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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / The political upheavals of decades before the advent of democracy left far reaching consequences to the South African education system. The culture of teaching and learning suffered a severe blow since schools were the battlegrounds of the oppressor and the oppressed. Whilst learners developed an academic attitude, teachers lost sight of their professional ethos. The oppressor’s ultimate aim was largely to create a black labour force mentality that is denied opportunities to creativity and critical thinking approach. A different approach to the training of student teachers was necessary if the integrity of the teaching profession was to be retained. This includes the inculcation of a perspective in which aspirant young student teachers embrace the teaching profession with more positive attitude to their practice. It is significant that diverse institutions such as the University of Johannesburg, with its education faculty, began to conceptualise a framework based on the educational excursion for first year B.Ed Students. The Golden Gate Educational excursion became an outdoor learning experience for realisation of the faculty framework. The framework expresses the commitment to the education and training of caring, accountable, critically reflective educational practitioners who would be able to nurture and support learning in a diverse educational context. The educational excursion curriculum was therefore, tailored to serve both conceptual framework and the professional development. This research report attempted to articulate the views of first year B.Ed students on the professional development after the Golden Gate educational excursion. A generic qualitative study situated within an interpretive research paradigm was applied in the study. Observations, interviews and feedback evaluation forms were vital in the collection of data. B.Ed first year students were the participants in the research process. The premise for the study of their professional development is deduced from Bronfenbrenner’s ecosystemic model. The central view is that development cannot be fully understood unless we view it in relation to various systems in which people are involved. It is therefore, viewed within the social context. Within the social context, students accumulate experience that determines how they attach and construct meaning to reality around their environments. The accumulated experiences as well as their personal reflection on the professional practice provide a learning experience that result in new paradigm about the teaching profession. Feedback evaluation forms completed by first year B.Ed. students served as a reflective exercise on detailed aspects of the excursion. Their views were well articulated and triangulated with interviews and observation data in form of pictures attached in the addendum. The evidence clearly showed a positive change of first year B.Ed. students’ views about teaching profession after Golden Gate excursion.

D.Ed.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study was planned to explore “the role of e-learning on the professional development of student-teachers in Cameroon”. The researcher’s concern with elearning was sanctioned by the need for a teaching and learning strategy that can help institutions of learning address their problems and improve on their outcome. Seven (7) specific hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study also sought to find out challenges faced by student-teachers in the implementation of e-learning. The study involved a mixed methodological approach. In this respect, a survey of 796 student-teachers drawn from eight (8) Primary Government Teacher Training Colleges and three (3) Higher Teacher Training Colleges was carried out. Also, an experiment with 191 student-teachers of the Higher Teacher Training College was conducted using blended learning. Purposive sampling, cluster sampling, simple random sampling and systematic random sampling techniques were applied where necessary to obtain the sample. Moreover, in the survey, data was collected using a questionnaire while the experimental phase generated data in terms of scores from the first and second test respectively. The student t-test, One-way ANOVA, and Correlation Coefficient were used to test the research hypotheses. Findings of this study offer new evidence that elearning has a significant influence on the professional development of studentteachers in Cameroon. Findings revealed that slow Internet lines or access speed constitute a serious challenge to effective e-learning in Cameroon (Mean = 3.2852). Findings further suggest that Internet-Based Problem Solving and Computer-Based Direct Instruction have an unprecedented role in fostering the professional development of student teachers in Cameroon. Based on this result, recommendations are made to training institutions to embrace ICTs and become more flexible by adopting learning approaches that are dynamic and multi-dimensional as problems in education are becoming more complex. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

This study was planned to explore “the role of e-learning on the professional development of student-teachers in Cameroon”. The researcher’s concern with elearning was sanctioned by the need for a teaching and learning strategy that can help institutions of learning address their problems and improve on their outcome. Seven (7) specific hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study also sought to find out challenges faced by student-teachers in the implementation of e-learning. The study involved a mixed methodological approach. In this respect, a survey of 796 student-teachers drawn from eight (8) Primary Government Teacher Training Colleges and three (3) Higher Teacher Training Colleges was carried out. Also, an experiment with 191 student-teachers of the Higher Teacher Training College was conducted using blended learning. Purposive sampling, cluster sampling, simple random sampling and systematic random sampling techniques were applied where necessary to obtain the sample. Moreover, in the survey, data was collected using a questionnaire while the experimental phase generated data in terms of scores from the first and second test respectively. The student t-test, One-way ANOVA, and Correlation Coefficient were used to test the research hypotheses. Findings of this study offer new evidence that elearning has a significant influence on the professional development of studentteachers in Cameroon. Findings revealed that slow Internet lines or access speed constitute a serious challenge to effective e-learning in Cameroon (Mean = 3.2852). Findings further suggest that Internet-Based Problem Solving and Computer-Based Direct Instruction have an unprecedented role in fostering the professional development of student teachers in Cameroon. Based on this result, recommendations are made to training institutions to embrace ICTs and become more flexible by adopting learning approaches that are dynamic and multi-dimensional as problems in education are becoming more complex. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Alternate numeration systems are common in preservice teacher (PST) mathematics curricula, but there is limited research on how to leverage alternate systems to promote the development of mathematical knowledge for teaching. I analyzed the role of alternate numeration systems in three ways. I conducted a thematic analysis of current PST textbooks to consider the role of alternate numeration systems in written curricula. I conducted a teaching experiment to analyze PSTs' mathematical activity as they engaged with a base five task sequence to reinvent an algorithm for multiplication. And I introduced problematizing mathematical contexts as a design heuristic, situating this within the design theory of Realistic Mathematics Education. I found that alternate numeration systems can be leveraged to create opportunities for PSTs to (a) engage in guided reinvention of an algorithm, (b) improve understanding of base ten by comparing it to other numeration systems, and (c) reflect on their learning experience and the learning experiences of children.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education