Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The practice of medicine has always been a big area of interest as a profession. The focus ranges depending on issues at hand - it may be on the educational, training, humanistic, economic, professional ethics and legal aspects. One area of medicine that is under the spotlight around the world is that of the maintenance of clinical competency, followed very closely and almost linked to professional ethics. This study follows the introduction of a system of Continuing Professional Development (hereinafter also referred to as CPD), in South Africa and an overview of how it has been introduced in a few other countries. The main areas of focus being the extrication of inherent values of CPD, relating this aspect to quality improvement in medical health care. The medical profession as well as most of the interested parties, has different perspectives regarding the fact that the system is regulated through legislation. There is also the doubt whether the CPD system will be effective in achieving the goals that it has been set to achieve. Although a system of Continuing Medical Education has been a tradition in all countries, which implies that the CPD system is not totally new as far as the educational principles are concerned, the values accruable need to be exploited. It is the possible success of this kind of evaluations that may foster more understanding of the inherent values in this CPD system. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Beroepsgewys het die praktyk van geneeskunde nog altyd groot belangstelling gelok. Die fokus verskuif na gelang van die onderwerpe ter sprake. Dit wissel van opvoedkunde, opleiding, humanisme, ekonomie, en professionele etiek tot regsaspekte. Dwarsoor die wêreld word daar gefokus op die handhawing van kliniese vaardighede, gevolg deur professionele etiek wat ook daarin verweef is. Hierdie studie bespreek die instelling van 'n stelsel van Voortgesette Professionele Ontwikkeling (hierna verwys na as VPO) in Suid-Afrika asook oorsig oor die wyse waarop dit in 'n paar ander lande ingestel is. Die klem lê op die inherente waardes met betrekking tot die verbetering gehalte in mediese gesondheidsorg. Die mediese beroep, asook meeste van die belangegroepe het verskillende opvattings oor die feit dat die stelsel deur wetgewing gereguleer word. Daar is ook twyfel of die VPO-stelsel in sy vooropgestelde doelwitte sal slaag. Wat die opvoedkundige beginsels betref, is die VPO-stelsel nie totaal en al nuut nie. Alhoewel VPO in ander lande tradisie is, is dit nodig om die totstandkoming van waardes te ontgin. Die moontlike sukses van hierdie tipe van evaluasies mag dalk beter begrip ten opsigte van die inherente waardes in die VPO-stelsel bevorder.

Parent-teacher conferences are an important component of parent involvement practice in any school. However, parent-teacher conferences often come short of the expectations of both parents and teachers and fail to lead to lasting solutions to learners' problems. This study focuses on the implementation of parent-teacher conferences in primary schools. The problem was investigated by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The literature identified approaches to and models of parent involvement, common barriers to parent-teacher communication and the characteristics of effective conferences. A qualitative investigation explored the process of a small sample of parent-teacher conferences in a selected primary school in Mamelodi, Gauteng Province. Data was gathered by participant observation. Findings showed that teacher talk predominated during conferences; the importance of mutual trust and teachers' listening to parents; guiding parents to improve learning at home and barriers to communication. Recommendations based on the findings were made. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Education management)

Text in Afrikaans / A labour market-oriented curriculum component for grade 7 - 9 learners in the existing education curriculum for South Africa could be achieved on the basis of an analysis and synthesis of various curricula by using curriculum components. The aim of the study is to reveal the essence of curriculation in order to bring the outcomes in the curriculum in line with the labour market needs of South Africa. An appropriate educational curriculum should not only address the high unemployment rate in South Africa, but should also bring about improvements in teaching practice as well as set standards that will be comparable both nationally and internationally. An analysis of different curricula shows clearly that various relevant theories can lead to the development of a curriculum component. These theories are not necessarily contradictory, but rather attempt to reveal the essentials for teaching and training. An analysis of the definitions of curricula gives an indication of the teaching possibilities of an appropriate labour market-oriented educational curriculum, whereby such a curriculum can be integrated in a sensible way with teaching practice by using the curriculum components. This theoretical consideration of different theories, curriculum components and teaching models has found a practical expression in a teaching labour market-oriented curriculum component that could possibly address current teaching and unemployment labour problems in South Africa. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

