This thesis looks at language as the medium of all our ideas and sentiments. The thesis represents a position statement regarding the development of isiZulu as an academic language. The field of Economics is used to merely illustrate and support the points that are being made in this work. It is argued that each language is viewed as the means of expression of the cultural heritage of its people, and it remains a reflection of cultural groups who speak that particular language. It is a fact that indigenous African Languages have been, for obvious reasons, blatantly understudied during the apartheid years in South Africa (Rudwick 2004). Languages have market value and the desirability of English as the most important global language today has an effect in most Black learners in South Africa. The study examined the development of indigenous African languages, isiZulu in particular, in Zululand University where ninety percent of students and lecturers are isiZulu first language speakers, and came to a conclusion that there is an urgent need for Black South African students to learn academic subjects through their mother tongues. This would help them in thorough understanding and interpretation of analytic text presented in a foreign language such as English. The study advocates that isiZulu, which is the mother-tongue of many students at the University of Zululand, should be a language for upward mobility to these students, but as the situation stands, isiZulu becomes a neglected or marginalised language since it is not the normal medium of instruction and it is not used for effective communication in their education system.

This study examines the connections between a commitment to educating for citizenship in the university and pedagogical strategies used to realize the goals associated with this commitment. One of the most common themes of the political philosophy and education literature regarding citizenship has to do with communicating across our differences. I used Jodi Dean's (1996) concept of reflective solidarity to explore the possibilities of this communication, particularly in the face of claims to morality. Reflective solidarity focuses on the communicative nature of solidarity by exploring contestation across our differences as we work toward understanding. I interviewed ten educators from a variety of disciplines at the University of British Columbia to explore their experiences translating this commitment to social justice into practice. My analysis of their contributions resulted in three primary categories and numerous sub-categories of data that I referred to as (a) perspective on theory (the university as a site for citizenship education, defining educating for citizenship); (b) perspective on self (curriculum as contested space, teacher's role, selfreflective practice, solidarity through difference); and (c) perspective on other (voice, silence, listening, pluralism, safety and risk, power). All of the participants discussed the dynamics of power, voice, silence, risk, pluralism and resistance that characterize their efforts to educate in a manner that promotes social justice. The pedagogical challenge of responding to heterosexism and homophobia in the classroom was specifically identified as difficult and increasingly contentious. This theme became central as I wove together the literature, the participants' contributions and my own experiences. As a response to Dean's inattention to the context of the communicative relationships at the core of reflective solidarity, I propose the idea of reflective accountability. Reflective accountability challenges critical educators to think deeply about the sometimes taken-for-granted aspects of educating for social justice. Reflective accountability necessitates a critique of open public discourse and understanding as the unassailable cornerstone of education and highlights the possibility that there may be times when certain points of view need to be more critically examined, challenged and perhaps silenced when they are grounded in oppression. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

