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

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

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

M.A. / The purpose of this study is to promote the analysis and study of the structure and function of texts as a strategy which can be used in language courses for improving the writing proficiency of distance teaching technikon students in their fields of employment ...

There is a growing body of literature supporting the importance of recognising individual learning styles and teaching styles. Using More's model, this study explored the prevalence of learning style profi'es amongst different racial groups within multicultural South African classrooms. Seven teachers at two multiracial, English medium schools completed the More Learning Style Inventory for 38 white learners and 30 black learners with a mean age of 11.4 years. In addition, each teacher completed the More Teaching Style Inventory. The findings suggested that learners from different racial groups showed a preference on certain learning style dimensions. In particular, white and black learners were found to differ significantly on the Global-Analytic and the Trial & feedback- Reflective dimensions. Furthermore, an investigation of teaching styles supported mismatches between teachers’ teaching style and learners’ learning style, especially where learning style differences emerged. This study highlights the possible usefulness of learning style research for addressing the challenges faced by teachers in facilitating racial integration in classrooms.

This research is an exploratory investigation into the convergence of Asperger‟s syndrome and Nonverbal learning disability and the inclusion of these learners into mainstream schools. Conceptual research has been used based on questions asked around Asperger‟s syndrome, Nonverbal learning disability, convergences and differences between the disabilities based on the history, etiology, assessment and diagnosis of each disorder as well as alternative forms of assessment and diagnosis. Due to the wide body of literature available in this area of research and the nature of conceptual research, this study is largely literature based. The aim of the research is to look at the literature that supports the convergence between Asperger‟s syndrome and Nonverbal learning disability and to study the assessment tools that are being used to diagnose Asperger‟s syndrome and Nonverbal learning disability to see if various tools can be taken from both batteries of tests and used as one. An important part of this research is its placement in the educational context of inclusion. The results from this research will add to the literature already available on this topic, emphasising the importance of accurate and thorough investigation and assessment towards reaching a diagnosis and the implementation of a valid support plan. The research also offers a discourse concerning learners who are not in a position to be assessed for diagnosis and the benefits of using the SIAS strategy for these learners. The research confirms that there is a convergence between Asperger‟s syndrome and Nonverbal learning disability. It also confirms that, despite the convergence, the assessment and intervention for each disorder is mostly different and a misdiagnosis would not be beneficial to the learner. The findings of the research are also largely confirmatory of literature and other research studies in this area. Finally, the research takes a critical look at the purpose, benefits and possible downfalls of labelling a learner with a specific disability, and how labelling could either help or hinder a learner in their educational pursuits. Possible directions for future research into Asperger‟s syndrome, Nonverbal learning disability, assessment tools and support structures are discussed

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, 2016 / Due to the contextual difference between rural schools and urban school, many rural learners have migrated to urban schools. The rural population movement in the urban contexts has resulted in an increased number of rural learners in urban schools and also contributed in the diversity of cultures, ethnicities and races in urban schools making it difficult for teachers to respond to every learner’s needs. This study hypothesises that rural learners are likely to face challenges in terms of inclusion and negotiating their identities in the new urban schools. This study describes the challenges faced by rural migrant learners in new urban school, and how these migrant learners construct their identities in the new urban context. The study focusses on one primary school in Johannesburg that has a large influx of rural learners over the years. Using the key concepts of social identity, social inclusion and social exclusion, this describes the lived experiences of migrated learners and how they negotiate their identities in a new urban context. Findings show that migrated learners face inclusive challenges both academically and socially and challenges in adapting to the new urban school environment. The factors that caused academic challenges were: language barrier, difficult subjects, and teachers’ intervention. Social challenges were, adapting to a new environment, interacting with other learners and learning a new culture of the school.