An exploratory, descriptive design in the phenomenological approach was used to describe and explore how student tutors' experienced the process of evaluation of their clinical teaching in a specific distance-learning programme. The researcher conducted a tape-recorded focus group interview with seven participants who voluntarily agreed to participate. After transcription, the data was analysed using Tesch's (1992:92) method of analysis to code the data into themes in order to identify commonalities. The findings of this study indicated that participants experienced the evaluation process positively and negatively. The negative experiences included difficulty in obtaining access to evaluators, practica facilities, and inconsistencies of evaluators. Recommendations were made for improving evaluation of teaching skills of student tutors in this distance programme. / Health Studies / M. A. (Health Studies)

Before 1959 Blacks were admitted to study at certain White universities; Kollege ya Bana BaAfrika and Fort Hare. In 1959 Parliament passed two Acts of far reaching significance in the history of university education for Blacks in South Africa. These were the Extension of University Education Act (Ac t No . 45 of 1959) and the Fort Hare Transfer Act (Act No. 64 of 1959) . The first Act provided for the establishment of the university colleges of the North and that of Zululand. The second Act provided for the transfer of Fort Hare to the then Department of Bantu Education. This study will show why government found it necessary to establish Black universities, together with their merits and demerits. Suggestions are given as to how Black universities could become universally accepted academic institutions. Although dealing with Black university education in general , particular reference is made to Turfloop. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (History of Education)

After the 1994 elections education reform has been characterized by the introduction of laws and policies, including IQMS, that seek to reconcile post‐apartheid traditions to practices that would address deficiencies borne by the era in the education field. 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. It was designed to review performance and identify strengths and weaknesses, encouraging personal and professional development, drawing on peer and collegial feedback rather than official Department of Education surveillance. However, recent studies have shown that the IQMS has failed and is failing to achieve what it was intended to achieve. This study examines the reasons for this failure in a secondary school in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This research is an interpretive case study that uses observation, document analysis and interviews utilising theories of learning organizations, management and leadership. The study reveals that the policy is not applied in the way it was intended and is failing in this regard. The policy process has been bureaucratised and suffers from superficial compliance. The developmental thrust of the policy seems to have been lost. It was also discovered that the involvement of teacher unions has both positively and negatively affected the implementation process and that the support schools receive from the department is not enough to keep the policy alive in schools. This research is likely to benefit school principals, policy makers and implementers, and IQMS coordinators, as it provides clarity on the issues restraining IQMS implementation in schools. The study also demonstrates the need for school principals to consider adopting transformational leadership as a strategy to lead teachers against political influence and expose them to professional development opportunities.

This study considers a Grade 9 Integrated Environmental Research Project which was implemented as a vehicle to induce knowledge-based change in learners. It was noted that change did not occur as hoped, and this study was undertaken to review the Grade 9 Project in order to improve it and to probe the apparent gap between knowledge and action. The study generated evidence on the learning processes within the project. This revealed a number of contradictions and tensions which limit change initiatives within the local environment. Notable here was a contradictory mandate between undertaking a research-based change project and responding to the rubric of assessment which was not linked to the research done. It was found that faced with this dual mandate, learners chose to focus on the assessment-laden mandate as this was the ultimate agenda that would reap the reward within the traditional school environment. The study examines the gap between knowledge and practice to probe ways in which to close this gap in the context of an environmental research assignment. The outcome is a recommendation that we as the project designers review the evidence of tensions and contradictions revealed in the study to reflect on the underlying purpose of the project and reshape it in light of recent literature on the challenges of social learning and change.

Student leadership in South African (SA) universities has undergone radical change since the transformation of Higher Education in post-apartheid South Africa and this has consequently resulted in shifts in priorities for student leaders. In addition, this leadership can be viewed as occurring in multiple forms in SA universities and in the literature about student leadership in SA. Furthermore; student leadership comprises different and more diverse demographics now in the post-apartheid era. Thus the concept of student leadership may be constituted differently for different student leaders in SA universities today. This research has been undertaken to explore the latter in a particular SA university with the specific aim of studying the social construction of student leadership in a SA university. A social constructionist lens was adopted as the underpinning worldview to adopt a pluralistic qualitative approach in this psychosocial research. Data were gathered using a social dream drawing technique, accessing information on three levels: conscious, subconscious and unconscious. The findings express the fusion of discourse analysis and a psychodynamic interpretation employed in the data analysis. The major findings suggest a two-way interaction between identity in student leadership and relational dynamics in student leadership: these set up a conversation about the anxiety of working with diversity dynamics. Therefore the social construction of student leadership in a SA university has been found to be a space for a conversation about the said anxiety. Metaphors employing Mandela and Moses as leadership symbols have been related to psychodynamic themes such as narcissistic injury and stillbirth and grief in terms of the conversation about the given anxiety amongst such leaders in a SA university. The research makes a methodological contribution by recommending pluralism as a favourable research approach in the study of student leadership. In addition, recommendations for practice such as the implementation of student leadership schools and the incorporation of the relevant psychology professionals to intervene from an adjustment perspective are proposed to inform consulting psychologists and other relevant practitioners in terms of fit for purpose interventions that are linked to student leadership in SA universities. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / Ph. D.(Consulting Psychology)

