Magister Scientiae (Occupational Therapy) - MSc(OT) / Fieldwork is seen to be an essential component in the curriculum of an undergraduate occupational therapy (OT) program through which students develop their professional behavior and apply theoretical education to clinical practice. Students in their final year of the undergraduate OT program at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) use the UWC Community Process as a guide to community fieldwork in community settings. This process follows a community development approach to allow students to focus on the needs of the community. The community fieldwork placement is compulsory for all final year OT students. The main aims of the placement are for students to develop their understanding of the role of an occupational therapist in a community setting and to enhance their understanding of the occupational nature of communities. This study focuses on final year UWC OT students' experiences of the supervision they received while following the steps of the Community Process as well as their perceptions of the relationship between their supervision and their learning about occupation based community practice. The aim of the study was to explore how the 2009 final year OT students experienced fieldwork supervision during their community fieldwork placement. The study followed an interpretivist paradigm with a qualitative research methodological approach and a phenomenological design. Purposeful sampling was used to select participants from the UWC OT department who undertook their community fieldwork placement in 2009. All the data utilized in this study was directly linked to the students' experiences of supervision during their learning of the Community Process. Therefore, the methods of data collection that were used included the students' daily reflective journals, their portfolio files and an evaluative focus group held at the end of the year 2009. All data was critically analyzed through a process of thematic analysis in order to meet the research objectives. The techniques of triangulation and a detailed description of the research process were employed to ensure trustworthiness of the study. The ethical principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence as well as informed written consent were adhered to in the study. The findings of the study highlighted the emotions that the students experienced, the development of their professional judgement and the challenges and experiences they encountered in their personal and professional development. The findings further showed that the process of becoming a part of the community allowed the students to define their role as an OT in a community setting and to increase their understanding of community development in the context of their role within the community. The findings also emphasized the students' experiences with regards to various teaching and learning techniques and approaches used within the supervision of their community fieldwork placement. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to the generation of an understanding of how supervision influences students' understanding of occupation-based community practice in occupational therapy.

This research study describes an evaluation of social work field instruction offered by universities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Qualitative data was collected from agency field instructors, university fieldwork coordinators and social work students. This study’s findings indicated that field instruction needs a good foundation of experiential learning that is facilitated by report writing, journal writing and agency and university supervision. Findings also indicated a need for the screening, selection and training of agency field instructors. There was also an indication that universities should develop selection procedures to ensure that the best possible students are accepted into the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) programme. All findings indicated that field instruction programmes are most effective when there is a strong university agency partnership. The study concludes by making recommendations for future development of standards relating to field instruction programmes in the Eastern Cape and South Africa. Key words: Social work, evaluative research, field instruction, experiential learning, reflection, agency field instructor, university supervisor, university fieldwork coordinator, social work student, social work education, social work training.

This dissertation explores the symbiotic relationship resulting from the merging of situated learning's socio-cultural conceptualization of the nature of learning with community service learning's ethos of service. As such, I enquired into the effects of the integration of situated learning as the conceptual framework, and community service learning as both an instructional methodology and educational philosophy. Specifically, through an ethnographic investigation I sought to discover the nature and outcomes of learning which result when high school students take their skills out of the classroom into the community to help solve authentic problems. The students with whom I worked were members of a high school computer technology class in which expectations were that they (the students) would combine learning with service by devoting ten to twenty hours to help a community agency solve technology-related problems. In this regard, eight different student groups applied their technology skills within a variety of school and community environments. Thereupon, I looked to ascertain not only if the students improved upon their already sufficient technical skills, but also what other abilities and knowledge of themselves and/or the world they appropriated. Thus, as per the defining features of situated learning and community service learning, I hoped to find evidence of learning in areas related to technological development, workplace knowledge and expertise, problem solving, group skills, personal and social maturity, and an ethos of service. Such learning occurred and, thus, I concluded that the integration of community service learning and situated learning in this technology classroom resulted in a symbiotic relationship in which the nature and specific outcomes of learning were 1) accounted for by situated learning and 2) enhanced beyond what would normally be expected in a non-service Information Technology Management classroom in the Province of British Columbia. Hence, the well documented and rigorously determined empirical findings: 1) argue that situated learning provides a viable theoretical framework for community service learning, 2) add empirical support to the learning claims of both situated learning and service learning, and 3) suggest a means of enabling education to become more responsive to the students and the community. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

The problem of this investigation was the construction and evaluation of a score card for evaluating the field work experience in recreation. The instrument was constructed after studying nationally adopted accreditation standards, criteria, guidelines and evaluations of professional preparation programs. This investigation concludes that of twenty-five items which made up the original instrument, twenty-four remained after two evaluations by a panel of experts. A method was developed to score the instrument according to maximum score and percentage compliance score for each section of the instrument. It is the recommendation of this investigation that the score card be field tested and become part of a total score card for evaluating the professional preparation program in recreation.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Thesis (Ph. D. Education (Science Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The development of learners’ entrepreneurial skills in Agricultural Sciences remains as one of the crucial aspects in the midst of the high unemployment rate in South Africa. Development of these skills depends on the capacity of teachers’ instructional decisions. These skills play a significant role in the agricultural sector as this sector experiences changes in the production and marketing of agricultural products. These significant changes demand relevant skills, such as negotiation skills, critical thinking skills and creativity skills, in order to support these changes and also for school leavers to remain relevant in the 21st century. Therefore, it is against this background that the study sought to investigate teachers’ instructional decisions on the development of learners’ entrepreneurial skills in an Agricultural Sciences classroom. The social reconstructionism theory was used as a framework to guide how teaching and learning should be structured in order to develop agricultural entrepreneurial skills. The study was submersed in the exploratory mixed method approach. Purposive and systematic sampling were used to select 4 teachers and 100 Grade 12 Agricultural Sciences learners from 4 local secondary schools in the Sekhukhune District of Limpopo, from whom the data were collected through the use of observational inventory and questionnaires. Interpretative analysis and a multinomial logistic regression model were used to analyse the collected data. The study found that Agricultural Sciences lessons were dominated by traditional methods for both teaching and assessment because teaching is geared towards passing control tests and examinations rather than towards the development of skills. Furthermore, a lack of professional knowledge was also visible, where lessons were not properly planned and the teachers’ inability to relate the lesson to reality was evident. It was also observed from the results of the multinomial logistic regression that other factors that influence the development of agricultural entrepreneurial skills include, among others, the type of questions asked, the learning environment and the number of practical lessons. The study further found that 68% of learners prefers to learn through interact methods other than the traditional methods. The results further indicated that learners have positive attitudes towards learning agricultural entrepreneurship and they also use iii some this knowledge in their daily activities. Therefore, as a result of this study, the researcher recommends that the Department of Basic Education, in conjunction with institutions of higher learning, provide regular workshops or training opportunities for Agricultural Sciences teachers so that they become relevant practitioners of developing learners’ agricultural entrepreneurial skills. The workshops should focus mainly on planning a lesson for a vocational subject like Agricultural Sciences, and emphasis should be placed on the type of resources relevant to the teaching of Agricultural Sciences.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Susan Nelson Wood, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Middle and Secondary Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 27, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984. / Also available in print.