Submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Masters of Engineering degree, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / The department of Mechanical Engineering at the Durban University of Technology currently offers a National Diploma (ND) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Technology (BTech), as well as a MEng. and a DEng. This thesis details four areas of study that were undertaken in an attempt to identify potential impediments to student success in the department, using readily available data. The universities’ management information system (ITS) was the primary source of data, but limited data was also obtained from courses that the author taught, as outlined in section (4) below. A grounded action research framework was selected as the methodological framework for these studies as it allowed the freedom to refine an investigation as it progressed as well as to implement potential solutions and determine their efficacy. The four areas covered were: (1) Analysis of trends in student success rates. A number of changes were made to the National Diploma over a five year period including the introduction of supplementary examinations, the removal of elective offerings, the change in the sequence of subjects offered and a reduction in contact time. This same period also coincided with the first cohort of students entering with the new NSC matric qualification. This study examined the success rates within subjects, across four semesters of study, from 2007 until 2010 and attempts to show the effects, either positive or negative, that these changes have had. The success rates of subjects within the BTech programme were also interrogated for this same period. These results were also categorised according to whether students obtained their diploma at DUT or at another institution allowing a comparison between the two cohorts. (2) Workplace Learning (WPL). Anecdotal evidence suggested that the manner in which the WPL components were offered had a negative effect on student throughput as well as not providing substantial opportunity for the integration of experience gained in industry with the academic programme. This study, utilising WPL registrations from 2007 to 2010, examined the average time taken to complete the WPL components, the percentage of the academic component completed before and during the WPL period as well as the dropout rate. (3) Relationship between NSC results and success in Mechanical Engineering. The purpose of this study was to determine if relationships could be found between student’s NSC results and success within the programme. This would inform if the departmental entrance requirements were of an appropriate level to ensure prospective students a reasonable chance of success. Results of selected NSC subjects were correlated with those of selected diploma subjects. The distributions of success in these subjects were tabulated against the NSC results allowing a better understanding of the relationship between them. (4) Investigation into causes of poor performance in Hydraulic Machines III. This study was undertaken to better understand the competencies and learning practices of the students in the author’s class. This involved the interrogation of the performance of students over a number of assessments, the tracking of usage of online resources and the tracking of lecture attendance, and subsequent correlation with performance. These studies have led to a better understanding of the programmes offered and have put the department in a position to make informed decisions regarding interventions aimed at increasing student success. The work covered in this thesis was presented in two full papers (Graham and Walker, 2011, Graham and Walker, 2015) and two extended abstracts (Graham and Walker, 2013, Walker and Graham, 2013). / M

Bibliography: pages 125-132. / Batteries of exercises requiring visualization in three dimensions were administered to more than 900 freshmen engineering students at the University of Cape Town in 1983, 1984 and 1985, and at the Cape Technikon in 1985. They were found to be consistently powerful predictors of performance in the midyear and final first year engineering drawing examinations. The cultural populations under consideration consisted of students classified by statute as "Black", "White" and "Coloured". By law most pupils in each ethnic group are educated within separate education systems in South Africa. Cultural differences existing between ethnic groups tend to be reinforced by these three different education systems and by socio-economic classes which tend to be distributed along racial lines. Although individual students with gross spatial disabilities were identified in all three ethnic groups, the cross-cultural study carried out in this investigation illustrates the significant differences in the mean performances of students emerging from the three different education systems both in the spatial batteries and in the first year engineering drawing course at UCT. These differences are discussed in terms of language problems, educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and cultural differences. The spatial batteries were found to be the best predictors of engineering drawing examination results at tertiary level irrespective of cultural group, and are proving to be particularly useful for identifying students urgently in need of special academic support in engineering drawing right from the commencement of their course.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Scientific research that focuses on South African females’ success in engineering is limited. The South African engineering workforce and universities have been encountering challenges in attracting and retaining as many females as possible in these fields. This research assignment seeks to advance the understanding of challenges and reasons that contribute to most female learners shying away from engineering studies at tertiary level. To achieve this, Grade 11 and Grade 12 Mathematics and Physical Science female learners from six different schools, which are in a single educational circuit, were observed and interviewed. Mathematics and Physical Science are the two subjects which are prerequisites for engineering studies at any South African higher education institution. For this reason the research focused on female learners who were studying both these subjects. This study also includes a literature review of factors affecting South African women engineers in the labour market. This includes the factors that females around the world consider before choosing a career and the reasons why females stay in their chosen careers. The findings highlight a number of variables that contribute to females’ underrepresentation in engineering. These variables include societal expectations, perceptions of females in careers that are historically male dominated, the quality of education that female learners receive at school, female learners’ performance in Mathematics and Physical Science, guardians’ support of careers chosen by female learners, learners’ knowledge of the various career streams, the use of home language in teaching subjects assessed in English, family responsibilities, and university admission requirements for engineering. Suggestions on how some of these challenges can be mitigated have been highlighted in this research assignment. The main points are:  The need for career guidance workshops and companies’ exhibitions to be taken to the students’ schools where attention can be given to the students of one school at a time and companies can facilitate discussions with learners about the types of work that their companies offer.  Encouraging and advocating for greater parental involvement in the students’ studies as this can reduce the number of students who do not study on a regular basis.  Offering of teaching employment to candidates who fully meet the requirements for the positions they are applying for especially for core subjects like English, Maths, and Science.  Adding engineering faculties to the two universities in the Limpopo Province and giving bursaries or financial aid to help school girls who want to study engineering at university  Teaching school girls time management skills from an early age so as to help them know how to balance the time they spend on each subject. Further details on how some of these suggestions can be achieved are discussed in the last chapter of this research report.

