M. A. / The inequalities regarding opportunities for the various cultural groups in South Africa to obtain access to tertiary education, could largely be attributed to the insufficient schooling that was available to black scholars until now. A new political dispensation and the coupled drastic changes to the educational system, including tertiary institutions, demands that the admission policies regulating the access tot tertiary education be reviewed and changed to provide for the educationally disadvantaged student. The Rand Afrikaans University created an alternative admission policy to accommodate educationally disadvantaged students and or students who do not qualify in terms of the usual admission criteria. Apart from certain minimum requirements, the policy requires that the learning and developmental potential of the prospective students be established. Language proficiency, intelligence, learning potential and other non-cognitive components are elements of the alternative evaluation. RAU found that the admission policy creates the necessity to research the predictive validity of the cognitive part of the test battery, with regard to the criterium academic performance. This research project attempted to assess whether the psychometric test battery which the University uses, within the framework of an academic support programme called Project 100, can be viewed as valid in predicting future academic performance of these students. The battery includes the measurement of intelligence by means of the LSAT; learning potential as assessed by the APIL; as well as language proficiency that is measured by using the Leesbegripstoets and the Reading Comprehension Test. M-score was also included into the statistical procedures, as to see whether the predictive validity of this factor is really as low as it is generally assumed. The statistical procedures that were employed to establish the predictive validity, included correlation coefficients for determining the validity of the individual components. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to determine the predictive validity of the components of the battery in conjunction with each other. Using the technique of discriminant analysis, the success of grouping through the test battery was assessed - looking at the proportion of the cases correctly classified into the categories pass, fail, and no admission to exam; and the categories successful and unsuccessful. The individual correlation coefficients revealed that each component correlated significantly with academic performance. M-score also correlated with academic performance, but this coefficient was the lowest of all the factors. The component which correlated highest with academic performance, was language proficiency. The GSAT and the APIL correlated to the same extent with performance, and the relationship between the two instruments was also relatively high. This implies that these two instruments probably measures the same construct. The results from the regression analysis proved M-score, APIL and the GSAT in combination to explain more of the variance in academic performance than any of these factors individually. M-score seems to explain other aspects of performance than intelligence and learning potential, and should for this reason be reckoned with when assessing a prospective student's potential success. The discriminant analysis showed that the tests successfully distinguish between the categories successful and unsuccessful, but not between the three categories pass, fail and no admission to exam. The factors should however never be seen in isolation. No single factor can predict academic performance to the full. The person should be seen as a whole, and the influence of non-cognitive factors should always be kept in mind.

