Submitted In Fulfillment Of The Requirements For The Degree Of Master Of Technology (Quality), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2012. / Reading is fundamental to functioning effectively in today's society. Learners with poor reading abilities have low opinions of themselves and their abilities (Patil, Saraswathi and Padakannaya, 2009:93). Behavioural problems may arise as these learners feel isolated and frustrated. The development of learners’ literacy in South Africa as a developing country is accentuated by several challenges. Many learners in South Africa have difficulty understanding the language in which they are taught as they are not taught in their mother tongue. However, the language of instruction is not solely responsible for the poor performance in international reading tests and schooling in general. Learners are faced with socio-economic issues, very little or hardly any parental supervision and educators are faced with the challenge of finding reading methods and strategies suitable to improving reading. Learners in the foundation phase are explicitly taught reading skills. In the intermediate phase, learners are expected to apply the skills acquired in the foundation phase to access the curriculum. In reality, this is difficult to achieve. The focus of this study is on preparing current intermediate phase educators in the development of learner literacy by contributing possible strategies that will enable the improvement of the quality of intermediate phase reading. The study was conducted at primary schools to the north of Durban. A questionnaire was distributed to intermediate phase educators, including members of school management. Of the selected sample of 450, 366 of the respondents returned the questionnaire with no inaccuracies, declaring an 85% response rate. The Predictive Analytic Software (PASW) Version 18.0 was used to analyse the data collected from the responses. The results are presented in the form of graphs, cross tabulations and other figures. An analysis of the data revealed significant statistics from the different aspects explored (biographical data; factors impacting on reading literacy; language and reading instruction; strategies for teaching reading; library and computer resources; systems for improving reading quality; and homework). The study contributes to several academic disciplines and the development of society in general, as it proposes strategies and recommendations that may be implemented to improve the quality of intermediate phase reading, and thereby contribute to schooling experience in general. The study recommends that all stakeholders (home; school management; educators; and the department of education) be held accountable for the improvement of literacy in our country. Educators need to be trained in the teaching of reading and parents need to play a more active role in the learners’ lives. It is imperative that remedial educators and special personnel be employed by the department of education to assist learners with reading difficulties. The study further recommends that the time allocated for intermediate phase literacy education be reviewed. The reinstating of collapsed libraries is vital to improving the quality of reading. In addition, the administrative workload of educators requires re-examination in light of the poor results achieved in the national (ANA) and international (PIRLS) literacy programmes. / M

<p>This study explored the effects of a teacher development programme based on Philosophy for Children. One of the challenges facing education in South Africa is that the school curriculum has to promote the development of values, such as respect for life, equality, protection of freedom and the right to an opinion, through creative and critical thinking. The theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky inform our understanding of cognitive development with the important notions of active involvement, mediated learning and the development of thinking skills. Many programmes have been developed to assist learners in this regard. One such programme is Philosophy for Children. This study located Philosophy for Children and the locally developed material, Stories for thinking, in Vygotskian theory and explored its application within a South African context.</p>

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vad tidigare forskning säger om hur lärare kan organisera fysikundervisningen för att stödja elever, i årskurs 4 – 9, till meningsskapande samtal om fysikens begrepp. I denna systematiska litteraturstudie presenteras resultat utifrån litteratur som noggrant valts ut genom en systematisk sökningsprocess i databaserna Summon, ERIC, Nordina och avhandlingar.se där all litteratur har genomgått peer review. Studiens resultat visar att elever tillsammans bidrar till meningsskapande samtal genom att tillföra egna erfarenheter och förkunskaper om fysikens begrepp. Studien visar hur eleverna kan diskutera fritt så länge de har något att diskutera utifrån, exempelvis praktiska experiment, bilder, artefakter eller texter. Lärarens roll är sedan att stödja eleverna till att använda och förstå de korrekta vetenskapliga begreppen. Studien visar att läraren kan göra detta genom att koppla till vardagliga objekt och företeelser, ställa utmanande frågor, synliggöra nyckelbegrepp och elevers förförståelse samt återkoppla till elevers lärande. Med dessa olika metoder agerar läraren som en riktningsgivare som guidar eleven i en kunskapsutvecklande riktning. Genom att utgå från samt synliggöra elevernas förförståelse får både elever och lärare kunskap om eventuella missuppfattningar. Detta bidrar i sin tur till meningsskapande samtal då eleverna börjar ifrågasätta samt förändra och utveckla sin förståelse för fysiken begrepp.