The study presented in this thesis was motivated by the poor academic performance of many entrants to the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. The premise behind the study is that the learning practices of students – the way they typically go about studying and learning – has a significant bearing on the quality of their learning and consequently on their academic prospects at university. Accordingly, the objective of the study was to develop an evidence-based understanding of the learning practices of our students. The kind of understanding sought was one which could inform interventions and/or curriculum re-design that aim to improve the quality of our students’ learning by facilitating an improvement in the quality of their learning practices and, thereby, to reduce attrition. To the extent that our students are representative of entrants to engineering education in the country, the findings of the study could have relevance beyond the context of our school. The methodology employed to achieve the study’s objective was phenomenography. Based on interviews with 31 students from the 2008 entering cohort, qualitatively different types of learning practice were found in 6 different contexts of studying and learning. The variation in the learning practices in four of these contexts was investigated in detail. The practice that was found to exert the most direct influence on the quality of a student’s learning was their ‘mastering-practice’ – i.e. how a student typically relates to and engages with studying and learning when they focus exclusively on the mastering of the requisite knowledge, understanding and skills. Six levels of sophistication in mastering-practice were identified. Three other types of learning practice were also investigated in depth: learning management practice; class-room practice (how students engage with verbal input of course material); and test-focused study practice (how they typically prepare for tests and exams). The study identified five categories of variation in learning management practice, five categories of variation in classroom practice, and four categories of variation in test-focused study practice. It also found that these practices could influence the quality of a student’s learning by the way in which they constrained their mastering-practice or diverted attention away from the exercise of their mastering-practice. The inter-relations between the different types of practice are discussed. The findings from the phenomenographic studies were augmented by investigations into the dynamics associated with how the students learning practices changed during their first year at university. In addition, the study developed a number of pedagogical tools or procedures for interpreting findings of the kind developed in the study and for using them to guide the design of pedagogical measures for improving students’ learning by helping those students to modify their learning practices. Apart from some theoretical developments that emerged and the specific findings about the nature of the learning practices of our students, the study’s contribution to knowledge consists of a methodology for identifying the qualitative essentials of the developmental pathways which students need to negotiate if they are to develop their learning practice to a more sophisticated level.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Education (Educational Psychology), 2003 / Previous studies have addressed the question whether intellectual ability (as measured by the Raven's Progressivp Matrices Tests) is related to academic performance in engineering (Rushton & Skuy, 2000; Rushton, Skuy & Fridjhon, 2002; Rushton, Skuy & Fridjhon, 2003). The question arose of whether nonintellective (personality and attitudinal factors) playa larger role at this level, than intelligence, in determining academic performance in engineering university students. Accordingly, data were yielded for 93 percent (N=100) of the second year Chemical Engineering class in terms of their performance on various measures. These included two measures of intellectual ability, namely the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) and the Organiser (of The Learning Propensity Assessment Device), together with a measure of learning strategies and attitudes (Learning and Study Strategies Inventory), locus of control (Locus of Control Inventory) and self-esteem (Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory). The students' academic results comprised the December 2002 and June 2003 examination results. The current research results demonstrated that while neither the RAPM nor the Organiser yielded any significant correlations with academic results, certain of the non-intellective measures did, and were able to differentiate between high and low academic performers. Motivation, Autonomy and Freedom from Anxiety were found to be significantly related to academic performance, and contributed 26 percent of the variance. This indicates that these factors play a role in academic achievement, and that exploration of personality and motivational factors constitutes a potentially fruitful avenue of research. However, it also seems that 74 percent of variance was unaccounted for, and therefore future studies should explore other factors, not included in this study, in relation to engineering students' academic performance. Furthermore, it emerged that it is unrealistic to attempt to predict academic performance at midyear (June results). KEY WORDS: Intelligence, learning strategies, locus of control, self-esteem, engineering students, second year, and academic performance. / AC2017

Bibliography: pages 73-82. / Using 262 acknowledged science educators from 41 countries, Bybee developed a scale for measuring the ranked priorities of scientists, and others, with respect to twelve major global problems related to science and technology in 1984. In 1993 this scale was re-administered to samples of 76 Cape Town science educators, 55 Transkei science educators and 129 chemical engineering undergraduates at the University of Cape Town. High correlations ranging from r = 0.68 to r = 0.90 were obtained among the four samples' mean ranked priorities on the scale as a whole, over the ten year period. Among the top six global problems in 1984, five still received consistently high overall prioritisation in 1993, namely: population growth; world hunger and food resources; human health and disease; air quality and atmosphere; and water resources. The mean ranking of war technology as a priority declined by seven places over the ten year period. Educators surveyed in follow-up studies in 1993 made numerous recommendations for teaching these global problems. These included the use of the science-technology-society (STS) approach in science education; the introduction of a core school curriculum on environmental education; the encouragement of student participation in projects which help to reduce or eliminate such global problems; and the re-allocation of money spent on nuclear arms towards the satisfaction of human basic needs such as food, housing, health and water services. In a follow-up survey of twenty lecturers in engineering at the University of Cape Town in 1993 and 1994 important goals and issues singled out by individuals included the provision of mass housing and infrastructure; sanitation; urbanisation; job creation; the abuse of high technology in communications; technological illiteracy among decision makers; abuse and reduction of oceanic resources; photochemical smog; the prediction and possible control of droughts and floods; demands on the human race of the information explosion; electromagnetic wave hazards and pollution; resource depletion education and the dissemination of knowledge; the emergence and separation of C.P. Snow's "Two cultures"; and the myth of the peace dividend. Several of these issues were then subsequently included in 1995 in an updated, modified and extended form of the Bybee Scale. Currently a reliable and validated 15-item Scale -emerging from the findings of this dissertation - is being employed by other research workers in various parts of the new South Africa. During 1995 its chief use has been offering relevant input into, and providing empirical justification for, fundamental aspects of the policy of the current Reconstruction and Development Programme, as set out in the 1995 White Paper of the Government of National Unity.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is the contention of this study that competence in science and mathematics is a necessary condition for access to higher education, but that it is a general interest in science that will inspire learners to pursue careers in science and technology. The objective of this study was to develop a profile of the individual who chooses to study science and engineering. The three research questions were, firstly, what is the background profile of a group of learners who have decided to study science and engineering? Secondly, what are the characteristic features of the school-science experience of these learners? Lastly, what are the factors that learners think most influenced their decision to study science and engineering? This study was formulated as having a descriptive purpose and hence a survey research design was used. Self-reported retrospective data were collected using a questionnaire which was designed with reference to a number of sources (e.g., Woolnough, 1994). After piloting the questionnaire, it was administered to all firstyear students registered in the faculties of Science and Engineering at the University of Cape Town. A total of 204 first-year science and 247 first-year engineering students formed the final sample of this study. Quantitative analysis of the students’ responses showed that 66% of respondents were male. The majority of female students were registered in the science faculty. English was the home language of 55% of the sample, with 32% of students reported speaking one of the other nine official languages at home. Parents, career counselors and teachers most influenced students’ decision to study science or engineering. The vast majority of respondents took Physical Science at school. Students’ experiences of school science were diverse. Students’ responses generally reflected a poor commitment on the part of schools to expose students to noncurriculum activities generally thought to promote an interest in science. Overall, the majority of students reflected an enthusiasm for learning to do science through scientific experiments, albeit with