A dissertation submitted in the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Education Degree in the Department of Social Science Education at the University of Zululand, 2018. / Subject advisors encountered problems that affected curriculum delivery in the intermediate phase of schools in South Africa and other countries. There are factors influencing curriculum delivery in different countries ranging from what happens in and with the government to what takes place and is obtained in the classroom. If challenges or factors influencing curriculum delivery, such as political interference, social, economic, access to technology and environmental factors, are not addressed, this will have detrimental consequences not only to the delivery and implementation of curriculum but also to our education system. Teacher education curriculum, recruitment, training and retaining of teachers, non- professionalization of teachers, poor funding and insufficient ICT access; are the reasons for the challenges faced in the actual delivery of the curriculum. This quantitative research design was conducted in King Cetshwayo District in Kwa-Zulu Natal Province with the aim of finding out what the subject adviser`s perceptions are in curriculum delivery. The sample consisted of educators, SMT`s and subject adviser`s. Data was collected through questionnaires and quantitative research. The study revealed the need for the Department of Education to increase the number of Subject Advisers` with the purpose of educating more educators about the curriculum, through facilitated workshops and other refresher training. The study also divulged the need for the government to improve the existing infrastructures in the schools, in order to motivate educators and members of the school management team in the discharge of their duties.

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Thesis (MEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020 / This study investigates factors that affect the integration of Educational Technology (ET) by mathematics teachers for pedagogy in less affluent high schools in the Western Cape. ET has permeated the education system in the 21st century. It is now a norm for ET to be used in classrooms for educational purposes. Despite the prevalence of a variety of ETs, not all mathematics teachers are fully equipped to take advantage of the immense benefits posited by ET. This study reveals that a lot of mathematics teachers in public schools in the Western Cape still face critical challenges in their attempt to fully integrate ET for pedagogy.  The study employed a qualitative research design to explore the factors affecting the integration and use of ET for curriculum delivery by mathematics teachers in less affluent high schools in the Western Cape Province. The framework underpinning this study is the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework which guided the researcher in the analysis of the research findings. The researcher used two data collection instruments, namely, semi structured interviews and observations. Face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 participants and themes were used for analysing data. Participants were fully furnished with information regarding their rights when participating in the study. They were informed that they could withdraw at any given stage during the interview process. Despite the permeance of technology in the education sphere, the study’s findings show that teachers in less affluent schools in the Western Cape still experience mitigating factors that militates against effective integration of technology in classrooms for pedagogy. For effective integration of ET to take place, several factors needed to be critically addressed. They included the lack of training, limited access to ET, lack of technical support, lack of time and the theft of ET resources.

This thesis reports a longitudinal study that investigated the factors affecting at-risk students' use of an online curriculum delivery mode for some Year 11 subjects. The study examined the skills and attitudes of the students during their online learning experience, and followed the teachers while they developed suitable teaching methods to be able to deliver their subject via online learning. Importantly, the students in the study were at risk of not completing subjects in the South Australian Certificate of Education (SALE) if some kind of curriculum intervention was not applied. Access to the school curriculum can be problematic for some young people for a variety of reasons, including a limited subject choice, an inability to attend programmed classes and exhibiting behaviour that is deemed to be inappropriate by school authorities. Students in this study were not able to study the subjects they wished because of timetable clashes, were not able to attend school regularly for personal reasons or had exhibited negative behaviour to their teachers and peers preventing them from attending certain classes. At the time of the study, all the students wished to complete their SALE, but limited access to the curriculum was likely to prevent this from occurring. The study used qualitative methods of data collection including interviews with students and teachers, analysis of students' work, electronic communications and other documents, and records of meetings. These were used to prepare case studies for each of the seven students involved. While the student sample was small, the varied personal experiences of the students in the study enabled the examination of many of the characteristics documented in the literature as those being associated with at-risk youth. / All the students involved in the study completed the NetLearning Project (NLP) unit(s) they had enrolled in, but each encountered different challenges. The case studies provided data that enabled identification of the characteristics students required to be successful online learners. Three clusters of factors relating to personal situations (reason for entry to the program, access to a home computer and continuity of schooling), skill factors (level of ICT and English literacy skills), and attitude to learning (willingness to persist and level of self-directedness) were identified as major contributors to students' ability to complete their units. The teacher case studies revealed that the characteristics required for teachers to operate effectively within the online learning environment include an ability to promote positive teacher-student relationships, a high level of ICT skills, good subject knowledge and curriculum understanding. In addition, teachers required initiative, persistence and collaborative skills. The findings of the study highlight the importance of attitudinal factors in determining the students and teachers success in the online environment and suggest that teacher-student relationships have a major impact on student learning outcomes, just as they do in the traditional classroom.

The purpose of this study was to explore how university department chairs, or equivalent, perceive leadership as it relates to the context of online curriculum delivery in higher education. Three research areas guided the study: (a) nature and context of online environment and how it impacts the leadership, (b) the ways in which leaders conceptualize leadership, and (c) challenges and tensions for leadership. The sample included four participants (chair, director, coordinator, and associate dean) from three Western-Canadian universities. Findings in this study revealed four salient themes and sub-themes: (a) Context The Setting (technology, model of learning, faculty categories, cost-recovery versus cost-sharing); (b) Leadership Preparation (removing barriers and improving leadership preparation); (c) Leadership in General (relational-oriented, vision and direction setting, organizational culture and cultural diversity, ethics); and (d) Challenges and Tensions (past, present, future, organizational realities). The study concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice that include: balance between administrator and scholar, leadership preparation, and degree proposals. Implications for theory include: leadership in the context of online curriculum delivery, cost-recovery, technology, cultural diversity, ethics and equity, as well as organizational change. Finally, based on the findings, conclusions, and implications, several questions that warrant future research into the phenomenon of leadership in higher education are shared. / Educational Administration and Leadership

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The main purpose of this study was to investigate the responses of educators and school management team members on a Curriculum Delivery Intervention Programme (CDIP) in a township school. The study also examined the factors that might influence the opinions educators and school management team members hold about curriculum delivery. The participants of this study were 60 educators who are teaching at an underperforming secondary school in Mpumalanga province. The secondary school was conveniently selected from 8 under-performing schools in the Witbank area. The data were collected through a mix-method approach using questionnaires, individual interviews and an observational checklist. A 100% responses rate was achieved. The literature review was conducted to identify the main interventions contained in the CDIP. Educators and school management teams responded to curriculum delivery interventions questionnaires. Data was collected by means of individual interviews and an observational checklist. The focus fell on the following main interventions: departmental support, professional development and classroom practices. The data for the study were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The findings of the study show that both educators and SMT members agree about the value of curriculum delivery intervention programme in the school. They also showed that the school had not been supported with necessary resources by the Department that well. The results also indicate that educators and SMT members disagree that skills development covers everybody in order to pursue educators’ development in the school. The staff agreed that they have an important role to play in ensuring that the implementation of CDIP is successful in their school. The study also revealed that the school did not have all key and relevant documentation as expected in the school files. However, educators indicated that the Department is not objective enough when delivering the curriculum in the school. The results derived from the curriculum delivery intervention might not be that accurate and reliable. The responses of staff correspond with their experiences on curriculum delivery practices initiated by the Department. Most of them also indicated that they have not seen much change since the CDIP started to enhance learners’ performance. The majority of staff members also indicated that factors such as lack of furniture, unavailability of learning materials, lack of teacher professional training and development, large number of learners in classrooms and shortage of educators in scarce subjects, play a significant role in influencing their teaching performance of the school. A number of recommendations were made for further research. The limitations of the study were also discussed. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

Thesis (M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The Department of Basic Education has a duty of ensuring that all children enjoy free and equal access to basic education despite their socio-economic status and backgrounds. The South African constitution also recognises universal access to quality primary education as a fundamental human right. This compels the Department of Basic Education to ensure that every child is provided with basic primary education at no cost, hence the expansion of no-fee schools and the National Schools Nutrition Programme. In an attempt to fulfil the Millennium Developmental Goal 2, which advocates for the provision of equal access to primary education, the multi-grade teaching practice was then introduced to ensure the provision of education to children in sparsely-populated and rural communities. However, this type of teaching practice comes with myriad difficulties which teachers face as they manage curriculum delivery. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the various difficulties that teachers face as they have to deal with multi-grade teaching and how they overcome those difficulties. The literature revealed that multi-grade teaching is not limited to the South African situation alone, but a global phenomenon practised in both developing and developed countries. It also emanates from the literature that multi-grade teaching, if used correctly and effectively could yield positive results. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. This study follows a case study design. Following that the study adopted the qualitative research approach, data collection tools linked to the approach were used and included: Interviews, document review and observations. A principal, teacher and parent from three schools managing difficulties associated with multi-grade classes were purposively sampled. The research findings, based on the interviews, document review, observation and the literature reviewed revealed that the insufficient backing from the Department of Basic Education, heavy workload of teachers and general shortage of teaching staff are some of the difficulties that teachers in multi-graded schools have to grapple with. Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that the dearth of intervention from the Department of Basic Education hugely affects the effective curriculum delivery in multi-graded schools. To mitigate the identified difficulties, the researcher recommended that a different post-provisioning norm and funding model for the multi-graded schools be experimented with.