National and international studies show that the standard of mathematics teaching and learning in South Africa is very low compared to other countries. These statistics are worrying because mathematics is one of the ‘gatekeeper’ subjects that determine learners’ access to higher learning and a better future. My study, aimed at exploring two Foundation Phase teachers’ selection and use of examples and representations when teaching number, forms part of a longitudinal study currently underway within the Wits Maths Connect Primary (WMC-P) Project. One of the broad aims of the WMC-P Project is to improve primary teachers’ mathematics content knowledge and also to see this translated into improved pedagogy on the ground. This qualitative study was carried out within the WMC-P Project’s 20-Day in-service training course and one of the ten government schools participating in the broader study. My study aimed to build on research that has been carried out on teachers’ use of examples and representations with a focus on the South African terrain. The dataset comprised of two Foundation Phase teacher’s pre-tests, course-work tasks, field notes, and transcripts of observed lessons. Data was analysed using an analytical framework based on current literature related to examples and representations within mathematics teaching. Findings from my study show possible associations between a higher content knowledge score and the extent of a teacher’s example space and more coherent connections between different representational forms. More studies around this topic are needed because research shows that teachers’ examples and representations in mathematics teaching are important for good teaching and conceptual understanding.

The Department of Social Work, School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities, the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the field of Social Development / The social work profession has long regarded professional supervision as central to the maintenance of best practices and has taken a leadership role in asserting the significance of supervision in human service settings. The goal of the study was to explore the experiences of child protection social workers with regards to supervision. The study utilized a qualitative research approach. Through a case study design, the researcher explored the experiences of a purposively sampled group of child protection social workers in Johannesburg on supervision. The researcher gathered qualitative data by carrying out face to face interviews with a total sample of twelve participants drawn from two child protection organizations based in the Johannesburg area. The study established that group supervision, individual supervision and peer supervision are the three main types of supervision utilised by child protection organisations, with group supervision being the most commonly used method. Furthermore, the study discovered that supervision plays three main functions in the work of child protection social workers, namely educational, supportive and administrative functions. The study also exposed numerous challenges faced by child protection social workers in their supervision of their daily work. In view of the study’s findings and conclusions in relation to the experiences of child protection social workers in supervision, the researcher proposes that child protection organisations need to utilise the most effective types of supervision which are beneficial to both the organisation and, more importantly, the clients they serve. / GR2017

Thesis (M.Ed. (Educational Psychology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Education Faculty, 1998 / Reports received on psychoeducational assessments of their pupils, were rated by 93 teachers from Ex-"Model"C" primary schools in the greater Johannesburg area. The reports came mainly for psychologists in private practice (n=63) followed by departmental support services. (n=27) and education clinics (n=3). The chief reason for referral was academic difficulties. Thf majority of teachers held favourable attitudes to psychologists and test data in general, found report content as presented in specific reports useful, and found reports useful overall. Forced choices ratings also indicated that the majority of teachers were satisfied with their reports in areas commonly criticised in the literature (length of report, .understanding of the teacher’s role, specificity and number of recommendations, language use). These very positive findings are tempered by indications that teachers may have been : somewhat biased toward giving positive ratings, and by certain criticisms of the reports.Also reports were not seen as positively with regards to helping teachers deal with classroom ; behaviour and in helping develop specific instructional plans/methods. Language use, particularly in the presentations of test results, may represent a difficulty for teachers, Teacher ratings of the overall usefulness of specific reports did not relate significantly to their demographic charactel^ajs, or their attitudes to psychologists or test data.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Theory and Policy, School of Economics and Business Science, University of the Witwatersrand, June 2017 / South Africa has uniquely high rates of parental absence from children’s lives. Apartheid-era restrictions on population movement and residential arrangements contributed to family fragmentation, particularly when adults – mainly men – migrated to work in cities and on the mines. Despite the removal of legal impediments to permanent urban settlement and family coresidence for Africans, patterns of internal and oscillating labour migration have endured, dual or stretched households continue to link urban and rural nodes, and children have remained less urbanised than adults. Importantly for children, migration rates among prime-age women have increased, alongside falling marriage rates, declining remittances and persistently high unemployment. Households, and women especially, may have to make difficult choices about how to manage the competing demands of child care and income generation. It is the mobility patterns and household configurations arising from these strategies that are the focus of this research. The thesis uses a mixed-method approach to explore children’s geographic mobility and care arrangements. Using micro data spanning two decades, it traces children’s co-residence arrangements with parents and describes changes in household form from the perspective of children. It maps recent patterns of child migration within South Africa using four waves of a national panel study and compares these with patterns of maternal migration to reveal various dynamics of migration in mother–child dyads: co-migration, sequential migration, independent migration, and immobility. The child-focused analysis augments the existing migration literature, which has tended to focus on adult labour migration and ignore children or regard them as appendages of migrants. A single, detailed case study spanning three generations of mothers adds texture to the analysis by demonstrating the complexity of household strategies and plans for child care in the context of female labour migration. This in turn helps to reflect on the value of micro data for describing and analysing household form and migration patterns, particularly among children. / XL2018