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy / The current study adopts a developmental neuropsychological perspective, an approach which does not imply brain dysfunction but rather the principle of understanding the general relationship hetween brain growth and behavioural changes and the effect of environmental factors in children. A neuropsychology of normal development would seem to be an appropriate initial prerequisite if we are to understand the effects of brain insult or disease in the developing child. A modest aim was to acquire a fundamental understanding of emerging skills in black preschool children, starting with the most basic, the development of lateral preferences. This area was selected (a) as a departure point because of its location within the broad area of cerebrallateralization and (b) the opportunity it provided to explore the children's mental processing skills within the same theoretical perspective. The purpose of the present study was the longitudinal investigation of lateral preferences in a sample of Soweto children at three and five years.and information processing skills in the same sample at five years. Three hundred and thirty-five children, 170 girls and 165 boys, were sampled with the assistance of the Birth to Ten project.a longitudinal study of growth, health and development of children living in the Johannesburg Metropolitan area over a ten year period, 1990 to 2000. The children were assessed prior to starting school in January, 1996. A descriptive approach was adopted in explaining the patterns of handedness, footedness and eyeness. The findings showed that the patterns for handedness reflected the expected rightward direction at both ages although the degree to which preference has oeen established was weaker at five years than that reported in other studies with children of similar ages. Thirty-nine percent of the sample were mixed-handed at five years,only 3% were mixed-footed and 5% showed mixed-eyeness, At five years Simultaneous and Sequential information processing skills were assessed with the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). Factor analysis revealed a two factor solution broadly supporting the presence of the two processing styles. However the two coding processes were differentially distributed throughout the sample showing significant differences. More specifically.it was found that 34% of the children presented profiles of both processing styles that were below the group mean;31 % showed profiles where one or other coding style was below the group mean;23 % of the children portrayed processing profiles above the group mean. Thirty-nine children (12 %) presented patterns of processing that were above the group mean but were highly developed in one or other processing style. Each of the profiles that emerged were grouped and considered separately. Cognitive tasks involving verbal fluency, naming skills,draw-a person,basic perceptual knowledge,basic literacy.plus lateral preference information such as handedness direction, handedness consistency and handedness skills were appended to all the groups. Low scores in processing styles were found to be associated with poor verbal skills, low mental age,poor perceptual and basic literacy knowledge,poor hand skill performance,and greater (but nonsignificant) numbers of mixed-handers. The lowest scoring group also contained the majority of male left-handers. One of the highest scoring groups showed the strongest lateralizing patterns although the numbers were small (n= 11). Girls with above average sequential skills also scored highly on verbal fluency (p < .05) and hand skills (p < .05). Boys in this group showed the strongest degree of right-handedness (p < .05). In the four lower performance groups,background variables such as type of preschool experience (p <.001),the presence of books in the home (p < .05) and mothers level of education (p <.001) were found to be significant. A regression model which incorporated environmental, epigenetic, cognitive and motoric factors was found to be the most viable in predicting processing skills. / Andrew Chakane 2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Contemporary work in the Sociology of Education has been sharply polarized between approaches which emphasize the reproductive role of education systems and those which emphasize the role of popular resistance and culture in shaping the social relations of schooling. That opting for either of these two divergent approaches poses serious theoretical dilemmas is demonstrated particularly sharply by attempts to analyze the South African education system for Africans in the years between the 1940s and 1976. On the one hand, it is widely seen as a system which maintained relations of class and racial inequality; on the other it produced an enormous student rebellion in 1976. The thesis suggests that viewing education systems as part of the state, understood as a contested field of social relations, offers a way of investigating educational conflict which avoids both the functionalism of reproductionist perspectives and the voluntarist tendencies of culturalist interpretations. It enables the valid insights of these theories to be integrated into an analysis without their characteristic drawbacks. On this basis a series of analytical propositions about Bantu Education are generated. The thesis argues that the relationship between Bantu Education policy and capitalism was changing and contingent rather than fixed, as previous analyses have implied. The state educational bureaucracy did not function as an instrument of capital; rather, at certain times its aims were complimentary with the needs of capital, and at other times, largely contradictory with them, The education system reproduced varying levels of skill in the work force across time. Urbanization and industrialization, were central forces moulding education policy, the introduction of Bantu Education policy was a response to urban crisis. The thesis argues that the way in which state education policy was pursued was partly shaped by popular movements. There was a battle within the education system between the hegemonic project of government and mass resistance. Changes in popular culture affected the nature of popular responses to educational structures. Teachers' responses were particularly affected by their ambiguous structural position. The thesis attempt to test these arguments through a historical investigation of the period from the 1940s to 1976. It argues that the roots of Bantu Education policy need to be sought in the social crisis resulting fro~ urbanization and industrialization, Which affected South African society from the 1940s. In the education sphere, this crisis was manifested in the inability of the existing black education system to cope with the needs of urban youth, growing conflict within the mission schools, and disaffection and radicalization of the African teaching profession. In these circumstances dominant class opinion favored state intervention and restructuring of the education system. The implementation of Bantu Education from 1955 was initially focused on resolving the urban crisis, by providing for the social control of the urban working class and reproduction of a semi-skilled work force. A notable campaign of resistance, in the form of school boycotts by the African National Congress, opposed the policy in 1955-1956, but eventually broke down, primarily because of its inability to rival the state's capacity to provide mass schooling. other forms of resistance to state policy, such as opposition to the establishment of school boards, teacher activism and student riots, were too. dispersed and limited to block it. By the early sixties, a new, state run, cheap education system had been established. However the grim material conditions in that system, and its racist administration, prevented it from exploiting Opportunities to win active popular support. In the 19608, government, enjoying favorable political and economic conditions, moved to a more rigid linking of education policy to the enforcement of territorial apartheid, especially by preventing the expansion of urban black secondary, technical and higher education in the urban areas. It appeared that a degree of popular acquiescence in the education system was developing, with the stabilization of popular participation in the school board system and in conservativee teachers organizations. However, the system was generating new industry, was adversely affected by skill shortages increased by government educational policy, in the early 1970s industry launched a strong campaign for change in educational policy, which resulted in a government shift toward expansion of urban schooling. By the mid-1970s the changing political situation outside and inside the country, changes in youth culture, new ideological influences, and the material problems of the expanding schooling system were creating a new and more politicized culture of resistance amongst urban African youth .The implementation of a new language policy by government produced first the disaffection of school boards and then revolt amongst students. The conclusion argues that the analysis developed in the thesis has justified the claim. that the theoretical approach adopted in it goes beyond the limitations of reproductionist and culturalist studies. / AC 2018

Teenage pregnancy in South Africa, especially amongst teenage learners has become a national crisis with an estimated average of 5000 girls between the ages of 12 and 19 falling pregnant in one school year (Headlines Africa, 2012). This study focused on how process drama was applied with adolescent learners at Supreme Educational College in Johannesburg, to investigate the causes and consequences of teenage pregnancy. Process drama requires participants to create and assume roles, identify and explore images and stories drawn from fictional worlds that relate to the participants’ own personal experiences. Through process drama workshops, teenagers were able to engage with challenging situations as a way of acquiring new knowledge about teenage pregnancy. Three major themes emerged as contributing factors to teenage pregnancy, namely, parental negligence and abuse, negative peer pressure and poverty. The learner’s engagement within the dramatic process was enhanced by means of dialogue, negotiation and reflection with the teacher adopting the role of facilitator and co-participant. The fictional world created by the drama enabled the learners to relate and identify with problematic aspects of teenage pregnancy. The study concludes that process drama offers an aesthetic space for teenagers to develop a deeper understanding of themselves in relation to their lived experiences. The study recommends process drama as a powerful interactive medium that needs to be implemented in schools to grapple with intractable issues such as teenage pregnancy.