Dissertation / The aim of the study was to investigate the appointment process of education managers and the consequences of this for schools. A literature study was conducted on these two aspects. This was followed by a survey involving 67 educators from three geographically divergent secondary schools in Kwa-Zulu Natal, namely an urban, rural and peri-urban school. The respondents’ views indicate flaws in the current system related to: the minimum requirements for principalship, the shortlisting and interview processes and the role of bias in the selection of candidates. Respondents also believed that insufficient attention was paid to induction and mentorship programmes. The before mentioned impacted negatively on the school’s functionality regarding quality assurance, inter-personal relations, decision-making, parental involvement and learner discipline. These relate to low educator morale. The findings of the study indicate that the current system of educator promotions needs to revised so as to improve best practice in the profession.

Dissertation / The aim of the study was to investigate the appointment process of education managers and the consequences of this for schools. A literature study was conducted on these two aspects. This was followed by a survey involving 67 educators from three geographically divergent secondary schools in Kwa-Zulu Natal, namely an urban, rural and peri-urban school. The respondents’ views indicate flaws in the current system related to: the minimum requirements for principalship, the shortlisting and interview processes and the role of bias in the selection of candidates. Respondents also believed that insufficient attention was paid to induction and mentorship programmes. The before mentioned impacted negatively on the school’s functionality regarding quality assurance, inter-personal relations, decision-making, parental involvement and learner discipline. These relate to low educator morale. The findings of the study indicate that the current system of educator promotions needs to revised so as to improve best practice in the profession.

There are vast differences between traditional content-based education and transformational outcomes-based education. For example, in content-based education teachers are viewed as the main sources of knowledge whereas in OBE teachers are viewed as facilitators of learning. In content-based education, assessment mostly focuses on the knowledge aspect of learners, rather than on skills, attitude and values. Teachers trained for traditional teaching should somehow be assisted to adjust to the outcomes-based way of teaching. This study firstly wants to identify the didactic-professional needs related to OBE of secondary school teachers in the Venda region of the Limpopo Province. The study identifies two categories of didactic-professional needs, namely: • Needs to improve secondary school teachers' academic competence • Needs to improve secondary school teachers' professional competence. The second objective of this study is to analyse and evaluate current distance education practice based in a printed format as means to satisfy secondary school teachers' didactic-professional needs related to OBE. The third objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of distance education based on print to satisfy the Limpopo Province Venda region secondary school teachers' didactic-professional and academic needs related to OBE to determine criteria and guidelines to this effect. A stratified systematic sample of 331 secondary school teachers and managers, including 148 persons who are or have already been involved in distance education, was selected to participate in the study. Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire and interviews with selected persons. Quantitative analysis of data employed a factor analysis to determine significant factors to work with. Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha to establish reliability of instruments, and Cohen's Criterion of effect size to determine significance of differences were used. The main findings of the study are: • The following six factors are regarded as important to satisfy secondary school teachers' didactic-professional needs: 1. Learning strategies centring around learner activities 2. Learner-centred assessing strategies 3. Learners' performance assessing strategies 4. Outcomes and methods of achieving outcomes 5. Educator centred teaching strategies 6. Learner- centred teaching strategies. • Counselling, tutoring and preparation for study are important in distance education to satisfy secondaly school teachers' didactic-professional needs related to OBE. However, counselling and preparation for study sometimes occur in the distance education currently available in the region, particularly in distance education programmes offered through an agent for a university. The findings further show certain differences with regard to teachers' needs and their satisfaction according to the experience, the nature of initial professional training, and the level of the current academic qualifications of the teachers. Finally the study recommends a plan of action to provide distance education based on print to satisfy the didactic-professional needs related to OBE of the Venda region secondary school teachers in Limpopo. The main elements of the plan include: • Effective contact sessions with lecturers. • Regular tutorial sessions under guidance of facilitators (tutors). • A multi-media approach. • Access to counselling and study guidance. • Relevant and integrated summative and formative assessment. • Efficient communication between the academic institution involved and the agent that acts on their behalf (where applicable). / Thesis (Ph.D. (Didactics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

