The study explored misconceptions in electrostatics and their origins amongst learners at entry point in a South African University. Available literature showed misconceptions in electrostatics amongst High School learners and confirmed textbooks as one of the sources of misconceptions. It was therefore important to look for misconceptions in electrostatics amongst first year Bachelor of Science (B.Sc 1) learners in physics courses and their origins at the start of the academic year. The study also explored educators' misconceptions in the topic to check whether they could also be a source of learners' misconceptions. The results were intended to give guidance on how to eliminate learners' misconceptions at school rather than carrying them to higher education institutions. The study used the ex-post facto research design and was a case-study. The ex-post facto research design enabled the researcher to investigate whether one or more pre-existing conditions have possibly caused the existing problem of misconceptions. The sample consisted of 198 learners from B.Sc 1 physics course and 28 educators from 15 High Schools in one education district in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The data were collected through questionnaires, analysis of textbooks, and interviews. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 was used for quantitative analysis whereas categorization and coding were used for qualitative analysis. The study revealed that learners had misconceptions in electrostatics. The origins of misconceptions were traced to educators, textbooks, intuition, daily language and lack of hands-on activities. It emerged from the study that educators also had misconceptions and the cause of their misconceptions were textbooks, websites and gaps in content knowledge. The recommendations from the study were the following: identify preliminary knowledge of learners during introduction of the lesson; introduce the iii constructivist approach to teaching in the teacher training curriculum so that learners at school can be taught using the same approach; frequent upgrading of educators through inservice workshops to reduce educators' misconceptions which, in turn, will help to reduce the misconceptions among learners; introduction of conceptual change textbooks.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty Of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Community Work in the Department of Communication Science at the University Of Zululand, 2018 / The intention of this research is to define and bring about an integrated role between the triple society components into sustainable education development, and in respect to producing learners who are self-disciplined, self-dependent, skilled, employable and qualifying for higher education. The study investigates communication impact, attitudes and, teaching and learning space between teachers and parents’ involvement from a shared role and a shared partnership necessarily to advance learners basic needs. Hence, this cooperative role is the extension of communication between parents and teachers. Reystek (1999: 111) in Mpofana (2004) observed that parents in black communities disregard their mission of being part of the education of their children. However, the South African Schools Act (Act. No. 84 of 1996) (SASA) suggests that parents must accept the co-responsibility of their involvement. It is on this premise that this research work is designed to investigate into the state of the unknown. The study depicts the understandings and perceptions of Mandlenkosi Secondary School learners at eThekwini North district; a district predominantly black people. The District proves to be associated with an area called Lindelani, an informal settlement which is challenged by socioeconomic transformation. This is in consonance with what Legotlo (2002) who posits that poor and uneducated parents have a tendency to be unenthusiastic towards getting involved in their children school activities because they feel inferior to the highly educated, knowledgeable and rich teachers. In any case this is true. This evidently demonstrates a potential lack of parental involvement in school matters, in as much as teachers are adequately present but there is a vulnerable gap as far as morals and attitude are concern. The theory of overlapping spheres of influence that discusses the mutual interests and influence, policies and practices of all stakeholders’ interaction, family creation and schools can help the learners to become more successful in education by Epstein (2001:15) was employed by the researcher to account for this phenomenon. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, a mixed research method was used and the main data collection instruments used, were interviews and questionnaires. From a quantitative process, a descriptive research method was applied, of which the study focused on a group of 30 learners studying at Mandlenkosi Secondary School, 10 parents of learners that study at Mandlenkosi Secondary School; and 10 teachers that teach as Mandlenkosi. The present study also made use of a qualitative design to describe the attitudes of the learners, parents and teachers. On a qualitative process, an in-depth interview was done, by the researcher through putting to gather, organizing and interpreting information. In addition, a dominant language like the mother tongue, that is, isiZulu was used to interpret questionnaires as they were written in English. The study findings revealed that there is lack of effective communication from school to parents, and as a result, communication needs to be disseminated in a more proficient and receptive manner. The study also indicated that the performance level between a child with both parents and child with single parents is not the same. In conclusion, the study revealed that there needs to be a social worker or rather an educational psychologist that is always available on the school premises, whose role is to address learner’s behaviour modification, as well as addressing the issues of poverty and entry level [Grade 8] career guidance to learners. In summary, this study concludes that it is appropriate to reward and acknowledge teachers and learner’s performance by using annual awarding programs in order for learners and teachers to be kept motivated, appreciated and recognized.