published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study aimed to examine the relationship between teacher written feedback and change in the writing of tertiary students in their final year of undergraduate study through investigating: (i) the characteristics of final year undergraduate tertiary students’ texts prior to receiving feedback; (ii) the way these characteristics change after written feedback is given; and (iii) the relationship between the changes made and the types of feedback given. The study examined student texts and teacher written feedback that arose naturally out of a third year disciplinary-based unit in which the students each submitted a text three times over the course of a semester, each time receiving feedback and a mark prior to rewriting and resubmitting. Two in-depth non-quantitative analyses were conducted: one analysing the characteristics of each of the students’ texts and how these changed over the course of the process, the other analysing the relationship between the different types of feedback and the changes that occurred in the subsequent text. The analysis of the students’ texts and their changes covered: (i) coherence; (ii) the sources used and the manner in which these were cited and referenced; (iii) academic expression and mechanics; and (iv) additional expectations and requirements of the writing task. These characteristics and their changes were related to the instructional approaches to which all the students had been exposed in their first, second and third year studies. The analysis shows that, on their own accord, the third year students were able to produce a range of generalisable characteristics reflecting the “basics” in writing and demands specific to the tertiary context that had been revealed through the instructional approaches used. The problems in the students’ texts were mainly related to (i) executing and expressing the specific requirements of the task and (ii) their reading of the social context. Most of the changes in the texts were related to the feedback given. Some of these changes directly resolved problems, however, others did not. Some changes occurred to accommodate other changes in the text and some were made to satisfy a demand of the lecturer sometimes resulting in a problem that did not present in the previous text. These findings enabled insights to be drawn on two major views of tertiary student writing: the deficit view in which the problems in student’s texts are seen to be due to a lack of “basic skills”; and the view that students’ problems arise due to the new demands of the tertiary context. The study found that the deficit view and the “new demands” view were unable to explain all the characteristics of the students’ texts and their changes. Arising out of these findings, this study proposes that the characteristics of a student’s text show the end result of how that student negotiated and integrated his/her understanding of form, content and contextual demands at the time of writing. In analysing the relationship between the different types of feedback and the changes that occurred, the feedback was categorised according to the issue that was being addressed, the manner in which it was given, and its scope. The different types of feedback were directly related to the changes that occurred in the students’ subsequent rewrites. The analysis shows that clear direct feedback on which students can act is strongly related to change where it (i) addresses characteristics that could be readily integrated into the existing text without the need to renegotiate the integration of form, content and contextual demands OR (ii) addresses characteristics and indicates to students how to negotiate the integration between form, content and contextual demands where integration in the text needs to change. In addition, the analysis shows that change is further influenced by the balance between the various individual points of feedback and the degree to which they reinforced each other. The findings from both analyses in this study show that the use of feedback that is strongly related to change can improve the writing of all students beyond what they learn through other instructional approaches to writing.

The research was concerned with perceptions of language and physics in three strata of participants in a writing across the curriculum teaching course at an intermediate college. The participants were: a language teacher, two physics teachers and a class of twenty physics students - the students were studying in order to enter the Engineering Faculty at the University of Cape Town. The predominant understanding of the teachers was that of a limited interpenetration between the discourse of physics and language teaching. Physics teachers thought that language teachers would experience difficulties with both the concepts and language of physics. In actual practice however, students and the language teacher managed physics knowledge with some degree of success in the language classroom. Some students understood writing as helping them to understand physics. However, the dominant understanding of language was that of knowing the appropriate language of physics for their teachers. An appropriate language understanding was seen as potentially problematic in that it could encourage an unquestioning or monodimensional approach to physics knowledge. As a way around this problem, it was suggested that language teachers teach students to recognise and to use particular genres within science, and to develop their voice within these constraints.

