Student Number : 8800092K - MSc research report - School of Education - Faculty of Science / This research report explored the strategies which grade 12 learners employ to solve geometric problems. The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of how grade 12 learners begin to solve geometric problems involving cyclic quadrilateral and tangent theorems. A case study method was used as the main research method. The study employed the van Hiele level’s of geometric thought as a method for categorising learners levels of understanding. Data about the strategies which learners recruit to solve geometric problems were gathered using learner-based tasks, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. From the data gathered, the following patterns emerged: learners incorrect use of theorems to solve geometrical problems; learners base their responses on the visual appearance of the diagram; learners “force “ a solution when one is not available; learners’ views of proof. Each of these aspects is discussed. The report concludes that learners strategies to solving geometric problems are based largely on the manner in which educators approach the solving of geometrical problems.

Student Number : 0008975N - M Ed research report - School of Education - Faculty of Humanities / This qualitative study was conducted in one school in an informal settlement, West of Johannesburg. The study explored how a grade 7 teacher promoted mathematical reasoning in multilingual mathematics class of English second language learners. The focus of the research was on how a Grade 7 mathematics teacher interacts with the learners to encourage mathematical reasoning during his teaching in a multilingual class. The study also looked at the kind of tasks the teacher used to promote mathematical reasoning and how he uses language to enable mathematical reasoning. The study was informed by a theory of learning which emphasises the importance of social interaction in the classroom where the teacher encourages learners to interact with each other to explain their thinking and to justify their answers. Data was collected through lesson and teacher interviews. The study shows the teacher focused more on developing the learners’ procedural fluency. This focus on procedural fluency was accompanied by the dominance of the use of English by the learners.

Evidence gathered from major fraud investigations over the last decade has revealed that auditors in these cases failed to attend to fraud red flags within the substantive testing evidence. Research in psychology regarding inattentional blindness (IB) provides a theoretical framework for explaining why auditors may be prone to missing fraud red flags. This study examines the presence of IB during the performance of substantive testing and proposes two distinct interventions. Each intervention is predicted to improve auditor fraud detection. In a scenario involving fraudulent revenue transactions, findings show that a slight modification to the standard audit procedures significantly improves an auditor’s detection of red flags indicative of fraud. A second intervention involving the performance of a strategic reasoning task did not yield significant results. Overall, the results suggest that audit firms should consider making a cost effective adjustment to their standard audit program to improve fraud detection.

As ethical dilemmas arise in community colleges, administrators make decisions that require sensitivity to the organizational, political, and environmental factors surrounding their particular institutional climates and locales. The moral reasoning and ethical decision-making of community college administrators were examined in this study. In addition, the study evaluated these factors to provide an understanding, or lack thereof, of [potential] ethical challenges that may exist within a specific organization. Research questions for this study encompassed two perspectives: (a) moral reasoning and (b) ethical decision making. Moral reasoning was examined through participants’ perspectives of moral, professional, and organizational values. Ethical decision making was examined through participants’ assessments of ethical dilemmas using vignettes. Using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, mean scores, and standard deviations), the results of this research study suggested that community college administrators in Mississippi have varying perceptions for moral, professional, and organizational values and ethical decision-making (behaviors). The findings of the study suggested that the most important moral values for community college administrators in Mississippi are truth, fairness, and responsibility and that members of their families would choose these same values compared to other groups within their communities. In addition, they suggested that communities will not provide the same solutions for ethical dilemmas in which they provided and community colleges should assist students by developing their (students) values and teaching them about ethics. In conjunction with leadership, the majority of community college leaders in Mississippi suggested that they are transformational leaders, which is indicative of their abilities to adapt their organization to fit its mission for their faculty, staff, community affiliates, and constituents.

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