Magister Educationis - MEd / South Africa is a multicultural and multilingual country, with eleven official languages which include English, Afrikaans, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, IsiNdebele, Sesotho, Setswana, Sepedi, TshiVenda and Xitsonga. While the nine African languages have official status, they are used for teaching and learning in the Foundation Phase (Grades R – 3) only. English is accorded high prestige and status, and it is used as the main Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) from Grade 4 to tertiary level. This occurs mostly in schools with African language-speaking learners only, while English and Afrikaans speaking learners maintain their home languages as LoLT from pre-primary to tertiary education. This study argues that if learners do not have a solid foundation in their home language and in the first additional language (FAL), they may not cope with the demands of the Grade 4 curriculum where English additional language is used as the main LoLT. Therefore, this study explored the teaching and learning of English (FAL) in Grade 3 and the extent to which it prepared learners for transition to English LoLT and their epistemic access to knowledge in Grade 4. The Constructivist and Sociocultural theories were used to understand how the teaching and learning of English LoLT occurred in the selected Grade 3 classroom, in an under resourced township school in the Western Cape. The study made use of a qualitative research approach. Data were collected by means of classroom observations, interviews and document analysis. Interviews were conducted with the Grade 3 class teacher, the Head of Department (HOD) and the principal. Data were analysed thematically. The findings of the study show that the Grade 3 teacher made use of learner-centred strategies in teaching English. However, the learners were not challenged to think critically. Learners had reading and writing difficulties, as well as low proficiency in English. The study concludes that English (FAL) is a barrier to Grade 3 learners’ epistemic access to learning and it could negatively impact on their transition to English LoLT in Grade 4.

<p>The research reported in this paper involves the use of dialogical argumentation in scientific context with 7-9 year olds as part of teaching and learning in primary classrooms. To develop an understanding of scientific concepts, four suitable collaborative activities on river pollution were used as a stimulus to effectively engage learners in scientific reasoning and use evidence for decision-making through cognitive harmonization. The research, involved four groups of five children each. Data were collected through analysis of children&rsquo / s Water Pollution Questionnaire (WPQ), classroom observation, documentation of field notes, conversations and focus group interviews. The study found that all groups were able to engage in the activities to some extent, but that good quality argumentation develops when children are familiar with working in this manner. This study sought to investigate the opportunities, possibilities and challenges associated with a dialogical argumentation teaching and learning approach in a primary school science class A mapping technique was used to analyze the children&rsquo / s discussions and identify the quality of their different &ldquo / levels&rdquo / of argument. This study confirmed that an argumentation based instruction was an effective way of enhancing learners&rsquo / understanding of river pollution. The learners&rsquo / listening skills improved tremendously and they were actively involve during discussions and provided claims with valid grounds or reasons. They were also very enthusiastic and challenged each other&rsquo / s claims during these argumentation lessons, but most of all was the enjoyment that was visible on their young faces. Further research needs to be carried out over a longer period to determine the effectiveness of an argumentation based instruction.</p>

<p>The research reported in this paper involves the use of dialogical argumentation in scientific context with 7-9 year olds as part of teaching and learning in primary classrooms. To develop an understanding of scientific concepts, four suitable collaborative activities on river pollution were used as a stimulus to effectively engage learners in scientific reasoning and use evidence for decision-making through cognitive harmonization. The research, involved four groups of five children each. Data were collected through analysis of children&rsquo / s Water Pollution Questionnaire (WPQ), classroom observation, documentation of field notes, conversations and focus group interviews. The study found that all groups were able to engage in the activities to some extent, but that good quality argumentation develops when children are familiar with working in this manner. This study sought to investigate the opportunities, possibilities and challenges associated with a dialogical argumentation teaching and learning approach in a primary school science class A mapping technique was used to analyze the children&rsquo / s discussions and identify the quality of their different &ldquo / levels&rdquo / of argument. This study confirmed that an argumentation based instruction was an effective way of enhancing learners&rsquo / understanding of river pollution. The learners&rsquo / listening skills improved tremendously and they were actively involve during discussions and provided claims with valid grounds or reasons. They were also very enthusiastic and challenged each other&rsquo / s claims during these argumentation lessons, but most of all was the enjoyment that was visible on their young faces. Further research needs to be carried out over a longer period to determine the effectiveness of an argumentation based instruction.</p>

The current longitudinal study examined the development of morphological awareness (MA) in the writing of 59 (27 EL1, 32 ELL) participants in grade 3 and grade 5, using an experimental morphological error type scoring (METS) guide. The researcher -developed METS guide provided an in-depth analysis of inflectional and derivational morphological usage across five categories: omissions (MO), morphological spelling errors (Msp), morphological attempts (Mat), wrong word (WW) and wrong homophones (WH). Standardized literacy measures evaluated spelling, oral vocabulary and oral syntax. For all grade 3 to grade 5 participants the total morphological errors (TME) and morphological omissions (MO) decreased and the morphological attempts (Mat) increased. Increases in oral syntax and vocabulary correlated to increased writing performance and decreased total morphological errors (TME). Differences were observed in the correlation analysis across all morphological measures between language groups (EL1, ELL). Using a detailed morphological error analysis in children’s writing may provide an accurate measure of the development of morphological awareness and patterns of usage for morphological structures in the writing samples of diverse language groups. / Graduate

Spelling is one of the most important components of writing at single-word level and is regarded as a vital part of written communication. Also spelling is seen as an important tool in writing. Without the ability to spell as a broader aspect of writing, a person could not be called literate in the conventional sense of the word. Although the spelling is so important, learners in the foundation phase especially in grade three commit interlingual spelling errors. This means that at this stage learners transfer patterns of the mother tongue to the second language. By so doing that they write English words as the way they are pronounced in their mother tongue. Hence this study investigated grade three teachers’ strategies to help English second language learners overcome interlingual spelling errors. In exploring these strategies this study adopted a qualitative approach in order to ensure reliability and validity of the study. The data gathering instruments used included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis. One primary school in Mdantsane a township in East London District was purposively selected to form the context of the study. The medium of instruction in this school is isiXhosa in the foundation phase and English is taught as a subject. Two teachers and their classes participated in this study. The findings of the study revealed that different factors contribute to interlingual spelling errors. These factors are status of the parent (they were illiterate), pronunciation, language borrowing and language transfer. It is also revealed that teachers have a limited number of strategies to teach learners overcome interlingual spelling errors instead they use strategies to teach spelling generally.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Many South African Foundation Phase learners perform poorly in literacy, especially in reading and writing. The Annual National Assessment (ANA) results show that many Grade 3 learners experience difficulties in reading and in writing sentences from pictures (Howie, Venter, Van Staden, Zimmerman, Long, Scherman & Archer, 2008). The learners also struggle to produce meaningful written sentences, even though they are taught through the medium of their own home languages, including African languages (Department of Basic Education, 2013). To enrich learners’ language and literacy skills, the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) encourages the use of figurative and metaphorical language through the teaching of folklore. However, CAPS does not provide explicit guidelines on how folklore ought be taught to enhance learners’ literacy skills.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärare i årskurs 1 respektive 3 beskriver och motiverar sitt arbete med språkutveckling och läsförståelse tillsammans med högläsning. Studien utgår från följande frågeställningar: Hur beskriver och motiverar lärare sitt arbete med högläsning? Vilka arbetssätt används för att förstärka högläsningens effekt på elevernas språkutveckling? Hur arbetar lärare så att elevernas läsförståelse gynnas tillsammans med högläsningen? Skiljer sig det aktiva arbetet med högläsning åt mellan årskurs 1 och årskurs 3 i just de här skolorna? I så fall hur? Studien gjordes med hjälp av en enkät som har besvarats av 50 lärare och intervjuer med fem lärare som arbetar i årskurs 1 och årskurs 3. Studien utgår fyra teorianknytningar och dessa är Lev Vygotskijs teori om sociokulturellt perspektiv, Vygotskijs teori "Zone of proximal development", Aidan Chambers teori om boksamtal och Barbro Westlunds teori om lässtrategier. Resultatet av studien visar att lärarna beskriver högläsning som ett positiv arbetssätt som utvecklar elevernas språkkunskaper och läsförståelse. De tre vanligaste sätten att arbeta för att förstärka högläsningens effekt på elevernas språkutveckling är lässtrategier, boksamtal och "En läsande klass". Den huvudsakliga skillnaden mellan de olika årskurserna är den faktiska tid som ägnas åt högläsning. I genomsnitt läser lärare högt för sina elever varje vecka 1 timme och 59 minuter i årskurs 1 respektive 1 timme och 22 minuter i årskurs 3. / The purpose of the study is to examine how teachers in grades 1 respective 3 describes and justifies the work with reading comprehension and language development along with reading aloud. The study is based on the following questions: How do the teachers describe and motivate their work with reading aloud? What approach are they using to enhance the reading aloud effect on pupils' language? How do teachers work in order that students' reading comprehension will benefit from the teacher reading aloud?  Does the active work with reading aloud differ between grade 1 and grade 3 in these particular schools? If so, how? This study was made by using a questionnaire to 50 teachers and interviews with five teachers working in grade 1 and grade 3. The study is based on four theoretical extensions and these are Lev Vygotskijs theory of Socio-cultural perspective, Vygotskijs theory  ”Zone of proximal development”, Aidan Chambers theory of discussions of literature and Barbro Westlunds theory of reading strategies. The result of the study shows that teachers describe reading aloud as a positive approach that develops students' language skills and reading comprehension. The three most common ways of working to strengthen reading aloud effect on pupils' language development are reading strategies, discussions of literature and "En läsande klass". The main difference between the different grades is the actual time devoted to reading aloud. On average, teachers read aloud to students weekly for 1 hour and 59 minutes in grade 1 and for 1 hour and 22 minutes in grade 3.

The aim of this study is to investigate how a multicultural society can be reflected in the religious education. This essay will compare how teachers in grade 3 reflects about their religious education in relation to the society’s cultural diversity and it will also analyze how the teachers’ pupils think about religion. I have used the following questions: Do the teachers believe that the cultural diversity affects their religious education and if so, how and in what way? How do the teachers describe teaching religion in relation to the multicultural society? What are the pupils’ perceptions of religion in a context of cultural diversity? The investigation is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with four different teachers and a questionnaire study with 62 pupils that generates both quantitative and qualitative data. The theoretical approach of the study is grounded on different definitions of religion and on a theory called frame factor theory which was produced by Urban Dahllöf. The result of the study shows that the teachers believe that it is important to adapt their religious education to the cultural diversity. When comparing the teachers’ descriptions about their religious education it shows that all of the teachers describe factors that can influence their teaching of religion in a multicultural society. The questionnaire study shows similarities and differences in the way pupils think about religion but the most common thing is that most of the pupils associate God with religion.

Nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPV) are manufactured from medium strength low alloy ferritic steel, specifically selected for its high toughness and good weldability. The ability of the RPV material to resist crack growth is crucial given that it is one of the fundamental containment safety systems of nuclear power plants. For most of their lifetime, the RPV operates at sufficiently elevated temperatures to ensure the material is ductile. However, the development of ductile damage, in the form of voids, and the ability to predict ductile tearing in RPV materials using a mechanistically-based model remains difficult. The Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) model of ductile tearing provides one such tool for predicting ductile damage development in RPV materials. The difficulty in using the GTN model lies in the ability to calibrate the model parameters in a robust manner. The parameters are typically calibrated data, derived from fracture tests and relying on an iterative “trial and error” procedure of numerical simulations and comparison with test data until the model reproduces the experimental behaviour with sufficient accuracy. This research has addressed the development of a mechanistically-based approach to the calibration of the GTN model by developing a new understanding of the ductile fracture mechanism in RPV material through conventional metallography and 3D X-ray computed tomography to image the initiation, growth and coalescence of ductile voids. The metallographic and tomographic data were analysed in a quantitative manner to establish a direct link between the microstructural features and void evolution and the key parameters of the GTN model. This approach has established a more robust mechanistically based method for the calibration of the GTN model that will enhance the conventional iterative calibration procedure. The calibrated model was applied to predict ductile tearing behaviour in compact-tension and notched-tensile specimens. The results showed good agreement with test data and also reproduced the morphology and branching of crack extension observed in practise. Whilst these observations were due, in part, to the numerical solving procedure, they enabled new insights to be gained regarding the development of non-uniform void volume fraction distributions in tested specimensThe results from this research will strengthen the guidance provided to structural integrity engineers in industry regarding the calibration and application of ductile damage mechanics models such as the GTN model for predicting ductile initiation and growth in RPV materials.

This study aimed to describe the nature of teaching English as a second language in Grade 3 to inform language instruction. Pragmatism guided the study with Differentiated Instruction as the theoretical framework. A comparative case study, based on an embedded mixed method design, was used to observe three teachers in two remote primary schools. Qualitative data included non-participative classroom observations, face-to-face semi-structured interviews, and selected documents. Supportive quantitative data was collected by means of the Classroom Observation Schedule-Revised (CLOS-R) to determine the effective literacy instructional practices applied. Thematic analysis was guided by a-priori codes of effective teaching practices of English as a second language for academic purposes. Findings provide evidence-based descriptions of foundation phase teachers’ teaching of an additional language in two rural schools. They indicate that teachers managed the behaviour of learners and provide a predictable routine. However, the classroom was not used as a resource to promote literacy development through the physical arrangement or by creating opportunities for social interaction. Instructional practice did not appear purposeful and teachers lacked awareness of the learners’ needs. The teachers did not seem to have sufficient training or experience to teach English to Grade 3 learners. Their low level of English proficiency combined with a lack of resources to support language enrichment made it difficult for them to meet the learning challenges faced by rural learners. Language instruction seemed to focus on structure, compromising the development of the independent academic language skills needed to make the transition in Grade 4 to English as the Language of Learning and Teaching. They were thus unable to fully fulfil their role as a knowledge specialist and a learner expert. The results of this study are similar to findings in the literature (Fleisch, 2008). / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted