Peer feedback and its role for students’ language learning receive considerable interest in thefield of English as a foreign language. A related area of interest is the ways in which teachersare trained in their use of peer feedback and its integration into their classroom practice. Yet,research on the ways in which English language textbooks include opportunities for andinstructions in peer feedback are sparse. Given the importance of textbooks in EFLclassrooms as one of the primary sources of L2 input, the aims of this study are to investigate:1) Whether commonly used textbooks for teaching English in Swedish upper-secondaryschools recommend or integrate peer feedback, and what a) the frequency, and b) type ofthese recommendations and exercises are. 2) How the recommendations and exercises alignwith a) recommendations and best practices as identified in the literature, and b) the nationalcurriculum and the syllabus for English 7.To answer these questions, we analyze one of the most commonly used textbooks for teachingEnglish 7 in Swedish upper-secondary schools, Blueprint C Version 2.0. The findings showonly two instances in the book where the use of peer feedback is promoted as a valuablestrategy for improving the quality of students’ productions. It also shows that the bookcontains a total of 52 writing and speaking exercises, out of which 30 include the use of peerfeedback that, to some extent, aligns with best practice recommendations. As for thealignment with the curriculum and syllabus, the identified recommendations and support forthe use of peer feedback, as well as the peer feedback exercises, are shown to specificallymeet one of the goals of the national curriculum and three of the bullet points listed in thecore content in the syllabus for English 7.

This research report builds on the work already completed in the field of women in school leadership. Although a number of studies have examined female principals at work in primary schools in rural areas, there has not been a strong focus on female principals at work in secondary schools, in urban areas. The underrepresentation of women in school leadership is not unique to South Africa. It is a global phenomenon, which can be traced back to the patriarchal values, which exist in most societies. The purpose of my research report is to investigate how the capabilities approach can inform our understanding of women progressing into leadership positions at secondary schools in South Africa. A qualitative method was used based on an interpretivist research paradigm. The research design was a narrative inquiry. A purposive sampling method was used and data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews. The drive and determination to “make a difference” and “be a role model” enabled all five participants to convert their capability set into functionings thus “shattering the glass ceiling”. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

The study contributes to existing, but limited research on the social and academic experiences of lesbian learners in South African secondary schools. A lesbian refers to a woman who is sexually attracted to the same gender as herself. The purpose of this study was to obtain an in-depth understanding of the positive and negative experiences of lesbian youth in South African secondary schools. A qualitative research approach guided by the interpretivist paradigm was followed, as the focus was on the meaning that the individual participants awarded to their experiences and their world. A case study research design was used as it is regarded as a process of in-depth inquiry that generates detailed descriptions of a single unit or bounded system. The findings of this study are in line with existing literature on the experiences of lesbian learners in secondary schools. As in the literature this study indicated that the lesbian learners included in this study are subjected to negative social and academic experiences such as; homophobic verbal, sexual and emotional harassment and abuse, as well as school disengagement. Their positive experiences included a decrease in homophobic harassment and abuse, an increased sense of self worth and confidence, increased visibility, academic achievement and resilience and lower levels of absenteeism, truancy and school dropouts. It was interesting to note that most of the heterosexual learners’ and teachers’ at the schools included in this study’s attitude towards the lesbian learners have changed for the better. Most of the heterosexual learners and teachers seemed to be supportive and accommodative of the lesbian learners even though they still found it difficult to accept their lesbian sexual orientation. Based on the outcome of this study, it is recommended that the learners and teachers at the schools included in this study, be sensitised and capacitated with regard to homosexuality, bisexuality and trans-sexuality. / Mini-dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to explore what affective events influence job satisfaction amongst secondary school teachers of two private schools in Gauteng. The theoretical framework for this study was the Affective Events Theory as proposed by Weiss and Cropanzano. A total of 37 participants completed an open-ended questionnaire presenting an emotion and asking participants to describe an event that could be linked to the emotion experienced in as much detail as possible. Thereafter 6 participants were selected for follow-up interviews, based on age, gender and years' teaching experience to enquire about their perception on the role of leadership behaviour played in creating these events as well as investigating possible turnover intent. The results from this study highlighted that events which resulted in positive affectivity were mostly connected to learners as negative affective events involved leadership behaviour. It also highlighted how leadership behaviour contributed to these events and expressed possible turnover intent as a result of their experiences of these events at school. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