Thesis (Ph.D. (Didactics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Denna uppsats redovisar en beskrivande fallstudie som gjordes på en svensk högstadieskola och som gick ut på att undersöka vilken plats Wikipedia har på högstadiet idag. För att ta reda på det gjordes enkätundersökningar bland elever och lärare och textanalyser av elevuppsatser. Geografiämnet användes som exempel på skolans undervisning. De huvudsakliga källorna som studien utgick ifrån var olika granskningar av uppslagsverkets kvalitet, likande undersökningar av Wikipedia i undervisningen och Skolverkets rapporter. Studien visar att det finns olika attityder bland både lärare och elever som belyser olika fördelar och nackdelar. Eleverna tycker att Wikipedia är bra samtidigt som de misstror informationen som potentiellt kan redigeras fritt av vem som helst. Lärarna tolererar Wikipedia men vill att eleverna jobbar med den källkritiskt. Majoriteten av elever redovisar inte Wikipedia som källa i inlämningsarbeten. Bättre undervisning i hur man använder hemsidor av Wikipedias slag behövs på skolan. / This thesis presents a descriptive case study of a Swedish secondary school that sought out to investigate what status Wikipedia has at secondary schools today. In order to do that surveys answered by teachers and students were used and student essays were analysed. Geography was used to illustrate the school’s education. The mainly used sources were examinations of the encyclopaedia’s quality, similar studies of Wikipedia in education and reports from the Swedish National Agency for Education. The study shows that there are different attitudes toward Wikipedia both among teachers and among students that focus on different advantages and disadvantages. Students consider Wikipedia to be good while they also distrust the information that could potentially have been edited by anyone. Teachers tolerate Wikipedia but emphasise that students must use source criticism while using the information. A majority of the students do not disclose Wikipedia as a utilized source in essays. Better education in using websites of Wikipedia’s kind is needed in schools.

There are vast differences between traditional content-based education and transformational outcomes-based education. For example, in content-based education teachers are viewed as the main sources of knowledge whereas in OBE teachers are viewed as facilitators of learning. In content-based education, assessment mostly focuses on the knowledge aspect of learners, rather than on skills, attitude and values. Teachers trained for traditional teaching should somehow be assisted to adjust to the outcomes-based way of teaching. This study firstly wants to identify the didactic-professional needs related to OBE of secondary school teachers in the Venda region of the Limpopo Province. The study identifies two categories of didactic-professional needs, namely: • Needs to improve secondary school teachers' academic competence • Needs to improve secondary school teachers' professional competence. The second objective of this study is to analyse and evaluate current distance education practice based in a printed format as means to satisfy secondary school teachers' didactic-professional needs related to OBE. The third objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of distance education based on print to satisfy the Limpopo Province Venda region secondary school teachers' didactic-professional and academic needs related to OBE to determine criteria and guidelines to this effect. A stratified systematic sample of 331 secondary school teachers and managers, including 148 persons who are or have already been involved in distance education, was selected to participate in the study. Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire and interviews with selected persons. Quantitative analysis of data employed a factor analysis to determine significant factors to work with. Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha to establish reliability of instruments, and Cohen's Criterion of effect size to determine significance of differences were used. The main findings of the study are: • The following six factors are regarded as important to satisfy secondary school teachers' didactic-professional needs: 1. Learning strategies centring around learner activities 2. Learner-centred assessing strategies 3. Learners' performance assessing strategies 4. Outcomes and methods of achieving outcomes 5. Educator centred teaching strategies 6. Learner- centred teaching strategies. • Counselling, tutoring and preparation for study are important in distance education to satisfy secondaly school teachers' didactic-professional needs related to OBE. However, counselling and preparation for study sometimes occur in the distance education currently available in the region, particularly in distance education programmes offered through an agent for a university. The findings further show certain differences with regard to teachers' needs and their satisfaction according to the experience, the nature of initial professional training, and the level of the current academic qualifications of the teachers. Finally the study recommends a plan of action to provide distance education based on print to satisfy the didactic-professional needs related to OBE of the Venda region secondary school teachers in Limpopo. The main elements of the plan include: • Effective contact sessions with lecturers. • Regular tutorial sessions under guidance of facilitators (tutors). • A multi-media approach. • Access to counselling and study guidance. • Relevant and integrated summative and formative assessment. • Efficient communication between the academic institution involved and the agent that acts on their behalf (where applicable). / Thesis (Ph.D. (Didactics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

This study analyses the practice implemented by the government of Mozambique immediately after independence, from 1975 to 1985, of placing secondary school teachers around the country. Such practice consisted of putting teachers born in the south of the country to teach either in the central, or in the northern region, on the one hand; on the another, those who were born in the centre of the country were being placed to work or in the south, or in the north; and those born in the north were being sent to teach in the central or southern part of the country. The government’s arguments in so doing were to mould a nation. The study explores whether this practices was a deliberate policy. The presupposition that it may have been a formal policy comes from the fact that during the struggle for the liberation of Mozambique, the then movement leading the war, Frelimo, had as its guiding principle to ‘kill the tribe for the nation to be born’; so people from different regions of the country were compelled to work closely together in every activity of the movement. The theoretical framework includes a discussion of the concepts of ‘ethnic group’, ‘nation’, ‘nationalism’ and ‘nation-state’. Throughout the literature review, the way nations have been historically constituted worldwide, the way African leaders tried to build their nations, the philosophy behind the idea of ‘nation-states’ they developed are discussed at length. Given that education has been considered as a key pillar to achieve this specific end, the contribution of this sector to the processes of building a nation is brought to the fore. The study is a qualitative analysis and exploratory in essence. Fifty persons – including high ranking officials and teachers – who designed and implemented or were involved in the practice, were interviewed as the main foundation of the research. The outcomes of the analysis as well as the analogy itself are multidisciplinary. It concludes that the practice was not a policy in the classical meaning, that is a core of written principles and practices approved by a competent social institution and followed in a certain community, it existed only in speeches. Secondly, that in fact the practice contributed to the nation building process, people involved in it gained awareness of the vastness and ethnic diversity of the country. Finally, it reveals that de facto the policy had unintended interpretations. Given that the majority of the people sent throughout the country were southerners – something which the headmasters of the practice apparently were not aware of –, the unbalance of educated cadres that began during the colonial period were simply perpetuated and not critically addressed. As a result, “Southern dominance” in the administration of the country (in this instance the education system) provided the basis for dissatisfaction in other areas of the country. The study agrees with Connor (1990) that nation-building is a process, and concludes that Mozambique is on the road to nation formation, to which the practice contributed to a considerable degree. / Dissertation (M (Social Science in Sociology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Sociology / unrestricted

The main object of this thesis was to find out whether grammar school students prefer zoological objects in biology lessons presented a) on photo in their natural habitat or b) the real specimen presented in liquid in glass cylinders and burettes. I have chosen these research questions: 1. In which form do pupils prefer zoological objects, the real specimen presented in liquid in glass cylinders or burettes or in their natural habitat on a photograph? 2. How do these preferences differ during the course of their high school study? 3. How do these preferences differ according to gender? 4. Are these preferences influenced by a specific animal? 5. Are these preferences influenced by other factors, e.g. by the appearance and personal experiences with live nature or frequency of using these objects in biology lessons. The research was implemented by using a questionnaire and a preferential test and was given to first and third year students from five Prague high schools. The conclusion of my research study shows that students prefer neither animals on photographs nor the real specimen presented as a liquid preparation. My research did not show that the preferences of the tested students were influenced by any of the tested factors, e.g. type of living, popularity of biology or students' grade in...

The main purpose of the thesis Mediální výchova na gymnáziích pohledem českých a německých pedagogů is to compare the conditions, practice, and goals of media studies at high schools in Prague and Leipzig and provide inspiration for both sides through this comparison. The theoretical part focuses on the role of the teacher, introduces educational concepts, and describes the historical development of media education and mentions of it in official documents both in Germany and the Czech Republic. The practical section of the thesis is dedicated to the teachers and their concrete opinions and experience with media education collected with the help of a series of questionnaires and half-structured interviews.

The purpose with this essay is to investigate how different theories about literary competence can help us understand why Sven Delblanc’s novel Änkan and Mara Lee’s novel Ladies have generated so many various interpretations as they have. To fulfill this purpose a comparative study of book reviews about the two novels Änkan and Ladies has been made. The theories about literary competence that have been used in this study are Joseph Appleyard’s theory about reader-roles, Judith Langer’s theory about imaginary worlds and Magnus Persson’s theory about genre perspectives. The results that are presented in this study are that those book reviews that express expectations about the novels as being genre-typical are often more disappointed about the reading experience than those readers who have expectations about the novels as being genre-transgressing and with deeper meaning. The discussion about genres has therefore given an interesting perspective about the correlation between the readers’ expectations and the many, various interpretations that follow.