Research Report submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg In partial fulfilment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Science (Mathematics Education) Johannesburg, 2017 / South Africa’s performance in mathematics education is ranked amongst the world’s worst. This performance is not only alarming at an international level, but also nationally. Annual National Assessments (ANA) conducted by the Department of Education have showed that the level of mathematics across the foundation and intermediate phase is poor with a pronounced dip in performance at a Grade 4 level (Department of Basic Education, 2014). Multiplication and division are common challenging areas that contribute to this poor performance. This is concerning as mathematics is globally recognised as a key competence for providing access to higher education and developing a country’s society and economy. My study, aimed at exploring multiplicative reasoning with Grade 4 learners through structured problem solving, is focused on the learning of multiplication and division within the context of an intervention concentrated on developing learners’ ability to model multiplicative situations. Shifts in the use of models were investigated following a smallscale intervention in which different modelling approaches (particularly ratio modelling) were introduced and developed. A control group was used to determine the usefulness of the intervention. Questions which I sought to answer were: (a) what kinds of multiplicative reasoning (models) are Grade 4 learners using prior to intervention, (b) what changes, if any, are seen in overall performance, across the intervention and control group, in the post-test, and, (c) what kinds of differences in model use were associated with the shifts in performance? The main dataset comprised of 61 pre- and post-test scripts across three Grade 4 classes in a former Model C school in a Johannesburg district. A sample of 15 interviews were also conducted across the classes. Document analysis and transcription notes were used to analyse data with a Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) framework informing my analysis. Findings from my study reveal that prior to intervention, Grade 4 learners presented limited multiplicative models which were predominantly confined to traditional algorithms. After the small-scale intervention, learners used a broader range of models with an emerging take up of ratio models. The success rate associated with the models presented by learners also improved. Limited and/or no changes in model use and their respective success rates were seen in the control group suggesting that the intervention program was useful. These findings suggest that, as a future recommendation, it would be worthwhile to investigate the outcomes of running a similar intervention in less privileged settings. / MT 2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Work. / The study sought to investigate the relationship of maternal and paternal attitudes and child-rearing practices towards children of different birth order positions. The research also investigated possible differences in the childrearing practices and attitudes toward" their children, of parents who had a child that stuttered, and of parents ill which there was no child wuo stuttered in the family. The research was conducted among a selected sample of forty three families who were matched on certain variables. Group A comprised thirty families in which there was no child who stuttered, and Group B comprised thirteen families each of whom had a child who had been identified as suffering from the disorder of stuttering. The data were collected by means of a postal questionnaire, and then analysed quantitavely and qualitatively using various statistical analyses. Selected variables were studied in an attempt to assess the possible effects on children as a result of birth order, parenting and stuttering. Findings revealed that parental attitudes towards the children of different birth order positions were not significantly different, However, the parents' expectations of and perceptions of their firstborn child's intelligence differed from their expectations and perceptions of their other children, No differences in child-rearing were identified between the parents of children who stuttered. and the parents of children who did not stutter. However, the parents in Group B reflected more confidence in their parenting skills. Religious centres were identified as being a popular venue for parenting programmes especially for the parents in Group A. Practice guidelines for social workers rendering services to the family in which there was a child who had the disorder of programmes were enumerated. Social workers need to be aware of the individual in interaction with an levels of the ecosystem. Social workers must also take cognizance of alternate family structures, the importance of the father in the development of the child and for Inclusi..a in therapy and benefits and methods of parenting programmes as a preventative tool to alleviate the possibility of future pathology. / Andrew Chakane 2018

