<p>This thesis investigated the potential role of indigenous healers in life skills education in South African schools. The main focus of this study was to explore how indigenous knowledge of traditional healers can contribute to the development of life skills education in South African schools. The research also sought to strengthen Education Support Services in the South African education system, in order to address barriers to learning. These barriers to learning are linked to health challenges such as substance abuse, violence, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS and many other health-related issues in school-going age learners.</p>

Thesis (D.Tech.: Education)-School of Education, Durban University of Technology, 2008. x, 257 leaves / Educational institutions are pursuing quality improvement for various reasons. A great deal of literature on staff evaluation covering a wide spectrum of fields such as industry and commerce, including schools, has been produced and it generally identifies three main purposes of quality evaluation. Firstly, evaluation is conducted to review performance, identifying strengths and weaknesses. Secondly, it provides information about the service in order to improve the quality of the service and to demonstrate accountability. Thirdly, evaluation is aimed at encouraging personal and professional development. This study analyses the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS), an evaluation system which was implemented in South African public schools in 2005. The IQMS is a clear reaction to the autocratic mode of evaluation that operated during the apartheid era and is a major shift from the old paradigm of external evaluators. The new paradigm calls for a joint collaboration between schools, districts and supervisory units with the overall aim of enhancing the quality of education in South Africa, in addition to addressing the inequities and injustices of the past. Since its introduction, very little empirical research has been carried out to establish whether the IQMS model addresses that which it was intended to. This thesis evaluates the extent to which the IQMS is perceived to have enhanced individual development and ensured improvements in teaching and learning. / D

M.Cur. (Nursing Science) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Litt. et Phil. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / It is the task of curricular planning and syllabus design in non-formal fields of education to make available to adults the possibilities for learning the language they need for the purposes for which they need it. A decisive answer should be found to the question about what type of syllabus or course would be able to provide for the real operation needs of adult learners, to translate these needs into learning objectives and at the same time justify the semantic and structural components of the target language...

D.Ed. / The general objective of this study is to illuminate the challenges experienced by educators in the provision of Environmental Education at schools in Curriculum 2005. In order to realize this general aim, the following serve as specific aims: Firstly, to provide a theoretical base for Environmental Education with a view to increasing the understanding of this relatively new discipline. Secondly, to examine and analyse the factors hindering the successful implementation of Environmental Education in schools. Thirdly, to identify and discuss potential solutions. An extensive literature review was undertaken to examine core areas impeding effective teaching of Environmental Education and its emphasis on Curriculum 2005. The investigation included data collection from experienced educators who have been incorporating Environmental Education in their subject teaching. The qualitative research design was utilized. The data collection methods the researcher applied include observation where personal visits were made to schools promoting Environmental Education. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with different individual educators; in schools with more than four environmental educators, focus group interviews were preferred. The data of this research were collected in schools in Gauteng Province through qualitative data collection techniques. The data collected was also analysed, coded, clustered and categorized. The empirical findings of the study were confirmed by using different methods and sources. The main findings indicated that where Environmental Education is well coordinated and all educators are involved, it is carried out in a more effective way compared to schools where Environmental Education is left to one educator and poorly coordinated. The study recommends that Environmental Education should not be left to one committed environmental educator, but that all educators need to be trained to incorporate Environmental Education into their school curriculum.

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / The research in this qualitative study focuses on the role of the educational psychologist as consultant in Inclusive Education. The rationale for the investigation is derived from the changing and expanding role of the educational psychologist. This role has been implicated by the move from excluding learners who experience barriers to learning from mainstream schools, towards a policy of Inclusive Education. Inclusive Education aims at restructuring and transforming schools and curricula, in order to promote needs-driven, holistic, effective, community-based and quality service delivery. However, the implementation of Inclusive Education poses complex problems to those involved. Knowledge, skills and attitudes are required in which most teachers, parents as well as personnel at the education support services are not yet trained. This necessitates a comprehensive solution, such as collaborative consultation. The educational psychologist thus needs to reflect on her current role, and should change and expand her role to that of a consultant. The report of the study commences with a theory framework in which collaborative consultation is explicated. The nature of collaboration as a constructivist learning and problem solving process, in whole school development for Inclusive Education, is discussed. Thereafter collaborative consultation as an ecosystemic approach to, and reflective practice in whole school development, is discussed and illustrated. The chapter ends by a summary of the role, knowledge, skills and attitudes of the consultant in whole school development for Inclusive Education. The theory framework is followed by a chapter on the design of the qualitative study, substantiating the choice of format and methods of data collection and analyses. A rich and tightly woven description of the chronological course of the research process is provided, when examples of raw data and data analysis from the sketches and transcriptions of the focus group and individual interviews are presented.