Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The central question that this research study addresses is whether higher education institutions in South Africa are sufficiently meeting the needs of their students, by contextualising and integrating their academic curricula with service delivery in communities. The higher education sector has been criticized for not adequately promoting and developing social responsibility in the context of civic awareness among their students. This study suggests that service-learning could become a vital force in educational change and promote social equity by enabling the advancement of historically disadvantaged communities. Service-learning could thus be the vehicle that links academic learning outcomes, service in communities and civic education. The purpose of this study is to explore the theoretical foundations of servicelearning in order to achieve a deeper understanding of what service-learning entails. The Occupational Therapy Department of the University of Stellenbosch was selected as a case study to critically assess to what extent it has conceptualised, planned, implemented and assessed its service-learning programmes in terms of the key elements, principles and goals of service-learning. The research strategy for this study is a qualitative case study. Qualitative data was obtained through the completion of an open-ended questionnaire by the final year Occupational Therapy students. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with the head of the department and different representatives of the community project that was selected for the purpose of this research study. The study concludes that the Occupational Therapy Department did in fact, integrate its academic curriculum outcomes with service delivery in the community. However, the development of civic awareness among students needs to be explicitly linked to the academic learning outcomes and service delivery in communities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vraagstuk wat hierdie studie probeer aanspreek, is om vas te stel tot watter mate instansies vir hoër onderrig en opvoeding in Suid Afrika die behoeftes van hul studente aanspreek. Die instansies word gekritiseer dat hulle akademiese kurrikulums nie genoegsaam geïntegreerd is met dienslewering in die gemeenskap nie, en dat hulle ook nie genoegsame sosiale verantwoordelikheid en gemeenskapsbewustheid by hulle studente aanmoedig nie. Hierdie studie stel voor dat diensleer gebruik word as 'n tegniek vir opvoedkundige veranderinge en die bevordering van sosiale gelykheid vir die bemagtiging van histories benadeelde gemeenskappe. Diensleer kan dus gebruik word om akademiese leer uitkomste, dienslewering en burgerlike opvoeding te verbind. Die doel van hierdie navorsing is om die teoretiese basis van diensleer te ondersoek om sodoende 'n deeglike begrip te kry van wat diensleer werklik behels. Die Arbeidsterapie Departement van die Universiteit van Stellenbosch is gekies as gevallestudie om vas te stel hoe hulle hul diensleer programme konseptualiseer, beplan, implementeer en assesseer, t.o.v. die kern elemente, beginsels en doelstellings van diensleer. Die navorsingstrategie wat aangewend is om die doel van hierdie navorsing te bereik, is 'n kwalitatiewe gevallestudie. Kwalitatiewe data is verkry deur die voltooiing van 'n ope vraelys deur die finale jaar Arbeidsterapie studente en deur semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met die hoof van die Arbeidsterapie Departement en verteenwoordigers van 'n gemeenskapsprojek wat gekies is vir die doel van die studie. Die studie het vasgestel dat die Arbeidsterapie Departement se akademiese kurrikulum uitkomste wel met dienslewering in die gemeenskap geïntegreerd is. In die lig van die navorsingsbevindinge word 'n aanbeveling gemaak dat die ontwikkeling van burgelikebewustheid en sosiale verantwoordelikheid ten opsigte van gemeenskapsbehoeftes, direk verbind moet word aan akademiese leer en diens uitkomste.

<p>This study explored the effects of a teacher development programme based on Philosophy for Children. One of the challenges facing education in South Africa is that the school curriculum has to promote the development of values, such as respect for life, equality, protection of freedom and the right to an opinion, through creative and critical thinking. The theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky inform our understanding of cognitive development with the important notions of active involvement, mediated learning and the development of thinking skills. Many programmes have been developed to assist learners in this regard. One such programme is Philosophy for Children. This study located Philosophy for Children and the locally developed material, Stories for thinking, in Vygotskian theory and explored its application within a South African context.</p>

