The integration of information technology (ICT) into primary classrooms is increasingly crucial for engaging and stimulating digital young learners who are in daily contact with technology. In 2005 Bahrain Ministry of Education started King Hamad Future Schools Project which aimed to adopt the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in all government schools. However, there has not yet been any study that investigates the utilization of this technology in English language teaching either in primary or in intermediate and secondary schools. This thesis studies the employment and effectiveness of IWB in teaching English vocabulary to 104 young learners and their attitude and perception towards its use in their learning. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, through questionnaire, language tests and classroom observations. The questionnaire and the observation results indicated that IWB is highly rated and preferred by the participating young learners. Three themes emerged from observation. The first theme is the IWB impact on children as learners which entails its influence on the children’s interaction, their learning, and their behaviour; the second theme is the impact of IWB on pedagogy; this involves the use of IWB multimedia, its presentational mode of range, and the use of games. The third and final theme is the IWB’s interactional affordances that include the teachers and the pupils’ use and control of the interactive board and the IWB’s effects on the lesson’s space. The analysis of the vocabulary tests has shown a positive impact on the learning of English vocabulary which was reflected by the pupils’ test results. As the study was conducted in Bahrain and on limited number of young learners, its results are limited and cannot be generalised.

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Magister Educationis (Education) in the Faculty of Education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / The aim of this qualitative study was to assess the influence of a particular form of computer technology on the reading ability of intellectually challenged learners. The study sought to answer the questions: (i) what direction for change does the reading of intellectually impaired learners take when a particular assistive technological device is used as a teaching-learning tool? And, (ii) what can educators of these intellectually impaired learners learn from this change or lack thereof? In order to answer these questions the study was conducted using an Action Research design. An intervention based on assistive technology was used for (i) testing learner abilities; and (ii) measuring performance and possible change(s). A comparison of learners’ performance and effort following testing suggests that the assistive technology used has the potential to positively influence the reading ability of some segments of learners with an intellectual impairment. Furthermore, the findings make it clear that assistive technology does not take away the need for teachers to differentiate where a variety of learner abilities is concerned.

This research project is mainly a study of attitudes towards Afrikaans and its setworks by non-mother-tongue speakers in Grades 10 - 12 in an English Government school. The approach taken to this research was a combined one. This was as a result of gathering information through both qualitative and quantitative methods. Grade 10 - 12 learners completed questionnaires in which they indicated their attitudes which were then arranged according to qualitative research. Focus groups were also allocated that can be viewed as qualitative research. The Grade 10 - 12 learners were questioned in smaller groups as to their attitudes to language and their preferences regarding the teaching of poetry. The main research aims, answered in Chapter 4, are the following: <ul> <li>to determine whether non-mother-tongue learners in Grades 10 - 12 are negative towards the language Afrikaans,</li> <li>to determine the attitude of non-mother-tongue learners towards poetry,</li> <li>to determine the attitudes of non-mother-tongue learners regarding teaching methods, and</li> <li>to recommend which aims are acceptable when teaching poetry within a South African context to non-mother-tongue learners.</li> </ul> The research that involved the learners was completed in July 2006. One hundred Grade 12 learners were involved in the pilot study towards the end of their academic year in 2005. This study required the learners to indicate their feelings regarding their set poems. In 2006, two hundred-and-forty Grade 10 - 12 learners at the same school were involved in answering a more comprehensive questionnaire. This included: the themes they prefer; whether they ever read poetry by choice; and whether the teaching that they received at school, inspired them enough to become life-long poetry readers. The questionnaire also contained an attitude indicator which allowed learners to demonstrate whether they enjoyed something, felt neutral, or did not like it at all. This allowed their attitudes regarding teaching and assessment methods, as well as the compilation of a poetry syllabus with possible themes to be made known. After the information had been processed by the researcher’s statistic analyst, it was found that learners are generally more positive towards the language Afrikaans (61.59%), but are negative towards certain aspects of the poetry syllabus. The learners demonstrated that they did not enjoy group work. This is, however, a problem because this is a prerequisite for the Grades 10 – 12 syllabi. A recommendation was made that the educator must give thought to how he or she is going to implement group work. When learners are led in a meaningful way during group work sessions, they will feel that their interpretation is also validated. A further issue that the research highlighted as problematic are the types of poem that are currently prescribed. Learners did, for example, indicate that they did not enjoy analysing poems about death and war. However, the two poems “Begrafnis van ‘n ouma” and “Foto van man wat val” relating to these themes were positively received during the research. A recommendation is made that educators should not necessarily shy away from themes that learners dislike, but perhaps educators could spend the time looking at the type of poem on these themes that could be set. Chapter 5 suggests a model for the teaching of poetry to non-mother-tongue speakers. It offers questions suitable for Afrikaans First Additional Language and the poems were selected according to popular themes as indicated by learners. This research project suggests that non-mother-tongue learners can be motivated to enjoy Afrikaans poetry. This is dependent on the teaching methodology employed; the type of prescribed poems taught; and learners’ attitudes towards Afrikaans as a language. These factors influence their attitude towards Afrikaans in general. / Dissertation (MA (Afrikaans))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Afrikaans / unrestricted

