published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This qualitative study investigated the attitudes and perceptions of the role of Residence Life Professionals in attending to the spiritual needs of undergraduate college students at Ball State University. This study examined how undergraduate college students view the role of Residence Life Professionals in attending to spiritual needs. The results of this study have particular significance for those who are responsible for the well being of college students on a daily basis and benefit the Residence Life system by allowing a better understanding of where Professionals and students stand on this issue. This in turn will help Residence Life Professionals and students establish realistic expectations of each other in the spiritual arena. The researcher conducted 12 interviews with undergraduate student at Ball State University and analyzed the data by coding themes. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

The research highlights the problems of the diglossic relationship between Shona and English in the teaching-learning situation in Zimbabwe secondary schools. It focuses on how English as a high variety language adversely affects the performance of learners writing 'O' level Shona examinations in secondary schools. The research also confirms that teachers and learners of Shona in Zimbabwean secondary schools have a negative attitude towards Shona. Finally, the use of English in the teaching of Shona, the less hours allocated to Shona, the low esteem of Shona vis-à-vis the dominance of English and the association of English with social mobility impact on the attitude of students towards Shona as a subject. This linguistic attitude coupled with orthographic problems causes low passes in Shona at 'O' level. Hence, one proposes, language awareness campaigns and the use of Shona in the teaching of practical criticism and grammar. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

In South Africa, the linguistic hegemony of English over the African languages in the academic field reproduces unequal power relationships between their speakers. The present study shows that an intervention shaped by a counterhegemonic ideology can change the attitudes of Black university students, key players in spearheading social change. Usign statistical analysis and survey methodologies, this research explored the hegemonic role of English as the only language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in the discipline of Computer Science (CS) at Rhodes University. The study found that those speakers of an African language who are the most disadvantaged by the use of English as LoLT are also the most likely to resist a more extensive use of their mother tongue as an alternative. A group of such students were involved in the development and use of an online glossary of CS terms translated, explained and exemplified in an African language (isiXhosa). This experience increased the support for the use of African languages as additional LoLT, even in the Englishdominated field of study of Computer Science. This is an initial step towards promoting linguistic equality between English and African languages and social equality between their speakers.

This study focuses on student support service quality with particular reference to an Open Distance Learning (ODL) environment. Taking student support services as anchors in mainstreaming ODL, the aims of the study are to develop an instrument that can accurately measure student support service quality in an Ethiopian ODL environment. Simultaneously, it is to investigate an alleged gap between students’ expectations and experiences of service quality in the Ethiopia-UNISA context. In doing so, an attempt is made to determine the students’ level of satisfaction with the student support services provided. The study relies on quantitative methods and a design-based research strategy, which involves iterative and step-by-step processes of investigation. The theoretical framework employed in this study is Gaps Model by Parasuraman, Ziethaml and Berry (1985). Using an instrument of which the possible level of external and internal validity has been ensured, data are collected and quantitatively analysed using a standard Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The data suggest that there are five dimensions that play a cardinal role in the measurement of student support service quality in an ODL context, namely supervision support, infrastructure, administrative support, academic facilitation and corporate image. In the Ethiopian context, there appears to be a discrepancy between students’ expectations and their experiences of the quality of student support services. More than often their expectations exceed their actual experiences of quality service provision. Students’ satisfaction levels are negatively affected by the quality of four of the support services provided by UNISA as measured through expectations and experiences. In contrast, the students’ responses show that they are highly satisfied with the corporate image UNISA holds both in Ethiopia and internationally. From among the five dimensions, however, corporate image and supervision support stand out to be the most important dimensions in contributing to the students’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. As a recommendation, this study highlights that these two dimensions must be focal areas by UNISA as more effort must be exerted to build the image of UNISA in Ethiopia and to improve the supervision support provided to students. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

School physical science is a prerequisite for science courses at institutions of higher education. Science graduates are an important link in a nation's scientific and technological development which often shapes a country's economic development. The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological and social factors influencing physical science achievement and attitude of black secondary school students in South Africa. The first part of the literature study which was concerned with physical science education in South Africa revealed that few black students chose to study science after standard seven, that failure rates were high and that science education was generally in a state of crisis. The second part of the literature study identified psychological and social factors related to science achievement and attitude. These were home environment variables, teacher and school related variables, personal variables (self-concept, motivation, gender, ethnicity) and students' abilities. The third part was the construction of a Structural Equation Model (SEM) specifying the relationships among the psychological and social factors and their effects on physical science achievement and attitude. The theoretical SEM fit the data reasonably well. The best fitting model, however, was a revised model in which several paths were constrained. The latter accounted for a substantial variance in attitude towards physical science (70.3%) and a meagre 17.7% in physical science achievement. The variables ability, home environment and self-concept had the greatest total effects on physical science achievement. Self-concept, home environment and motivation made the greatest total contributions to physical science attitude. Teacher characteristics and school environment had non-significant effects on physical science achievement and attitude. Multiple-group structural equation modelling analyses found no significant difference in the structural parameters of boys and girls. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings were discussed and specific recommendations for improving educational practice in general and physical science achievement and attitude in particular, were made. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)