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for Doctor of Philosophy in Management Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / The aim of this study was the development of an Exploratory Framework of Human Capital linked to Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management for the Durban University of Technology as a case study. The main problem revolved around the lack of an integrated road map for the identification, management and operationalisation of an integrated framework for the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in the UoT Sector, focusing on Human Capital capabilities, Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management, which emphasised the need for this study. The three main objectives of the study were to investigate the importance and contribution of Human Capital at the DUT operating in a highly dynamic Knowledge-based Economy, to formulate strategies for the Institution to meet its Human Capital demands in the competitive Knowledge-based Economy and to develop an Exploratory Framework of Human Capital linked to Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management for the Durban University of Technology. The research design adopted was the quantitative paradigm with a pre-coded structured close ended questionnaire comprising the 5 Point Likert Scale that was used to administer the instrument to the selected sample respondents. The questionnaire comprised of 5 Sections, each under a specific main theme related to the research topic. The target population comprised of 1874 employees at the Durban University of Technology. A computerised tool called the Excel Functionality Program was used to generate the random numbers for the sample selection for each group. The sample of 320 employees was selected using simple random sampling without replacement for both the Administrative and Academic staff members at the DUT. A total of 280 questionnaires were returned by the sample respondents. However, 8 questionnaires were discarded as they were incomplete and the final questionnaire returns equated to n = 272, namely, (118 questionnaires from the Academic Staff grouping and 154 questionnaires from the Administrative Staff). This represented a high response rate of 85% which was largely attributed to the researcher using the personal method of data collection. After the study was completed, the researcher solicited the services of a Senior Librarian to run the TURNITIN Program to test the entire thesis for plagiarism which proved useful. In the main, the analysis of the data involved the use of robust non-parametric tests for the empirical analyses using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 for Windows. A variety of non-parametric tests were also used to test some 71 hypotheses formulated for the various sections and components of the study as well the tenability of the Exploratory Framework (Figure 4.1) developed. Some significant findings emerged from the comprehensive statistical analyses which were also corroborated by national and international studies conducted by various researchers who also showed their concordance or discordance with the current findings and were referenced accordingly. It should be noted that the recommendations cannot be generalised to other UoTs in the HE Sector, as this was an in-house investigation involving the DUT as a case study. The main empirical findings of the study, inter alia, included the following: The value of integrating Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management into strategic planning at the DUT, the importance of developing an operationalised Human Capital Scorecard to address the different functions of the Academic and Administrative groups respectively at the DUT and a strong emphasis and role of Strategic Human Resource Management at the DUT. Thus, the Exploratory Framework developed as a model for the DUT within the UoT Sector concomitant with the outcomes and recommendations of the study may prove beneficial for future goal oriented strategies by top management of DUT. The study concludes with suggestions for further research in this emerging field of endeavour. / D

A research project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in Social and Psychological Research in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 2016 / The use of various information technologies in education is becoming more prevalent due to the fact that they are thought to have several advantages over traditional pen and paper as well as the fact that they are seen as a means to decrease the digital divide and ensure equal access to educational resources. In South Africa, initiatives such as the Smart Schools program aim to make schools paperless in the near future through the use of smartboards and tablets. With such emphasis on the success of the integration of educational technology it is imperative that we understand the factors which influence this process. Current research points to the idea that the mere provision of educational technology is not sufficient to garner success and that there are also intrinsic factors which need to be considered when integrating educational technology. This study follows on from this premise of intrinsic factors in that it investigates learner attitudes towards tablet usage in a blended learning environment. An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model which posits that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyability are the factors which need to be taken into account when exploring learner attitudes is used as the theoretical basis for this study. Other factors which are thought to influence attitudes as well as the success of tablet integration (as measured by learner achievement) are learning style preferences, motivation as well as access to various form of technology and thus familiarity with such technology. These factors were also explored through this research. Access to technology, learning style preference and motivation as predictors of overall attitudes and the three components of attitudes were thus explored. This study further investigated whether attitudes (and the three components of attitudes), learning style preferences or learner motivation best predicted academic achievement. The sample consisted of 276 learners from one independent and one public school in Johannesburg where tablets had already been introduced into the learning environment. A questionnaire consisting of an Attitudes Towards Tablet Usage Scale, a Learning Styles Scale, a Motivation Scale and an Access Scale was used. The results of this study indicated that overall attitudes towards tablet usage were relatively positive. The most positive component was perceived ease of use followed by perceived usefulness and then perceived enjoyability. Attitudes towards ECT (and the three components) were influenced by learning style preferences, motivation and access to technology while learner achievement was influenced by learner attitudes as well as learning style preferences. This provides valuable insights into the tablet integration process in that we conclude that tablet provision, while necessary, is not sufficient for the successful integration of tablets and subsequent reduction in the digital divide. / GR2017

The study traced the experiences of learning the clinical aspects of a problem-based learning (PBL) medical curriculum and the participants’ construction of a relationship with the subsequent clinical environments. In light of international and local medical and technological changes, the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine (NRMSM) changed its traditional curriculum to a PBL curriculum in 2001. The participants were the first cohort to experience a PBL pedagogy and graduated in 2005, subsequently undertaking two years of compulsory internship and one year of community service within the South African health care system. It was in the context of these changes and the present state of health care that such a study sought to determine how a PBL pedagogy was experienced within the clinical environments of South Africa. Phenomenography was used as a methodology to describe and interpret the ‘qualitatively different ways’ in which the participants’ experienced the phenomenon. Purposive sampling reflecting the institution’s admission policy regarding race and gender demographics was applied. In-depth interviews were conducted at the end of the community service experience. Variation in the experiences was represented through logically related and hierarchical categories of description resulting in the formulation of an outcome space. The outcome space identified three categories of description: ‘The guinea pig identity’ which found that the participants felt at the mercy of a curriculum experiment and felt discriminated against by the hospital consultants who had negative views of PBL. The category of ‘knowledge construction’ saw the participants exploring issues of difference between the knowledge and practices expected by the two different kinds of curricula. The category of ‘professional identity’ indicated an emerging sense of competence across a range of clinical situations. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to augment the phenomenographic analysis and to explore the ways in which the social structure of the clinical contexts related to the discourse patterns emerging in the phenomenographic categories in the form of power relations and ideological effects. CDA was used as an additional lens to develop theory and acquire deeper knowledge about why the participants constructed a relationship with the phenomenon and the subsequent clinical environments in the way that they did. The thesis concludes with a proposal for an empirical model that illuminates resolutions from the major findings in the study regarding medical knowledge construction in a PBL curriculum. The model consists of a Y axis depicting the vertical spine of basic sciences knowledge construction, a X axis depicting the horizontal nature of professional identity construction and a spiral that indicates the simultaneous movement of clinical knowledge construction along each axis. It is hoped that this model will serve as a future curriculum innovation that will result in the production of professional medical practitioners that are required for today’s South African communities. This study, however, revealed that despite the hegemonic practices and the theoretical inadequacies that were reported by the participants they finally felt like professional medical practitioners during their community service experience. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

The motivation for this study was the comments by supervisors in the radiography workplace about the students' lack of critical skills when they went for experiential learning. Higher education institutions are required to teach all students the critical crossfield outcomes (CCFOs) so that they can apply them in the world of work. The purpose of the study was to understand the problems in the workplace so that training gaps could be identified. The training gaps were to be used to improve the current curriculum so as to prepare the students more adequately for the workplace. The Durban Institute of Technology (DIT) prepares students to function as radiographers in hospitals and private practices where all the CCFOs are needed. This is done using the Outcomes Based Education (OBE) approach to teaching, where students work collaboratively in groups of various sizes ranging from two to six doing theory and practical activities. The training programme includes experiential learning that is done in accredited hospitals where students work under the supervision of qualified radiographers. The study focussed on the first year student radiographers at DIT who had been placed in the Pietermaritzburg hospitals for their experiential learning. All the supervisors in these hospitals were included in the study as well. Students were interviewed at the end of their first experiential learning block, before they commenced with their second year programme. A qualitative research approach was used to explore the perceptions of the students and supervisors in terms of the development of workplace skills by students. Questionnaires were given to the supervisors and students were interviewed. All questions asked in both the questionnaires and the interviews related to the CCFOs. The findings showed that the perceptions of the students and supervisors were not very different in terms of which skills had been developed and which ones had not. The results also showed that the teaching strategies used at DIT were effective in teaching the CCFOs. A number of issues emerged that affected the way students learnt these skills. These were related to teaching and learning, the institutions and the students themselves. These were found to have both negative and positive effects on the learning of CCFOs. The research also found that neither the DIT nor the hospitals were successful in teaching the art of reflective practice, possibly due to the type of assessment strategies currently used to assess experiential learning. From the findings a number of training gaps were identified and recommendations have been made to address them. The current curriculum should be reviewed and it has been suggested that a shift towards the emancipatory paradigm would be more effective in producing a critical reflective radiographer who possessed all the CCFOs. The first year curriculum should be reduced so that only relevant subjects are taught. The assessment of experiential learning should be restructured to align it with the DIT experiential learning policy and clinical tutors should be trained to work with students in the hospitals. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005

The 1996 constitution of South Africa was adopted as the supreme law of the Republic so as to establish a new society based on democratic values, to 'improve the lives of all citizens and to free the potential of all persons by every means possible' (1996:Section 27). Every person now has certain inherent rights which were denied to most prior to the 1994 elections. All persons have the right to dignity, and the right to have their dignity respected and protected. The State agrees, 'within its resources as outlined in its macro economic strategy GEAR' (Beck 2000: 195) to take reasonable legislative and other measures to achieve the progressive realization of people's rights and to have these rights respected. There is a major shift in the way society is governed. Government legislation reflects the move away from the harsh, discriminatory laws of the past, to a new social order based on democratic principles. Most welfare organizations are willing to embrace the new dispensation and some are well advanced in the transformation process which embraces the developmental approach to social welfare. This research looks at two such organizations within the context of a case study. Its purpose is not to detail the difficulties and tensions faced by the organizations in terms of the implementation of a developmental approach to social welfare, but rather to explore how two groups of people from very diverse backgrounds, politically, historically and economically, learn to work together on a developmental project during a time of monumental change. It details how the two organisations made progress together in spite of their many difficulties and differences, to bring each phase of the Project to fruition during the period October 1997 - October 2001. I use the actual geographical names of the Project during the research but the names of the organisations and the participants have been changed to protect identities. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2003.

