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M. Tech. Education / Higher Education in South Africa has - in the recent past - shifted from an elitist to a mass-based system of education with the aim of fostering democratic nationbuilding. One of the pressing demands on higher education institutions has been accommodating the large student diversity. Student enrolments have become increasingly dissimilar in terms of racial, cultural, socio-economic and linguistic backgrounds, as well as at the level of preparedness that students have for university programmes. The transition from high school to university is for many students an immense challenge and - without proper support - dropouts will escalate, resulting in higher levels of attrition. The above scenario has stimulated renewed interest and placed a premium on student mentorship in higher education. Students are more willing to seek assistance from peers than from lecturers; they feel less intimidated. The rationale for this study was to explore first-year student mentees' experiences of the student mentor programme - and their experiences of transition at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Data were collected from students who had attended the student mentoring sessions from different faculties and on different campuses of the TUT.

Text in Afrikaans / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Technology: Public Management, Durban University of Technology, 2010. / Research production is increasingly becoming a focal point in higher education transformation. Merging of higher educational institutions has produced various challenges ranging from changing the focus from purely teaching functions to both research and teaching. While novice researchers (i.e. those that are training to become researchers) are expected to develop capacity by engaging in research through various means, the aim of capacity development is to enable young researchers (i.e. those who are developing a profile as researchers) to publish in high impact publications which attracts funding in the form of subsidy from the Department of Higher Education and Training (DoHET). The manners in which tertiary educational institutions promote research output through capacity development initiatives are important from the perspective of attracting funding. The researcher undertook this study to explore mentorship as a means to increase research output at a merged tertiary institution. A case study using a mixed method approach was adopted. The literature reviewed indicated that mentorship was popular in many fields but there is a paucity of data evident on mentorship as a means to increase research output for researchers. The researcher obtained views and perceptions from academic staff members from sample faculties with regards to an implementation of a formal research mentorship program (REMP). Semi-structured interviews with the deans of four sample faculties and analyses of institutional documentation was also undertaken to ascertain institutional and faculty support and development for research. The findings of this study are useful not only to the case study institution, but to all HE institutions, especially merged institutions and the public management sector.

Limited research has been conducted on the effectiveness of preventive programmes in addressing the needs of adolescents/youth. This study is aimed at examining the effectiveness of a training programme and whether the training conducted by the researcher contributed to equipping the peer educators with skills to undertake capacity building and empowerment programmes. The research sample consisted of fifteen peer educators who had undergone the training programme. The participants were all grade eleven pupils from the Hillview Secondary School in Newlands East. The majority of the participants in this research study reside in Newlands East. This was an evaluative research study. The data collection instruments were sessional evaluation questionnaires, verbal group evaluation and retrospective evaluation questionnaires. Secondary data were also collected from the school personnel to enhance the research findings. The research findings revealed that the peer educator training undertaken by the researcher was effective and useful in developing skills of the peer educators to initiate and implement capacity-building and empowerment programmes within the school environment. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Text in Afrikaans / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

Effective mentoring is essential for the development of student-teachers. A sequential explanatory mixed method study was conducted in order to analyse the perspectives of Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) students on the effectiveness of school based mentoring. Thirty-six (36) PGCE students from a higher education institution in the Eastern Cape participated in this study. Firstly, quantitative questionnaires were used to gather data from all the participants followed by qualitative semi–structured interviews from a purposive sample of five (5) participants in order to enrich the study. This study analysed PGCE students’ perspectives of mentor teacher practices. In doing so the study evoked Hudson and Peards’ Five Factor Mentoring Model. This model includes Personal Attributes, Systems Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling and Feedback. From the findings, PGCE students reported that Teaching Practice (TP) is a stressful period full of anxieties, excitement and fears, hence they need to be guided and supported by knowledgeable and specialist teachers (mentors). Mentors play a significant role in supporting and guiding student-teachers during TP. From the analysis of PGCE students’ perspectives, the research suggested that those who were supported and guided by their mentors experienced positive mentoring during TP. Those who experienced negative mentoring reported limited time for mentoring and unavailability of the mentors as the causes. They further expressed that they wished mentors were understanding, good models who treated them as teacher candidates not as students and gave them constructive feedback. Finally, they indicated that the partnership between host schools and the university needs to be improved.

Research has shown that academic under-performance in higher education can be attributed inter alia to psychosocial difficulties arising from students’ under-preparedness for the rigours of university life, the struggle to accommodate diverse cultural worldviews and poor proficiency in the language of learning and teaching (Chang 1999). As internationalisation of higher education institutions has became more common worldwide, the need for support systems to deal with problems of a multicultural student body has become essential if students are to have equitable opportunities for success. In this regard, Monash South Africa (MSA), an international multicultural higher education institution, introduced a tutor-mentor programme to improve academic outcomes among mathematics students in the Foundation Programme (FP). The impact of this programme was investigated by means of an empirical investigation and framed by a bricolage of learning theories which served as a conceptual framework for the study under the metaphors of acquisition and participation. The literature study showed that tutoring and mentoring programmes tend to be successful pedagogical supports. The empirical inquiry took the form of a mixed-method case study which explored the impact of participation in the tutor-mentor programme on mathematical performance among FP mathematics students at MSA. The participants in the study, which was carried out in two phases, were mathematics students, tutor-mentors and lecturers in the FP. Phase 1 quantitatively explored the extent of effectiveness of the tutor-mentor intervention, using a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design. Two formal tests were used to gather data, which were analysed by an analysis of covariance and the Johnson-Neyman technique. Quantitative findings supported the initial assumption of the study: that participation in the tutor-mentor programme as an intervention strategy improved the mathematics scores of FP students at MSA. Phase 2, a qualitative study, used purposive sampling. Data was gathered through focus group and individual interviews, observation, spontaneous conversations and photographs. Interpretation of the quantitative and qualitative data was presented according to the phases and thereafter integrated. Qualitative findings provided information about the dynamics of the tutor-mentor programme in providing academic and psychosocial support to students. Finally, a situation-producing theory was developed from the integrated findings, and recommendations made for improvement of practice. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Student success, access to higher education and accountability are concerns of universities and communities worldwide. Universities are now implementing interventions such as mentor programmes, Supplemental Instruction and resident advisors in order to keep abreast of a changing higher education environment, and to provide broader access and support for a wider range of students. The Stellenbosch University Student Mentor Programme (SMP) was designed and implemented in 2003 as an intervention to address some of the problems encountered by first-year students at the institution. The monitoring and realising of the outcomes of the programme necessitated a comprehensive evaluation. The discussion of various theoretical paradigms forms a backdrop against which the multiple meanings of the concept of mentoring and its many practices can be understood. It is emphasised that there is no meta-narrative or grand structure that fulfils all the purposes and objectives of mentoring. The most obvious theories in the mentoring process are played out in the functionalist and the radical humanist paradigms, with the constructivists as an important catalyst in the realising of certain processes, procedures and actions. No single study has yet offered a full analysis of mentor programmes in the various paradigms, and the analysis that I present is likewise not a “final answer”, only a pliable structure to enhance the understanding of the underlying social theories as they utilise mentoring. An evaluation study on the SMP was conducted during 2005. Questionnaires and interviews were used to establish the effectiveness of programme delivery and the resulting levels of satisfaction. The evaluation was conducted with both programme monitoring and programme outcomes in mind. The programme is highly structured and managed according to the key categories of a logic model, which also provides the relevant delivery and evaluative steps. The programme has two target groups, namely the mentors (senior students) and the mentees (mainly first-year students), organised into small groups, each with a peer mentor. The monitoring and evaluation of the SMP highlights the benefits of group interaction among students, and shows the positive academic as well as psychosocial outcomes for students who attend the mentor sessions regularly. The short-term outcomes give an indication not only of the positive academic effects of the programme, but also of student experience and performance. As seen in the current study, the group in a mentoring situation fulfils an important developmental, synergistic role. Although the main aim of the design, implementation and evaluation of the SMP was to address the high dropout and failure rates of first-year students, many other advantages became apparent, and the outcomes of the programme indicate a positive effect on more than one terrain, such as unexpected growth and development for the mentors. The success of the programme can be seen as an important value-adding strategy to the university’s teaching and learning environment, as well as a cost-effective intervention to retain students. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wêreldwyd het studente-sukses, toegang tot hoër onderrig en aanspreeklikheid van universiteite in gemeenskappe belangrik geword. Ten einde te voldoen aan die eise van ’n veranderende opvoedingsomgewing, het universiteite begin om intervensies soos mentorprogramme, addisionele onderrig en raadgewing te implementeer om oor ’n breë front ondersteuning aan studente te bied. Die Universiteit van Stellenbosch se Studente-mentorprogram (SMP) is in 2003 ontwerp en geïmplementeer om van die probleme wat eerstejaars ervaar aan te spreek. Die monitering van die program met die gepaardgaande uitkomste het ’n omvattende evaluering daarvan genoodsaak. Die bespreking van verskeie teoretiese paradigmas vorm die agtergrond waarteen die meervoudige betekenis van die konsep mentorskap en die vele toepassings daarvan verstaan kan word. Dit word benadruk dat daar nie ’n metanarratief of grootse struktuur bestaan wat al die doelstellinge en kontekste van mentorskap omvat nie. Die mees ooglopende teorieë waarin mentorskap pas, is die funksionalistiese en die radikale humanistiese paradigmas, met die konstruktivisme as belangrike katalis wat die prosesse, prosedures en aksies betref. Die huidige bepreking daarvan is ook nie ’n poging om ’n finale antwoord oor die “plek” van mentorskap in sosiale teorie te verskaf nie, maar is bloot die daarstel van ’n plooibare struktuur waarin hierdie aksies kan plaasvind. Die evaluering van die Studente-mentorprogram het gedurende 2005 plaasgevind. Vraelyste en onderhoude is gebruik om die effektiwiteit van die program te bepaal ten opsigte van beide operasionalisering en uitkomste. Die program is hoogs gestruktureerd, en word bestuur aan die hand van die stappe uiteengesit in ’n logiese model. Die logiese model dien ook as die evalueringsraamwerk. Daar is twee teikengroepe in die program, naamlik die mentors (senior studente) en die mentees (hoofsaaklik eerstejaars), georganiseer in klein groepe elk met ’n portuurmentor. Die monitering en evaluering van die SMP toon duidelik die voordele van groep-interaksie tussen studente, met beduidende positiewe akademiese en psigososiale resultate vir diegene wat die groepsessies gereeld bywoon. Die korttermyn-uitkomste dui nie slegs op die positiewe akademiese effek van die program nie, maar ook op positiewe studente-ervaring en –prestasie. Dit blyk duidelik dat die groep in die mentorsituasie ’n belangrike ontwikkelende en sinergistiese rol vervul. Hoewel die hoofdoel van die ontwerp, implementering en evaluering van die program die aanspreek van die hoë druip- en uitvalsyfers onder eerstejaars was, het dit baie ander positiewe uitkomste op vele vlakke gehad, byvoorbeeld die ontwikkeling van die mentors self. Die sukses van die program kan gesien word as ’n strategie van waarde-toevoeging tot die universiteit se leer-en onderrigomgewing, sowel as ’n koste-effektiewe intervensie om studente in hoër onderrig te behou.

Thesis (MEd (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosc, 2006. / This thesis explores the possibility of developing a mentorship programme for teachers through a reflexive democratic practice in order to support student teachers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (Bellville Campus), when they do their internship in the host schools. It argues that critical dialogue and reflection are at the core of practices that are more democratic and that the development of a mentorship programme within the context of a community of practice holds transformative possibilities for teaching and learning. Aspects of current practice at the schools and at the academy, which may enhance or hinder the development of a reflexive democratic practice, are identified. It is hoped that a critical analysis and reflection of the research findings will contribute to the improvement of the practice teaching experience of the student teachers as well as contribute to the development of an effective mentorship programme.