This study looks at the various actions by the principal of a farm school in running an academically successful school. The study exposes the difficulties faced by farm schools and looks at how the principal confronts these difficulties and turn some of these into success stories. In trying to understand the role of the principal this study uses school effectiveness literature as a source and reference in an attempt to understand the actions adopted by the principal to make this farm school successful. The study uses the interpretive orientation as the methodology for investigating the principal’s role. This is in line with my attempt at explaining the perceptions, views and experiences of the people who are working closely with the principal. I have done this by employing semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The information gathered from the respondents helped in the development of the role of the principal which in this case, is the expressed views of the respondents. The investigation is conducted as a case study and the handling of the information provided by the respondents is in line with case study methods. The study has revealed that actions of the leader have an influence on the organizational success. The way in which the leader of Rocklands farm School conducts herself and the vision she shares with the people within the organization go a long way towards the improvement of organizational structures and their functioning. In this case the principal has been noted as particularly transformational, charismatic, instructional and transactional in her approaches to school administration and that her dedication to the cause of learners from disadvantaged background is reflected in her sacrificial actions. The study has also found that the principal is considered to be fairly autocratic in her leadership, which is a departure from current leadership thinking. The study has also shown that socio-economic disadvantages do not necessarily inhibit the school from performing beyond expectation. With good guidance from the leader and trust among staff members the farm school has been able to overcome some socio-economic pressures to emerge successful in the academic field. The fact that the principal of this school is a woman has not changed the overall findings that leadership qualities for successful schooling are universal and do not necessarily depend on the gender of the leader. This study suggests that leaders have a potential to turn poor situations in schools around and that leaders should as a matter of course ensure that they understand the organizational dynamics within their schools. They should be in the forefront as agents of change being mindful that those within the school understand and share the vision the leader has. The study also suggests that the human element in the educational processes in schools is of critical importance than the conditions in which schools find themselves.

This study aims at eliciting opinions and beliefs of isiXhosa-speaking students to revealtheir attitudes toward various languages of learning and teaching (LOLT) issues at RhodesUniversity, and to determine the influence of a number of variables (such as age, gender,schooling background, level of study and field of study) on these attitudes. Another aim of the study is to compare the findings of this research to the recent findings on isiXhosaspeaking students’ language attitudes at the University of the Western Cape (Dyers 1999) and the University of Fort Hare (Dalvit 2004). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used: data was gathered using a survey that employed a questionnaire and interviews (individual and focus group). The questionnaire data is analysed through using percentage scores as well as mean values coupled with Chi-square tests, while the interviews are analysed qualitatively to further confirm the results of the quantitative analysis. Results are also compared with other recent surveys at South African universities. The results reveal that respondents had a generally positive attitude toward English as LOLT, based mainly on instrumental motivations. More importantly, there was a positive attitude toward the use of isiXhosa alongside English. The motivations for the use of isiXhosa were both instrumental and integrative in nature. The majority of respondents who supported a bilingual arrangement did not, however, believe that a fully-fledged bilingual policy would be practical, mainly because of the multilingual nature of Rhodes University. They felt, however, that providing English and isiXhosa exam question-papers, bilingual tutor support and isiXhosa definitions of discipline-specific technical terms would facilitate learning. Most of the variables mentioned above had an influence on the relevant language attitudes, often confirming the findings of other studies. For instance, schooling background greatly influenced the language attitudes of respondents. Those from previously advantaged English-only schools showed very positive attitudes toward an English-only policy, while most respondents from formerly disadvantaged DET bilingual schools were favourably disposed toward a bilingual policy of English and isiXhosa at Rhodes University. A comparison of the findings of this study with those of recent findings on isiXhosa students’ language attitudes at other universities reveals that respondents at the University of Fort Hare were most favourable toward a bilingual policy, those at the University of the Western Cape were to some extent favourable toward a bilingual arrangement, while respondents at Rhodes University were least favourable toward a bilingual policy.