Thesis (M. Com. (Accountancy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Accountancy, 2014. / This paper reports the findings of an action research intervention designed to explore the student experiences of a lecturer’s role-modelling specific cognitive self-regulated learning (SRL) skills on third year Financial Accounting students’ motivation and strategies for learning. The intervention involved a series of enrichment tutorials with a pilot group of Financial Accounting III students at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. A mixed methods research approach was used in the study. Qualitative data was collected in the form of verbal and written feedback from group participants and the lecturer’s research diary. Quantitative data was gathered by means of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), which was used to measure the students’ motivations and strategies for learning before and after the intervention. The intervention involved a lecturer role-modelling specific learning skills through the use of active learning activities. The skills role-modelled focussed on the following MSLQ learning strategies: rehearsal, organisation, elaboration, critical thinking, meta-cognitive self-regulation, and time and study environment management. Results suggest that role-modelling in an active learning environment does help students to implement SRL skills and experience the value of using the skills. Students reported making changes to their learning approaches to Financial Accounting III as a result of the intervention. Additionally the study identified the need for students to be taught the academic discourse of financial accounting within the course content.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Religion)--Vanderbilt University, May 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

There are three fundamentally different ideas about the nature of learning and the properties/nature of knowledge. These ideas include both a view of how learning occurs and also a view of what knowledge actually is. These three basic approaches are referred to as behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. A basic understanding of the three theories is required to complete this tutorial. Refer to the references section in this tutorial for an overview of the differences between these theoretical approaches to learning and knowledge. In this interactive tutorial you will be presented with 25 characteristics of these three learning theories. Your goal will be to determine which of these characteristics refer to behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism.

Multiple cognitive-linguistic factors have been found to contribute to narrative writing in English, and this study aims to investigate whether the same applies to writing in Chinese. Taken into account the special characteristics in grammar of the Chinese language and the differences between oral dialect and written language, the present study assessed a total of 117 Hong Kong primary school children in either Grade Three or Five on their performances in a range of cognitive-linguistic skills (i.e., syntactic skills, oral-written translation, discourse skills, and topic knowledge) and narrative writing in Chinese. Results of regression analyses showed that oral-written translation skill is the unique and significant predictor of writing in general. Besides, syntactic skills are more predictive for the writing performance of junior writers, while topic knowledge is more crucial to the writing by senior writers. More specifically, syntactic and oral-written translation skills predict the grammar of writing; topic knowledge predicts the fluency of writing; and discourse skills contribute significantly to the content of writing. These findings shed light on understanding the basis of writing in Chinese and serve as a foundation for future research on writing development and difficulties. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

<p>This study explored the effects of a teacher development programme based on Philosophy for Children. One of the challenges facing education in South Africa is that the school curriculum has to promote the development of values, such as respect for life, equality, protection of freedom and the right to an opinion, through creative and critical thinking. The theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky inform our understanding of cognitive development with the important notions of active involvement, mediated learning and the development of thinking skills. Many programmes have been developed to assist learners in this regard. One such programme is Philosophy for Children. This study located Philosophy for Children and the locally developed material, Stories for thinking, in Vygotskian theory and explored its application within a South African context.</p>

Among student modelling researches, domain-independent student models have usually been a rarity. They are valued because of reusability and economy. The demand on domain-independent student models is further increased by the need to stay competitive in the so-called knowledge economy nowadays and the widespread practice of lifelong learning. On the other hand, the popularity of student-oriented pedagogy triggers the need to provide cognitive support in virtual learning environments which in turn requires student models that create cognitive profiles of students. This study offers an innovative student modelling approach called cognitive trait model (CTM) to address both the needs mentioned above. CTM is a domain-independent and persistent student model that goes beyond traditional concept of student model. It is capable of taking the role of a learning companion who knows about the cognitive traits of the student and can supply this information when the student first starts using a new learning system. The behaviour of the students in the learning systems can then be used to update CTM. Three cognitive traits are included in the CTM in this study, they are working memory capacity, inductive reasoning ability and divergent associative learning. For the three cognitive traits, their domain-independence and persistence are studied and defined, their characteristics are examined, and behaviour patterns that can be used to indicate them are extracted. In this study, a learning system is developed to gather behaviour data of students. Several web-based psychometric tools are also developed to gather the psychometric data about the three cognitive traits of students. In the evaluations, Cognitive trait modelling is then applied on the behaviour data and the results are compared with the psychometric data. The findings prove the effectiveness of CTM and reveal important insights about the three cognitive traits.