Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2020 / Conventional laboratory report writing skills present an enormous challenge to first entering science students including the Bachelor of Science (BSc) students at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMHSU). First entering students are expected to meet essential tertiary discourse requirements and standards consistent with their scientific community. The purpose of this study was to explore how content lecturers in cognate departments assess laboratory report writing skills of first entering BSc students. The research design was exploratory and a mixed approach was used. Students sat for a criterion-referenced test and interviews were conducted with content lecturers to collect data; quantitative basic statistical interrogation of the basic data points and post interview analysis were performed. Some of the key findings of this exploration was that most first entering BSc students are in a dire situation regarding the laboratory report writing genre; they are unable to communicate comprehensive and intelligible information in the written laboratory reports. Thus, content lecturers and English language lecturers from the Department of Language Proficiency (DLP) need to strategically collaborate in order to improve the performance of first entering BSc students.

Thesis (M.A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / This study explored the perceptions of students and lecturers with regard to written and oral corrective feedback in a first-level English course at the University of Limpopo. Specifically, the study was designed to establish the views of first entering students and lecturers around oral and written feedback. This study responds to widely-held views that students do not pay much attention to feedback, that even if feedback is provided, some do not know how use feedback systematically to improve their works, and that some lecturers are not investing sufficiently on provision of detailed, usable feedback. This study made use of classroom observations, questionnaires and focus group interviews to establish from students’ perceptions about oral and written corrective feedback in their studies and overall attainment of study goals. Furthermore, lecturers were also invited to participate in interviews to ascertain their perception on whether they consider written feedback essential and how it improves the students’ written English grammar. The study uncovered among others that students view oral and written corrective feedback as a tool that improves their grammar in English challenging long standing views that students are mostly interested in marks obtained in assessments. Data emerging from this study further suggests that participants view oral and written feedback as a device that helps students to improve in their usage of grammar and highlight the need to provide detailed, timely and constructive feedback in student’s academic work.

Thesis (M.A. (Information Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2018 / A large number of first year entering undergraduate students at tertiary institutions at Tshwane University of Technology lack skills and competencies for accessing relevant academic information for their assignments and other academic projects they are engaged in. To overcome this problem academic libraries at this institution organise Information Literacy Training Programme (ILTP) to equip students with such skills and competencies. This research investigated if there is any impact that ILTP has among first year entering undergraduate students attached to the Faculties of Humanities and Management Science, who have attended this programme at Tshwane University of Technology, at Polokwane campus. The study adopted both quantitative and qualitative research approaches through a questionnaire and focus group interview respectively to measure the information literacy skills and competencies of first year entering students before and after t attending ILITP.The study sought to measure (a) Students’ perception of information literacy; (b) Students’ ability to use library resources; (c) Students familiarity with different library resources before and after attendance of the programme. The study found that most of the first entering students had a different perception of information literacy. Furthermore, the student’s abilities to use library resources and their familiarity with library resources were very little before they attended the programme. It was only after they attended the programme that they were familiar with some of the library resources and their abilities to use those resources improved. Therefore this study discovered that ILTP has a positive impact of the academic success and performance of first entering students, even though it is minimal.The study recommends that information literacy education for students should be continuous so that students should not lose focus of what they have learnt in the formal Information Literacy Training Programmes. Furthermore, teaching of information literacy should be compulsory to all first year entering students across all faculties offered at Tshwane University of Technology and this will attach some form of accreditation to them to encourage participation.

In order to explore the differences in engagement levels between entering and returning community college students, the researcher analyzed 13,300 surveys from the 2007 Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) pilot data set utilizing a quantitative methodology. This study focused on analyzing engagement levels of entering and returning students in six constructs: Active and Collaborative Learning, First Day, Student Effort, Student-faculty Interaction, Support for Learners, and Motivation. After the comparison between the two groups was performed, data were disaggregated by eleven groups to further explore differences. Differences in engagement levels were explored in terms of students’ characteristics such as remedial background, age, gender, full-time status, ethnicity, degree seeking, first generation, and traditional status. The results of this study revealed that returning community college students in general, are more engaged in educational practices associated with persistence than entering students. In addition, findings suggest that with the exception of one variable (overall high school grade average), students commonly categorized as “at risk” or “disadvantaged” (developmental, non-traditional, part-time, first generation, minorities) overwhelmingly held higher levels of engagement in all positive engagement variables of the six analyzed constructs. Furthermore, in an analysis of disaggregated data by eleven groups of students, the following was found: o Students who placed in three developmental courses were by far the most highly engaged group in all positive engagement variables of the six constructs. o Students with the highest level of engagement in the two negative variables of the Student Effort construct (skipped class or came to class without completing readings or assignments) were traditional, 18-19 year olds, not-first generation, and non-developmental students. o Students who reported that success courses had helped them to get the knowledge necessary to succeed in college were overwhelmingly disadvantaged students (developmental, non-traditional, females and minorities). o Developmental students showed higher levels of engagement with regard to college services. o Financial aid advising and skill labs (math, reading, and writing) were the two services with the highest number of statistically significant differences throughout the eleven groups. This study was concluded with recommendations for further research and strategies that community college stakeholders could implement to increase student retention. / text

Thesis (M. A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / The study explored the stress levels and alcohol use amongst first entering students at the University of Limpopo. There are various reasons that students’ use and abuse alcohol for instance, academic workload, peer pressure, negative life events and boredom. In this study a cross-sectional survey design was used with a random sample of 217 first year psychology students. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), which measures individual stress and the Alcohol Use Identification Disorder Test (Audit), which measures alcohol use were used. Descriptive statistics, the chi-square test and an independent t-test were used to analyse data. Findings revealed that the majority of students drink alcohol but only a few drink to excess. Stress was reported mostly in the low to moderate range. However, female students did report significantly more stress than males in the sample. Some findings, although not significant, were problematic as for instance, a portion of students stated they could not remember what they were doing the night before after drinking and one female student was found to be dependent on alcohol. The Self-Medication Model (SMM) posits that people in a group are likely to selfmedicate if certain conditions are met in order to avoid stress, this appears to be the case in this study. It was recommended that a larger study be undertaken with a qualitative component to ascertain reasons why students are drinking alcohol in ever increasing numbers. It was also recommended that the institution run programmes related to the dangers of alcohol use and about stress and its consequences.

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / This study aimed to explore contextual factors affecting first entering students' motivation to learn English at the University of Limpopo (UL). It has utilised a qualitative approach and also adopted an exploratory design to explore the contextual factors, which affect students' motivation to learn the English language. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from a selected sample of respondents. Moreover, Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was employed to analyse and thematise the collected data in line with the objectives of the study, which are aligned with the literature review in the study. The following themes were generated: students' motivations to learn the English language, the students' approaches to learning the English language, the role of context in relation to students' motivation to learn English, the lecture hall control and climate, the effect of lecture hall control and climate on students' motivation, and the lecturers' perceptions about motivation to learn. In addition, the study found that first entering students' motivation to learn the English language was influenced by contextual factors such as lecture hall setting, lecturers' teaching approaches as well as the perceptions of friends and classmates. Therefore, the study recommended that the UL Department of Languages, the lecturers, as well as the Academic Development Centre (ADC) should come up with possible strategies to suggest contextual factors that could motivate the UL first entering students to learn English. Key concepts: Motivation, contextual factors, English L2, first entering students, Self Determination Theory