Missing pg. 116.

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This study was underpinned by the view of the researcher that classroom discipline is gradually collapsing in South African schools. Learners seem to be uncontrollable thus affecting the quality of teaching and learning. Educators worldwide have many responsibilities in managing classroom discipline and shaping the behaviour of learners in schools. For educators to undertake these many responsibilities there is need for them to carryout effective teaching and learning through maintaining a disciplined classroom without enforcing corporal punishment. This might seem difficult from the view of certain attitudes learners display in classroom, but it is possible if educators are groomed with contemporary classroom discipline strategies which conform to the demands of the Department of Education. The study investigated the phenomenon of managing classroom discipline in Ngaka Modiri Molema District to determine the extent to which educators are conversant with the legal framework for managing classroom discipline and to determine strategies currently employed by educators to establish discipline in the classroom. The study also state and describe disciplinary challenges currently faced by educators in the classroom and make recommendations and guidelines on the findings with regard to managing classroom discipline. A literature review was done on conceptual literature relating to issues on managing classroom discipline. Learner's misconduct in class, causes of disciplinary problems and how to prevent and manage classroom discipline by applying the legal framework in class was also reviewed. The research approach was qualitative. Purposively selected participants included experienced teachers and student members of school student governments (prefects) of two purposefully selected schools. Views and experience of participants to this study were captured and explained through interviews, observations and document analysis. Results are discussed in relation to relevant literature, allowing the flow of an open coding process in inductive qualitative analysis. Findings from the research indicated that participants are experiencing varying forms of continued ill discipline in their classrooms. Some of which are; learners not doing their school and homework, absenteeism, disruption of classes by noise making, learners bullying fellow learners and even educators. Literature review revealed that there are nationwide guidelines and legal framework for managing discipline in schools as embedded in SASA. Participants know the guidelines and a legal framework for managing discipline in classrooms that has been used to design a school code of conduct and classroom rules. Most educators are not very conversant with the legal framework for managing classroom discipline except for the fact that they know they are not allowed to use corporal punishment. The findings of this study suggested that educators, through the help of the Department of Education, should familiarise themselves with legal documents on managing discipline in order for them to establish and maintain positive classroom discipline management. / Thesis (M.Ed) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011

This study focused on the identification of patterns of personal relationships that were documented in a series of thirteen investigations involving a Theory of Democratic Processes in Classrooms. Descriptive summaries and analyses of the various investigations were sought with the intent of identifying additional concepts and insights which might contribute to the theory. The investigator sought answers to the following questions: (1) What investigations were undertaken? (2) How were the investigations conducted? (3) What were the major findings of the investigations? (4) What patterns of personal relationships were reported? (5) What implications for the theory have occurred as a consequence of the investigations? A review of related literature dealt with descriptions of personal relationships in classrooms which tended to foster democracy in education. Literary references for such descriptions included the thirteen investigations identified and used in this study. Literary considerations regarding the Theory of Democratic Processes in Classrooms were evolved regarding each of the categories employed as an analytical framework. One chapter of this study was devoted to detailing information regarding the date, author, title, problem statement, assumptions, methods, and findings of each of the thirteen investigations. The data chapters presented the findings of the coded results of the various investigations. In the final chapter, patterns of personal relationships concerning concepts and insights derived from the investigations were reported. Among the concepts and insights concerned with these patterns, the following seemed most heuristic: (1) Democratic processes tend to be experienced in an environment where there is daily interaction; where individuals seem to be in charge of their own choices; and where persons seem to accompany each other in a supportive manner, and (2) When democratic processes are experienced, persons tend to develop their maximum potential; learning appears to involve intrapersonal explorations of interests; and an atmosphere of freedom and trust tends to allow for mutual respect and concern.

This qualitative study investigates the interaction among teachers' beliefs, their practices, and the practical argument staff development process in two schools and suggests how school culture may affect that interaction. The subjects for this study were the intermediate teachers from two of the schools participating in the OERI Study, A Study Teachers' Research-Based Instruction of Reading Comprehension (RIS). This study was designed to investigate the proposal in staff development/teacher change literature that conscious examination of beliefs facilitates teacher change. Furthermore, this study explores the importance of school culture to the success of a staff development program. Social interactivity may affect the change process. Data was gathered in a participant-observation process extending over an eight-month period. During that time, there were classroom and staff development process observations, formal and informal interviews with teachers and administrators, examination of audio/videotapes of events, dialogues with the research team, and documentation of each event with field notes. The findings are introduced through a description and interpretation of events in each of the two schools. They are established upon an understanding of how the participating teachers responded to change and to the staff development process, and how school culture affected those teachers and the process. The findings also incorporate the most recent research on teachers' beliefs, staff development, and school culture. They address the theory/practice dichotomy and its relation to change; teachers' beliefs about reading and teaching and their relationship to the teachers' involvement in the staff development program; the culture of each school; the practical argument staff development program, its organization, and presentation; and the relationship between the teachers' willingness to change and the school culture, teachers' beliefs, and the staff development process. This is a set of case studies about teachers in two schools with varied beliefs and backgrounds. Generalizations from this study, applied to other schools and/or staff development programs, may focus on an understanding of the influence of teachers' beliefs and school culture on a staff development program and the process of teacher change.

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

The purpose of this study was to examine the program of action of activities under the conditions of transition and content complexity. The path of the program of action was explored through a number of classroom activities in the areas of writing, literature, vocabulary, and grammar. In particular the configuration and the management of the program of action were examined to determine what was done by classroom inhabitants to guide and protect the program of action of activities. The setting of the study was a freshman honors English class in a southwest urban high school. The teacher was identified as an able manager, a factor that was expected to limit the competing vectors that might be triggered by discipline problems. Observations of the class were done over ten weeks or a quarter of the school year. The third period class was observed daily, and a total of forty activities were gathered and analyzed. Data analysis was done over a period of seven months. A quantitative summary of the activities showing activity types and time devoted to each activity type was compiled. The activity summaries were scanned to note emerging patterns. Programs of action of each activity type were mapped to illustrate the configuration and maintenance of the program of action and the emergence and handling of competing vectors. The final phase of the analysis was the comparison of programs of action across two levels of content complexity. Findings showed that the life of the program of action in classrooms varied according to activity type. The teacher emerged as the controller of action as illustrated by his choice of content presentation modes and activities. The comparison of programs of action of activities across content complexity showed that students participated more in the maintenance and sustenance of the program of action in activities in which the content was less complex than they did in activities with more complex content. Furthermore, when the content was more complex, the teacher's control of the maintenance of the program of action was more apparent. The length of transition was found to impact negatively the subsequent program of action. On the other hand, lengthy opening activities emerged as contributors to the maintenance of programs of action.