Increasingly, student orientated service outreach programmes (community service) are being incorporated into the broad curriculum of Australian High Schools. The assumption made is that such programmes have tangible benefits for students, the community and the schools themselves. Schools that operate out of a Christian paradigm have the added incentive of seeking to assist students give personal expression to religious commitment through the service of others. This study tests the assumption that participation in community service or service outreach activities has positive benefits for the students involved. It explores the effect that student involvement in school-facilitated community service programmes has on three personal domains; self-esteem, sense of engagement with community, and attitude to Christianity. This is a quantitative study utilising a questionnaire instrument to collect data from participants. The questionnaire is a compilation of three pre-existing and previously validated instruments, each of which focus on one of the three research areas. Combined, they provide 74 items which are answered using a Likert scale with response choices ranging along a six point continuum from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. The sample consists of a total of 225 participants drawn from students across years 10 to 12 from five Catholic High Schools in the Brisbane metropolitan area. All of these schools have single sex enrolment. Male and female participants are equally represented in the sample. In total, 80% of the sample participated in their school’s community service/service outreach programme. Information related to students’ community service involvement, the type of service undertaken, the duration of such service, and prior community service experience, was also collected from participants. No treatment is being introduced or manipulated in this study; rather, the research examines ‘between-participant’ and ‘within-sample’ differences associated with students’ participation (or non-participation) in existing community service/service outreach programmes in their schools. As such, the research is ex post factor in nature. Initial confirmatory factor analysis is undertaken to validate the integrity of the combined instrument. This is followed by a Cronbach’s alpha reliability study of the 12 component scales of the combined instrument; the results of which prove to be consistent with those previously reported. In subsequent analysis of the data, significant correlations are identified between six pairs of dependent variables. With statistical significance set at the 95% level, MANOVA is then utilised to determine the effect of a number of factors on scale scores. In addition to the primary focus on the effect that participation/non-participation in school community service programmes has on student selfesteem, engagement with community and attitude to Christianity, other influencing conditions explored include; type of community service, duration of community service, prior community service involvement, and gender. The principal finding of this research is that a statistically significant relationship is evident only between students’ participation in school-facilitated community service programmes and their attitude to social justice. Attitude to social justice is a constitutive element of the larger construct, ‘sense of engagement with community’. Analysis of the data reveals no significant association between community service participation and either self-esteem nor attitude to Christianity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings in the light of the earlier review of relevant literature.

Magister Artium - MA / There is global interest in teacher education as a strategy for national development. More specifically, emphasis is placed on teachers as the driving force behind educational provision which is central to achieving high standards of learner achievement. This study focused on teacher in-service development and its role for effective teaching and learning towards the holistic development of learners. Extensive social inequalities, along the lines of race, still exist in South Africa almost twenty years into the new dispensation. This is evident by the vast majority of impoverished schools in previously disadvantaged areas. Learners at these schools experience a range of barriers to learning which impede teaching and learning. Consequently, teachers at these schools are confronted with a tensionfilled task: having to be sensitive to the needs of these learners, whilst at the same having to ensure their success. This is reflected in Department of Education (DoE) policies which emphasises principles of social transformation for redress and equity, coupled with the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills for the benefit of individuals in South Africa, as well as global trends. As a quantitative data collection method in this mixed method study, 55 teachers (of which 26 responded) from two schools, were asked to complete a questionnaire on the effectiveness of teacher in-service development programmes towards the holistic development of learners. Qualitative data collection methods entailed interviewing a principal of one of the schools; a social worker from the area; as well as a district officer from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). In addition, relevant DoE policies were reviewed. Findings reflect that teachers at impoverished schools are confronted with a range of challenges presented by learners in the classrooms. The findings also indicate that even though DoE policies reflect a commitment to teacher development, the in-service programmes offered to teachers mostly do not reflect the needs of teachers for the holistic development of learners. In instances where inservice programmes do assist with the holistic development of learners, findings indicate that the implementation thereof is challenging due to the high teacher: learner ratio and limited resources. Thus, recommendations include the periodic monitoring and review of long-term DoE teacher development initiatives whilst short term measures incorporate giving attention to impediments like lack of parental support and behavioural challenge. Long term measures, which are strongly recommended, encompass systemic change that facilitates the working together of a number of governmental departments. In so doing, educational reform takes on a society wide form, as it is evident that on its own it cannot abate poverty and the related effects. Thus, the DoE’s vision of education for social transformation towards redress and equity, as well as economic growth for individuals and South Africa is more plausible. These recommendations create a vital space for future research.

MA (ELT) / Department of Engliish / Learning English as a second language by the South African learners of English First Additional Language (FAL) causes many challenges, such as committing errors in concord as there are differences between the learners’ mother tongue and the target language. Even at Grade 12 level, which is the exit point to institutions of higher learning or to the workplace, learners still display some deficiencies in the mastery of the English concord. This happens despite the fact that, in many South African schools, English is used as a medium of instruction and learnt as a First Additional Language (FAL) especially at high schools. Through the analysis of the written concord errors committed by the 72 of the 720 sampled Grade 12 English FAL learners in Vhembe District, the study answered to two questions which formed its cornerstone which are: what are the most common types of written concord/ subject-verb agreement errors which are committed by Grade 12 FAL learners and what are the causes thereof? The study employed both the quantitative and the qualitative methods to pursue the primary question. Learners responded to the questionnaires and the researcher also analysed their teacher-marked English FAL composition scripts with the focus on concord/subject-verb agreement usage. The findings were that concord/subject-verb agreement was a challenge to the majority of the participants. There was not even a single question which recorded a 100% correct entry. The question on collective nouns was found to be the hardest to the participants while comparatively, the singular indefinite pronoun question recorded the best results. The learners’ written compositions were also found to have been marred by concord/subject-verb agreement errors. In most instances, the learners had resorted to simple sentences avoiding the complex sentence construction as those would have required complicated application of concord/ subject-verb agreement usage. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made: teaching of grammar should be intensified, and that teachers of English should be retrained even if it will be through the in-service programmes