South African universities has been undertaken. At South African universities, and in particular at the Rand Afrikaans University, a variation of the Swedish Formula, the M-Score, is used as a selection mechanism. This M-Score has also been used as the research instrument in this research study. The M-Score comprises the allocation of different numerical values to the symbols attained in matriculation subjects, The research group consisted of full-time first-year students who registered at the RAU in the Faculty of Education for the degrees or diploma B.Prim.Ed., B.Cur., and H.E.D. in 1990. During the empirical research a cross-reference table on which the entire research group's final results of each first-year subject was entered in· certain intervals opposite the student's various M-Scores, was compiled. Likewise a crossreference table for each different field of study was compiled, in order to compare each field of study with the findings of the total research group. An additional table containing the frequencies, cumulative frequencies, and the percentages of both the successful as well as the unsuccessful courses as regards the total research group, has also been compiled. The percentage of successful courses per M-Score for the total research group has also been graphically indicated.

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Tertiary Didactics) / Every year research reports give the statistics of the number of examination failures and passes among university students. These reports focus the attention on a distressing problem, namely the large percentage of first-year students who either drop their studies or fail. This problem is to a great extent caused by students who are not adequately equipped for university studies or because the matric examination results did not accurately reflect the student's academic potential. Several economic, social and political factors could possibly also contribute to students failing or terminating their studies. The results of the problem causes great impact and implications. They form part of a vicious circle: the student is influenced negatively since there is doubt about his abilities and his self-image also faces a severe blow; the student's parents, who already have many financial responsibilities, as well as the community, are also influenced since taxpayer's money is being used to finance tertiary education. The problem of the high number of first-year students who fail has therefore to be solved because of the negative implications involved. A possible solution might be that universities should submit all prospective students to severe selection, in order to advise potentially unsuccessful students timeously or to point them in other directions. Only potentially successful students should be allowed to enter first-year studies. Suitable selection mechanisms would not only benefit the student, but would also have favourable financial implications for parents and the government. This study forms part of a team research project aimed at evaluating specifically the. selection mechanism of each faculty at Rand Afrikaans University, in order to determine the extent of the success achieved with the application of the said selection mechanism. The specific purpose of this study is to describe and evaluate the selection mechanism currently applied by the Faculty of Law at the Rand Afrikaans university. The study required a literature research in order to investigate the factors influencing the performance of first-year students. The Bureau for University Education made available data, information and material for this study. This investigation concerned only 1990 full-time first-year B.Proc students at the Rand Afrikaans University. The research instrument used is known as the "M-Score". This "instrument" awards a numeric value to the various symbols obtained in the different Subjects in the std. 10 final examination. The different values are added together to give one numeric value, the so-called "M-Score". The "M-Score" may vary between 3 and 30 as a result of the symbols obtained in the final examination.

No description available.

M.Ed. / Die algemene daling in nasionale slaagsyfer van matrikulante oor die laaste paar jaar was 'n bron van kommer vir die navorser. Die uitslae van sekondêre skole in die Newcastle-distrik van KwaZulu-Natal was besonder kommerwekkend. Daar is skole met gereelde goeie prestasies, maar ook skole wat swak presteer. Dit was dus nodig om die faktore wat die akademiese uitslae van die graad 12 leerders van hierdie distrik beinvloed, na te vors. `n Literatuurstudie het getoon dat daar (hie kategoriee faktore is wat akademiese prestasie in graad 12 beinvloed: • individuele eienskappe (kenmerkende eienskappe); • skoolverwante faktore; en • nie-skoolverwante faktore. Na aanleiding van hierdie opname is 'n gestruktureerde vraelys met 58 gerigte items opgestel. Die persepsies van prinsipale en senior-leerkragte is gepeil ten opsigte van die mate waartoe elke item die akademiese prestasies van graad 12 leerders in hul skole kan beivloed. Goeie terugvoering is ontvang naamtik 79,22% van die vraetyste was vir analises bruikbaar. Hierdie data is deur die Statistiese Konsultasiediens van die Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit verwerk. Die eerste faktor analitiese prosedure van die data het agt faktore geidentifiseer. 'n Tweede faktor analitiese prosedure het net twee faktore gelewer: die Versterkers (53 items) van akademiese prestasie en die Inhibeerders (stremmende invloed) (5 items) op akademiese prestasie.

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The aim of this investigation was to ascertain the impact of English language proficiency on academic success of first-year black and Indian students in human resources management at Technikon Natal. It was hypothesised that high English language proficiency may possibly predict technikon academic success. The main emphasis of the study is concerned with factors influencing the academic success of black students. The Indian cohort is used mainly as a comparison group. Comparisons with a group of black students who had completed their studies indicated that both past and present groups are essentially similar, but that the groups that had completed their studies had a slightly better overall pass rate. Comparisons with the Indian group of students enrolled for the same course indicated that the Indian group consistently out-performed their black counterparts in all aspects of academic success. The differences between the black and Indian students were such that statistically they may be regarded as two separate groups. Significantly, the Indian group exhibited superior English language proficiency levels, compared to their black counterparts. The hypothesis that English language proficiency is associated with academic success appears to be substantially correct. While traditional selection methods for entry to this course based on matriculation results produced high levels of predictability of academic success for the Indian students, this was not the case for either of the black student groups. The marks for the Indian group, both in their matriculation and matriculation English results, correlated significantly with their first technikon marks. Progressive tests in English language courses for this group (matriculation, first test and final English language marks) showed increasingly high relationships with academic success. By comparison, the matriculation and English language at matriculation results for both black groups were not significant indicators of academic success. It appears that the strongest indicator of success for the black group were the marks they obtained in the English language course at the Technikon, even though these were a weaker predictor of success when compared with the Indian group. In addition, it appears that a number of culturally based variables may act as moderating variables for both English language proficiency and academic success. / Prof. JC Welman

Too many students leave school without even the essential skills (ACT, 2011), and many others are so drained by the experience they lack a desire to continue on to a post-secondary education. Academic engagement has emerged as a construct representing students’ personal investment in school (Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1984), and may be a psychological variable which can be intervened on. However, interventions must occur as quickly as possible to maximize their efficiency (Heckman, 2007). Students’ peer groups may be a particularly potent venue of intervention, however several options exist for how to go about measuring their social networks. In this thesis, social networking data of the only middle school of a small town in the north-eastern United States is analyzed to determine the properties of two collection methods (self-reported networks and participant observations) and four network identification methods (probability scores, reciprocal nominations, factor-analyses, and rule-based). Analyses overwhelmingly supported participant observations as a more inclusive, less biased data collection method than self-reports. Meanwhile, hypothesis tests were somewhat mixed on the most inclusive, least biased network identification method, but after a consideration of the findings and the structural properties of each network, the probability score method was deemed the most useful network. Implications, future research, strengths, and limitations are discussed.