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

School guidance and counselling is a programme that is complementary to the education process and is seen as a support service for the pupil. However, owing to the apartheid policies of the South African government, all pupils did not have equal access to guidance services. In a post-apartheid South Africa it is anticipated that a unitary education system would emerge to provide equal access to education for all South African pupils and this implies that previous imbalances that existed would have to be addressed. In this study the present state of guidance and counselling services in Natal was investigated and policy options to redress past inequities and to make school guidance and counselling services a reality for all South African pupils, within the context of limited resources were explored.

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.

This study evaluated the impact of the SANCA Lifestyle Programme on Grade 6 and 7 black learners in two Soweto schools. This was done with a view to investigate the appropriateness of the present SANCA Lifestyle Programme for black learners. A total of 260 learners participated in this study. The main thrust of the study was to investigate the impact of SANCA’s Lifestyle Programme on learners’ psychosocial functioning and understanding of alcohol and drugs before and after the implementation of the SANC A Lifestyle Programme. Information was collated from the following instruments: biographical questionnaire. Psychosocial Functioning Inventory for Primaiy School Children (PFI-PRIM-C), alcohol and drug assessment questionnaire and programme evaluation questionnaire. The Pre-test results revealed low self-image for the total sample on the PFI-PRIM-C which measures psychosocial functioning. The Post-test results revealed significant improvement in this area. The results showed significant differences between gender and age groups in the areas of psychosocial functioning status. In particular, there was also a significant difference between males and females with regard to states of anxiety (p<0.001). There was also a significant difference between the 10-13 year olds and 14-18 year old groups in levels of frustration (pO.OOl) on the PFI-PRIM-C. After the Lifestyle Programme significant improvements were achieved. A significant improvement was also found on the learners’ knowledge of alcohol and drugs in the post-test period. There was no significant age or sex differences on alcohol and dn;g assessment questionnaire both in the pre-test or post-test periods. The implications of the findings are that Lifestyle Programmes have the potential to be effective for black learners.

M. Tech. Business Administration / According to Strydom et al.'s (2010) South African Survey of Student Engagement (SASSE) project, the report describes the "revolving door syndrome" in which the increase in access to Higher Education is not matched by a concomitant increase in student success, an occurrence which continues to characterise the Higher Education system in South Africa. The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at Tshwane University of Technology believes that the low success rate of postgraduate students may be attributed to the lack of provisioning of adequate resources needed by such students. This study seeks to identify the most important organizational support factors which should be focused on when developing future strategies for the improvement of success rates of these students.

The sexual abuse of children has become recognised as a major problem affecting children in most, if not all, countries of the world. The prevention of such abuse has, in the last decade, become an issue of international significance. In South Africa, prevention efforts are mainly informal ad hoc strategies initiated by individuals or organisations. As such they suffer from being short-lived and often isolated. Prevention efforts fall into the general categories of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention focuses on preventing abuse from occurring at all. There are two main aspects to this type of prevention. The first aims at teaching children to protect themselves. The second aims at preventing the development of a disposition to abuse. This study set out to suggest and justify the adoption of a national strategy appropriate to the South African situation, including an overview of what can be done through the schooling system. This strategy will provide a framework and context for individual efforts, and hopefully stimulate new programmes. In addition, a detailed prevention programme for implementation in the secondary school, through the medium of the subject Guidance, was developed. This programme addressed itself mainly to that primary aspect of prevention concerned with preventing people from developing a disposition to abuse. The programme consists of lesson plans, teacher's notes and worksheet materials for pupils.

M.A. (Psychology) / Post-traumatic Stress Disorder has been used to describe an individual's reaction to an event "outside the range of usual human experience". South African society is one fraught with violence, to the point where authors have contended that South Africans have become accustomed to a "culture of violence". Children and Adults are victims of this violence, whether they be directly or indirectly affected by it. In such an unstable society the school can provide children with a setting which offers them stability and a normative influence. In order to make the school effective in the aid it offers its students, teachers have to be assisted in developing and strengthening already existing con-structive ways of detecting and handling of children's problems. Teachers themselves also need to be provided with support in order to assist them with their own personal problems. This study examines the effects of trauma on the teacher-pupil relationship by providing Work, for teachers in order to learn from them and guide them in the assistance they give to children who have been profoundly affected by the violence in their environment being direct or indirect victims thereof. It is my hope that this exploratory study will broaden the understanding of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and provide useful guidelines in an understanding of the impact violence has on children.

D.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / The problem of high dropout rate or early school leaving is causing widespread concern amongst educators. This study is undertaken as part of a group project on school dropout or premature school leaving, which is undertaken by the Rand Afrikaans University of South Africa (RAU) and the Ben Gurion University of Israel. The purpose of this project is to identify the at-risk pupil, research the causes of school dropout, and identify the consequences of early school leaving in order to determine preventative measures. The following 4 factors have been studied in the profile of the school dropoutsocio- econornic factors social support political factors; and issues relating to the school itself In South Africa the high dropout rate in Black schools especially is a cause for concern. Under the new educational system, desegregation of schools is the ideal. This will, however, probably not be achieved overnight, and the problem of school dropout in Black schools will remain a problem for some time to come. Even if desegregation has been fully achieved, it can be argued that certain causes of dropout will always remain the same because not all causes are school-related. The cultural and home situation of potential dropouts will not necessarily improve on account oftheir being in desegregated schools. The focus of this study, therefore, will remain relevant.

M.Ed.(Counselling Psychology) / Throughout the world HIV infection and AIDS pose a public health problem. Statistics show that the disease is spreading at an alarming rate in South Africa. Adolescents can be regarded as a high-risk group for AIDS infection because of their engagement in sexual relationships with many partners at a relatively young age. In the absence of a cure or vaccine at present, the only effective route of reducing HIV transmission is through changing risk behaviour that leads to infection with the HIV. This can only be done by means of education. As parents do not always fulfill their duty in this respect, the school will necessarily have to play a greater role in AIDS guidance ...

Guidance was introduced into Black Schools in 1981. Its aim was to help students so that they could understand themselves and the world they live in. At present it appears that very little Guidance is taking place in the Mdantsane High Schools. This was supported by these research findings. In the research five High Schools were investigated to discover the state of Guidance in these High Schools. The writer made use of an interview schedule which was presented to the principals of the five High Schools. Questionnaires were given to twenty seven Guidance teachers from the same High Schools and to two hundred and fifty student respondents. In each High School fifty student respondents were chosen, that is, ten from each standard. The research findings suggested that Guidance is not receiving its rightful place in these five High Schools since it is not effectively taught. The findings were generalised to other High Schools. Reasons for the ineffective teaching of Guidance were given by both the principal and teacher respondents. Recommendations are made as to how this state of Guidance can be remedied and improved.