The purpose of the study was to assess the implementation of peer academic support programmes which are Language and Writing Advancement and Supplemental Instruction programmes in one University in South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative approach that used face-to-face interviews, focus group interviews and document analysis to collect data. Purposive sampling was used to select those who participated in the study. The participants were two coordinators of the programmes, ten facilitators working in the programmes for in-depth interviews and ten students who have been receiving services from the programmes for two focus group discussions. The study revealed that there was a general trend whereby peer facilitators of the programmes were recruited and trained. However, it was found that some facilitators abandoned the position immediately after the training which made it difficult for coordinators and Human Resource Staff (HR) to start the process of recruitment and retraining. In this regard, Teaching and Learning Centre, (TLC) and HR simply appointed other untrained facilitators to replace those who had deserted the positions. Also, some facilitators were unable to attend some of the regular trainings because of clashes with their classes. All these have a negative impact on the implementation of the programmes. The results also reveal that some of the facilitators were frustrated with students’ poor attendance in the sessions, and even those who attended their sessions, did not participate much in the discussions. It was found that most lecturers and students did not know the differences between supplemental instruction (SI) and tutorials. Neither did lecturers encourage their students to seek help from the TLC services. Reviewing of assignments from different disciplines by TLC facilitators was another burning issue that came up. Some facilitators reviewed assignments from different disciplines, because the disciplines were not represented and this is because they want to claim for more hours, which affects the quality of the programmes. The findings also show that some students did not like to take their assignment to the TLC for review because facilitators make unnecessary and harsh comments. On the contrary, some students acknowledged that they were fine with the way facilitators review assignments because it involves one-on-one consultation, and they always pass the assignments reviewed by PASS facilitators. The study also revealed that the coordinators monitored and evaluated facilitators through observation and the checking of attendance registers. Coordinators ware also monitored by senior colleagues of the department such as the manager of the TLC. Furthermore TLC has instituted a mentorship programme whereby senior facilitators mentor newly recruited facilitators. However not every facilitator had a mentor. The study also exposed the fact that the TLC venue was usually closed during examination periods to allow facilitators to prepare for their examinations. The findings show that some departments were not represented by facilitators and to remedy this situation, it is recommended that all departments be represented and lecturers encourage the students to get help from TLC. Most facilitators were undergraduate students, but they needed to be replaced by post graduates who did not have course work that will clash with PASS activities. The strategies used by facilitators were fairly good but more should be done to encourage students to participate in sessions. Finally, the monitoring and support mechanisms put in place were very functional but the TLC should make sure every facilitator is being monitored especially concerning the review of assignments. The significance of the findings of this study cannot be overemphasised. The strengths and challenges regarding the implementation of these programmes at this particular university have been revealed. Through the recommendations, it is hoped that the institution and the TLC would effect some changes in the implementation of these peer academic support programmes in order to better serve the students so as to achieve satisfactory throughput and retention rates.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The main concern of this thesis is language for academic purposes, a sub-division of language for special purposes, as applied to the course Voorbereidende Afrikaans at the Rand Afrikaans University. The first problem to overcome was that of designing a test for the selection and classification of students into three classes: those who would not gain entrance into the University; those who would be compelled to do the course and those who would be exempted from the course. Based on the insights gained from literature, the doze test, combined with a paragraph was decided upon as the best instrument for measuring the students' language proficiency, this being the desired outcome of such a test. All the restrictions and limitations inherent in the idiosyncratic circumstances surrounding the test were taken into consideration and the doze test was found to be best suited to the situation and the academic requirements. Various models of language teaching were discussed and the conclusion was reached that the approach best suited to the course would be an eclectic approach including elements of the functional-notional syllabus, the communicative approach and Krashen's Input Hypothesis, using an interactive, task-based methodology. Studies indicated that such a course should also include study skills in order to equip students for academic study. A needs analysis, using Richterich and Chancerel's (1977) model, was done and the greatest need was found to be in the areas of listening comprehension and the acquisition of vocabulary. From the results of the tests there also appears to be a need to pay attention to syntax in general. A number of comparable courses were studied to find possible models upon which such a course could be based and many useful ideas were gleaned, which lead to the compilation of a syllabus for Voorbereidende Afrikaans.

