Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa's education and training policy legislates that in order to be formally accredited all South African education and training programmes should be outcomesbased. The design and implementation of outcomes-based programmes can be a complex process and there are few exemplars. This study examines the design and implementation of the Ready for Business programme. The Ready for Business programme was designed to assist Grade 11 and Grade 12 learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to gain the necessary knowledge, skills and values to succeed in higher education business studies. The programme was piloted by the Siyabona Education Trust as a Delta Foundation project from 1997-2000. This study outlines the move towards outcomes-based education within a South African context. It specifically focuses on Spady's (1994) theory of transformational outcomesbased education and how this can be translated into practice within a South African education and training context. This study applies a programme evaluation approach within a constructivist-interpretive paradigm to assess the effectiveness of the design of the Ready for Business programme and its implementation by the Siyabona Education Trust. Essentially, the evaluation follows the principles of fourth generation evaluation. Data is gathered from the programme stakeholders through individual interviews, group interviews and questionnaires. A final group interview with stakeholders provides the foundation for further refinement of the programme. The researcher makes recommendations for improvement of the design and implementation of the programme based on the findings of the study. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid Afrika se onderwys- en opleidingsbeleid vereis dat aile onderwys- en opleidings programme uitkomsgebaseerd moet wees ten einde formeel geakkrediteer te word. Die ontwerp en implementering van uitkomsgebaseerde programme kan 'n komplekse proses wees. Daar bestaan egter min nasionale modelle. Die Ready for Business model is on twerp om Graad 11 en Graad 12 Ieerders, van voorhen agtergeblewe gemeenskappe te ondersteen om hulle in staat te stel om die nodige kennis, vaardighede en waarders aan te leer ten einde suksesvol te wees in hcer onderwys besigheidstudies. Hierdie model is tussen 1997 en 2000 geloods deur die Siyabona Education Trust as deel van 'n projek van die Delta Stigting. Hierdie studie skets die beweging tot uitkomsgebaseerde onderwys binne 'n Suid Afrikaanse konteks. Dit fokus spesifiek op Spady (1994) se teorie van transfonnatoriese uitkomsgebaseerde onderwys en hoe dit geimplernenteer kan word binne die Suid Afrikaanse onderwys- en opleidingsbeleid. Die studie pas 'n evalueringsprogram binne 'n konstruktivistiese paradigma toe om die effektiwiteit van die Ready for Business program en die implementering daarvan te bepaal soos geloods deur die Siyabona Education Trust. Die evaluering geskied primer volgens die beginsels en vierde generasie evaluering. Data is bekom deur beide individuele en groeponderhoude, asook deur vraelyste. 'n Finale groeponderhoud met die rolspelers le 'n verdere verfyning van die program ten grondslag. Gebaseer op die bevindinge van die studie, maak die navorser gevolglik voorstelle vir die verbetering van die ontwerp en implementering van die program. IV

Enrollment shifts, declining public expenditures, and retrenchment characterize higher education in the 1980s. The prevailing atmosphere of attenuation has resulted in the excision of academic programs and units no longer central to institutional mission. Like other areas of higher education, home economics has become a subject of analysis in universities dealing with financial stress as evidenced by program reorganization and discontinuance. The purpose of this study was to identify factors leading to the continuance of discontinuance of home economics programs or units. Specifically, significant indicators of enrollment and financial stress were identified as they relate to home economics programs that have continued or have been partially discontinued in public doctorate-granting universities. The results of the current study were derived from the analysis of responses from fifty-six (74% return) home economics administrators in public doctorate-granting universities. The major conclusions drawn from the results include the following: (1) No empirical evidence was found to establish a relationship between accreditation status and the continuance or discontinuance of home economics programs in public doctorate-granting universities. (2) Ten statistically significant factors were identified which were characteristic of or related to home economics programs which have discontinued academic units. Eight factors supported previous contentions, including increased teaching loads; encouragement of unselective early retirement; reduced supplies, equipment and travel budgets; decreased diversity of student profiles; decreased rate of applications for admission; decreased rates of funding for additional students; decline in the flow of students from high school; and decline in the level of the socioeconomic status of the student population. (3) Findings regarding two factors contradicted previous contentions. Decreased federal funding was not characteristic of home economics programs that have experienced retrenchment to the extent of discontinuing academic units. Likewise, a shorter period between the closing date for applications and registration characterized continuing home economics programs, not retrenching programs as previously thought. Consideration of these significant factors could aid college and university administrators in strategically planning for the future of higher education, and of home economics in particular, to maintain institutional and programmatic quality and flexibility.

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The problem of this study was to analyze the economic understanding and values of high school seniors in a large metropolitan school district. To attack the problem, three purposes were formulated. The first purpose was to determine if students enrolled in a one-semester, elective course in economics differed significantly in terms of economic understanding from students enrolled in a comparable non-economic social studies course. Another purpose was to determine if an already existing value orientation had some effect on a change in economic understanding. The final purpose was to see if a change in a particular value orientation was related to a change in economic understanding.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the conditions for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. April 2016. / The global financial crisis of 2007–2008 changed the way the world thinks about economics as a discipline and brought about awareness of how economics is taught at universities. In view of an on-going global debate about the economics curriculum and its teaching, this doctoral study places the South African context within the global higher education sphere and explores how introductory economics is taught in first-year at a South African university. This study explored the teaching of Economics 1 at a mainstream, globally-ranked public university in South Africa with very similar content and structure to the Economics 1 curriculum in the West. The main aim of the doctoral study was to investigate the qualitatively different ways in which university teachers (lecturers and tutors) teaching Economics 1 at a South African university conceive of, experience and understand their teaching and tutoring roles. On the basis of this, three research questions were asked: (I) What are the qualitatively different ways in which lecturers at ‘the University’ understand teaching Economics 1?; (II) What are the qualitatively different ways tutors at ‘the University’ understand teaching Economics 1?; and (III) What is/are the implication(s) for students’ learning of teaching Economics 1 within the current setting at ‘the University’ through the lenses of relevant conceptual frameworks and the outcome of the empirical study? Teaching in higher education, the disciplinary context of economics’ undergraduate teaching and its implications for students’ learning underpinned the choice of the literature, the three conceptual frameworks and the research methodology. By asking the three research questions above to guide the research process, the empirical study used a qualitative methodology – phenomenography – that aims to explore the qualitatively different ways in which a group of people experience a specific phenomenon, in this case teaching Economics 1 in higher education. On the basis of phenomenography as a conceptual framework in itself, this doctoral study further analysed the empirical data using two conceptual frameworks - a four-context framework for teaching in higher education and the concept of semantic gravity, relating to segmented and cumulative learning, as conceptual lenses. Two sets of conceptions of teaching emerged on the basis of answering the first two research questions. A careful, comparative analysis of these two sets (lecturers’ and tutors’ sets of conceptions of teaching) led to six conceptions of teaching Economics 1 in higher education as follows: (I) team collaboration to implement the economics curriculum; (II) having a thorough knowledge of the content; (III) implementing the curriculum in order for students to pass assessment; (IV) helping students learn key economics concepts and representations to facilitate learning; (V) engaging students through their real-life economics context to acquire economic knowledge; and (VI) helping students think like economists. The first three are characterised as being teacher-centred and the later three as student-centred. Applying the concept of semantic gravity (Maton, 2009), I argue that the latter two more complete conceptions of teaching imply cumulative learning in which students are able to acquire higher-order principles whereby they are able to apply the knowledge acquired through the teaching of Economics 1 in new contexts. The first four conceptions are seen as favouring segmented learning. According to this analysis, the fourth conception, although characterized as student oriented, should be regarded as favouring segmented learning which is not in line with the aims of higher education. As for the four-context model of teaching in higher education, the analysis from the empirical data showed that there is a very strong connection between the pedagogical and disciplinary contexts in relation to the six conceptions of teaching emerging from the analysis, though the disciplinary context is stronger than the pedagogical context. In summary, three implications can be drawn from this doctoral study on the basis of the empirical data, literature and conceptual frameworks as the basis for improving undergraduate economics education. These are as follows: (1) the need to make the economics curriculum aligned with real-life contexts of undergraduate students; (2) the need to rethink the economics curriculum in light of the current global debates within the discipline of economics; and (3) the need to bring pedagogical development into the team. Key words/phrases: Conceptions of Teaching; Teaching in Higher Education; Higher Education Research; Undergraduate Economics Education; and Phenomenography

The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of adult high school students enrolled in a one-semester economics course allocated 60 hours of instruction to the achievement of regular high school students in the same course that was allocated 73 hours of instruction.From three large high schools in Indiana offering both regular high school and adult high school credit programs, a sample of 178 students was selected. One case was dropped from the study, reducing the sample size to 177.The structure of the available adult education delivery system did not permit a direct comparison of adult high school credit classes with differing instructional time allotments.As a result, the achievement comparison was made between adult high school and regular high school students. To control for possible initial differences between the two groups of students with regard to academic aptitude, the Test of Cognitive Stills was administered.The Test of Economic Literacy Form A was selected as a pretest to measure each student's prior knowledge of economics. The Test of Economic Literacy Form B was administered at the completion of the course to measure the achievement gain.A two-by-two analysis of covariance was used to statistically analyze the data.FindingsThe null hypothesis was tested for significance at the .05 level. The null hypothesis of no difference was not rejected, and the following conclusion was made:ConclusionThe allocation of thirteen additional hours of classroom instructional time to senior high economics classes did not produce a significant gain in achievement.

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The main purpose of this research was to establish how the theory of variation could be used as a resource to enhance learning in Economic and Management Sciences. In the process three specific interdependent research questions were addressed: firstly "how can we develop among learners a good understanding of a particular topic in EMS, for example how the price or value of the Rand is determined on the Foreign Exchange market? secondly "how can the theory of variation be used as a tool for learners to experience the object of learning in a particular way?"; and lastly, "How can the use of a learning study help educators to improve their teaching and make a particular kind of learning possible?" The study utilised pre-test-post-test retention design experiment in phenomenographic studies. A learning study tool within the variation theory of learning was incorporated into a series of grade nine classroom-learning activities on foreign exchange market operation. 361 learners participated in the study. Three main findings were established. Firstly an outcome space was found which contained four qualitatively different ways of experiencing the determination of the Rand price/value on the foreign exchange market. Secondly there was a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test in learning outcome of the understanding of Rand price determination. This was demonstrated using t-test at p-value of 0.000, followed by Levene's t-test for equality of variance test. Thirdly, the results showed an educationally significant improvement in learners' understanding of the EMS concept, through the application of a learning study tool in the variation theory of learning The study therefore supports the role of the theory of variation of learning, which means that learning to see something in a particular way is a function of experiencing simultaneous variation in critical aspects of the object of learning. Educators identify the critical aspects related to different ways of understanding of a particular object of learning, and to design the patterns of variation, or create the space of variation consciously with respect to these critical aspects. / (PhD) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006