A full dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Education Presented to the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / In this qualitative exploratory study the primary purpose was to examine the nature of teaching strategies employed by two Grade 3 teachers to teach writing literacy. The following research questions underpinned the study: i) What strategies are being implemented by Grade 3 teachers to develop literacy skills in their classes ii) How appropriate, relevant and potentially effective are these strategies in terms of the aspects of literacy they address and support? Interviews and video-observations of the teaching-learning process were the two methods of data collection. Through a constant interplay between what teachers do as they teach writing literacy and literature accounts of what constitutes good teaching of writing literacy, the study aimed to arrive at conclusions regarding the question on whether the teaching strategies were appropriate, relevant and have potential for effectiveness. Both the interview and observation data were analysed using the constant comparative method in order to arrive at conclusions regarding the two research questions. The study has revealed that though teaching happened in a piecemeal fashion, the teachers use a variety of good teaching strategies to develop literacy among their learners.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Education: Visual Art Education in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012 / This thesis investigates the factors, specifically the constraints, that influence the choices intermediate phase teachers make when planning visual art lessons. The study is also concerned with how teachers deal with factors that they identify as constraints to teaching visual art. The study is framed within an interpretive framework and the work on teacher knowledge by Shulman (1986; 1987). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four class teachers, three Arts and Culture teachers, and four visual art teachers using a phenomenological methodology. Interviews were analysed systematically by indexing and organizing the data using the knowledge base for teaching as described by Shulman (1987) and Turner-Bisset (1999).<p></p> The patterns in what teachers consider when planning visual art lessons, and their reasons for doing so, was better explained by a teacher’s training in visual art education rather than his/her role as a class, Arts and Culture, or visual art teacher. In this study, the teachers who are trained in visual art education generally work in situations with few contextual problems and their focus, when lesson-planning, centres around the best way visual art content knowledge can be integrated into lessons. In comparison, most of the teachers who are not trained in visual art education mentioned numerous contextual problems that affected their ability to teach visual art. These teachers plan their visual art lessons around what they believe they are able to manage within the context of the school they are working in, rather than specific visual art related outcomes. In addition, their lesson-planning decisions are generally based on limited visual art content knowledge and pedagogy. Hence, compared to teachers trained to teach visual art, their application of visual art content knowledge is haphazard and does not build on the foundation of the curriculum.<p></p> Limited contact time and support from management are two contextual factors that were found to impact the way teachers in this study plan visual art lessons. To mitigate for the lack of contact time, the teachers trained in visual art education endeavoured to manage their lesson time efficiently and to setup clear routines with their learners so as to minimize the amount of time spent on non-learning activities.

Based on linear models, this study demonstrated that the psychological and social structures of the classroom, viewed as a naturalistic human system, impact learning outcomes. To operationalize learning outcomes, final grades in the course and a subject self report scale tapping perceptions of utility of material taught were used. The social and psychological structures of the classroom-as-a-human-system were operationalized through the following variables: the degree of social integration of each student, based on network analytic procedures; communication apprehension of students; dimensions of perceived credibility of instructors; dimensions of interpersonal attraction to instructors; perceived satisfaction with task demands of the course; and adjusted orientation to communication, based on communication apprehension scores and network data. Data were obtained from five sections of a multi-section communication course of a large state institution of higher learning in the southwestern region of the United States. Differences in sex were not found.

M.A. (Psychology) / South Africa faces a future in which cross-cultural interactions are likely to increase in all areas of life. specifically in the area of schooling such increased interactions are ensured with the introduction of the 'open' school system. This system allows children of all races to attend public schools for the first time in South Africa's history. In order to ensure that this increased cross-cultural contact occurs peacefully and to the benefit of all, a culture sensitising drive needs to be undertaken nation-wide. such a drive will need to include the multi-culturalising of all cross-cultural sensitising programmes. implementation of One programme in and . schools and the development particular which shows great promise in this area is that of the Culture-General Assimilator. For the purposes of the thesis, a preliminary South African Culture Assimilator was developed and compared to an already existing Culture-General Assimilator. Both assimilators were run in a private multi-cultural school. Standard VI pupils made up the subjects.