South Africans are confronted by social and economic problems of magnitude and complexity that cannot be ignored by curriculum planners. Increasing population statistics, plummeting gold prices, disinvestment, unemployment and political uncertainty continue to make economic and social ventures hazardous in their undertaking. Man accesses his world through education, and curriculum planners should, therefore, anticipate the future socio-economic structures of this country, and beyond, thereby providing meaningful school curricula that will prepare learners for the technologyintensive workplaces of modem times. Curriculating wisdom would include the: * needs of the learner as he prepares for adulthood; * demands of society for utilitarian citizens; and * structuring of knowledge that encourages learning rather than discourages it. The secondary school adolescent is career oriented and progresses towards a state of independent thought and behaviour. The school is obliged to address the situation of the adolescent and provide learning opportunities that will prepare him for a meaningful place in society. Selected themes from the discipline of computer science have been evaluated according to the essences of the pedagogic school structure. Differentiation of the subject content has been indicated so that pupils of all academic abilities can benefit from the learning experiences offered by the content. A questionnaire, sent to Education Departments in South Africa, determined that computer science was available to a very small percentage of pupils for matriculation creditation. A sample of these pupils completed a questionnaire designed to determine their regard for the subject and the influence it had on their choice of career. Three pupils were interviewed to assess, primarily, the role that computers played in their family and peer relationships. All investigations confirmed that computer science is a highly desired subject, skilfully able to fulfil the needs of the adolescent as he prepares for his place in society in the most meaningful, contemporaneous and dignified manner. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

South Africans are confronted by social and economic problems of magnitude and complexity that cannot be ignored by curriculum planners. Increasing population statistics, plummeting gold prices, disinvestment, unemployment and political uncertainty continue to make economic and social ventures hazardous in their undertaking. Man accesses his world through education, and curriculum planners should, therefore, anticipate the future socio-economic structures of this country, and beyond, thereby providing meaningful school curricula that will prepare learners for the technologyintensive workplaces of modem times. Curriculating wisdom would include the: * needs of the learner as he prepares for adulthood; * demands of society for utilitarian citizens; and * structuring of knowledge that encourages learning rather than discourages it. The secondary school adolescent is career oriented and progresses towards a state of independent thought and behaviour. The school is obliged to address the situation of the adolescent and provide learning opportunities that will prepare him for a meaningful place in society. Selected themes from the discipline of computer science have been evaluated according to the essences of the pedagogic school structure. Differentiation of the subject content has been indicated so that pupils of all academic abilities can benefit from the learning experiences offered by the content. A questionnaire, sent to Education Departments in South Africa, determined that computer science was available to a very small percentage of pupils for matriculation creditation. A sample of these pupils completed a questionnaire designed to determine their regard for the subject and the influence it had on their choice of career. Three pupils were interviewed to assess, primarily, the role that computers played in their family and peer relationships. All investigations confirmed that computer science is a highly desired subject, skilfully able to fulfil the needs of the adolescent as he prepares for his place in society in the most meaningful, contemporaneous and dignified manner. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

There is a paucity of data on the resources, organization and management of secondary school libraries in Anglophone Cameroon. The few data available are based principally on casual observations and personal impressions, and in general, describe the collections as shocking and disgracefully meagre. The main objective of this study was to examine the current status of school library resources in selected secondary schools in Anglophone Cameroon. To this effect, attention was focused on book stock, periodical holdings, audiovisual materials, physical facilities and equipment, finance, management and use. In doing so, the principal method used was survey research method. This was supplemented with interview and observation, document analysis and participant observation techniques. The survey research instrument contained 59 item questions centered on the current status of secondary school libraries in Anglophone Cameroon. During visits to schools, the researcher interviewed relevant school authorities and also observed first-hand the state of the libraries. Information so obtained was cross-checked against responses to the mail questionnaire and also data gained from documentary sources. In all the schools studied there was acute shortage of such library resources as books, reference materials, periodicals, and audiovisual collections. Most schools also lacked adequate work space, seating accommodations for the pupils and basic working equipment for the libraries. In the issue of personnel, evidence showed that all the schools lacked qualified manpower. A few schools have full-time librarians who are neither qualified academically nor professionally. Some schools try, once in a while, to set aside some money for the needs of the library. But on the whole, the amount usually budgeted is grossly inadequate for even the basic needs of the library. Specific and policy oriented recommendations in the form of guidelines for the improvement of secondary school library services in Anglophone Cameroon were proposed.