As part of the transformation agenda of education and training policy, the main thrust of Recognition and Prior Learning (RPL) in the South African policy context was to contribute to addressing social justice issues such as equity, redress and access of the majority of adult learners, who were historically denied access to formal learning. The study focuses on the following critical questions: What are the official policy claims of the assessment and recognition of prior learning at the national and sectoral level? How do assessors mediate official policy in recognising and assessing prior learning of adult learners in an institutional context? What are the experiences and engagements of adult learners in having their prior learning assessed? This research responds to the conceptual gaps in the study of RPL policy and practice and the National Qualifications Framework. The study examines epistemological issues such as: what and whose knowledge is considered as valid; the relationship between knowledge and experience; the relationship between different types of knowledge and learning; and the relationship between knowledge and access to power. The study also addresses a contextual gap: very limited research exists on the RPL experiences of societies in transition with similar transformational agendas as South Africa. The present research study also examines the implementation process in a transitional context, exploring the gap that develops between intended policies and actual practice. This is a qualitative study using the case study approach to examine the complexities of the assessment and recognition of prior learning process in a Technical College Institution located in the Further Education and Training Band. The analysis of selected international case studies of RPL contributed to identifying and exploring conceptual gaps in RPL policy and practice. These conceptual issues provided the first set of preliminary lens for the production, description and analysis of data in the research study. The preliminary lens were then re-interpreted and elaborated in relation to Bernstein 's theory (1996) of symbolic control and cultural production. reproduction and change. The synthesised conceptual framework provided a theoretical vocabulary to redescribe and reinterpret data at deeper levels of abstraction. The key findings of the research were as follows: The undertheorisation of RPL in policy circles and the ways in which policy has tended to gloss over issues such as "equivalence", "integrated competence", knowledge-power dynamics and the differences between mainstream and outsider knowledge; The gap between policy rhetoric and sectoral practice. The sector advocated a technicist approach to RPL that was preoccupied with matching adult experiential learning against prescribed standards. The sector practice marginalized or even excluded adult learners who had acquired their knowledge and learning in non-formal and informal contexts; Nevertheless, assessors who were socially and culturally sensitive to the RPL process had an implicit understanding of the different types of knowledge and knowers. Their developmental approach to RPL provided an enabling environment for adult learners to demonstrate their learning and knowledge from experience. Adult learners without high levels of formal literacy were able to demonstrate their ability to reflect on their experiential learning to transfer their abstract and critical thought processes to solve new problems in the assessment context. The research highlights the commensurability between informal and formal knowledge and the ability of workers who have learnt their skills informally to demonstrate high levels of conceptual and transferable skills. The present research makes the following theoretical contributions: Firstly , Bernstein's theory was extended to examine policy formulation and the policy process. Within the framework of critical policy analysis, a new construct: "relations outside" was created as an analytical tool to examine the nuances of the macro-contexts (historical, political, social, economic) which shape the meaning and significance of policy. Secondly, the research study produces a new conceptual framework to analyse the complex and dynamic nature of RPL policy and practice in a transformational context. The present study advocates a critical and holistic approach to RPL that interrogates how power-relations within and across contextual, epistemological and pedagogical issues reproduce or challenge the existing patterns of inequalities in society. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

<p>This study explored the effects of a teacher development programme based on Philosophy for Children. One of the challenges facing education in South Africa is that the school curriculum has to promote the development of values, such as respect for life, equality, protection of freedom and the right to an opinion, through creative and critical thinking. The theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky inform our understanding of cognitive development with the important notions of active involvement, mediated learning and the development of thinking skills. Many programmes have been developed to assist learners in this regard. One such programme is Philosophy for Children. This study located Philosophy for Children and the locally developed material, Stories for thinking, in Vygotskian theory and explored its application within a South African context.</p>

