Thesis (Ph.D. (Sociology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2004 / Refer to the document

Thesis (M.ED.) --University of Limpopo, 2008 / Language prejudice is of two types: positive and negative. Negative prejudice is image effacing. It is characterized by negative evaluation of one’s own language or speech patterns and a preference for someone else’s. An example of this kind of self- -denigration is the case of David Christiaan, the Nama Chief in Namibia, who, in response to the Dutch missionaries’ attempt to open schools that would conduct their teaching using Nama as a medium of instruction, is reported to have shouted, “Only Dutch, Dutch only! I despise myself and I want to hide in the bush when I am talking my Hottentot language” (Vedder, 1981: 275 as quoted in Ohly, 1992:65. In Ambrose, et al (eds.) undated: 15).

Thesis (MTech. in Education)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / This study endeavors to establish how successful the merging of institutions in Gauteng has been. Previously there were 150 technical colleges in South Africa, of which 50 were in Gauteng Province. The 50 colleges have had to be reduced by the merger process into eight colleges each with various campuses. Each clusters of the colleges centralized its functions to its head office while the former colleges became campuses in each cluster. The merger process did not happen overnight as it affected all involved; i.e., learners and all employees. The study seeks to determine how successful the merger has been. A qualitative approach has been used in this study. Data has been collected through interviews and observations. The researcher interviewed various stakeholders such as learners, educators, heads of departments, administration staff as well as senior members of management. The researcher took a closer look at how various functions of the colleges were affected and the impact the merger had on human resources. Although the merger process has had some success, the researcher concludes that there were certain areas which showed some problems and challenges which need to be addressed by the colleges. The researcher concludes by making some suggestions on the findings of this study.

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / The introduction of a real democracy in South Africa during 1994 created the opportunity for reconstruction of almost everything that originated from the apartheid regime. Change in the political arena was the catalyst and driving force in reshaping the demographical landscape. The playing fields of reconstruction included political, social, economic, sport, education and many other areas. Higher Education Institutions reflecting the demographics and ideology of the apartheid system in terms of cultural composition of students as well as the workforce, formed part of the reconstruction plan. Such change included the merging of tertiary institutions that originated from the apartheid era. Three institutions formerly known as Technikon North-West, Technikon Pretoria and Technikon Northern Gauteng, were merged into the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). The merger process of TUT was extremely complex in nature and composition resulting in a long and exhaustive process spanning a period of five years. The long change process directly and indirectly adversely impact upon TUT staff members. This study focuses on the adverse effects of diversity on staff members as a result of the various merger initiatives.

This thesis proposes a conceptual framework for the discussion of concepts of academic freedom and institutional autonomy in a South African higher education context. A four-cell matrix is presented at the start of the thesis that distinguishes four types of understandings of these concepts. Having discussed these concepts-in-use in different contexts, the grid is used as a framework to explicate local debates on academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Beyond the conceptual exploration, the thesis traces a variety of broader debates in higher education in an attempt to add a richness to the South African conversations relating to academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Postmodernism and its implications for higher education in South Africa is explored, as is the more recent phenomenon (or ideology) of globalisation. Finally, the advent of external quality assurance in South Africa is considered and its role in changing perceptions of academic work and academic identity through the potential circumscribing of the academic domain is explored. My hope is that this thesis will contribute to a broadening and deepening of the current South African debates, and at the same time, offer a uniquely South African perspective on global conversations on academic freedom and institutional autonomy. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

This research is a case study investigating how students respond to formative assessment feedback. The study centres around gathering and analysing data on the way in which students perceive and interact with assignment feedback when it is provided to them in a process orientated, drafting-responding approach rather than a product approach. This study also aims to reveal whether the feedback provided by a lecturer is used by students to make changes to the overall quality of their revised assignment. Within this context, I also explore students' opinions and expectations of feedback. The participants in this study are students from the Hospitality Management Sciences Department based at the Durban University of Technology. The participants are from a diverse group in terms of demographics such as age, gender, racial breakdown and language. This research was informed by the interpretive research orientation with overlaps from the social constructivist and critical paradigms. Data collection involved two aspects. The first aspect consisted of document review, that is, copies of all student participants' assignment drafts and their revised copies along with the associated lecturer comments. The second aspect included transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with students between May and June, 2007. During the interviews, copies of the students' draft and revised assignments were used either as a point of reference or as tools to stimulate, tease out and probe each student's thoughts, perceptions, understanding and experiences of the feedback provided within the drafting-responding process. I used the data repertoire from my field texts to produce my research text and used Nvivo as a data management tool to identify, group and code recurring themes or to highlight any unique differences within the data transcripts. Discourse analysis was used to analyse the interview transcripts. Findings are that feedback is predominantly perceived by student participants as error correction rather than as a springboard to advance their learning via guidance from a more informed other. Moreover, high stakes assessments dominate the way students are assessed, from school through to tertiary level. This results in a student body that is mark and 'cue' orientated rather than learning focussed. These characteristics in turn, propel students' learning towards the competitive rather than focussing on learning from each other or learning as a community. Another theme that emerged is that students' lack of past experience in using feedback as a process-orientated approach meant that they were ill-equipped to deal optimally with the qualitative feedback provided in this research context. Several issues regarding conflicting literacy practices also emerged. For example, differing academic practices were observed between school and tertiary levels. Students also exhibited an inability to adopt the norms and values desired by the tertiary discipline due to a lack of shared understanding between lecturers and students, as well as difficulties resulting from differing mediums of feedback, including differing perceptions of feedback between lecturers and students. Despite these and other findings, students felt that they did benefit overall from having a drafting-responding process for their assignments. They especially welcomed the qualitative nature of comments provided, the combination of verbal and written comments, the combination of in text and cover comments, the ability to get timely clarity from the lecturer and the scope to dialogue and develop a 'relationship' with the lecturer. This study supports the need for assessments to be positioned for the purpose of learning rather than merely focussing on the assessment of learning. Essentially, when assessments shift from dominant high-stakes to low-stakes, it can encourage students to adopt a deep and active approach to learning (Elbow, 1997). A roll-over effect is that lecturing staff can realign their teaching to respond more fully to students' needs. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

In this qualitative study the fundamental principles of credit-based modular education are investigated from the perspective of international experience in Britain and the United States (US). The evolution of a mass higher education system, with multi-access and multi-exit pOints, in both Britain and the US, is outlined. The main concepts and principles, approaches, strengths and weaknesses, exemplars of good practice, and the potential problems of modularisation are elucidated. The purpose of the study is to identify the cardinal strategic issues to be considered in the process of implementing modularisation by M L Sultan Technikon. The data from three chief sources are triangulated: the literature; fieldwork at five universities in Britain; and documentation provided by these five universities. From these data, in particular that from interviews with academic staff in Britain with personal experiences of the process of modularisation, a plurality of interpretations, values, perceptions, opinions, and approaches is revealed. The study does not attempt to propose a single model for modularisation for universal application. The common themes to emerge as findings in this study illuminate the many complex and interrelated issues pertinent to modularisation that the respondents across the five universities identified. From these themes a series of critical questions to be posed by an institution in making decisions about modularisation is suggested. The implications of the themes and questions are explored, and a possible model for their integration is suggested. The model draws together the perspective of two contrasting orientations to curriculum and the dialectic between a managerial and an educational rationale for 'going modular'. This model forms the basis for an exploration of the implications for developing a credit-based modular system in the context of M L Sultan Technikon. The following important broader issues to emerge related to modularisation are briefly discussed: assessment; credit; awards; student counselling and guidance; management; administration; semesterisation; and change. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This study is a qualitative inquiry into the lives of first-year residence students at the Durban University of Technology. Six students volunteered to be participants in this study, and they discussed their life stories freely and frankly. Interviews were conducted as conversations rather than formal question-and-answer sessions, and this method elicited rich and vibrant material. This dissertation considers the specific stories of two of these students, Student A and Student B, and how their life experiences have affected them. The study looks at what these experiences have been whilst the students were at home and at school; what their experiences are as first-year students residing in an institutional residence; and how all these experiences have impacted on their transition to life at university. The theory of development and the search for identity are at the core of this investigation. Their life stories have illustrated the role that development plays in their individual growth and development through the adolescent and young adult years. Their search for their own identity as African youth in post-apartheid South Africa has direct relevance and bearing on the reality of life in the country today. The students identify issues that cause them difficulty and concerns, such as family relationships, homesickness, cultural conflicts, and peer pressure. They talk at length about specific incidents and situations that have caused them stress and worry, and through their stories we can see how they are developing their own identity as they try to make sense of their world at home, at university, and in residence. The conclusion highlights the themes that have risen through the analysis of their stories: the commonalities, the pressures, the worries and concerns, and the interventions that could be made to ease the transition phase. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

The aim of this research was to determine the differences in student responses of two forms of assessment, automated and manual in terms of measuring student capability in the computer literacy programme, The International Computer Drivers Licence. Computer Literacy studies are an integral part of many academic programmes and have become a basic requirement for securing certain employment. Many academic programmes utilise recognised computer literacy qualifications rather than developing their own. In this case study, assessment within one of the most prestigious programmes, the International Computer Drivers Licence (ICDL), is the focus of attention. This qualification has become a benchmark for such computer literacy certification. Formal assessments are conducted to complete the certification. The certifying body, The ICDL Foundation, that controls this qualification, allows institutions to select from two modes of assessments. The modes of assessment are paper- based ‘manual’ (traditional) assessments or approved automated assessment software that is commercially available through different software suppliers. Manual assessments are available from the ICDL Foundation and conducted by external examiners, whilst the automated assessments are designed by software companies and approved by the ICDL Foundation. This case study looks at a comparison between students’ responses of the automated assessments that uses simulation of major software packages such as Microsoft Word and Excel and a manual assessment. The focus of this study was to gain some insight into students’ experience when taking the automated assessment and how it compares to a manual assessment. A case study was conducted in which a group of volunteer students were requested to take two assessments on a particular section of computer literacy. The first assessment was the automated assessment followed by a manual assessment which assessed the same outcomes as the automated assessment. During these assessments certain phenomena were observed and recorded. These observations were then qualitatively analysed and organised into themes. Scores of these two assessments were also compared to establish if the students showed marked differences between the two assessments. However the small sample size means that no conclusions could be made based on statistical differences. Immediately after the two different forms of assessment, six of the students were interviewed. These interviews were conducted using semi-structured questions. The questions revolved around the students’ perceptions of their responses to the automated and manual assessments and in particular how the students perceived both assessments. The transcriptions of these interviews were then qualitatively analysed and common themes were extrapolated. The results of the study show that students’ abilities were not always being assessed accurately in the automated assessment. The data in this study also shows that the automated assessment, whilst highly reliable and objective, does not present an authentic assessment environment. This resulted in high scores being awarded where students were not able to perform the same tasks successfully in the manual assessment. This calls into question the validity of the automated assessment and its ability to assess students’ practical skills accurately. The interview data also suggests that the use of multiple choice questions and discrete tasks in the automated assessment further resulted in students adopting a surface approach to learning in their preparation for this summative assessment.ses / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

From 1950 to 2000 the former Faculty of Medicine, University of Natal, Durban, pursued the traditional, didactic curriculum. The implementation of problem-based learning, Curriculum 2001, introduced many changes in the curriculum where facilitators guide instead of teach students. Based on this it is important to understand the principles of problem-based learning (PBL) more extensively and the demands that may be made on the Library and the Librarians. It is assumed that a partnership exits between the librarians and the School of Undergraduate Medical Education (SUME). The object of this study is to determine whether the introduction of Curriculum 2001 impacted on the role and functions of the library and the librarians. The 5th year students from the Traditional Curriculum and 2nd year students from Curriculum 2001 were selected to participate in this study. The methods used in this study were the analysis of the minutes of the meetings that were held to discuss and plan Curriculum 2001 of the Curriculum Development Task Force, questionnaires for the undergraduate students and semi-structured interviews with the facilitators in Curriculum 2001 and medical librarians. The minutes of the CDTF were examined to ascertain if the librarians had any input in Curriculum 2001. The interviews would determine whether PBL had an impact on the role and functions of the library and the librarians. Four librarians and 15 facilitators were interviewed. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study with the assistance of the EPI Info and NVivo software to analyze the results. The results of this study indicated that there is room for greater and enhanced collaboration and faculty partnerships between SUME and the library to assist the students to improve and develop their information literacy skills that are integral part in problem solving in the PBL curriculum. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.