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of General Linguistics at the University of Zululand,2007. / The main aim for the study was to examine the attitudes of learners, educators and parents on the use of English as a language of learning and teaching and an additional language in selected schools to the north of KwaZulu Natal (Mthunzini Circuit). To this end questionnaires were used as a research instrument Questionnaires were administered to the parents, learners and educators. The research instruments were administered to a randomly selected sample of two hundred respondents. Not all the respondents returned the questionnaires. The findings revealed that learners have a positive attitude towards the use of English as a language of learning and teaching and an additional language in schools. The findings also revealed that educators have a negative attitude towards English as a language of learning and teaching and as an additional language in schools. The findings further revealed that parents had a positive attitude towards the use of English as a language of learning and teaching and an additional language in schools. On the basis of the findings, the study recommended that the school policy should stipulate that English should be strictly used as a language of learning and teaching with the aim of helping learners because they need English for the purpose of employment in future. Educators who qualify to teach English must have received appropriate training and qualification in English grammar, literature and general linguistics. On the other hand, the learners' mother tongue should also be developed for identity and communication purposes.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Needs at the University Of Zululand, South Africa, 2015 / There is compelling evidence that parental involvement positively influences children‟s academic achievement. Its benefits occur across all socio-economic classes. This study sought to establish parental involvement in grade 7 learners‟ achievement in Empangeni in the uMhlathuze District, KwaZulu-Natal. The attribution theory was used not only to substantially explain the status of parental involvement in uMhlathuze District, but also to generate strategies to promote parents‟ participation in their children‟s school education. Open-ended questions for school management teams and for parents were used in this study covering three primary schools in three settings. Respondents were selected through the use of random sampling in the three schools (one rural school, one township school, and one multiracial school). A total of 75 participants were selected. This study confirms that parental involvement has an effect on learner performance. The empirical findings indicate that parental involvement alone is not sufficient in the achievement of learners. It can therefore be concluded that parental involvement alone does not lead to the improvement of learner achievement. There could be other factors associated with academic achievement such as learner motivation, Intelligent Quotient (IQ), Emotional Intelligence/Quotient (EQ) and teachers‟ support which could also be at play. It seemed to be the case that children coming from rural schools sometimes do not perform well because they lack facilities and infrastructure. However, no such research analysis has been undertaken to support or disprove this hypothesis. This study recommends further investigation as this can be another gap that needs attention from researchers in the field.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology & Special Needs Education at the University of Zululand, [2015] / Substance abuse is one of the major challenges experienced in our schools. If learners abuse substances/drugs, they do not learn and ultimately they fail or drop out of school. The researcher undertook a study on this challenge which reviewed research findings on substance abuse in South Africa. The study was aimed at finding out why learners abuse drugs, if there is any relationship between poor academic performance, school drop out and substance abuse. A quantitative study using semi structured interviews, focus groups and questionnaires as data gathering techniques focused on six learners that were referred to Education District offices for the substances abuse problem. These learners were selected from six secondary schools in the Nquthu area. Parents and educators of these six learners also participated in the study. The findings of the study showed that substance abuse negatively impacts effective professional practice that is teaching and learning. The study concludes with recommendations to educate learners on substance abuse prevention in schools and how to assist learners that are already abusing drugs.