Thesis (Ph.D. (Education)) --University of the North, 1988 / Refer to the document

Sammanfattning Syftet med det här examensarbetet är att undersöka hur högstadieelever uppfattar teknikämnets användbarhet. Utgångspunkten är vad Skolinspektionen (2014) påpekade i sin granskning av ämnet teknik när det gäller att erbjuda teknikundervisning som grundskoleelever upplever som relevant. Fokusområden har varit elevernas syn på teknikämnets relevans för deras vardagsliv. Metoden för studien är en kvalitativ undersökning som bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med totalt åtta elever, varav 4 elever från årskurs 8 och 4 elever från årskurs 9. De här eleverna kommer från två skolor som ligger i en förort i Göteborg. Mina teoretiska utgångspunkter är vissa relevanta forskningsstudier och även två lärandeteorier; det sociokulturella perspektivet och pragmatismen. Resultatet från studien visar en variation i en liten skala mellan flickors och pojkars värdering av teknikämnets användbarhet. Undersökningen visar att alla intervjuade elever vill se samband mellan teknikundervisning i skolan och livet utanför. Med andra ord kan man säga att det är meningsfullt för eleverna att förstå i vilket sammanhang teknikuppgiften kan vara aktuell och fruktbar i relation till människa och samhälle. / Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how secondary pupils perceive the usefulness of the subject technology. The starting point is what the School inspection (2014) has pointed out in its review of the subject technology when it comes to offering technology teaching, which secondary school pupils perceive as relevant. The focus area has been the students´ view on the relevance of  subject technology för their everyday lives. The method of this study is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with eight pupils, 4 pupils from class 8 and 4 pupils from class 9. Those pupils are from two suburban schools which are located in Gothenburg, Sweden. My theoretical points have been some relevant research and also two learning theories; the socio-cultural perspective and pragmatism. The results of the study show a variation in a small scale between girls´ and boys´ appreciation of the usefulness of technology. The survey shows that all the interviewed pupils want to see the connection between technology education in school and life outside. In other words, one can say that it is significant for the pupils to understand the context in which a technology task may be relevant and productive in relation to humans and society.

School-related mistakes and low pass rates have led this researcher to perceive that some students are not adequately prepared for Mathematics 1. To address the problem of under-preparedness overseas universities use placement or diagnostic tests. Diagnostic testing identifies areas of weakness and provides information to guide the development of appropriate remedial support. This researcher embarked on a study to identify the sub-domains (criteria) that should be included in a diagnostic Mathematics test battery at the NMMU. An analysis of first-year curricula was undertaken to determine the required Mathematical pre-knowledge and skills entry-level students should have. Thereafter, the required pre-knowledge and skills were reflected against the standard grade school syllabi. From this it was determined that the school learners should acquire the necessary pre-knowledge and skills for university success as part of the school syllabus. However, in reality this is not the case as the researcher and other Mathematics lecturers identified a number of basic errors that incoming students make. This suggests that they have not developed all the required knowledge and skills. Furthermore, their performance in the matriculation examinations does not provide an adequate measure of the requisite Mathematical pre-knowledge and skills necessary for success at university-level Mathematics. No suitable existing diagnostic Mathematics test could be found. By utilizing both an action research as well as a test development methodology, the researcher thus proceeded to delineate the sub-domains that should be included in a diagnostic Mathematics test battery. Thereafter, test specifications were developed for two pilot tests and items were developed or sourced. The constructed response item-type was chosen for the pilot tests as it was argued that this item-type was more useful to use in a diagnostic test than a multiple-choice item format, for example. The pilot test battery, which consisted of a pilot Arithmetic and Algebra and Calculus tests, was administered to a sample of first-year students at the NMMU in 2004 and their performance in Mathematics at the end of the first year was tracked. Tests were scored holistically and analytically to provide a rich source of information. Thereafter, the test results were analysed to obtain evidence on the content validity of the pilot tests, including the item difficulty values and the item-total correlations; to determine the predictive validity of performance on the pilot tests with respect to final first-year Mathematics marks; and their reliability was determined using the Cronbach’s Alpha statistic. These findings suggest that appropriate sub-domains (criteria) were delineated and the items appropriately covered these sub-domains (i.e. the content validity of the pilot tests is acceptable). Furthermore, the predictive validity of the pilot ix tests was found to be acceptable in that significant correlations were found between the pilot tests and performance in first-year Mathematics. Finally, the pilot tests were found to be reliable. Based on the results, suggestions are made regarding how to refine the diagnostic test battery and the research related to it. The final diagnostic Mathematics test battery holds much potential to be able to assist in the early identification of at-risk students who can be timeously placed in developmentally appropriate Mathematics modules or provided with appropriate remedial intervention.