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Audiology in the faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, January 2017 / Background: The benefits of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) services on communication, cognition and socio-emotional development, including academic and vocational outcomes are well documented internationally. However, reports on EHDI services in South Africa are limited to the establishment of programmes for early detection of hearing impairments, with little focus on the outcomes of the subsequent early intervention (EI) for children diagnosed with a hearing impairment. Objective: This study explored the outcomes of two EI preschool programmes in the Gauteng province, South Africa. The current study aimed at describing the communication and school readiness abilities of hearing-impaired children who were enrolled in the EI preschool programmes, as well as to determine the factors that influenced the attainment of school readiness abilities. Methods: A descriptive research study was conducted on eight hearing-impaired children who graduated from two EI preschool programmes in the Gauteng Province. Content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data while frequency distribution and measures of central tendency were used to analyse the quantitative data. Results: Participants were late-identified with subsequent late provision of amplification devices and commencement of EI services. Consequently, participants demonstrated sub-optimal communication and school readiness abilities for their age. Early access to EHDI services and age-appropriate communication abilities were identified as factors that influenced the attainment of age-appropriate school readiness abilities for children with a hearing impairment. Conclusion: There is a great need for the establishment of more EI programmes that will meet the unique needs of hearing-impaired children in different contexts and ensure that they also have an opportunity to develop on par with their peers with normal hearing. Further research in this area needs to be undertaken exploring similar objectives to the current study with a larger, diverse sample for improved generalisability of the findings. / XL2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts / This dissertation analyses the contemporary trends - - the so called "second innings"-- of South African cricket. It examines the role played by the tripartist relationship between the state cricket's administrative structures, and the private sector in the reconstruction of a national cricketing code. The case study of cricket development programmes is viewed as a social metaphor that extends beyond the cricket boundary and which allows for a focused analysis of the current issues that surround both the discourse and practice of "sports development". Thus the metaphor of cricket development is considered as a singular lens through which to assess the wider processes of development, "nation-building" and transformation in South African society. Cricket development programmes have made a significant impact on the reconstruction of South African sport, but have yet to fundamentally transform the nature of South African cricket. Despite the attempts to level the playing field through development initiates, the contemporary reality of a disparate social order continues to determine and define the codes of South African cricket. / Andrew Chakane 2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for the Degree of master of Arts in Clinical psychology. / The aim of the research is to find out whether white male South Africans who Leave high school before completion of their studies differ significantly in the personality domains of neuroticism; extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, from their counterparts who complete their high school studies. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / AC2017

This study examined the role that attributional style played in the academic achievement and school performance of a sample of 150 black primary school learners in grades 5 and 6 in an inner city school in the Johannesburg area. The Children’s Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ, 1984) was administered to determine the attributional styles. The questionnaire was comprised of 10 subscales and from this an overall level of optimism or pessimism was obtained. The academic achievement of the learners was measured by obtaining the end of year academic results of 1997 and 1998 from the mark schedules of each teacher. The results did not reveal significant correlations between attributional styles and academic achievement. This was contradictory to the existing literature. It appears that, in this disadvantaged group in South Africa, it is not attributional style that impacts upon academic achievement and school performance. However it appears that learned helplessness in terms of Seligman and Maier’s (1967) original formulation, rather than attributional style as in the reformulated theory of Abramson, Seligman & Teasdale (1978) may impact upon academic achievement in this community.