The study investigated the underachievement of Junior Secondary School learners within Ngqamakhwe district in the Eastern Cape Province. The research was conducted from the seven selected junior secondary schools in the Ngqamakhwe sub-district. The primary respondents of the study were one hundred and five (105) learners, forty two (42) educators and seven (7) school principals. Questionnaires were used to collect data. Three different questionnaires were designed, one for learners, one for educators and one for school principals. School schedules were also used to assess the extent of underachievement. The study utilised a quantitative research for the analysis of the data. The analysis was done using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 19). The study revealed a number of factors responsible for underachievement amongst the learners. These factors were grouped into school and home environments. With the home environmental factors the level of education of parents and whether the parents buy reading material were more significant. With the school environment the age and grade of a learner were significant. Responses from principals and educators were regarded as factors underlying the underachievement and in particular the lack of resources both at home and at school. School principals of the seven schools revealed that there were no libraries, science laboratories, computers or clerks in their schools. Poverty emerged as one of the causes of underachievement. The influence of these may be statistically weak but are nonetheless present. A few other factors were noted to have statistically weak influences on the academic underachievement of learners. These included factors like gender, the parents’ employment status, the availability of a person to assist with homework, the frequency of parents visiting schools, whether television is available at home and whether the children are bored or not.From the findings the following recommendations were made:Creation of jobs by the government; Adult Basic Education must be encouraged in the rural areas; Employment of more educators; Appointment of clerks in every school; Building enough classrooms; Building libraries; Building of science laboratories; Review of teaching methods by educators.

This research adopts a sociocultural framework (Vygotsky, 1978) to investigate how multilingual children express their mathematical reasoning during collaborative problem solving. The topic is important because North America is becoming increasingly multicultural, and according to mathematics teachers this has complicated the challenges of teaching and learning mathematics. Many educators assume that children should be competent in the language of instruction before they engage with mathematical content (Civil, 2008; Gorgorió & Planas, 2001). A review of recent research in this area challenges the idea that multilingual students need to have mastered the official language of instruction prior to learning mathematics (Barwell, 2005; Civil, 2008; Moschkovich, 2007). These researchers demonstrate that the knowledge of the language of instruction is only one aspect of becoming competent in mathematics. My research was designed to build on the findings of the current research on multilingual children’s reasoning in order to more fully understand how multilingual children express their mathematical understanding and reasoning. For this study, two multilingual families, each with 3 children between the ages of 8 and 12, participated in a mathematical problem-solving activity. Findings show the children’s mathematical reasoning was evidence-based drawing on mathematical knowledge and world knowledge.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The study aimed to investigate the kind of knowledge privileged when student teachers use Information Communication Technologies in facilitating learning in science subjects. The assumptions were that future student teachers, through their pedagogic practices, may either reproduce or interrupt educational inequalities. The ability to interrupt inequalities is conditioned by the manner in which these student teachers have been inducted into the field of teacher education and this process includes the ability to manipulate technological resources to facilitate epistemological access. This concept originally coined by Morrow in the 1980s looked at black students seeking entry to university. Since then the concept was used to signify the importance of knowledge in the curriculum. In this study, the exploration of epistemological access goes beyond physical or formal access and includes meaningful access to knowledge. The semantics dimension of Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) proposed by Maton was used, with a particular focus on semantic density (SD) as a theoretical framework. Maton argues that semantic density can vary across teaching practices and contexts. The study assumes that student teachers, through their pedagogic practices, may either reproduce or interrupt educational inequalities

Although studies have addressed high school English language arts (ELA) instruction, little is known about the decision-making process of ELA teachers. How do teachers decide between the resources and instructional strategies at their disposal? This study focused on two monolingual teachers who were in different schools and grades. They were teaching mainstream students or English Language Learners. Both employed an approach to writing instruction that emphasized cultural mediation. Two questions guided this study: How does the enactment of culturally mediated writing instruction (CMWI) in a mainstream classroom compare to the enactment in an ESL classroom? What is the nature of teacher decision-making in these high school classrooms during English language arts instruction? Data were collected and analyzed using qualitative methodologies. The findings suggest that one teacher, who was familiar with CMWI’s principles and practices and saw students as partners, focused her decisions on engagement and participation. The other teacher deliberately embedded CMWI as an instructional stance. Her decisions focused on empathy, caring and meaningful connections. These teachers enacted CMWI in different ways to meet their students’ needs. They embraced the students’ cultural resources, used and built on their linguistic knowledge, expanded thinking strategies to make difficult information comprehensible, provided authentic learning opportunities, used formative assessments as instructional guides, and delivered just-in-time academic and non-academic support.

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In this study, the experiences of six-year-old preschool learners in a structured movement educational assessment activity are explored. This qualitative study focused on the role of structured movement educational assessment activities in preschool learners, and assessed the way in which movement as a medium in a structured movement educational assessment activity supports learners understanding of numeracy and literacy concepts. A case study design was utilised to gather information about the experiences of the preschool learners during the activities, as well as the class teacher who facilitated the sessions. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interview, non-participant observations, a research journal, observation sheets, reflection notes, document analysis (worksheets of learners) and visual data (photographs). Thematic data analysis was applied to the gathered data, and various themes and sub-themes were identified. These were confirmed by the participants before the completion of the study. The study adhered to the norms, values and principles of qualitative research, which entailed dealing professionally with aspects related to the different modalities of data. Further principles, namely that of informed consent, confidentiality, protection from harm, trustworthiness and anonymity, privacy and empowerment, caring and fairness were also adhered to (McMillan, & Schumacher, 2010). This study found that the value of structured movement educational assessment activities strongly create positive outcomes associated with preschool learners in terms of their social and cognitive development. Furthermore, when preschool learners are physically involved in movement activities, they engage in tasks of listening, seeing, and doing, and practical application of concepts of numeracy and literacy. The finding further suggests that the value of assessing the preschool learners qualitatively during practical activities seemed favourable, as underlying conceptual knowledge of numeracy and literacy difficulties, as well as poor motor skill acquisition, were identified during the structured movement activities. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted