Students' poor performance in the quantity surveying course at the Durban Institute of Technology appeared to be due to the lack of basic key competence in certain key areas such as mathematics and arithmetic. The students' weaknesses in key competencies were validated in the pre-tests with both the 2003 and 2004 cohorts where few students, only two out of sixteen and one out of eight respectively, displayed mastery in these key areas. Mastery learning was identified as a methodology to use for helping students because it benefited slow and fast learners alike. This study investigates the use of an e-mastery learning system to help students improve their competence in some of the key areas identified. An experiment was conducted, using the 2003 fourth-year quantity surveying students as a control group and the 2004 fourth-year quantity surveying students as the experimental group. The control group took a pre-test, were subjected to a face-to-face intervention and then they took a post-test. The experimental group took the same pre-test, were exposed to a mastery learning system, which was then followed by the same post-test. The results of this experiment showed that the mastery learning intervention helped the students, but not to the extent expected by the author. The experiment indicated that the e-based system was only marginally more helpful than the face-to-face intervention which the control group received. This quantitative aspect of the experiment was hampered by small sample sizes and was further constrained by difficulties in accessing the e-mastery system. Following this outcome, a qualitative study was undertaken, in the form of semi-structured interviews, to ascertain why the e-based system was not as successful as expected. Although the quantitative analysis indicated that the e-based system was more helpful, the interviews revealed the underlying problems were related to access to the e-based system and students' limited computer literacy skills. The conclusion drawn from these findings is that an e-based mastery learning system would help students improve their key competencies provided the computer literacy problems and access problems were solved, the mastery learning system was more comprehensively developed, and that the students were motivated enough to devote themselves to using the system on a regular basis. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Since it assumed power in 1994, the democratic government in South Africa had to meet the challenge of changing a fragmented, inequitable and culturally oppressive system of education into one that would promote the principles of equity, redress and social empowerment. A mechanism to meet the aims of the new South African education system, Curriculum 2005 and its outcomes-based education approach, was introduced from the beginning of 1998. The new education system was subjected to changes that were designed to address the legacy of apartheid, and to meet the ch allenges presented by twenty first century global imperatives. Curriculum 2005, as a learner-centred educational framework, embraces a continuous assessment process that requires that educators be skilled to employ integrated assessment and teaching strategies to facilitate the holistic development oflearners . The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and practices of grade nine language educators with regard to translating outcomes-based assessment into practice. A qualitative approach, using a case study method , was employed for the investigation and interviewing was the major data collection instrument. The interview data was supplemented by document analysis. The data were coded and analyzed. The main findings suggest that the grade nine language educators have a sound understanding of the outcomes-based system of assessment but the policy language and large class sizes were found to have limited educators' abilities to meaningfully use ongoing classroom assessment for formative purpose with individual learners. Finally, recommendations made concerning assessment practices, could lead to a more effective learner-centred learning environment. / Thesis (M.Ed. ; Education) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003

Now, it is a time for me to take a journey to share my Computer Literacy experience with readers. After extensive reading and hard work, I have discovered new information about Computer Literacy course offered by different institutions. As a result of this study, which focuses on outcomes (competencies) of Computer Literacy course offered by UniSchool, my experience (knowledge & skills) has been developed. Such experience has been developed in terms of outcomes (types), computer hardware & software, computer users, computer language and method of teaching. All these areas are covered in this report. Other areas, which are also covered, are computer viruses, categories of computers, brief history of computers and purpose of the study. The order in which these areas are presented is as follows: The first part (chapter 1) covers the statement of purpose, critical questions, rationale of the study, outcome definitions, other concepts of outcome, research method together with approach and methods of gathering data as well as theoretical framework. The second part (chapter 2) covers computer definitions, history of computer, types of computer, major components of computer (hardware, software & users) and computer literacy. The hardware part covers Input, processing, storage, output and other devices. The software part covers Operating system, application programs, development / programming software and utility software. The third part (chapter 3) covers the methods of teachings The last parts (chapter 4, 5 & 6) cover research methodology, data analysis, conclusion, recommendations and limitations. Therefore, for the details of these parts the readers will simple read each chapter of this report. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

Métis people in Canada experience Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) at a rate that is substantially higher than the general Canadian population, and therefore require medical and public healthcare for diabetes complications. Despite a growing literature examining Aboriginal health, little is known about how diabetes healthcare interventions are being delivered to the Métis in Canada. Culturally competent medical and public health interventions, those that are sensitive to the culture, history and the beliefs people hold, are known to produce better patient outcomes. These interventions are also known to deliver greater patient satisfaction, and may reduce existing health inequities. This thesis explores the extent to which community-level diabetes healthcare interventions in Saskatoon are being delivered to the Métis people in a manner that is appropriate and sensitive to their culture. Data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews with seven Métis participants living with diabetes. Structured in-depth interviews were conducted with one key informant from Central Urban Métis Federation Inc. (CUMFI), and five healthcare practitioners tasked with providing T2DM interventions. Observations and documentary materials were used to supplement the interview data for the study. The study identified two main community-level diabetes healthcare interventions in Saskatoon with a series of activities organized under them. Although the study found no Métis specific T2DM healthcare intervention, participants identified that Métis cultural activities such as jigging and community gardening were incorporated into some of the interventions. However, language, Métis traditional foods, and traditional approaches to teaching were not incorporated into these programs. These omissions, coupled with barriers such as limited spatial accessibility, lack of funding and community poverty have repercussions on participation levels, participant retention and health outcomes for participants living with diabetes. Respondents are less inclined to participate if interventions are generic (non-Métis specific), which are considered less satisfactory. In turn, this may affect the sustainability of the healthcare program resulting in poor health outcomes. In this way the Métis continue to struggle with these community-level diabetes healthcare intervention programs. This study supports the need for Métis-specific community-level diabetes healthcare interventions as a means of improving health outcomes for the fight against T2DM among Métis people.

Traditionally, education has been considered as the territory of educators and the participation of parents has been very limited. Nowadays, however, parents are considered as co-partners in the education of their children. In this regard, they have an important role to play both at home and school. Both educators and parents now believe that effective education requires the cooperation between educators and parents without any reservation. Changes that have taken place .in education in this country over the past decade require parents to assume greater responsibilities in the education of their children. This study was aimed at analysing the responsibilities of parents for the effective implementation and management of Curriculum 2005 in the Phokeng Circuit of Education of the North-West province. The study was further intended to find out the problems, difficulties, and challenges faced by parents, with the advent of the Curriculum 2005, the Outcome-based Education program in South Africa. The subjects involved in this study included 240 parents and 60 educators. Two separate questionnaires (Appendix A and Appendix B) were designed and administered to the respondents. The study revealed that parents have taken up their role in education very seriously, though it was discovered through the empirical investigation that some parents are still clinging to their traditional beliefs about education, that it is confined to educators. Several recommendations based on literature and empirical investigations were made in an attempt to involve more parents in the education and school life of their children. The study recommended regular and prompt communication between parents and the school, assisting parents who have difficulties in helping their children with homework and parent training. / Thesis (MBA) North-West university, Mafikeng Campus, 2003

The study is about the use of Outcomes-Based Education Assessment strategies by Intermediate phase educators in the Atamelang Districts of the North West Province of Republic of South Africa: Challenges and implications. The research study sought to investigate the fo11owing research questions: What are the requirements of Outcomes-Based Assessment? Who should be involved in learners' assessment in schools? What kind of assessment strategies do educators use? Do educators use OBE assessment strategies? What are the methods used for reporting performance of learners to parents and management of the school? This research study drew its population from the Primary Intermediate Phase educators in the, Atamelang District. The sample was made out of intermediate phase educators for purposes of data collection, the questionnaires and interviews were used. The qualitative technique was used to analyse the research. The main findings of the research study were that the majority of educators are still having problems in OBE assessment strategies. The following are recommendations: lnservice training programmes for educators. Development of learners concerning OBE assessment strategies especially self, peer and group assessment. Effective physical and human resources to be put in place. In conclusion, the research hopes that the use of OBE assessment strategies will be emphasised in order to enhance the learning and teaching of intermediate phase educators throughout the North West Province of the Republic of South Africa. / (M.Ed. (Curriculum Design and Development) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

Existing authors (Reichert, 1998; Watson 2009) have described the unique positive impact of Animal Assisted Therapy in Counseling (AAT-C) on the client’s perception of the therapeutic alliance as well as the professional counselor’s ability to build positive alliances quickly. When implemented with appropriate education and training, AAT-C can positively impact the therapeutic experience of a diverse range of clients across a wide variety of settings (Chandler, 2012; Fine, 2004). AAT-C requires a specialized set of skills and competencies that allows professional counselors to incorporate specially trained animals into the counseling process to influence the therapeutic process in ways that are beyond the scope of traditional counselor-client helping relationships (Stewart & Chang, 2013). However, there is currently no definition of counseling-specific competencies to guide practitioners in this specialty area. To address this gap, the presenters conducted an investigation using the Grounded Theory Method (Charmaz, 2006; Guba & Lincoln, 1989) to address the following research question: What knowledge, skills, and attitudes are required of competent practitioners of AAT-C? Based on the themes and subthemes that emerged from the data, the authors constructed a theoretical framework which represents competencies in AAT-C. Using this theoretical framework, the authors uncovered a total of nine essential competency areas for professional counselors utilizing AAT-C. They are divided into three domains in accordance with the competency framework that includes Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (Myers & Sweeny, 1990).

Introduction: In the new century, worldwide health professionals face new pressures for changes towards more cost-effective and sustainable health care for all populations. Globalization creates daunting challenges as well as new opportunities for institutions and health professionals being more connected and rethink their strategies toward an interprofessional practice. Although Health professionals are paying increased attention to issues of global health, there are no current competency assessment tools appropriate for evaluating their competency in global health. This study aims to assess global health competencies of family medicine residents, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy students in five universities across Ontario, Canada Methods: A total of 429 students participated in the Global Health Competency Survey, drawn from family medicine residency, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy programs of five universities in Ontario, Canada. The surveys were evaluated for face and content validity and reliability. Results: Factor analysis was used to identify the main factors to be included in the reliability analysis. Content validity was supported with one floor effect in the “racial/ethnic disparities” variable (36.1%), and few ceiling effects. Seven of the twenty-two variables performed the best (between 34% and 59.6%). For the overall rating score, no participants had floor or ceiling effects. Five factors were identified which accounted for 95% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha was >0.8 indicating that the survey items had good internal consistency and represent a homogeneous construct. The results of the survey demonstrated that self-reported knowledge confidence in global health issues and global health skills were low for family medicine residents, nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy’ students. The percentage of residents and students who self-reported themselves confident was less than 60% for all global health issues. Conclusion: The Global Health Competency Survey demonstrated good internal consistency and face and content validity. The new century requires professionals competent in global health. Improvements in the core competencies in global health can be a bridge to a more equal world. Institutions must offer interprofessional approaches and a curriculum that exposes them to a varied learning methods and opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills in global health.

This thesis comprises three studies that empirically evaluate the perceptions of sports managers and academics of the importance of competencies for sports managers in Taiwan. First, a systematic review technique is conducted to review the literature on competency-based studies in sports management and this is followed by three empirical studies. Study I is designed to develop an appropriate research instrument for the evaluation of the perceptions of the importance of competencies to the successful conducting of a sports manager's job in Taiwan. Study II analyzes the underlying features in these competencies and provides a comparison of the perceptions of the two populations. Study III identifies and evaluates the process of curriculum construction in three leading academic institutions and its relationship to competency-based education. The thesis concludes that although there are many globaUshared phenomena in the development of sports management, the perceptions of important competencies of sports managers may vary in different local contexts and thus locally based analysis is necessary to identify culturally specific features.