Department of Psychology / MA (Psychology) / See the attached abstract below

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Education by combination of coursework and research to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / Higher education in South Africa in the 21st century faces the complex challenge of balancing the demands of the neo-liberal global agenda with meeting national goals and addressing individual student needs. Research reveals the current South African higher education system to be inefficient, characterised by high attrition and low success rates. This is despite major restructuring, new legislation and a committed focus on access and equality. Lack of government funding, inadequate capacity and public demonstrations of student frustration are indicative of a crisis. This study used the capability approach to investigate student experiences in a private higher education institution. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods design within an interpretive paradigm, a broad survey was followed by in-depth individual interviews to understand the factors that enable and constrain first-year student opportunities and achievements. The study found that student access to and participation in higher education is strongly driven by aspiration, and supported by affiliations as well as students’ ability to reflect on their experiences. These capabilities foster identity, learning and agency. There are many personal, social and institutional factors that restrict student functioning. While these might constrain achievement and have the potential to foreshorten a student’s higher education career, students who are able to adapt and develop resilience to the particular challenges they face within their daily experience have further opportunities for realising their higher education aspirations. KEYWORDS: Capability Approach; Higher Education; Inclusion; Diversity; Capabilities / GR2018

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.

D. Tech. Education / The aim of the study is to explore the extent to which a University of Technology prepares pre-service teachers to teach the school Mathematics and Technology curriculum in South Africa. The study employed a combination of a qualitative method and case study approach. Participants were ten (10) Mathematics and nine (9) Technology pre-service teachers, totaling nineteen (19) participants. Data collection were done through an exploratory approach of document analyses, semi-structured interviews, and non-participant observations. The study was guided by two (2) conceptual frameworks, that is, Knowledge-Based for Teaching (Shulman, 1987) and the 7E instructional model from Eisenkraft (2003). This study found that Mathematics and Technology teacher training were not comprehensive enough to prepare pre-service teachers to teach the South African school curriculum.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Art by research in the Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, April 2017 / Fire lives briefly, breathes sharply and spreads with urgency across the surface of the earth. Writing from Inside the Fire offers a series of reflection on the fire-centered politics that have been ignited within the RhodeMustFall and FeesMustFall movements. in this paper I trace the political roots of fire and explore the ways in which it employed as a tool of resistance and empowerment during the anti-apartheid struggle.: [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version] / XL2018

What does it mean to be academically literate? Responses to this question have led to an explosion of research in the field of applied linguistics, yet the diversity of definitions proposed in the literature for the concept of literacy per se indicate that it continues to defy consensus. Literacy, and specifically by extension academic literacy, must thus be recognised as a contested field, with different meanings for different people and inevitable tensions between those taking positions on or affected by its practical implications. Accepting its contested status, this study sought to explore student representations of academic literacy, academic staff representations of academic literacy and associated academic staff representations of students insofar as these touch on specific concerns of academic literacy in an engineering faculty. The purpose of this exploration was to determine how these representations permeate academic practice and inform pedagogical practice and attitudes to learning. This led to the research thesis, that dominant discourses produce certain practices which can lead to social exclusion/inclusion of students. Such a thesis, allows for an examination of institutional practices of teaching and learning. To do this, I employed a multidisciplinary approach drawn from applied linguistics, sociology and philosophy. Consequently, I drew on theories from James Paul Gee, Pierre Bourdieu, Basil Bernstein and Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger to understand the socio-cultural context where representation occurs. An understanding of these discourses and epistemologies also necessitated an approach that probed participants‘ versions of reality. Consequently, this research was premised within a Critical Realist ontology whose central tenet is the recognition of tripartite framework of reality. Within this framework, reality is comprised of the domains of the real, actual and the empirical. The domain of the empirical relates to perceptions of experiences, while the actual is concerned with events that produce these experiences. The real is the domain of generative mechanisms, which if activated, produce the events and experiences in the other domains. Data was collected to correspond to these domains, with critical focus on the analysis of underlying mechanisms which reproduce social reality. To establish how the real relates to the other domains, Fairclough‘s critical discourse analysis was adopted. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

This article seeks to understand what South African universities are doing by making use of language as a tool or as an enabling voice towards Africanisation and transformation with particular reference to Rhodes University, which serves as a case study. Although many universities now have language policies in place and are part of an enabling policy environment, when it comes to using language as part of transformation and asserting an African voice, there are still policy implementation challenges. It is argued in this article that implementation of policy, including university language policies, is now a key indicator for two levels of transformation; namely the more superficially visible or visual representation transformation, as well as deeper curriculum transformation through appropriate language usage. It is the latter form of transformation that largely eludes the contemporary South African university, whether these are historically black universities (HBUs) or historically white universities (HWUs). With the exception of a few best practices that are highlighted in this article, it is argued that transformation of the curriculum remains a long-term process, in the same way that language policy implementation is an ongoing process and requires commitment at all levels of university managerial and academic culture. The African voice in higher education remains an elusive one; though it is gaining ground, as evidenced by the recent removal of the Cecil John Rhodes Statue at the University of Cape Town. Furthermore, there is evidence of selected ongoing curriculum and pedagogic transformation, as presented in this article.

M.A. (Applied Linguistics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract