M.Ed. (Tertiary Didactics) / This study was undertaken with the purpose of investigating the current situation of female teachers employed at Afrikaans secondary schools in the Transvaal. Special attention was given to the ratio of male to female teachers employed by the Transvaal Education Department as well as the number and type of promotional posts held by them. Relevant reasons for the low percentage of female teachers occupying promotional posts are discussed in context with their degree of career motivation ...

The study was exploratory in nature, and had two major emphases. One thrust of the research was to describe the learning efforts of school principals. The other was to determine the existence and nature of relationships between learning efforts and several independent variables. Learning efforts were described as having two major components: learning interests and learning activities. Two categories of learning interests, recent and priority were examined. Recent interests were those relating to the previous and the then-current school year. Priority interests referred to the coming few months. Three dimensions of a learning activity were studied: recent use, desired greater availability and preference. Respondents reported the frequency with which they had used various learning activities during the previous year. Further, they identified those activities which they probably would have used more frequently, given greater availability, and those which they would prefer to use in learning more about areas of priority interest. Learning activities were classified as formal, consultative and personal. Formal activities included workshops, conferences and similar activities. Consultative activities included various means of consultation with different categories of personnel. Personal activities were generally informal and carried out alone. Three categories of independent variables were studied: school district, school and respondent characteristics. School district variables included urban/rural district group and individual school district. School variables studied were school location, school type and principal's relief time. Respondents' experience and education were also examined. The study surveyed principals in ten mid-sized British Columbia school districts. A contrasting sample design was used to obtain urban and rural districts. The data collection process utilized a questionnaire developed for this project, which was identified to respondents as the Principals' Professional Development Study. The overall response rate was 93.8 percent, and the study sample consisted of 212 principals. Generalization of the findings was limited to the population of principals in the ten districts studied. The study found three areas to be the foci of most widespread interest: development and evaluation of the instructional program, provision of educational services to students with special needs, and supervision of the work of teachers. Learning activities for which most frequent recent use was reported tended to be consultative in nature. Most formal activities tended to be less frequently used, but widely reported as preferred activities and as ones for which greater availability was desired. Greatest evidence of relationships between learning efforts and independent variables occurred for the variables school district, school location, school type, relief time and experience as a principal. The first four of these might be called situational variables. The findings of the study had theoretical, methodological and practical implications. At a theoretical level, consideration might be given to a re-conceptualization of independent variables to facilitate further study of situational variables and experience as a principal. Further study might also involve a re-examination of the scheme for classifying learning activities and an exploration of the possibility of relationships between learning interests identified and learning activities preferred. At a methodological level, an interview approach was suggested for further study of the importance of experience in principals' learning efforts. The case study technique might be used to study situational variables. Recommendations at the level of practice were directed toward personnel and agencies involved in planning and delivering professional development programs for principals. The study found that local and regional activities, and those which would facilitate ongoing study of a topic, were important to principals. These activities might further facilitate such consultative activities as intervisitation, which was also seen as desirable and preferred. The need for further local research before utilization of the study's findings was also indicated. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The problem of this study was to investigate the comparative effects of two in-service training programs on the attitudes of rehabilitation practitioners. There were two experimental groups, the consecutive three-day program and the two-week program, and one control group in the study. The two-week program was staggered, having training for five days, a three-week interval, and the remaining five days of training. The two programs were compared to determine which was more effective in altering rehabilitation practitioner attitudes. Conclusions were drawn from the experimental study and related literature review. They were that in-service training programs of two days and less will probably not produce significant attitude changes; in-service programs of three days to five days have a higher probability of producing significant attitude changes; in-service programs of two weeks to six weeks will probably produce less of a positive change than a program of less than two weeks but longer than two days; an in-service program of ten weeks to one year will probably produce less significant changes in attitudes than a shorter program; the shorter the in-service program (i.e., less than ten weeks and more than two days) the greater the probability of gaining significant attitude changes; the critical hour of significant attitude change appears to be around the twenty-fourth hour; and, in attitude change research, instead of measuring training by days across weeks or months, the variable to examine is the total number of hours of training.

No description available.

Although teams are a common method of structuring work activities, there is still much concern over their effectiveness. The primary purpose of this study was to describe the current state of teamwork training in Oregon and to identify critical training design activities, situational barriers and demographic variables related to the perceived success of workplace teamwork training programs. A self-administered questionnaire, based on the literature and a Delphi panel, was mailed to over 500 members of two professional training associations (The American Society for Training and Development and The National Society for Performance and Instruction) representing workplace trainers in Oregon. Of the 319 questionnaires returned, 134 indicated they provided teamwork training in the workplace. Data analysis included computing descriptive statistics on the frequency with which respondents actually performed 61 design and delivery/facilitation activities, the importance they placed on these activities, and the barriers they faced. Factor analysis was used to reduce the items, and correlational methods, including regression and ANOVA, were used to determine the relationships between derived factors and success and the relationship between demographic variables and success. Descriptive analyses indicated that these respondents place highest priority on activities related to a systemic, yet traditional view of teams within an organization. They pay close attention to the potential impact of organizational variables, primarily management support and goal alignment; lesser attention to rewards. They place lower priority on items relating to the task and technology used by the team. Respondents employ participative, problem-solving approaches, encouraging total, voluntary participation, and focus on clarifying individual responsibilities, team goals, and decision-making. Aspects of a systems approach to training (performance objectives, task and person analysis, and continuous evaluation) are among the less frequently performed activities. According to this study, successful teamwork training programs are performance-based, utilize constructive feedback and address individual attributes. Dysfunctional management practices are negatively correlated with success. Management must define clearly what teamwork means and then model desired behaviors. Implications and recommendations for further research are also included. / Graduation date: 1995

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Abstract not available. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

This study explored the experiences in identifying and meeting the developmental needs of novice teachers at one primary school in Durban. The researcher’s assumption was that mentoring and teacher development are a norm at schools. It is argued that in order to keep in touch with current educational trends and to maintain a sense of renewal and inspiration teacher development is an important issue within the changing context of education in South Africa. This is evident in the new policy developments such as the National Policy Framework for Teacher Education in South Africa and Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD). The process of mentoring may be regarded as a form of teacher development, hence mentoring and teacher development cannot be regarded as two separate processes, they occur in relation to each other. Furthermore, novice teachers enter the profession with certain expectations and often experience a gap between the reality of teaching practice and their ideals. In the context of this background and within a qualitative interpretive paradigm this study drew on the experiences of novice teachers and educational managers in one school. For the purpose of data collection, semistructured interviews were used which allowed participants to discuss their experiences and interpretations of mentoring and teacher developmental needs and to express how they regarded situations from their own point of view. Data collected from the document analysis was merged with the data collected from the interviews. The findings indicated that the developmental needs of novice teachers were multifaceted such as: mentoring and induction must take place initially; a yearning to be socially accepted by the serving staff; a need to be heard regarding their experiences and developmental needs; to be informed on how to construct learning area work schedules, lesson plans and assessment tasks to suit the requirements at this school, especially in the initial days of there employment and the management of diversity and strategies to implement inclusive education. The study concluded that although the management and leadership of the school played a meaningful and supportive role in the professional and personal competence of the novice teachers, led by the principal who was encouraging and supportive, there was still room for improvement in the practices of leadership and management in attempting to identify and meet the developmental needs of novice teachers. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.