preference for a teacher-driven approach to classroom activities. Personal motivation, receiving a bursary, and access to information were the main factors that students said influenced their decision to study science and engineering. While information received at a careers open day and participating in a school science competition was crucial for science students, engineering students showed a general curiosity for science, for knowing how things work, and for creating and designing things. For most African students information received at a careers open day was important, while a curiosity for science and receiving a bursary were equally important in influencing non-African students to pursue further study in science or engineering. The results of this study suggest that what parents say, and the information that learners have access to, is important to the decisions that learners make in regard to future careers in science and engineering. It is suggested that future strategies for promoting science in general must include parents, teachers and senior learners in the dissemination of general information about science, about people in science, about using science in everyday life, and about the possibilities for further study in science and engineering. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Dit is die uitgangspunt van hierdie ondersoek dat vaardigheid in die wetenskap en wiskunde ‘n noodsaaklike voorwaarde is vir toegang to tersiêre onderwys, maar dat ‘n algemene belangstelling in die wetenskap leerders sal inspireer om loopbane in die natuurwetenskappe en tegnologie te volg. Die doel van hierdie ondersoek was om ‘n profiel te ontwikkel van die individu wat die natuurwetenskappe en ingenieurswese kies as studierigting. Die drie navorsingsvrae was, eerstens, wat is die agtergrondsprofiel van leerders wat besluit om in die natuurwetenskappe en ingenieurswese te studeer? Tweedens, wat is die kenmerkende eienskappe van hierdie leerders se skoolervaring? Laastens, watter faktore dink hierdie leerders het hulle besluit om in die natuurwetenskappe en ingenieurswese te studeer, die meeste beïnvloed? Hierdie ondersoek is beskrywend van aard en dus is ‘n steekproef as navorsingsontwerp gebruik. Selfgerapporteerde retrospektiewe data is ingesamel deur middel van ‘n vraelys wat ontwerp is met verwysings na ‘n verskeidenheid bronne (bv., Woolnough, 1994). Die vraelys is versprei aan alle eerste-jaar geregistreerde studente in die Natuurwetenskappe en Ingenieurswese Fakulteite by die Universiteit van Kaapstad, nadat ‘n voortoetsing van die vraelys uitgevoer is. ‘n Totaal van 204 eerste-jaar natuurwetensakppe en 247 eerste-jaar ingenieurswese studente was deel van die finale steekproef van hierdie ondersoek. Die kwantitatiewe ontleding van die studenteterugvoer toon dat 66% van die respondente manlik is. Die meerderheid vroulike studente was geregistreer in die natuurwetenskappe fakulteit. Engels was die huistaal van 55% van die steekproef, en 32% van die studente het aangedui dat hulle een of meer van die ander nege amptelike landstale praat. Ouers, beroepsvoorligters en onderwysers het die meeste invloed gehad op die studente se besluit om in die natuurwetenskappe of ingenieurswese te studeer. Die oorgrote meerderheid respondente het Natuur- en Skeikunde op skool geneem. Studente se skoolervarings en ervaring van die wetenskap op skool was uiteenlopend. Studente se terugvoer het in die algemeen gedui op ‘n swak verbintenis van skole tot die blootstelling van studente aan niekurrikulêre aktiwiteite wat oor die algemeen belangstelling in die wetenskap kweek. Die meerderheid studente het in die geheel ‘n entoesiasme getoon om meer te leer van die wetenskap deur die uitvoer van wetenskaplike eksperimente, hoewel met ‘n voorkeur vir ‘n onderwyser-gedrewe benadering tot klaskamer aktiwiteite. Persoonlike motivering, om ‘n beurs te ontvang, en toegang tot inligting is deur studente aangedui as van die vernaamste faktore wat ‘n invloed op hulle keuse van die natuurwetenskappe en ingenieurswese as studierigting gehad het. Die inligting wat die natuurwetenskappe studente ontvang het by beroepsgeoriënteerde opedae en deelname in ‘n skool wetenskapskompetisie was beslissend in hulle besluit. Die ingenieurswese studente daarteenoor het ‘n algemene nuurskierigheid vir die wetenskap en hoe dinge werk, hoe om dinge te skep en te ontwerp, getoon. Die inligting wat swart studente by beroepsgeoriënteerde opedae ontvang het, was belangrik, terwyl ‘n wetenskaplike nuuskierigheid en die toekenning van ‘n beurs ‘n ewe belangrike invloed gehad het op ander studente se keuse om verdere studie in die natuurwetenskappe of ingenieurswese voort te sit. Die resultate van hierdie ondersoek dui daarop dat wat ouers sê, en die inligting waartoe leerders toegang het, belangrik is vir die besluite wat leerders neem met betrekking tot toekomstige loopbane in die natuurwetenskappe en ingenieurswese. Daar word voorgestel dat toekomstige strategieë vir die bevordering van die wetenskap in die algemeen ouers, onderwysers en senior leerders moet insluit in die verspreiding van algemene inligting oor die wetenskap, oor mense in die wetenskap, oor die gebruik van die wetenskap in die alledaagse lewe, en die moontlikhede van verdere studies in die natuurwetenskappe en ingenieurswese.