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education for the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Zululand, 2019. / Poverty has and will continue to precipitate enormous suffering for countless of learners living in ab-ject poverty in the rural area of Nongoma. The study examine how poverty trap limit the academic performance of learners in the rural secondary schools of Nongoma. Also, it identifies various poli-cies and programme designed to alleviate the negative effect of poverty on the learning outcome. The study is underpin by Urie Bronfenbrenner,s ecological theory . The Quantitative and qualitative approach was used with questionnaires and focus group interview. In the study 5 schools was used with 100 learners for questionnaires and 5 educators for focus group interview .The Tesch,s open coding method of data analysis was used to identify Themes and categories whiles SPSS was used to analysis and determines frequency and percentages of data collected through questionnaires Findings from this study revealed that the majority of the learners in the rural area of Nongoma can-not afford even afford even the basic human needs which are necessary on the learners health, their emotional, physical, moral, social and academic achievements. This study also established that learner’s academics performance affected by financial constraint, poor health due to lack of good food, delinquent behavior, child abuse and prostitution ,the long distance to and from school , stigmatization and stereotyping , school drop –out and absenteeism . This study recommend rural development policies , policies for even distribution of income to close the achievement gap between the rich and poor , feeding scheme in all schools most especially in the rural schools , and adequate provision of learning aids such as library , laboratory and computer in the rural schools . The study also recommend that the problem be addressed by the micro system of the school and of the families, the neighborhood mesosystem and exosystem, as well as by by the macro system. Col-laborative work is also needed among all the stakeholders to chase away the elephant in the house and look in-depth to the root causes of poverty.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instructional Studies at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015. / Low academic performance of grade twelve learners is one of the major concerns in South Africa. Mbizana district is one of the areas where grade twelve results have remained relatively low over the years. The Eastern Cape National School Certificate (NSC) provincial pass rate in 2007 was 56.9% and the pass rate for Mbizana district was 42.7%. In 2008 the provincial pass rate was 50.6%, while the pass rate for Mbizana slumped down to 29.3%. Thus, it is clear that Mbizana grade twelve learners were under-achieving in the NSC examinations. Although the situation has since shown some notable improvements, the district still remains one of the worst performing, both provincially and nationally – standing at the NSC pass rate of 58.7% in 2013, against 64.9% and 78.2% provincial and national pass rates, respectively. It was against this background that the researcher felt that the case of Mbizana warranted a systematic investigation. This study focused on the environmental and socio-economic factors that were presumed to affect learner academic achievement in the Mbizana district. More specifically, the this study sought to find out what learners, educators, school management team (SMT) members, and school governing body (SGB) members considered to be the major contributory factors to the relatively low academic performance of Mbizana district school learners in the NSC examinations. It was also of interest to the study, to establish the major similarities and differences in the factors that the various stakeholders considered to be the major contributory factors to the reported low learner academic achievement. To give the study a theoretical base, three theoretical perspectives that focus on various factors affecting learner performance were presented and discussed, namely Caroll’s Model of School Learning, Slamin’s QAIT Model of Effective Classroom Practice and Huitt’s Model of Teaching/Learning Process. The researcher chose Huitt’s Model of Teaching/Learning Process as the most appropriate to guide and direct her study. In addition to this, the researcher also II undertook a review of literature focusing on previous empirical studies related to factors considered to affect learner performance, in line with the research questions. The study used a mixed-methods research paradigm, involving both qualitative and quantitative research data. The chosen research design was Descriptive Survey, and the data gathering techniques were questionnaires and interview schedules for face to face interviews with the respective respondent groups. The research sample comprised ninety randomly selected respondents, broken down as follows: forty grade twelve learners, fifteen SMT members, twenty five subject educators and ten SGB members. All the participants were drawn from the Mbizana district, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. With regard to the major findings, the factors considered by grade twelve learners to be the major contributors to their low academic performance included a lack of parental support, road poor infrastructure, and a shortage of physical (laboratories, libraries) and qualified educators. On their part, SMT members considered learners’ socio-economic statuses, a shortage of qualified educators and a lack of physical and material learning/teaching resources. For the educators, there was a view that owing to a number of factors, teacher morale and motivation were low – and that this adversely affected learner academic performance in Mbizana schools. The educators further contended that some among them experienced difficulties in adequately implementing the new curriculum; and also that many were either unqualified or under-qualified for the classes that they With regard to SGB members, the cited major contributors to low learner academic performance were the absence of supportive infrastructure (laboratories, libraries), a shortage of qualified educators, lack of parental support, a non-supportive socio-economic background of learners, and the unstable education system, occasioned by never-ending curricular changes. The similarities and differences in the responses of the various stakeholders were noted. / Mbizana Human Resource Skills Development

Heeding the call by Firth and Wagner (1997) for a re-analysis of some of the “facts” of modern second language (L2) learning theory and research, the goals of this present study are to determine if: (1) informal conversations between a NS of English (NES) learning Spanish and a NS of Spanish (NSS) learning English reveal insight regarding the natural use and interaction of the first (L1) and the target language (TL); (2) informal L2 conversations in which the L1 is permitted present opportunities for L2 teaching, learning or socialization; and (3) provided that evidence of possible opportunities for L2 teaching, learning or socialization is found, does this indicate a need for permitting both informal talk and the use of the L1 in the L2 learning context. It was hypothesized that in informal conversations, learners would demonstrate intuitive approaches to L2 learning, teaching and socialization, and that observations of these phenomena could help guide research and pedagogy regarding the L2 learning context. It was also hypothesized that informal language exchanges would demonstrate that when left to intuition, participants would provide quality NS input and modified NNS output for their partners as they alternated between L1 and L2 and between the roles of language teacher and language learner. Previous studies have shown that the ability to control the language being used and the topic being discussed allows learners to access knowledge and linguistic structures that enable them to feel more comfortable using the L2 and less anxious about interacting in L2 conversations (Auerbach 1993; Tomlinson 2001; Lantolf and Thorne 2007). The design of this study was intended to address the concept of bi-directional informal discourse in learner/expert learner/expert pairs (i.e., participants who are each learners of their partners’ L1) and the informal exchange of two languages in the L2 learning context. Although the importance of language learning and use in context have been described since the early 20th century in the work of Vygotsky, and the phenomenon of participant orientation and role-switching has also been examined in recent years, there have been relatively few studies that have looked at the nexus of social talk and reciprocal teaching by pairs of learner/experts as this context interacts with the use of the L1 and the L2 in an informal communication event. Data for the study were obtained from audio recordings of four conversations between pairs of native Spanish speakers learning English and native English speakers learning Spanish with the goal of determining what the participants would teach to one other through the use of informal, unstructured conversation using both the L1 & the L2. In addition, all of the participants completed an exit interview questionnaire on their experience with the interaction as well as their general opinions regarding language learning. The data showed that 7 out of 8 participants did teach (intentionally or unintentionally) both linguistic and extra-linguistic information from their L1 to their partners, and that in all pairs a local set of rules regarding the use of the L1was established (including the pair in which no English was used). The pairs modeled an intuitive use of the L1 demonstrating the ability of the L1 both to bridge conversational gaps and to enable teaching and socialization in the L2. The data also show how the participants built a community of practice by setting and changing the language used, requesting explicit feedback or evaluation from their partners, bonding over language learning struggles, as well the linguistic and extra-linguistic information that the participants provided for their partners. The results of the study indicate potential benefits both for the use of the L1 in the L2 learning context, and for allowing learners to teach from their own L1 while learning the L2 in informal conversations. However, the recordings and the exit interviews also show some potential problems for implementation (e.g., the possibility that a conversation may be carried out in just one language). The conclusions present implications and applications for the study, such as the establishment of language exchange programs as a supplement to traditional L2 classes, as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research. / text

Lernangebote von hoher Lernqualität sind dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass sie Lernende dazu anregen, in Wissensräumen vertieftes Wissen zu erwerben und dieses effizient in praktisches Handlungswissen umzusetzen. In diesem Beitrag wird diskutiert, wie der didaktisch-methodische Ansatz Learners-as-Designers genutzt werden kann, um eine solche Lernqualität zu erreichen. Es wird gezeigt, wie Learners-as-Designers unter Nutzung computerbasierter Technologien sowohl in der universitären Lehre als auch in der betrieblichen Weiterbildung umgesetzt werden kann, und mit welchen Effekten, aber auch Herausforderungen eine solche Lehr-Lern-Konzeption verbunden ist.

This study is an exploratory attempt to evaluate the efficacy of the use of the ITPA in discriminating between the learning performance of "good" and "poor" auditory learners and between "good" and "poor" visual learners on a paired-associate task presented visually or auditorially.