It is common for students to make mistakes while solving mathematical problems. Some of these mistakes might be caused by the false ideas, or misconceptions, that students developed during their learning or from their practice. Calculus courses at the undergraduate level are mandatory for several majors. The introductory course of calculus—Calculus I—requires fundamental skills. Such skills can prepare a student for higher-level calculus courses, additional higher-division mathematics courses, and/or related disciplines that require comprehensive understanding of calculus concepts. Nevertheless, conceptual misunderstandings of undergraduate students exist universally in learning calculus. Understanding the nature of and reasons for how and why students developed their conceptual misunderstandings—misconceptions—can assist a calculus educator in implementing effective strategies to help students recognize or correct their misconceptions. For this purpose, the current study was designed to examine students’ misconceptions in order to explore the nature of and reasons for how and why they developed their misconceptions through their thought process. The study instrument—Calculus Problem-Solving Tasks (CPSTs)—was originally created for understanding the issues that students had in learning calculus concepts; it features a set of 17 open-ended, non-routine calculus problem-solving tasks that check students’ conceptual understanding. The content focus of these tasks was pertinent to the issues undergraduate students encounter in learning the function concept and the concepts of limit, tangent, and differentiation that scholars have subsequently addressed. Semi-structured interviews with 13 mathematics college faculty were conducted to verify content validity of CPSTs and to identify misconceptions a student might exhibit when solving these tasks. The interview results were analyzed using a standard qualitative coding methodology. The instrument was finalized and developed based on faculty’s perspectives about misconceptions for each problem presented in the CPSTs. The researcher used a qualitative methodology to design the research and a purposive sampling technique to select participants for the study. The qualitative means were helpful in collecting three sets of data: one from the semi-structured college faculty interviews; one from students’ explanations to their solutions; and the other one from semi-structured student interviews. In addition, the researcher administered two surveys (Faculty Demographic Survey for college faculty participants and Student Demographic Survey for student participants) to learn about participants’ background information and used that as evidence of the qualitative data’s reliability. The semantic analysis techniques allowed the researcher to analyze descriptions of faculty’s and students’ explanations for their solutions. Bar graphs and frequency distribution tables were presented to identify students who incorrectly solved each problem in the CPSTs. Seventeen undergraduate students from one northeastern university who had taken the first course of calculus at the undergraduate level solved the CPSTs. Students’ solutions were labeled according to three categories: CA (correct answer), ICA (incorrect answer), and NA (no answer); the researcher organized these categories using bar graphs and frequency distribution tables. The explanations students provided in their solutions were analyzed to isolate misconceptions from mistakes; then the analysis results were used to develop student interview questions and to justify selection of students for interviews. All participants exhibited some misconceptions and substantial mistakes other than misconceptions in their solutions and were invited to be interviewed. Five out of the 17 participants who majored in mathematics participated in individual semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the interview data served to confirm their misconceptions and identify their thought process in problem solving. Coding analysis was used to develop theories associated with the results from both college faculty and student interviews as well as the explanations students gave in solving problems. The coding was done in three stages: the first, or initial coding, identified the mistakes; the second, or focused coding, separated misconceptions from mistakes; and the third elucidated students’ thought processes to trace their cognitive obstacles in problem solving. Regarding analysis of student interviews, common patterns from students’ cognitive conflicts in problem solving were derived semantically from their thought process to explain how and why students developed the misconceptions that underlay their mistakes. The nature of how students solved problems and the reasons for their misconceptions were self-directed and controlled by their memories of concept images and algorithmic procedures. Students seemed to lack conceptual understanding of the calculus concepts discussed in the current study in that they solved conceptual problems as they would solve procedural problems by relying on fallacious memorization and familiarity. Meanwhile, students have not mastered the basic capacity to generalize and abstract; a majority of them failed to translate the semantics and transliterate mathematical notations within the problem context and were unable to synthesize the information appropriately to solve problems.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1933 A91

The research study sought to investigate the following research hypotheses; computer is an effective tool in the teaching - learning of Mathematics teachers and learners are facing challenges or have barriers that hinder them from using computers in their lesson presentations; teachers and learners are computer illiterate and administrators at schools around Mafikeng are using computers. The population for this research study was drawn from Senior Secondary Schools in the Mafikeng Area Project Office. A sample of 20 schools was used whereby 300 learners were randomly selected and 40 Mathematics teachers were purposely selected. Two questionnaires were used, one for teachers and one for learners for the purpose of data collection. Quantitative approach was used to analyse the research data. The main findings were that: Most teachers and learners are computer illiterate; few teachers make their own arrangements to attend private institutions and pay their fees to be trained to use the computer. Some private sectors in North West Province donated computers to most schools but training was not given to any teacher. There is a dire need a.n..d interest in teachers and learners to use computer since teachers noted that it reduces workload and paper work. It is recommended that: The Department of Education provide training of teachers for using computers in teaching Mathematics, distribute finances evenly that can allow schools to build computer laboratories in schools and those schools with computers should consider standardising their computer software. / Thesis (M.Ed) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Mathematics presents a stumbling block to many students, particularly those majoring in scientific fields, business administration, or elementary education. Improvement of student achievement in mathematics at the lower division college level is needed. Seven instructional methods were investigated in terms of student achievement: programmed instruction (P.I.), individualized instruction (I.I.), computer based instruction (CBI), laboratory and discovery methods (Lab), television (TV), audio-tutorial (A-T), and tutoring. The research questions were: (1) What is the relative effectiveness of the innovative instructional methods as measured by student achievement and compared to the traditional lecture method? (2) What is the relative effectiveness of the innovative instructional methods on students of differing ability and course levels. (3) What is the effectiveness of combinations of the innovative instructional methods? A meta-analytical approach was used. Studies comparing an innovative method to the lecture or to another innovative method were located, and the summary data in each were used to calculate an "effect size"--a standardized measure of the effectiveness of the innovative method--to which statistical procedures were applied. The meta-analysis found that (1) Relative to the lecture method, six of the innovative methods produced a positive effect on student achievement. The ranking of the methods in order of decreasing effectiveness was: tutoring, CAI, A-T, I.I., P.I., Lab, TV. (2) The most effective methods by level of course were: (a) Precalculus level: CAI, A-T, and tutoring; (b) Calculus level: tutoring, I.I., P.I., and A-T; (c) Foundations of Mathematics (elementary education majors): P.I.; Descriptive Geometry: TV. The most effective methods by ability level of the student were: (a) High ability: CAI and Lab; (b) Middle ability: CAI, I.I., and P.I.; (c) Low ability: P.I. and A-T. (3) The lack of empirical studies prevent a determination of the relative effectiveness of combinations of the innovative methods. Recommendations include the following: (1) Variation of instructional methods; (2) Incorporation of specific, effective elements of innovative methods into the lower division college mathematics instructor's repertoire; and (3) Empirical investigation of the effectiveness of combinations of methods and of various instructional methods on students of different ability levels.

John Dewey's formulation of the primacy of aesthetic experience in all human endeavor is investigated in order to promote the inclusion of a fine arts requirement in the curriculum of higher education. In particular, Dewey envisioned art as necessary to develop moral, thus social sensibility because moral precepts derive from imagination, and art is both the child and stimulator of creative imagination. An analysis of the "qualitative experience" concept provides an introduction to Dewey's fully-elaborated aesthetic theory. Subsequently, the role of such experience is evaluated in both personal and social terms. Then, it is argued that the establishment of a fine arts requirement in General Education is necessary to ensure the propagation of the experience. Supporting arguments from educational theorists and behavioral scientists serve to buttress the Dewey proposition as well as to demonstrate that the content of the proposed fine arts course must incorporate theoretical, historical and practical components.

Responding to the political and educational crises over cultural literacy, multiculturalism, and expanding the canon of literature, I present case studies of eight first-year college students and their attitudes about literature. These are students who have scored 4s or 5s on the Advanced Placement English Examination and who represent a discourse community well versed in a traditional canon of literature. In first-year composition, I offer them a multicultural curriculum, presenting contemporary Native American and Mexican American literatures in dialogue with more traditional literatures. Specifically, I examine their responses to the politics of aesthetics, setting up a contrast between canons of texts and canons of methods in Advanced Placement English and a first-year college composition course stressing multicultural literatures. I pay special attention to their "cultural literacy" and to their awareness and acceptance of cultural differences. Chapter 1 gives a background and overview of the study. Chapter 2 examines the literature on cultures and its effect on canons of literary texts and methods of teaching and responding to them. Chapter 3 describes the ethnographic methods of this study, traces the history of Advanced Placement English, and lays out the multicultural curriculum of this study. Chapter 4 is a case study of one student before, during, and after the multicultural curriculum. Chapter 5 examines the past histories--families, high schools, and Advanced Placement English--of seven other students. Chapters 6 and 7 describe the responses of these seven students to a multicultural literature curriculum. Chapter 8 reviews the findings, offering interpretations and commentary on Advanced Placement English, the Advanced Placement English Examination, cultural literacy, and multiculturalism, concluding with recommendations for curricula of the future.