Primary teachers are constantly required to make changes in their teaching practice. This thesis reports on a year in the professional life of two experienced primary school teachers as they engage in implementing a new science program called Primary Investigations (Australian Academy of Science, 1994). The study examined the issues that arose as the two adapted the strategies and philosophies of the new program into their pre-existing pedagogical frameworks. The study used qualitative methods of data collection and analysis. Over ten months of participant observation several stories or narrative vignettes were created to highlight the major issues faced by the two teachers. These stories were then analysed to identify several propositions about curriculum implementation and primary science. The narrative vignettes provide descriptive accounts around several implementation issues. The two teachers experienced some problems with the supply of equipment to support their teaching and lacked the subject knowledge to identify when the equipment was inadequate. The teachers had high expectations of the teachers' resource book but a lack of science content knowledge hindered their ability to use the document with confidence. While the teachers believed that science is important for children they lacked the confidence and questioning skill to engage the students in 'science talk'. 10 teachers were able to transfer pedagogical knowledge from other disciplines 0 overcome some of the dilemmas they faced in science lessons. Both teachers displayed a strong 'ethic of care’ for the children in their class that covered gaining knowledge, behaviour towards others and safety during science lessons. / There was evidence that the past experience of both teachers in their childhood and educational years had been influential in their beliefs about their interest and ability to teach science. The two teachers' personal and professional lives interacted in complex ways as they adjusted to the demands of the school year and the impact of implementing the new science program. Finally the two teachers lacked certainty in science teaching - they experienced epistemological confusion in their understanding of the nature of science. These issues lead to several implications for primary teachers of science, teacher educators, school leaders and curriculum developers.

Ph.D. / This study investigates the relevancy of the current Agricultural Science curriculum for the Senior Secondary school phase. It also surveys whether the syllabus addresses the needs of the world of work in the agriculture community. The process of curriculum development for compiling the current syllabus within the context of a new South Africa is evaluated and proposals made in order to make it more democratic and to make participation an important principle at all levels of the development process ...

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Over the last decade considerable interest has been generated into the use of analytical methods in organisations. Along with this, many have reported a significant gap between organisational demand for analytical-trained staff, and the number of potential recruits qualified for such roles. This interest is of high relevance to the operational research discipline, both in terms of raising the profile of the field, as well as in the teaching and training of graduates to fill these roles. However, what is less clear, is the extent to which operational research teaching in universities, or indeed teaching on the various courses labelled as analytics , are offering a curriculum that can prepare graduates for these roles. It is within this space that this research is positioned, specifically seeking to analyse the suitability of current provisions, limited to master s education in UK universities, and to make recommendations on how curricula may be developed. To do so, a mixed methods research design, in the pragmatic tradition, is presented. This includes a variety of research instruments. Firstly, a computational literature review is presented on analytics, assessing (amongst other things) the amount of research into analytics from a range of disciplines. Secondly, a historical analysis is performed of the literature regarding elements that can be seen as the pre-cursor of analytics, such as management information systems, decision support systems and business intelligence. Thirdly, an analysis of job adverts is included, utilising an online topic model and correlations analyses. Fourthly, online materials from UK universities concerning relevant degrees are analysed using a bagged support vector classifier and a bespoke module analysis algorithm. Finally, interviews with both potential employers of graduates, and also academics involved in analytics courses, are presented. The results of these separate analyses are synthesised and contrasted. The outcome of this is an assessment of the current state of the market, some reflections on the role operational research make have, and a framework for the development of analytics curricula. The principal contribution of this work is practical; providing tangible recommendations on curricula design and development, as well as to the operational research community in general in respect to how it may react to the growth of analytics. Additional contributions are made in respect to methodology, with a novel, mixed-method approach employed, and to theory, with insights as to the nature of how trends develop in both the jobs market and in academia. It is hoped that the insights here, may be of value to course designers seeking to react to similar trends in a wide range of disciplines and fields.

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A vehicle is suggested for bringing information technology into education. Knowledge-based systems are proposed as a way to explore, reason about, and synthesize large knowledge bases. These systems utilize resources such as artificial intelligence, multimedia, and electronic communication to reason about what, with whom, and how they should teach in order to tailor knowledge and communication to individual students. Teaching material does not consist of a repertoire of prespecified responses; rather, reasoning about the student and the complexity of the subject matter informs the system's response so that inferences made by the machine become key features of the system's response. Currently, such systems can reason about a student's presumed knowledge, can solve the problems given to the student, and can begin to recognize plausible student misconceptions. This document provides a practical hands-on guide for people who are considering building knowledge-based systems. It identifies the requisite resources, personnel, hardware and software and describes artificial intelligence methodologies and tools that might become available. The document is directed both at increased production of knowledge-based systems and also at improving the dialogue among computer scientists, educators, researchers, and classroom practitioners around the issue of information technology in the schools.

Scientific reasoning and writing skills are ubiquitous processes in science and therefore common goals of science curricula, particularly in higher education. Providing the individualized feedback necessary for the development of these skills is often costly in terms of faculty time, particularly in large science courses common at research universities. Past educational research literature suggests that the use of peer review may accelerate students' scientific reasoning skills without a concurrent demand on faculty time per student. Peer review contains many elements of effective pedagogy such as peer-peer collaboration, repeated practice at evaluation and critical thinking, formative feedback, multiple contrasting examples, and extensive writing. All of these pedagogies may contribute to improvement in students' scientific reasoning. The effect of peer review on scientific reasoning was assessed using three major data sources: student performance on written lab reports, student performance on an objective Scientific Reasoning Test (Lawson, 1978) and student perceptions of the process of peer review in scientific community as well as the classroom. In addition, the need to measure student performance across multiple science classes resulted in the development of a Universal Rubric for Laboratory Reports. The reliability of this instrument and its effect on the grading consistency of graduate teaching assistants were also tested. Further, application of the Universal Rubric to student laboratory reports across multiple biology classes revealed that the Rubric is further useful as a programmatic assessment tool. The Rubric highlighted curricular gaps and strengths as well as measuring student achievement over time. / This study demonstrated that even university freshman were effective and consistent peer reviewers and produced feedback that resulted in meaningful improvement in their science writing. Use of peer review accelerated the development of students' scientific reasoning abilities as measured both by laboratory reports (n = 142) and by the Scientific Reasoning Test (n = 389 biology majors) and this effect was stronger than the impact of several years of university coursework. The structure of the peer review process and the structure of the assignments used to generate the science laboratory reports had notable influence on student performance however. Improvements in laboratory reports were greatest when the peer review process emphasized the generation of concrete and evaluative written feedback and when assignments explicitly incorporated the rubric criteria. The rubric was found to be reliable in the hands of graduate student teaching assistants (using generalizability analysis, g = 0.85) regardless of biological course content (three biology courses, total n = 142 student papers). Reliability increased as the number of criteria incorporated into the assignment increased. Consistent use of Universal Rubric criteria in undergraduate courses taught by graduate teaching assistants produced laboratory report scores with reliability values similar to those reported for other published rubrics and well above the reliabilities reported for professional peer review. / Lastly, students were overwhelmingly positive about peer review (83% average positive response, n = 1,026) reporting that it improved their writing, editing, researching and critical thinking skills. Interestingly, students reported that the act of giving feedback was equally useful to receiving feedback. Students connected the use of peer review in the classroom to its role in the scientific community and characterized peer review as a valuable skill they wished to acquire in their development as scientists. Peer review is thus an effective pedagogical strategy for improving student scientific reasoning skills. Specific recommendations for classroom implementation and use of the Universal Rubric are provided. Use of laboratory reports for assessing student scientific reasoning and application of the Universal Rubric across multiple courses, especially for programmatic assessment, is also recommended.