No description available.

Asthma is a chronic non-communicable disease associated with an increase in morbidity, mortality and economic burden. Globally 300 million people have asthma and it is estimated that one in every 250 deaths worldwide are due to asthma. South Africa has the highest asthma prevalence (8.1%) in Africa and the disease is 18th in the top 20 causes of death. Inadequate home management, poor availability of health care, and poor transport and emergency services are recognised as important contributing factors. Patients with a low level of education and limited literacy skills may be unable to understand instructions on frequency and use of asthma medicines, which could result in unintentional non-adherence leading to serious complications and increased health care costs. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a tailored educational intervention on low-literate patients with asthma. Objectives to achieve this aim included designing patient information leaflets (PILs) containing information on asthma, management of asthma and asthma therapy, and using the PILs to educate low-literate asthma patients. A before-andafter intervention type design evaluated self-reported selected health-related quality of life measures, self-reported self-efficacy, knowledge of asthma and asthma management, knowledge of the use of metered dose inhalers (MDIs) and MDI technique. The acceptability and understanding of the tailored PILs was also investigated. Two simple, readable PILs containing pictograms were developed in English and then translated into isiXhosa, the home language of the majority of the target population. Various guidelines on the design of health-related information for people with low-literacy were consulted and input on the design was received from health care providers, patients and graphic artists. A pilot study was conducted at a local primary health care (PHC) clinic to evaluate the PILs and final modifications to the PILs were made based on feedback received. For the main study, patients were recruited from the KwaNonqubela PHC clinic in Alexandria in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Patients were 18 years or older, dependent on public sector health care facilities, diagnosed with asthma, prescribed a MDI (beclomethasone and/or salbutamol) for at least one month and English or isiXhosa-speaking. The exclusion criterion for patients in this study was involvement in any other asthma educational intervention during the period of study. Interviewer-led structured questionnaires were administered to 55 patients at the baseline and follow-up. Data collected include demographics, brief medical history and current asthma medications. Self-efficacy and iii health-related quality of life were assessed. Knowledge of asthma and asthma management was evaluated, and the use of beclomethasone and/or salbutamol metered dose inhalers was assessed. The PIL ‘Understanding asthma and trigger factors of asthma’ formed part of the educational intervention to explain asthma and aspects related to its management. Inhaler technique was evaluated and corrected using the PIL ‘How to use your pump’ together with a demonstration of correct technique by the investigator. Follow-up interviews were conducted approximately four weeks after baseline. PIL acceptability, readability and understanding of each pictogram were investigated at follow-up only. The educational intervention resulted in a significant increase in mean knowledge of asthma from 52.7% at baseline to 75.5% at follow-up. Gender was not associated with knowledge, but there was a significant age effect at baseline only, with the younger patients achieving better knowledge results. In both phases, patients with higher education had improved scores. A significant increase (2.4% to 38.6%) in the number of patients taking the minimum recommended adult dose of beclomethasone was noted but it is a matter of concern that the majority of patients were taking less than this. Patient self-reports suggested a significant increase in adherence, with the number of patients taking beclomethasone daily increasing from 33.3% to 61.3%. Self-reported management and control of asthma improved and this was reflected by the enhanced HRQOL results. MDI technique also improved significantly with an increase in the mean number of correct steps from 4.6 ± 2.2 to 7.9 ± 2.7. Education had a significant effect on MDI technique with more errors associated with lower educational status. There were no significant age or gender effects on the total number of correct steps in either phase. The illustrated PILs were received favourably with the majority of literate patients reporting that they were easy to read. Patients commented positively on the inclusion of pictograms and stated that the pictograms had served as aids in the understanding of asthma, trigger factors of asthma and correct MDI technique. The results of this study show that specially designed illustrated PILs can be an effective tool in educating low-literate patients with asthma. / Adobe Acrobat Pro 11.0.0 Paper Capture Plug-in

No description available.

Recent problems in global affairs have prompted social scientists to note that Americans' awareness of foreign culture and civilization is drastically underdeveloped. order to promote greater world understanding, especially the United States focal position in an expanding globalinterdependent society, educators are advocating a broader global education curriculum in the secondary schools.It was the intent of this research to provide secondary school teachers of the social studies a more balanced curricular approach to the teaching of global history. In an effort to assist social studies teachers of history, the study presented behaviorally stated objectives providing for cognitive and affective learning and psychomotor skills. The study also presented a narrative outline of the history of African and Asian civilizations, with student activities, term identification and textbook cross referencing. The activities included and those listed under selected resource materials were designed to promote higher level thinking, while providing motivating activities for developing student interest.This study would provide educators with the opportunity to effect a more balanced global perspective in the social studies classroom. In order to accomplish the goal of understanding the United States' membership in a growing global interdependent community, American youth must learn and acquire a knowledge of the varied cultures and civilizations that compose world society.

This study deals with appropriate policy education in the South African Context, using the Public Policy Partnership (PPP) as a case study. The first part of this portfolio is a theoretical framework, which looks at the evolution of public policy as an academic field of study and the study of public policy in a changing, global environment. This section highlights the challenges in terms of public policy within governments and the skills that policy practitioners need to be equipped with in order to address these problems. Part Two of this study looks at the PPP as a case study. The PPP was chosen as a case study as it is a current example of a public policy training and education programme within the new South African dispensation. The PPP is a programme based on partnership. It is the goal of the PPP programme to create a new breed of public policy practitioners who are able to make a meaningful contribution to policy-making, implementation and analysis in post 1994 South Africa. The PPP is a long-term policy training programme which consists of various programme components, namely: Winter Institutes, internship, and postgraduate study. These components are all dealt with in detail in Part Two. Part Three is a final report which discusses the current context of policy-making in South Africa in terms of the challenges that are discussed in Part One. It is important to address these challenges within a local context, as these are the problems that public policy practitioners in post 1994 are faced with. Accordingly, these public policy practitioners need to be equipped with specific skills and competencies in order to deal with such challenges effectively. This section also looks at some of the key issues that arise out of Part Two (case study) in terms of the PPP approach to public policy education in South Africa., namely: the student of public policy, an interdisciplinary approach to public policy education, skills and competencies acquired through the PPP programme, and the sustainability of the PPP programme. Public Policy Partnership (PPP) as a case study. The first part of this portfolio is a theoretical framework, which looks at the evolution of public policy as an academic field of study and the study of public policy in a changing, global environment. This section highlights the challenges in terms of public policy within governments and the skills that policy practitioners need to be equipped with in order to address these problems. Part Two of this study looks at the PPP as a case study. The PPP was chosen as a case study as it is a current example of a public policy training and education programme within the new South African dispensation. The PPP is a programme based on partnership. It is the goal of the PPP programme to create a new breed of public policy practitioners who are able to make a meaningful contribution to policy-making, implementation and analysis in post 1994 South Africa. The PPP is a long-term policy training programme which consists of various programme components, namely: Winter Institutes, internship, and postgraduate study. These components are all dealt with in detail in Part Two. Part Three is a final report which discusses the current context of policy-making in South Africa in terms of the challenges that are discussed in Part One. It is important to address these challenges within a local context, as these are the problems that public policy practitioners in post 1994 are faced with. Accordingly, these public policy practitioners need to be equipped with specific skills and competencies in order to deal with such challenges effectively. This section also looks at some of the key issues that arise out of Part Two (case study) in terms of the PPP approach to public policy education in South Africa., namely: the student of public policy, an interdisciplinary approach to public policy education, skills and competencies acquired through the PPP programme, and the sustainability of the PPP programme. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

The study aimed at researching the role of materials in flexible learning teacher education courses, specifically looking at the Eastern Cape Teacher Course as a case study. The research aimed at exploring how courses and materials were developed, selected, used and adapted or redeveloped so as to support the course orientation and the intended outcomes. I did this with the hope that my research might inform the process of improving the role of course materials in flexible learning teacher education courses. I did a naturalistic enquiry within which I interviewed 39 participants (teachers and teacher educators) and two course co-ordinators. I also analysed documents such as the course materials, nine participants' journals and seven of their assignments. The observation notes compiled during the early days of the course were not used as a main source of data but as support to data sources mentioned above. Questionnaires were handed out to all the course participants, i.e. course co-ordinators, tutors and student participants. The questionnaires were intended as a means for pre interview and post interview reflection for interviewees. Through this research, I have learnt a lot about the role of materials in professional development courses, including the importance of mediation of materials and their overt use during course sessions, the importance of providing and encouraging a culture of reading through time allocation during contact sessions, through discussions on materials, and also through providing orientating comm~nts on materials rather than just handing them out to participants. Readings that are more focussed do better to motivate participants to interact with them.

Thesis (MTech (Education))--Peninsula Technikon, 2003 / This research study is mainly based on the third learning outcome for Technology Education which requires the learners to be able to demonstrate an understanding of interrelationships between science, technology, society and the environment. The purpose of the study is to investigate how Technology Teacher Training Programmes incorporate environmental aspects into technology education and how Technology educators facilitate learning in order to meet environmental requirements that are expressed as learning outcome 3 for Technology Education. In this study an attempt is made to encourage efforts that could lead to the development of new learning frameworks, integrated activities and learning programmes for the technology education curriculum. The study is set against the literature on integrated programmes for curriculum development in general and for environmental and technology education in particular. It also draws on literature that calls for partnerships and closer co-operation between institutions of higher learning and the world of work, on evaluation research and programme evaluation and on the role that could be played by service-learning in promoting attitudes and values that are necessary for the integration of environmental aspects into technology education. Using the naturalistic or qualitative evaluation approach and narrative data production methods in the context of teaching and learning, the lecturers in teacher education institutions and technology educators in schools were interviewed in order to find out how technology teacher education prepared technology educators for the workplace and how technology educators designed learning activities and facilitated learning in their technology classrooms. The curriculum documents for technology teacher education programmes were consulted and classroom observations also made. The research findings have indicated that technology educators find it difficult to integrate environmental education with technology education when teaching technology education and that technology teacher education programmes do not entirely prepare technology educators for the integration process that is required by the Revised National Curriculum documents of the Department of Education and Training.The study therefore calls for partnerships and collaborative efforts of higher education institutions, the Department of Education and Training and various environmental organizations in order to develop work integrated curricula that could enable technology educators to assist their learners to demonstrate an understanding of interrelationships between science, technology, society and the environment.

Current theories in geographical education advocate the use of strategies that encourage the pupil to play an active role in learning, thereby making such learning more meaningful and effective. Fieldwork is perceived as one such method. Fieldwork helps pupils acquire and develop understanding of geographical concepts, skills, attitudes and values through their own efforts and involvement. Fieldwork approaches have tended to change with the changing paradigms resulting in the development of approaches that are more pupil and experience oriented. In the South African school geography curricula fieldwork has been explicit since 1985. However, research has shown that in most South African secondary schools fieldwork as a teaching strategy is only applied to a limited extent. Teachers have always used financial constraints and time limitations as explanations for their failure to use fieldwork in teaching geography. This study attempts to demonstrate how the local environment of any school can be used effectively for teaching and learning most aspects of the senior secondary school geography syllabus, thereby alleviating the problems of time and money perceived by teachers as the major constraints inhibiting their use of fieldwork. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of fieldwork in the local environment, this study incorporated an analysis of the current senior secondary school geography syllabus, the identification of potential fieldwork sites in the Umtata District and the development and implementation of three fieldwork units based on three of the sites identified. The analysis of the evaluations of the three fieldwork units by the researcher, the pupils and the non-participant observer revealed that fieldwork conducted in the local environment is highly effective, interesting and rewarding to pupils even when they have no prior experience of fieldwork.

Thesis (MA(VA))--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The gap between the theoretical and practical aspects of art education is a trend that is discussed and investigated in both the South African and the global context. In 2009, I found that my students at Elkanah House were not doing particularly well academically, and that they displayed a negative attitude towards the theoretical component of Visual Arts. This is not a unique phenomenon. Steers (2009) refers to the gap between theoretical and practical components in his article on globalisation in visual culture. According to Steers, a gap developed in various educational settings between the content and how it is practically carried out in the orthodox school curriculum. In addition, the publications Art Education and Art Education Journal issued a call for articles on the same topic in 2013. To address the problem, I systematically developed an art curriculum from grade 10 based on the praxis of the theoretical and practical components of teaching art at my school from 2010 onwards. This curriculum includes the following: 1) experiential learning and alternative learning perspectives; 2) critical and reflective thinking; 3) development of theory through practical investigations and experiences; 4) somatic knowledge, qualitative reasoning and communicative knowledge; 5) material thinking, learning through the use of materials and body; 6) cohesive discovery of knowledge; and 7) citizenship development. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how students experienced an art curriculum that integrated theory and practice through various projects. The investigation was based on an empirical research method utilizsing a qualitative approach and a case study design. In the research, a combination of themes including various learning theories in the process of experiential learning; development of critical thinking and reflection; development of critical citizenship education; and praxis as a concept in an art curriculum were examined to narrow the gap between the theoretical and practical components of Visual Arts. The results of the research indicated that the students’ academic performance improved and aspects of critical reflective thinking, critical citizenship and awareness of the wider context in which students find themselves had also been enhanced. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die gaping tussen teoretiese en praktiese komponente in kunsonderwys is ʼn tendens wat in beide Suid-Afrikaanse en globale kontekste bespreek en ondersoek word. In 2009 het ek gevind dat my studente by Elkanah House nie akademies goed vaar nie, en ook ʼn negatiewe houding teenoor die teoretiese komponent van Visuele Kunste toon. Dit is nie ʼn unieke tendens nie. Steers (2009) verwys in sy artikel oor globalisering in visuele kultuur na die gaping wat tussen die teorie en die praktyk ontstaan het. Volgens Steers het daar in die ortodokse skool kurrikulum ‘n gaping in verskeie onderwyssituasies ontwikkel tussen die inhoud en dit wat prakties uitgevoer word. Die publikasies Art Education en Art Education Journal het ook in 2013 ʼn beroep gedoen vir artikels oor dieselfde onderwerp. Ek het in 2010 ʼn kunskurrikulum met praksis van die teoretiese en praktiese komponente stelselmatig vanaf graad 10 ontwikkel om die probleem van skeiding tussen teorie en prakties by die skool waar ek klasgee aan te spreek. Hierdie kurrikulum het die volgende ingesluit: 1) ervaringsleer en alternatiewe leerperspektiewe; 2) kritiese en reflektiewe denke; 3) ontwikkeling van teorie deur praktiese ondersoeke en ervaringe; 4) somatiese kennis, kwalitatiewe redenering en kommunikatiewe weet; 5) materiaal-gebaseerde denke, leer deur gebruik te maak van materiale en liggaam; 6) samehangende ontdekking van kennis; en 7) burgerskapontwikkeling. Die doel van hierdie studie was om ‘n ondersoek te doen na hoe studente die bogenoemde kunskurrikulum vir die integrasie van teorie en prakties deur verskeie projekte ervaar het. Die ondersoek was gebaseer op ʼn empiriese navorsingsmetode deur gebruik te maak van ʼn kwalitatiewe benadering en ʼn gevallestudie-ontwerp. Temas soos die verbetering van motivering; invloede op die vak Visuele Kunste en ander vakgebiede; groter bewuswording van plek in die gemeenskap en aanpassing van onderrigstyl deur die fasiliteerder is in die ondersoek geïdentifiseer. Die resultate van die navorsing het aangedui dat studente se akademiese prestasie nie net verbeter het nie, maar dat aspekte van kritiese reflektiewe denke, kritiese burgerskap, asook bewuswording van die breër konteks waarin die kunsstudente hulself bevind, verbreed is.

School geography has been identified as the one subject which has the most potential to develop pupils' ability to identify with their community and with their environment. Through the development of a sense of place pupils are encouraged to become effective perceivers, users, appreciators, evaluators and developers of their environment (Catling 1987. This approach to the teaching of geography implies that the content and the teaching strategies need to be perceived as relevant. Relevance in this study is taken to incorporate not only the needs of the pupils and the community but also of the subject. The location of this study in Venda, an area which is predominantly rural in nature sought to emphasise the important role which rural settlement geography can play in aiding the development of these pupils' sense of place and social identity. The research therefore concentrated on the approaches and teaching strategies used in the teaching of rural settlement in Venda secondary schools. This was achieved through a survey which involved geography teachers and pupils in the Thohoyandou inspection area. The place of rural settlement in the current geography curriculum was established through an analysis of the relevant syllabuses, textbooks and senior certificate examination papers. This analysis was primarily undertaken to illuminate the extent to which rural settlement geography in the South African curriculum complies with accepted criteria for relevance. The study revealed that the teaching of rural settlement in Venda is textbook-related and teacher- directed with no attempt to capitalise upon the pupils' experience of their rural environment. This was largely ascribed to the constraints of the syllabus and the demands of the examination system. When allied to the problems teachers have concerning syllabus development, the validity and relevance of this aspect of the syllabus is reduced. More importantly, because the local environment is not perceived as having value in the teaching of geography, the Venda pupils' perception of the value of their environment is diminished.