The present study explored whether a significant relationship exists between academic procrastination and academic achievement in high school learners within South Africa. It furthermore examined whether certain personality traits of individuals are more prone to procrastination than others. It lastly investigated the relationships between gender and academic procrastination, age and academic procrastination, number of siblings and academic procrastination; and area of residence and academic procrastination. The research sample consisted of 349 high school learners aged between 12 and 19 years old (n=167 male, n=180 female, n=2 gender not disclosed). Data was collected by means of the Personal Information Questionnaire (PIQ), the Tuckman Procrastination Scale (TPS) and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). A significant negative correlation was found between procrastination and academic achievement. The correlations between procrastination and gender, age, area of residence and number of siblings respectively were not significant. Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability were both found to be significantly negatively related to procrastination, however, the relations between procrastination and Extraversion and Agreeableness respectively were not significant. An anomaly found in the present study was the negative relation between procrastination and Openness to Experience, and it is postulated that this finding may be due to the TIPI’s inability to measure the individual facets of each Big Five Factor domain or that it could be ascribed to the need for cognition. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

The study deals with the management of discipline in a post corporal punishment environment in South Africa through a case study of selected primary schools in informal settlements in the North West Province. The following research questions were formulated:  What is the current thinking and practice of discipline in the primary schools in the informal settlements in the North West Province?  Which disciplinary measures and procedures are currently used in the selected primary schools?  How effective are the current management strategies of discipline used in the selected primary schools?  How can recommendations assist educators in selected primary schools to deal more effectively with disciplinary challenges? A literature review on the management of school discipline provided a conceptual framework for the empirical inquiry and indicated a lack of empirical studies on the management of discipline in primary schools in informal settlement in the North West Province. This matter is dealt with mostly frequently at high school level. An empirical study using qualitative research methods explored the management of discipline in twenty sampled primary schools in informal settlements in the North West Province, selected through purposive sampling. Data were gathered by in-depth interviews and focus groups with educators, principals and School Governing Body chairpersons. Data were categorized into themes. Findings showed that some educators still view corporal punishment as the most appropriate strategy to deal with ill-disciplined behaviour in schools; hence corporal punishment is still rife in some of the sampled schools. However, other participants agree that corporal punishment should not be accommodated as stipulated by the South African Constitution and other legal frameworks, instead effective alternative strategies should be deployed to handle ill-disciplined behaviour. Inhuman and outdated approaches should be avoided. Diverse ways of dealing with discipline which are goal oriented and foster good relations between the learner and the educator should be implemented. Sound relations in turn lead to the production of learners with the potential to become good citizens. Based on the literature and empirical inquiry, recommendations were made which advocate educator training on handling discipline in primary schools and the design of effective strategies to maintain sound discipline. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

In the light of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa, the Department of Education is promoting HIV/AIDS awareness programmes in public schooling. This dissertation focuses on the management of these programmes in secondary schools in the North West Province using a literature review and empirical investigation. The former discusses the disease and treatment, its prevalence and impact on education and the role of principal, educators and parents in prevention. A qualitative study investigated the views of a small sample of principals, teachers and learners from three secondary schools in the North West Province. Sites and participants were selected by purposeful sampling. Data gathering took place by interviewing principals and educators and by essays written by tenth grade learners. Findings illustrated the importance of community values, information, a school policy, inservice teacher training and the contribution of parents and the church. Obstacles to successful awareness programmes were identified and recommendations made. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Education Management)

In 1996 the South African government legalised the termination of pregnancy (TOP) services, allowing women to choose to terminate unplanned pregnancies at designated facilities. Although TOP services are available, pregnant women continue to use illegal abortion services, with potentially life-risking consequences. The purpose of this study was to identify challenges encountered by women requesting TOP services, and to make recommendations for improved policies and practices, enabling more women in the North West Province (NWP) to access TOP services. This was a non-experimental, exploratory, descriptive and quantitative study. Structured interviews were conducted with 150 women who had used TOP services in phase 1, with 50 women who were unable to access TOP services in phase 2 and with 20 professional nurses providing TOP services in the NWP in phase 3. In phase 1, 96.0% (n=144) of the women needed transport to access TOP services, and 73.2% (n=109) indicated that nurses put women’s names on waiting lists, posing barriers to such access in the NWP. In phase 2, 92.0% (n=46) of these respondents had reportedly requested TOPs for the first time, but 89.0% (n=44) could not access TOP services. In phase 3, only 14 out of 19 designated facilities in the NWP, and only 20 nurses, provided TOP services during the study period. Out of the 20 interviewed nurses, 74.0% (n=14) regarded the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, Act 92 of 1996 (CTOP Act) was being unclear requiring a revision. These professional nurses provided TOP services in NWP, by choice. Unless more facilities and more nurses can provide TOP services to the women of the NWP, these services will continue to remain inaccessible, necessitating the continued utilisation of illegal abortion services, in spite of the TOP Act’s prescriptions. It is also recommended that management will provide sufficient support and training opportunities for professional nurses working in TOP services in the NWP. / Health Studies / (D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies))

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges affecting teachers’ classroom assessment practices and to explore how these challenges influence effective teaching and learning. The study was qualitative in nature and employed an instrumental case study approach. Semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analyses were used in the investigation. The study utilized the conceptual framework based on the model suggested by Hargreaves, Earl and Schmidt (2002). The model comprised four perspectives – technological, cultural, political and postmodern, with the intention of accounting for teachers’ assessment practices. Teachers from four different schools in North West Province were interviewed and observed. The data collected through the observations and interviews allowed me to map out the different challenges encountered by teachers in their classroom assessment practices. I also analysed documents that teachers used in conducting assessment. Document analysis was used to triangulate the information collected through observations and interviews. Textual data was analysed using content analysis. The teachers’ narratives varied according to their teaching experience and background within the diverse contexts of their particular school environments. Major challenges that emanated from this study were policy interpretation, overcrowding, support, parental involvement, moderation mechanisms (internal and external), assessment planning, implementation and communication as well as lack of resources. In order to address these challenges, teachers relied on cluster meetings, their colleagues and mostly their personal experiences. The study also revealed that teachers’ understanding and practices of classroom assessment are influenced by their social and educational context. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Community participation is a concept meant to ensure that community members are an integral part of processes that determine their destination in relation to their development needs. It is a means of empowering people by developing their skills and abilities to enable them to negotiate and make appropriate decisions for their development. Community participation, however, is not without its challenges. In most development projects initiated by local municipalities and other government departments in South Africa, community participation appears to be an afterthought. Most often, community members are consulted after decisions are made by government agencies with regards to the kind of development projects that need to be implemented. As a consequence, community development projects which are intended to improve the quality of life of the majority of communities in South Africa, do not meet this objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate community participation in rural development projects and focuses on the Mokgalwaneng community in the North West province of South Africa as a case study. The research asks the following questions: What is the nature of and extent to which community members participate in rural development projects? What are the challenges to community participation in rural development projects and how can these challenges be addressed? An evaluative research design and qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used. The sample groups were the community members and the DRDLR officials and semi-structured questionnaires as interview guides for data collection were used. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents did not participate in the initiation and planning stages of the projects. And the study further revealed that no income and low-income, politics, favoritism, long working hours, illiteracy, low self-esteem, lack of training, lack of resources, lack of communication, lack of information and transparency about the projects are the challenges of participation. It is therefore recommended that, the government should support the community in all levels to ensure a strong commitment to participation in their development projects. It is anticipated that this study will enable the community members and all role players involved in the Mokgalwaneng development projects to realize the importance and advantages of community participation and that they will work through the challenges in order to increase community participation in development projects. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Although South African teachers have ample opportunities for professional development (PD), weak results of learners show that these opportunities have had a limited effect on the development of the Mathematics teachers’ instructional skills. The improvement of the teaching of Mathematics is regarded as a solution to learners’ poor performance, because teachers play a key role in the improvement of pupils’ learning. In the light of this, a Mathematics PD programme implemented in a province of South Africa was evaluated and served as a case study. The aim of this evaluation was to probe the quality of the programme since it had been suggested that improving the quality of teaching can be achieved by offering effective PD programmes. Thus, the evaluation was done in an attempt to establish the academic value of the intervention. The investigated programme – which was implemented in a rural and under-resourced setting – focused on FET Mathematics teachers and used mentoring and workshops as its key intervention implementers. Five teachers were involved in this programme. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, lesson observations, mentoring and workshop reports, the results of learners, and pre- and post-test results of the participants. The evaluation of the PD programme revealed the following: that the workshops addressed the participants’ content knowledge gap to a limited degree; that mentoring was able to assist with the individual classroom-related needs of the participants, and that the community of practice formed in the workshops helped the participants to develop by means of working together on lesson preparation, micro-teaching, and content knowledge exercises. Other findings revealed that the duration of the workshops were adequate, however their intensity was insufficient to effectively address the participants’ needs, and that the workshops were carefully planned, given that the same topics were repeated. The mentor teachers and other facilitators encountered challenges relating to the long intervals between the mentoring sessions, the limited post-lesson-observation discussion time, the significant distances between the involved schools and the heavy teaching load of the participants. Nevertheless, recommendations on improving the effectiveness of future PD programmes included careful selection of the dosage of interventions, site-based mentoring, to incentivise participants of PD programmes, alleviating the teaching load of overburdened participants and the creation of conducive environments in rural areas for the formation of communities of practice. / Mathematics Education / D. Phil. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (Mathematics Education))

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The World Bank (1994) concluded that there is a close relationship between infrastructure and economic growth. This also reflects on the water sector because, despite water sector importance, water services infrastructure is probably one of the most difficult to finance, while its deficiency or absence instils a particular burden on society. According to Baietti and Raymond (2005), more than 1.1 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water, and approximately 2.4 billion are without adequate sanitation. Yet these estimates underestimate the gravity of the situation in relation to access gap and quality of services provided. Most consumers face situations where water services are intermittent and when available the water is not safe for consumption, while sanitation facilities are overloaded, unused or in despair. This research was conducted in the North West Province with municipalities that have the status of water services authorities. This included a combination of district and local municipalities. The North West Province has 11 water service authorities of which nine are local municipalities and two are district municipalities. The competing demands and needs for governments to provide infrastructure for other sectors such as roads and energy further aggravate the stance of finance unavailability for the water sector. The purpose of the study was to highlight the challenges that municipalities face in financing water services infrastructure. The result of the study will provide knowledge and innovative ideas that will allow South Africa‘s municipalities to address challenges of service delivery. At municipal level water services are provided through a variety of approaches, although most involve centralised systems with large supply, distribution and treatment facilities. The social benefits that water services provide are well known, particularly those that relate to public health including reduced morbidity and mortality from waterborne diseases. The challenge is that funding to meet these development objectives is either scarce or entirely unavailable. The Water Services Act 108 of (DWAF, 1997) requires water services authorities and water service providers to put significant efforts into cost recovery for sustainable provision of water services. This aspect has significant challenges which results from widespread poverty and a culture of non-payment from communities inherent as a remnant of protest against apartheid. The scope of the water sector is complex, owing to its diversity, interactions and synergies with other industrial, commercial and financial sectors, and its international nature. Under the current South African constitutional and legislative framework, municipalities will remain to be a major player in the development, financing and delivering of water services infrastructure for sustainable growth and development. Water Services Authorities (WSAs) have responsibilities including protection and management of water resources, provision of adequate and sustainable water services, operation and maintenance of water services infrastructure, monitoring and management of municipal water quality to regulatory requirements and reporting to the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) with regards to the aforementioned. Water service delivery failures at the municipal level are a widespread and fundamental problem in South Africa. At the same time, under the current decentralisation policies, the responsibility for delivering such services is increasingly being delegated to lower levels of government/municipalities that are often ill equipped for the challenge in terms of financial and human resources capacity. Cardone and Fonseca (2006) indicated public administration and financial management capacity at central and sub-sovereign levels of government as limited, and affecting the timely transfer of funding as well as the capacity of municipalities to absorb those funds. Various strategies are needed to enable municipalities to secure and finance their water services infrastructure. These include understanding what bankers are looking for, understanding where donors are going, greater involvement of the private sector, matching service levels to affordability, improving revenues and influencing the regulatory regime.

Community participation is a concept meant to ensure that community members are an integral part of processes that determine their destination in relation to their development needs. It is a means of empowering people by developing their skills and abilities to enable them to negotiate and make appropriate decisions for their development. Community participation, however, is not without its challenges. In most development projects initiated by local municipalities and other government departments in South Africa, community participation appears to be an afterthought. Most often, community members are consulted after decisions are made by government agencies with regards to the kind of development projects that need to be implemented. As a consequence, community development projects which are intended to improve the quality of life of the majority of communities in South Africa, do not meet this objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate community participation in rural development projects and focuses on the Mokgalwaneng community in the North West province of South Africa as a case study. The research asks the following questions: What is the nature of and extent to which community members participate in rural development projects? What are the challenges to community participation in rural development projects and how can these challenges be addressed? An evaluative research design and qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used. The sample groups were the community members and the DRDLR officials and semi-structured questionnaires as interview guides for data collection were used. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents did not participate in the initiation and planning stages of the projects. And the study further revealed that no income and low-income, politics, favoritism, long working hours, illiteracy, low self-esteem, lack of training, lack of resources, lack of communication, lack of information and transparency about the projects are the challenges of participation. It is therefore recommended that, the government should support the community in all levels to ensure a strong commitment to participation in their development projects. It is anticipated that this study will enable the community members and all role players involved in the Mokgalwaneng development projects to realize the importance and advantages of community participation and that they will work through the challenges in order to increase community participation in development projects. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

The study presents the spatio-temporal assessment of groundwater-surface water (GW-SW) interaction aspects in the Schoonspruit River catchment, North West of South Africa. The research study aimed at improving understanding of groundwater and surface water interaction through assessing its location and time when such interaction occurs. GW-SW interaction sites were identified using principal aquifer type characterization methods. The occurrence of the interaction was established using hydrochemistry methods and the effectiveness of the existing monitoring methods were evaluated in their consideration of GW-SW interaction within the study area. The main results from the study showed that there was GW-SW interaction in the Schoonspruit River catchment which was not affected by seasonal changes. The result further showed that existing monitoring methods in the study catchment were not effective in addressing GW-SW interaction. The study concluded that qualitative methods are essential in studying GW-SW interaction and that monitoring methods for such interactions are required / Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)