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa’s past has shaped the way Human Resource management should look to the future. South Africa has a history of racial discrimination that was lead by the Apartheid system. The effects of the past have left members of the previously disadvantaged group with underdeveloped job competency potential. This has subsequently led to adverse impact in valid, fair (in the Cleary sense of the term) strict-top-down selection. The fundamental cause of Black under-representation in higher level jobs is due to the legacy of the previous political dispensation. The root problem is that South Africa’s intellectual capital is not, and has not been, uniformly developed and distributed across races. The current situation must be dealt with not only as the situation could potentially become volatile, but also as it is simply the right thing to do. Those individuals from the previously disadvantaged group that have the potential to learn should be identified and subsequently developed. A need therefore exists in South Africa for a method to identify individuals who will gain maximum benefit from affirmative developmental opportunities, especially cognitively demanding development opportunities, and hence display a high potential to learn. A need in addition exist to arrange circumstances to optimise the prognosis that those identified with learning potential will successfully realise their potential. Learning performance is complexly determined. To successfully address the negative effects of the past in South Africa through affirmative development the determinants of learning performance need to be understood. Accelerated affirmative development will be effective to the extent to which a comprehensive understanding exists of the factors underlying learning performance and the manner in which they combine to determine learning performance. The primary objective of this study consequently was to expand on De Goede’s (2007) learning potential structural model. Non-cognitive factors were added to the De Goede (2007) learning potential structural model in order to gain a deeper understanding of the complexity underlying learning and the determinants of learning performance. A subset of the hypothesised learning potential structural model was then empirically evaluated. The initial reduced model failed to converge and was subsequently revised by deleting a single causal path from the model. The revised model was found to fit the data well. All paths contained in the final model were empirically corroborated. Suggestions for future research are made by indicating how the model can be further elaborated. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika se verlede het gestalte gegee aan die wyse waarop Menslike Hulpbronbestuur na die toekoms behoort te kyk. Suid-Afrika het ’n geskiedenis van rassediskriminasie wat deur die Apartheidstelsel aangevoer is. Die gevolge van die verlede het die lede van die voorheen agtergeblewe groep met onderontwikkelde werkbevoegdheidspotensiaal gelaat. Dit het vervolgens gelei tot nadelige impak in geldige, billike (in die Cleary-sin van die woord) streng bo-na-onder keuring. Die fundamentele oorsaak van swart onderverteenwoordiging in hoër-vlak posisies is tot ‘n groot mate te wyte aan die nalentskap van die vorige politieke bedeling. Die kernprobleem is dat Suid-Afrika se intellektuele kapitaal nie nou of voorheen eenvormig oor die rasse heen ontwikkel en versprei is nie. Die huidige situasie moet hanteer word, nie net omdat dit potensieel onbestendig mag word nie, maar ook bloot omdat dit die regte ding is om te doen. Dié individue uit ‘n voorheen agtergeblewe groep wat wel die vermoë het om te leer, behoort geïdentifiseer en vervolgens ontwikkel te word. Dus bestaan daar in Suid-Afrika ’n behoefte aan ’n metode om individue te identifiseer wat ’n hoë leerpotensiaal het en derhalwe die meeste voordeel sal trek uit geleenthede vir regstellende ontwikkeling, veral dié geleenthede van ’n veeleisende kognitiewe aard. Daar bestaan voorts ook ’n behoefte om omstandighede te reël om die prognose te optimaliseer dat diegene wat met leerpotensiaal geïdentifiseer is, hul potensiaal suksesvol sal kan verwesenlik. Leerprestasie word deur ‘n komplekse netwerk van veranderlikes bepaal. Om die negatiewe gevolge van die verlede in Suid-Afrika deur regstellende ontwikkeling aan te spreek, moet die determinante van leerprestasie verstaan word. Versnelde regstellende ontwikkeling sal doeltreffend wees in dié mate waartoe ’n omvattende begrip bestaan van die faktore onderliggend aan leerprestasie en die wyse waarop hulle kombineer om leerprestasie te bepaal. Die primêre doelwit van hierdie studie was gevolglik om de Goede (2007) se leerpotensiaal-strukturele model uit te brei. Nie-kognitiewe faktore is tot de Goede (2007) se model toegegevoeg om ’n meer indringende begrip van die kompleksiteit onderliggend aan leer en die determinante van leerprestasie te verkry. ’n Subversameling van die voorgestelde leerpotensiaal-strukturele model is vervolgens empiries geëvalueer. Die aanvanklike gereduseerde model het nie gekonvergeer nie en is vervolgens hersien deur ’n enkele kousale baan uit die model te verwyder. Die bevinding was dat die hersiene model die data goed pas. Alle bane in die finale model is empiries bevestig. Voorstelle vir toekomstige navorsing is gemaak deur aan te dui hoe die model verder uitgebrei kan word.