A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Needs Education at the University Of Zululand, 2017 / The study sought to determine whether the use of the National Senior Certificate Examination Diagnostic Report (NSCEDR) in an intervention programme would improve the performance of learners in Mathematics. The study utilised a mixed method approach. An action research that employed a quasi-experiment, one group, pre-test and post-test research design was used. A total of 74 grade twelve learners, 46 girls and 28 boys, were selected and participated in an intervention programme for six weeks. Three NSCEDR documents, from 2014 to 2016, were used to determine the topics that were challenging to learners in Mathematics, as well as the errors and misconceptions made by learners in examinations. The topics that were challenging were identified together with their frequency in the three documents. The marks of the learners before and after the intervention programme were compared and analysed. The Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) and Excel were used to analyse the research data. The results of the study revealed that the use of the NSCEDR findings in the intervention programme improved the performance of the learners, while the impact was indifferent for boys and girls, and as well as for low performers and high performers. Trigonometry, Euclidean Geometry and Counting Principle were some of the most challenging topics in Grade 12 Mathematics that were identified from the NSCEDR. Based on these results, it was recommended that the NSCEDR should be readily available to all teachers to use, as their use in the classroom improved the performance of the learners.

M.Ed. / This research project forms part of a group project that involves three factors of effective management: • normative management; • open democratic management; and • accountable co-operative management. This mini-dissertation deals with normative management as a factor of effective school management. Chapter one explains the aims and objective of the research. The main objective is to determine the role normative management plays in the effective management of schools with diverse academic results in the 1999 senior certificate exam. This chapter further explains the research method, quantitative research, used for this research. Finally the researcher makes important assumptions in this chapter that should be taken into consideration for the mini- dissertation. Chapter two is in the form of a detailed literature study of the topic. The concepts, effective management and normative management as a factor of effective management, are explained in full. This chapter also deals with concepts from the questionnaire. Chapter three discusses the research instrument, the questionnaire. This chapter also explains the items of the questionnaire that forms part of normative management and the research group. Chapter four deals with the empirical study of the data from the questionnaires. In chapter five the researcher comes to certain conclusions from the study. Firstly the moral of educators influences school effectiveness. Secondly a common vision and mission will improve school effectiveness. The importance of the role of the principal is thirdly explained. Fourthly it is stated that parents should be involve to improve school effectiveness. Fifthly the curriculum in schools is dealt with. Curriculum 2005 is also discussed. Finally the importance of providing in the basic needs of children to improve school effectiveness is explained. In conclusion the researcher states that the educator should ask him/herself the following question when doing or saying something involving the learners: "Will this benefit the learner?" If the answer to this question is 'yes', the action will improve school effectiveness.