The concept of educational choice is relatively new in South Africa. The majority of South African parents have in the past not been actively involved in making choices regarding the schools their children will attend. The choice of school was usually determined by legislation and most South African parents adhered to the law. Children were enrolled in schools geographically or racially assigned to them. The only choice that could have been exercised was the choice of attending a school where the language of instruction was the language that the child spoke at home. This choice was limited to white children. Families who had the option to exercise school choice, primarily exercised their right because they could afford to do so financially. In the past choice was a limited option, mainly reserved for the wealthy. Democracy opened the door to many possibilities in South Africa. One of these possibilities is the right to choose – also the right to choose where your child will be educated. School choice has become a reality in the South African education system. Christian parents are also exercising this choice and as a result South Africa is currently experiencing a substantial increase in the number of faith based schools. Christian schools form part of this increase. True Christian Education requires every action performed by the school to be based on a Christian philosophy of life, it requires that children are educated in a Biblical Worldview. Personal belief in Jesus Christ is one of the foundations of a Christian philosophy of life and this philosophy that is lived and taught by parents and educators is the philosophy children are educated within Christian schools. Parents and educators thus take hands in shaping the learner’s philosophy of life, equipping them to stand independently in the world and not independent of the world. The aim of Christian education is to make disciples of Christ, to equip children with knowledge and skills and in Spiritual Formation and Biblical Worldview to realise their full potential in Christ. The reasons why and motivation for Christian parents making the choice of Christian education for their children is the motivating factor for this research. The reasons for parents exercising this choice are evident and explained in this report based on empirical data. Literature strongly supports findings. Christian parents in South Africa are now making decisions and choices keeping their children’s best interests at heart. No longer are they sitting back comfortably being prescribed to by government; they are exercising their right to choose Christ Centered Education for their children. / Professor Tom Bischoff Dr. Ishwarie Hariprasad

“Aplicación del Food Choice Questionnaire en jóvenes adolescentes y su relación con el sobrepeso y otras variables socio-demográficas”. El uso del instrumento Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) permite conocer y entender mejor los hábitos nutricionales de la gente y, con base fundamentada, proponer estrategias para promover una alimentación saludable y facilitar la adherencia a tratamientos nutricionales.

Preferences were determined for rats as they explored three differentially complex visual stimuli over a series of trials. Early visual experiences were manipulated by differential enrichment periods in the first of two experiments in the study and by differential rearing conditions in the second experiment. Results were evaluated in terms of their support for the following predictions from the theory of Dember and Earl (1957): 1. When experience with stimuli differing in visual complexity leads to preferences for stimuli of different complexities, high-complexity experienced organisms will prefer more complex stimuli than low-complexity experienced organisms. 2. When shifts in preference between trials are expressed, the direction of such shifts will be towards increased complexity. 3. When rate and/or degree of shift in complexity preferences differ between groups receiving different levels of visual complexity experience, high-complexity exposed groups will show the faster and/or greater degree of shift to higher complexities. Support for these predictions was found. Suggestions for improvement of the Dember and Earl model and of the techniques for investigating it were discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The issue of requiring marketers to disclose objective product performance information to their customers has presented a problem to both policymakers and researchers. A major concern is that the potential usefulness of such information will be negated if consumers, trying to evaluate alternative products at the points of sale, are hindered by large amounts of such comparative data. Decision-making experiments in cognitive psychology indicate that, because of the capacity limitations of short-term memory, people provided with high input rates of information can experience "information overload," which reduces the quality of their decisions. However, consumer research performed, to date, in the laboratory has failed to resolve whether consumers in a naturalistic brand-choice making situation would also experience "information overload," if confronted with large amounts of product data on which to base their choices. A field experiment was performed to extend the findings of this laboratory research stream and to help resolve the controversy regarding consumer "information overload." A second objective of this experiment was to contribute to policy-oriented research on information-provision formats. The study examined the behavioural effects of displaying objective product performance cues at the point of purchase, easily accessible to consumers and organized in a format allowing direct comparisons of alternative brands. An input-output experimental design used point-of-sale signs to provide different amounts (loads) of nutritional information on the brands of several food products in two co-operating supermarkets. The outputs, or information effects, were measured by collecting brand-sales data via electronic checkout facilities to determine whether the information treatments were having the hypothesized effects on the shape of the brand-sales distribution. The findings do not appear to support the "information overload" hypothesis. In fact, information load did not emerge as an explanatory variable. With certain products, there is evidence that providing nutritional information, in an organized format at the point of sale, will lead to brand choices being made on the basis of such data. Also, the overall response to this data was significantly weaker in the second of two weeks during which they were made available to shoppers. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

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Intra-district transfer policies allow students to attend any school within a district and thus may have unique consequences for stratification within a district. If parents make choices based on common academic interests, this policy can create racial and socioeconomic integration across the schools in a district. However, socially motivated choices may lead to the creation of increasingly stratified zones. This study examines one urban school district with an intra-district transfer policy to examine if the schools in the district become more racially and economically stratified under the choice policy and if the level of stratification at family's zoned schools is correlated with participation in choice. Results show that families zoned to schools mirroring the district's diverse composition are more likely to participate in choice, suggesting that more factors than simple academically-based motivations guide choice behavior. Exploration of the levels of stratification in schools with and without the choice policy suggests that the overall trend is to maintain the level of stratification present in the residential areas. Although most changes under the choice policy are small in magnitude, the changes that do occur push the district towards increased stratification.

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A pretest–posttest group design was utilized for this ex post facto study to determine the reading achievement growth of middle school students as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT) with and without America’s Choice after one- and two-year participation. Further study was conducted to determine if a significant difference in reading achievement growth of middle school students existed between gender with and without America’s Choice participation. Additionally, research was conducted to determine whether or not there was a significant difference among the various achievement classifications (minimum, basic, proficient, and advanced) of students with and without America’s Choice participation as measured by the MCT. An independent t-test was the statistical treatment performed on the data. Findings indicated that over the course of a year, the addition of the America’s Choice School Design did reflect a significant increase in reading achievement growth when compared to sixth-grade students with no participation. On the contrary, after the second year of participation, students did not reflect a significant increase in reading achievement growth when compared to students who had not participated in the America’s Choice School Design. Findings also indicated no significant difference in achievement classifications after two years of participation in America’s Choice. Between schools, there was no significant difference in the achievement growth of male and female students with and without participation in the America’s Choice School Design. Further research is recommended to determine the long-range effect of the America’s Choice School Design on reading achievement. It is recommended that future research should focus on comparing the America’s Choice School Design with another comprehensive school reform program that has similar components. Additional research is recommended to examine the effects of other subject areas that are included in the design. Finally, further research should be conducted to examine the effects of parental involvement on the America’s Choice School Design.

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