Training reforms implemented over the past ten years have contributed to an extraordinary rate of change within organisations concerned with the delivery of vocational education and training. Institutes of technical and further education (TAFE) and the teachers employed by them have not been immune to these changes. The study reported in this thesis explored the meaning and process of educational change for TAFE teachers as they worked to implement one of the core components of the national training reforms into their teaching programs. / Much of the existing literature has failed to consider adequately individual teachers' responses to educational reform. It has not taken into account the unique character and position held by TAFE as the major provider of vocational education and how this might affect teachers' experiences and approaches to implementing major reforms across all program areas. / The aim of this study was to explore the implementation of one component of the national training reforms, namely the competency-based curriculum framework, from TAFE teachers' perspectives. Research questions formulated to guide the study focused on teachers' concerns and the different versions of the curriculum framework, and on ways of working with the framework that emerged over the implementation process. Questions also focused on illuminating teachers' experiences of the change process itself. / In order to address these questions, an orientation described as 'transcendental realism' by Miles and Huberman (1994) was adopted. This orientation, drawing on both the post-positivist and interpretive paradigms, asserts that social reality can exist both in the minds of individuals and can also be apprehended in the objective world. This world-view represents a pragmatic response to the challenges inherent in attempting to understand the nature of social reality that is multi-faceted, complex and subject to various interpretations. It acknowledges the role that the researcher is able to play in bringing together different perspectives in order to develop a more comprehensive and in-depth view of the social phenomenon under scrutiny. / In order to bring together these different perspectives on the meaning and process of educational change for TAFE teachers a multi-method approach to collecting data was utilised. This approach was built upon the assumption that both qualitative and quantitative data had the potential to provide valuable information that would be complementary and therefore of equal importance in addressing the central issues of this study. The conceptual framework for examining educational change was provided by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), suitably modified and complemented by a detailed examination of the structural and personal factors that impacted on teachers' experiences of the change process. / The research process for the study consisted of a number of phases undertaken over a three-year period from mid 1994 until early 1997. A questionnaire survey was undertaken of a random sample of 503 teachers employed by TAFE South Australia across a variety of program areas. The selection of a random sample of teachers was a deliberate strategy to capture as wide a cross-section of teachers' voices and experiences as possible. Responses were received from 118 teachers. A sub-group of questionnaire respondents (46 in total) was then followed up and invited to participate in focussed interviews. Data analysis was undertaken in several discrete stages so as to provide a basis for examining each set of data and to investigate the ways in which each set supported and contradicted the others. / The outcomes from this study highlight that educational reform of the nature and scope of the competency-based curriculum framework that teachers were asked to implement is a complex and dilemma ridden process. The introduction of this framework required teachers to adopt new ways of working in relation to the conception, delivery and assessment of their programs. As a component of the training reforms, the competency-based curriculum framework also carried with it the imperative that the philosophy embedded in the Kangan reforms of TAFE in the 1970s be reworked in the light of a strong emphasis on the needs of industry to take precedence over the needs of individuals. As such, the reforms also sought to re-order the relationship between teachers and industry. / The data collected for this study provide a micro level, systematic focus on teachers' work across a variety of TAFE program areas. As such, they provide a fine grained perspective, particularly on the phenomenon of 'partial' implementation and how various 'versions' of the framework were constructed within the various implementation sites. / The data also illuminate the experience of the change process as an intensely human process. Teachers' feelings and concerns in relation to the curriculum framework had a significant impact on their ways of working, which, in turn, were realised in the outcomes of the implementation process. Teachers' experiences reported in the study highlight the importance of understanding and supporting the change process in an environment where the policy development process that mandates change is removed from teachers' spheres of influence. / These findings hold implications for policy makers, managers and TAFE teachers in relation to the manner in which they conceptualise the change process, the policy/implementation nexus within the TAFE environment and the influence of institutional and industry cultures in shaping teachers' responses to change. They raise questions in relation to the types of support needed to assist teachers to bring about real and significant change within their teaching environments. They also highlight issues about teachers' roles as pro-active change agents rather than passive recipients of mandated policies which seek not only to change teachers' practices but also to challenge their values and beliefs about their role as teachers and the ways they might relate to industry in a dynamic policy environment. / Thesis ([PhDEducation])--University of South Australia, 2001.