M. Tech. Business Administration / This study examines public secondary school teachers technology acceptance as another form of pedagogical method in the classroom. The widely used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to determine the factors associated with either acceptance or non-acceptance of technology in the classroom. In this study, only secondary school teachers from disadvantaged schools in one of the biggest townships in South Africa were sampled. The sample size was 271 respondents from a population of approximately 455. TAM was tested on the use of any of the Microsoft Softwares (Powerpoint, Word, Excel) in the classrooms for teaching purposes. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data and five hypothesis statements were tested. The results revealed fundamental determinants (e.g. perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) as primary contributors for their acceptance of technology.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The aim of this study is to determine whether there is a higher performance in the academic results of those pupils who had been assisted by the educational corporate social responsibility intervention and the academic results of those pupils who had not participated in the educational intervention.

D. Tech. Education / Investigates the levels of awareness, knowledge and attitude of South African secondary school learners and educators about environmental pollution in a coal mining area.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education) -- Tshwane University of Technology, 2010. / This study was aimed at examining factors that influence ICT integration in education at high schools in the Nkomazi sub-region of Mpumalanga Province with a view to provide efforts towards its implementation.

This study investigates the management and provision of extracurricular programmes in inner city secondary schools. Literature pointed out that extracurricular provisioning in inner city secondary schools is challenging because of limited physical infrastructure and negative influences from the external environment. An empirical investigation based on a qualitative research design was conducted at five research sites conveniently selected. Through individual and focus-group interviewing it was established that extracurricular programmes in inner city secondary schools are hampered by limited and inadequate facilities, a lack of human resource capacity, an over-emphasis of the curricular programme and financial constraints. Due to the importance of a holistic development of the child to be an all-rounder as adult, it is recommended that all stakeholders of the school be involved in providing a viable extracurricular programme. Stakeholders include the teaching corps, parents, the local municipality, the department of education, and the business community. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Education Management)

M. Ed. (Educational Psychology) / This study explores the experiences that multiple stakeholders have of learner participation in an independent school in Johannesburg. The school’s policy documents were reviewed, both in order to establish the school’s suitability for the study, and in order to provide some context for understanding. The participants were selected by both their involvement in learner participation bodies at the school in question, and their willingness to participate in the study. To this end, the school’s principal, educational psychologist and two learner leaders agreed to be interviewed in order to try and describe their experiences. It was hoped that the exploring, and rich describing, of the participants’ experiences would be helpful in terms of finding solutions or providing recommendations for the school itself when facing challenges, and for any other school that may benefit from the findings of the study. The researcher embarked on a process of Content Analysis of the transcribed interviews and relevant policy documents to uncover primary themes of experience as described by the participants. It was found that the participants’ experiences could be categorised into themes of difficulty with training; support; feedback; and clarity of roles. Recommendations were made regarding the facilitation of learner participation at both the participating school and other schools in general. These recommendations included: i) Schools communicate clearly the purposes of training programmes and initiatives to learners; ii) Schools utilise multiple training programmes, which are relevant to their own school context; iii) A staff member is formally available as support for each learner participation body in a school; iv) All meetings be scheduled suitably in advance; v) Learner participation bodies schedule regular meetings with their constituencies for feedback purposes - regardless of the length of the agenda; vi) Measures be instituted to hold staff accountable to their commitments without learner initiation; vii) All people who are affected by policies should play a role in their construction (UNCRC, 1990; SASA, 1996); viii) Policy review be seen as a continuous process, including legislated periods of review. Furthermore, conceptual inconsistencies in the design of the Representative Council of Learners (RCL) were suggested - specifically conflicting mandates in terms of representing learner voice and implementing teacher directives - resulting in a suggestion of legislation review.

This study is a situational analysis of a school located at Nonkcampa village, just ten kilometres from King William’s Town, west of the national road between Peddie and King William’s Town. Toise Senior Secondary School is in the former Ciskei region. The Bulembu / Bisho airport is just next to our school. My focus on Toise Senior Secondary School, provides me as the principal of the school with a golden opportunity to find out more about the school. As a relative newcomer to the school this study also enables me to look at the school community, from this particular focal point. As this is a situational analysis, my focus will be on the history, the biophysical and socio-political aspects that influenced the development of the school to the present. In this way I will be able to analyse the school’s readiness to implement the new Out-Comes-Based Education (OBE) Curriculum soon to be implemented at secondary school level.

This study examines the experiences of the school management teams and educators of the Isibane Circuit in the Queenstown District, regarding the implementation of an Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) policy at school level. Following an agreement reached in 2003 between the South African Education Department and the major teacher organisations in this country, the IQMS was scheduled to be implemented in public schools from 2004. Two major challenges are identified and explained: accountability and development of human resources, as well as contradictions between internal and external evaluations. The study also elaborates on the changes in the educational history from the apartheid system to the democratic system of education. Nine schools participated in the study (two secondary schools and seven primary schools). These schools were purposely selected due to the fact that they had started implementing the IQMS policy, which was the main criterion for selection. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from principals, Heads of Departments as well as post-level one educators concerning their experiences of the IQMS implementation. The findings indicated that while the IQMS policy was good on paper, it was extremely difficult to implement. Issues of honesty and trust were at the root of difficulties that made the IQMS implementation challenging. The participants‟ understanding of IQMS was that it was intended for the provision of quality education and development.

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / The purpose of this study is to determine whether affective considerations have a claim on inclusion in the curriculum and, if so, how these claims may be accommodated. The target group is the adolescents in their secondary school phase. Current research has indicated beyond doubt that curriculum planning can no longer be restricted to the cognitive domain. Feelings and emotions are involved in every learning experience and hamper or enhance cognitive development. Therefore the teacher's responsibility should be extended to include the education of feeling and emotion as well. The study proposes an approach based on sound educational principles and scientifically acquired data. The point of departure is the widely accepted principles and criteria for curriculum design. The relatively new communicative curriculum provides a useful framework, but it has innate weaknesses. Only if care is taken to counter the possible effects of such weaknesses, will the new sillabi have a chance of success. Affective aims should, however, not oust cognitive aims. Intellectual development is the primary goal of the school curriculum. A continuous stream of interaction flows between the affective and the cognitive fields. On all levels of curriculum design the approach should be to take the development patterns of the adolescents as the vantage points, formulate aims to accommodate affective development and only then to choose the relevant cognitive aims. Such an approach will hopefully lead to the achievement of a more balanced education for the volatile adolescent.

Submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, 2007. / This study was concerned with analysing the school context for factors that promote or impede resilience among middle adolescent learners. The study aimed to find out if black high school learners perceive themselves as resilient or non-resilient: It also investigated the aspects perceived by learners as retarding or enhancing resilience within the school context and to identify qualities of the school that enhance or impede resilience in learners. Four schools within the Pinetown district in KwaZulu Natal were chosen as a sample. Random sampling procedure was used to ensure that any of the schools falling within the four wards of Pinetown district had the same probability of being selected. All grade 10 learners, mostly those falling within the ages of 15 to 20 were asked to participate in data collection. The self-evaluation instrument that was used to collect data about whether learners perceived themselves as resilient was specifically designed to measure this variable. This instrument was designed at the University of Pretoria as part of a research project aimed at making a comparative study of middle adolescent perception of resilience (ranked high or low). The research instrument was statistically proven to have demonstrated content validity and construct validity. This instrument has statistically demonstrated its reliability in terms of internal consistency. The questionnaire had to be translated into isiZulu as most learners were first language Zulu speakers. Learners first had to undergo a self-evaluation process to test how resilient they perceived themselves to be. The second aspect of the questionnaire was to rate, in order of importance, those factors within the school environment that they perceived either enhanced or impeded resilience. A 5-point Likert-type scale Was used with a series of levels of degree expressing positive or negative response to the questionnaire. The researcher used at least 3-5 items in the instrument measured similar idea. All items were interspaced to avoid predictability of questions. The learners indicated the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with each statement. No numbers were given as learners might have mistaken them as values that are used for grading learners. Learners had to express their own views on Structured open-ended questions in order for the researcher to better understand the use of resilience. Data collected was integrated and analysed collectively to give a comprehensive understanding of resilience. The majority of learners rated themselves as resilient despite the many difficulties faced in their environment. They also affirmed all the resilience promoting factors as important to their life at school. The main characteristic of a good school highlighted by black South African adolescents in this study, was an appreciative, caring and supportive environment where respect for self and others prevails. Good schools in this study provided opportunities for learners to engage in a variety of extra-curricular activities and the resources needed by the learners were made available. The adolescents in this study appreciated a well organised school where rules and regulations were consistently followed. A good physical environment was seen also as conducive to teaching and learning. Educators who offered relevant information and empowered learners to deal with the challenges of life were viewed as great assets according to the findings of this study