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Ph.D. / This study investigated the nature of collaboration between three institutions: the school, NGO and community (local leaders and members) in enabling sustainable development in regard to the creation of livelihoods and conservation. Two school-based environmental education programmes in South Africa and Tanzania were used to investigate the nature and issues of collaboration involving the tripartite institutions. Adopting pragmatic and critical paradigms, a mixed model approach formed the framework within which the study was conducted. A mixed model emphasising qualitative methods was appropriate and proved useful enabling insightful investigations. The study found that the nature of collaboration between the tripartite institutions was superfluous. Inspired by their traditional roles and modernistic competitive practices, most institutions preferred independent or singularist approaches and weaker inter-relationships to openness and closer working partnerships for survival. The resultant deliberate negation of developing local capacities promoted the traditional independent relational status quo, which assured little or no innovative approaches to conservation and livelihood creation. The isolated and independent institutional activity implementation approaches led to institutions copying each other as opposed to learning from each other innovatively as enunciated in communities of practice. The position thus contributed in stifling the efforts that could drive sustainable development activities in local communities through the institutions. It also impeded the development of familiarity between, and among the institutions further discouraging meaningful collaboration. Local institutions thus isolated themselves from each other making themselves vulnerable to external forces that further derailed their efforts to contribute towards education, conservation and the creation of livelihoods in local contexts. It is recommended that NGOs involved in education and environmental activities, and the government departments of education in particular assist educators to establish forums and nurture them to attain functional capacities. This is one way of encouraging continuous professional development and growth. Learners must be exposed to as many active learning opportunities as possible, which include activities in the community as part of their formal education requirements and assessment for their final grades. Furthermore, more innovative approaches are required in introducing curriculum changes to educators and involving them to co-interpret such changes with the developers to fit respective contexts and to meaningfully contribute in implementing the envisaged changes. NGOs should invest material and financial resources in school and community programmes during implementation to illuminate deeper socio-economic, cultural and political community issues that influence community development and well-being as a core activity. Indeed conventional education and community development programmes should be integrated in design, budgets, and capacity-building objectives and implementation plans to effectively demonstrate natural community or societal systemic functions essential for nurturing sustainable communities. In conclusion, it is recommended that a critical review of such knowledge claims as "poverty causes environmental degradation" and some of the models that are popularly used in most environmental education activities which relate to human-nature interactions be exposed to learners and community development workers as a way of enabling them to engage with such knowledge claims and realities. The continuing reliance on such false science does not promote a practical understanding, practice, or foster self-sustaining communities for the current generation and posterity.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Media Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study focuses on the use of the internet for students’ academic performance at institutions of higher learning. Various internet applications including search engines, online library resources and social media are evaluated to explore how best they can be used to enhance students’ performance at institutions of higher learning. This is critical to ensure that students maximise the use of technology specifically for academic purposes. Generally, students are constant users of the internet at institutions of higher learning, hence it is cardinal to examine their internet use patterns for academic purposes. Institutions of higher learning have invested in advanced technology through the internet to enhance student academic purposes. Therefore, one would expect students to use various internet applications effectively for the betterment of their studies. In this study, the researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The researcher also employed exploratory and descriptive designs. These methodologies and designs are appropriate for this study because they allow data to be collected through focus group interviews and questionnaires. Focus group interviews were employed to collect qualitative data and questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data. The researcher conducted six focus groups from three institutions of higher learning, namely the University of Limpopo, University of Venda and Tshwane University of Technology, Polokwane campus. Three hundred and forty-three (343) questionnaires were analysed for this study. These data collection tools were pertinent for this study since they assist to determine factors that influence the attitudes, opinions and behavior of the participants. Online library resources play a cardinal role in enhancing the learning process for students by providing online content which could have been difficult to access without the internet. Social media improve and enhance students’ academic performance, but students do not know how best to use it for academic purposes. Proper integration of social media into education is needed. In contrast, students prefer to use social media purely for socialising and entertainment. Despite their ability to assist students in enhancing and improving learning process, social media are, mostly not used for academic purposes. xiv Additionally, students’ use of internet search engines exposes them to an array of information which require critical online information literacy in order to choose the best information. Lastly, the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by creating a model which will enhance and assist students to easily access academic information through the use of a mobile application. The study also provides significant information which could be used to amend and draft new ICT policies within institutions of higher learning, taking into consideration the adoption of online learning through the use various technologies including social media. / The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS)

Bibliography: pages 48-50. / Through the analysis of an 18-school research project that was conducted in the Western Cape in 1994, the aim of this report is to emphasize the need for and importance of effectively researching the educational setting in order to obtain quality data. This task will take the form of a general discussion concerning "what information..." should be collected and "how..." it should be "collected, analyzed, and interpreted" from the perspective that it is "critical to remember that decision-makers require information to be provided promptly... in order to make informed policy decisions" (Ross & Postlethwaite, 1992:1-2).

National and international assessment results, research studies and reports point to South Africa as having educational challenges, specifically with mathematics, science and language. Addressing some of these issues is a key aim for the SANC project at Rhodes University, the context in which this study takes place. Working from a broad Vygotskian perspective of learning and development, this study had a dual focus and investigated how Grade 3 learners’ mathematical proficiency progressed (or not) whilst participating in after school maths clubs over the course of a year, and explored how the mediation offered in the clubs enabled or constrained the emergence of zones of proximal development (ZPD) and thus learning for the club learners. Methodologically, this study works within a largely qualitative, interpretive research paradigm and is designed using a longitudinal case study research strategy. Two after school maths clubs formed the empirical field. The study drew on a range of data collection methods to investigate the dual nature of the research questions for Grade 3 learners. Examples include adapted one-to-one mathematical proficiency interviews and paired task based interviews. The study highlighted the relationship between the multiple roles I played both within the research study and within the SANC project context and emphasises the influence and future implications for these various roles within the SANC project and beyond in terms of my own role as club mentor, for the future design of the SANC project maths club programme and for broader teacher and club facilitator development within and beyond the project. This study has offered insight into how mathematical proficiency may develop in Grade 3 South African learners and as such is an important contribution to the newly developing field of both numeracy and primary educational research in Southern Africa. Additionally, the research findings point to the clubs, as an example of an out-of-school time (OST) programme, providing potentially enabling spaces for both recovery and extension of mathematical proficiency in learners as these spaces are free from several contextual constraints that teachers face in their classrooms. Furthermore, it was found that learners showed development of their conceptual understanding, procedural fluency and adaptive reasoning as proposed by Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell (2001). The use of various elements of the Maths Recovery (MR) programme (Wright, 2003) in the research process has highlighted various important contributions for broader research. For example, the need to investigate less time consuming approaches to both diagnostic assessment and learner mathematical profiling. Findings from this study support Meira and Lerman’s (2001, 2009) recently developed notion that catching attention is key to the creation or emergence of a ZPD. The study found that a combination of ‘attention catching’ and ‘tuning in’ enabled the creation (emergence) and sustainment of ZPDs in club learners. The study proposed the notion of tuning in where participants in a mathematical interaction continually adjust to each other in order to communicate mathematically. Furthermore, the study found that when attention is not caught or the participants are not tuned in, the learning activity may still be useful in assisting learners to consolidate their existing learning and / or build confidence and as such is particularly relevant to the South African context where fluency in calculating is weak (Hoadley, 2012; Schollar, 2008). This emergent notion of ‘flow’ additionally can play a supporting role in the emergence of a ZPD. The study also found that the manner in which the mediation was offered is important. The results show that the mathematical contributions learners make during interactions captured the mentors’ attention and resulted in mediation that was intentional but spontaneous, flexible, responsive and in-the-moment. This study makes theoretical and methodological contributions to various aspects of mathematics education research particularly with regard to how ZPDs emerge and are sustained and how mediation is offered to facilitate the emergence of ZPDs. Additionally, some aspects of the Learning Framework in Number (LFIN) as part of the Maths Recovery programme have been extended to work in a South African after school club context and to provide useful information for both learner progression over time and for planning of club activities. As such this study thus also contributes to the newly developing field of primary mathematics research in South Africa and to the body of research on primary after school learning programmes both locally and internationally.

A collection of mostly lyrical poems. The poems explore moments of experience and thought relating to longing and belonging, in terms of relations, memory and place. The poems are mostly short and intense. Silence and implied meanings are often as important as what is said; shadows are evoked to recall substance. Though short, the poems are not tightly closed – on the contrary, meanings proliferate in the process of exploration.

We provide a tool for communicating about insects in isiZulu to facilitate research and knowledge sharing in the fields of indigenous knowledge, cultural entomology, environmental education and community extensioninvolving isiZulu speakers. A total of 213 different names for 64 insect specimens were encountered among a sample of 67 respondents in 11 communities distributed across the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This list includes 93 names that can be considered core isiZulu vocabulary and which are widely used to identify insects that are agriculturally, medically, domestically, culturally or ecologically common or significant. Substantial variation was found regarding the names for particular insects, especially between regions, suggesting dialectal differences between isiZulu speakers. Grammatical and social variation in names was also recorded. This study highlights interdisciplinary teamwork in the field of indigenous knowledge research and the influences affecting the standardisation of South African languages for technical and scientific work.

This research was undertaken in the context of socio-economic transformation in South Africa, and more specifically, in the context of change in education policy. To support socio-economic transformation in South Africa after the first democratic elections in 1994, a competence-based National Qualifications Framework (NQF) was introduced in 1995. In responding to the particular socio-historical context of South Africa, the South African NQF is underpinned by the notion of applied competence, integrating practical, foundational and reflexive competence, which is the key and distinguishing feature of this competence-based framework. In this context of transformation, the research was aimed at an in-depth exploration of the notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence, and course processes that enable its development, with a view to providing curriculum development insights for learning programme development in the competence-based NQF, more broadly, and environmental education professional development programmes, more specifically. To enable these aims, the research was undertaken in the context of the Rhodes University / Gold Fields Participatory Course in Environmental Education (RU/GF course), as a case example of a professional development course that aims to develop critically reflexive practitioners. Within an interpretivist orientation, a multiple-embedded case study approach was used to gain insight into the relationship between course processes, reflexivity and the development of reflexive competence to clarify and provide a critical perspective on how competence develops in the context of the course. Data was collected over a period of one year using observation, interviewing and document analysis as the primary data collection techniques. Data was analysed through various phases and layers to inform data generation and the synthesising of data for further interpretation. Through the literature review undertaken within the study, various significant insights emerged around the notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence. Firstly, there appears to be a need to distinguish between reflexivity as social processes of change (social actions and interactions within social systems, structures and processes) and reflexive competence (a range of integrative elements of competence) that provides the evidence of an engagement within social processes of change. The second key insight emerging is the significance of social structure in shaping participation in reflexive processes, thus emphasising the duality of structure as both the medium for, and outcome of reflexive social actions and interactions and so challenges the deterministic conception of social structure. Further, the significance of an epistemologically framed notion of reflexivity and reflexive competence emerged, in the context of responding to the complex and uncertain quality of socio-ecological risks and in supporting change in context. Reflexivity, distinguished from processes of critical reflection, foregrounds a critical exploration of both knowledge and unawareness. As such a reinterpretation of reflexive competence is offered as a process of potential challenge to dominant and reigning forms of reasoning (knowledge frameworks) and consequent principles of ordering. Through this reframing of reflexive competence, the potential exists to destabilise dominant forms of reasoning and principles of ordering to create a broader scope of possibilities for action and change in context. This reframing of reflexive competence in the context of transformation in South Africa has critical implications for engaging within processes of learning programme design in the NQF to support an engagement within reflexive processes of change and the development of a range of integrative elements of reflexive competence. In this light, the study attempts to make the following contribution to curriculum deliberations within the context of environmental education and the NQF in relation to reflexivity, reflexive competence and change: ♦ Reflexivity is conceptualised as social processes of change with reflexive competence providing evidence of engagement within these social processes of change; ♦ An epistemologically framed conception of reflexivity and reflexive competence recognises how rules of reason and the ordering of the ‘reasonable’ person come to shape social life; and so ♦ Change is conceptualised as ruptures and breaks in dominant knowledge frames and the power relations embedded in these; ♦ Unawareness emerges as a key dimension within reflexive environmental education processes in responding to the unpredictable and uncertain nature of risks; ♦ An epistemological framing of reflexivity and reflexive competence highlights the need to develop open processes of learning to support the critical exploration of knowledge and unawareness; and ♦ Within this framing of reflexivity and reflexive competence, the difficulty emerges in specifically predefining reflexive competence to inform standard setting processes within a context of intended change. In framing data within this emerging conception of reflexivity and reflexive competence, a review of course processes highlighted potential areas for reorienting the RU/GF course to support change in context, for which I make specific recommendations. Drawing on the review of course processes in the RU/GF course, and in light of the reframing of reflexivity and reflexive competence, I further offer summative discussions as ‘possible implications’ for learning programme design in the South African competence-based NQF, broadly and environmental education professional development programmes in this framework, more specifically.

M.A. / The prospective and observed changes in South-Africa, with respect to the mobilisation of human skills, bring unique challenges to the fore where the career development of the individual is concerned. Scheepers (1996) and Quinn (1994) state that psycho-educational programmes can be implemented to foster the successful transfer of career development skills. A number of career development programmes were therefore designed and developed. However, the necessity of further development and extension of such programmes are crucial and in accordance with the experienced rapid changes of the target group's needs. In the light of the above mentioned statements, a study was conducted to evaluate the impact of an existing career development programme, by using standard programme development requirements. A further objective of the study was to make an existing programme more goal orientated and user friendly, by ensuring a more effective transfer of the skills contained in the programme. The method used was the developmental research model as introduced by Rothman and Thomas (1994). The choice of this model presents various advantages to the researcher, through the generation of both qualitative and quantitative results. The quantitative measure instruments that were used in this study are the Career Development Questionnaire of Langley and the Career information Questionnaire of Heidema. The qualitative evaluation made by direct observation and also the feedback of the tests. It was endeavoured to establish a theoretical foundation for the identified problem by using the theories of important career development researchers. The structural-interactive model of Holland was mainly focused upon in this regard. A career workbook, namely the SNUG was presented at various intervals to a group RAUCALL students during this research. Three groups were chosen at random and this ensured the progressive development of the programme. The first group was introduced to the original SNUG and owing to observation certain useful amendments were made to the presentation. This tentative improvements were presented to the second group whereafter further amendments were brought forth. The third and last group were exposed to the resultant improved SNUG. The focus of the improvements that were implemented fell on the visual changes and was not based on the contents. Statistical significant differences between the three groups in terms of the five sub tests of the Career Development Questionnaire were reported and no significant differences with reference to the results of the Career Information Questionnaire were noted. However the scores still refer to inefficient career development skills when a realistic career decision is to be made. A correlation between the third sub test of the Career Development Questionnaire namely Career Information and the Career Information Questionnaire of Heidema was noted.