The purpose of the study was to investigate the views of master trainers for life skills and the views of secondary school learners concerning the information they receive on HIV/AIDS. Master trainers are educators who were identified by the Department of Education to train groups of people and learners in various schools about life skills. Life skills can be described as the adaptive and positive behaviour that enables individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. My assumption was that there may be a relationship between how the messages are communicated and understood and adolescent behaviour. There may also be factors that contribute to a lack of change in behaviour - despite the information disseminated on HIV/AIDS. To reach out to young South Africans with effective prevention programmes has become a key to slowing the rate of HIV infection and ensuring a stronger future for the country (UNAIDS, 2006). This is done through awareness programmes in school-based life skills education, which is part of the life orientation programme. Knowledge of the views would be important to all people involved in the battle against the pandemic and may benefit, particularly, those educators who have been assigned the special role of disseminating HIV prevention messages. Learners receive messages from different sources, such as media, peers, parents and educators in various institutions. The problem is that despite the knowledge acquired through various programmes, learners are still unwilling to translate that knowledge into positive behaviour (low risk sexual behaviour). Girls are still falling pregnant and, therefore, it is very important to look at the messages learners get and how they understand them as this may have an influence on their behaviour. This research has used a qualitative approach to collect and analyse data. Semi-structured interviews were used because to obtain rich descriptive data that helped the researcher to understand the participants’ construction of knowledge and social reality (Maree et al., 2009).Two master trainers from each of the three identified secondary schools were interviewed. Group interviews were used for and learners. The study was conducted in Barberton in the Ehlanzeni region of Mpumalanga. The data was collected using a tape-recorder. Permission and consent was sought and obtained to collect data in the schools that were involved in the study. The data was analysed and several themes were identified. The messages that the learners received from the Life Skills programmes were perceived in different ways. The different sources of knowledge concerning HIV/AIDS that the learners accessed at the time contained conflicting messages. More emphasis was placed on the debate around the use of condoms, while there were other issues that needed attention, such as decaying moral standards, lack of parental support, peer influence and material needs - all factors that lead to risky sexual behaviour in teenage learners. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Mathematical proofs are a part of mathematics that involves thinking and reasoning, rather than computation. The conceptions of Ontario high school mathematics teachers, of what they consider to be mathematical proofs and the role proofs have in their teaching practice, were examined through the use of individual interviews (60 minutes per participant) and a focus group discussion (one 90 minute session). The transcripts were each analyzed through emergent coding before themes were formed from comparing codes across transcripts. The interpretive lens included looking at teacher beliefs on the nature of mathematics, roles of proofs, and mathematical authority. The participants distinguished their university experiences with mathematical proofs from their high school teaching experiences. They saw proofs through the Mathematical Process Expectation, Reasoning and Proving, and they also used proof-related words when describing how they would enact Reasoning and Proving. The participants valued the development of argumentation and sense-making, based on logic and reasoning, as an enduring life-skill, and outcome of school mathematics. The perspectives of the participants provided insight on how teachers inform their teaching practice with the Ontario Mathematics Curriculum. It also revealed some thoughts, desires, values, and struggles teachers may face when teaching mathematics.

The aim of this study is to investigate 1) students’ attitudes towards English, 2) students’ attitudes towards reading in English and 3) if there is a correlation between students’ attitudes and their results in a reading comprehension test. In total, 39 students from three different classes volunteered for this study. The data were collected by using a questionnaire regarding students’ attitudes towards English and reading in English as well as by letting the participants take part in a reading comprehension test. The results show that students’ attitudes towards English does not necessarily play a part in how well they perform in a reading comprehension test.

The aim of this study is to examine how social science textbooks for upper secondary schools portrays the term “democracy”. Additionally, the study aims to examine the similarities and differences between the textbooks and determine the prevailing overall perspective on democracy. To help do this an analytical tool consisting of five criteria has been constructed based on Robert A. Dahl's theory on democratic processes and John Dewey's view on the role and importance of education for a democracy. These five criteria are: Effective participation/enlightened understanding, voting equality, control of the agenda, inclusiveness, and the role of education in a democracy. A total of six textbooks, based on the latest curriculum from 2011, have been examined and analysed.  The result and analysis of the study generally shows that the textbooks mainly focus on describing the formal democratic decision-making processes and principles without presenting any deeper reasoning for why these are important for democracy. In this context, representative democracy and direct democracy are often highlighted and compared to each other. The informal areas of society where democratic decision-making are made are generally only mentioned in passing or receive minor presentations. The role and importance of education for democracy are only mentioned in some of the textbooks, though school is often used as an example of an area of society where direct democracy is prevalent.  These are the overall similarities that exists across all textbooks. Some differences exist between the various textbooks, but these are only minor in nature. The main difference lies in what aspects of democracy each textbook chooses to highlight rather than the portrayal of democracy itself being any radically different.

To do a schedule for pupils in a school-setting is a hard and arduous task for any school. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility to move towards an pupil-oriented scheduling process in which the pupils themselves was given the opportunity to assess when they wanted different school-subject taught. The research questions in this study were whether or not pupils had clear preferences on when subject should be taught and why they did. The paper also deals with the question if the teachers had a similar perception of scheduling as the pupils. The theory of choice methods was utilized in a web-based questionnaire that was sent to a middle-school (year 7-9). The result in this study shows clear preferences between subject on when pupils want them to be scheduled with theory-based subjects in the beginning of the school-day and more practical and esthetic subjects later in the day. The conclusion of this this study is that because there are clear indications of preference of when different subject should be scheduled. Schools could utilize the result to move toward a pupil-oriented scheduling paradigm which could increase concentration and reduce the onset of fatigue during long days and therefore increase the pupils learning ability and school results.

Although there has been much research on school mergers, there has not been a strong focus on the way in which heads of departments (hereafter HoDs) in the North West province experience school mergers. This qualitative case study, which used an interpretative paradigm, built on and contributed to understanding successful strategies used by displaced HoDs from middle to primary or secondary schools in performing their roles and responsibilities after the school mergers, the challenges they experienced and how they approached such challenges. Semi-structured interviews and a document analysis with purposive sampling of nine (9) participants, comprising six (6) female HoDs and six (3) male HoDs, were used to collect the requisite data. The study was underpinned by a conceptual framework, to identify and construct my views as a researcher, on the HoDs experiences of school mergers in North West province (Adom, Hussein & Agyem, 2018) as a lens for data analysis. The study findings indicated that there had been a significant change in the roles and responsibilities performed by the displaced HoDs. The HoDs had also demonstrated resistance to the school mergers as they had not been prepared for handling tensions and opposition (Pinheiro, Geschwind & Aarrevaara, 2016). It was also found that the HoDs had different understandings and interpretations of the concept of a school merger, and that the NWDoE had undermined them and had also not prepared them adequately enough for both the school merged and to cope in their new roles. The findings also indicated that the NWDoE had done very little to involve the HoDs in the entire school merger process. In addition, the findings also revealed that generally teaching and administering curriculum was a challenge for some of the expatriate HoDs due content gap in the subject areas allocated to them in their new roles. Accordingly, the study pointed out the need for retraining and workshopping the displaced HoDs, as well as placement in line with their areas of specialisation and proficiency. It was hoped that this might help them to handle the tensions they were experiencing and to decrease their opposition, diminish their resistance and, finally, assist them in performing their hugely changed roles and responsibilities in their new schools. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted