published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The study explored the relationship between student academic performance in an exit-level, developmental mathematics course and subsequent academic performance in a college-level mathematics course. Using an ex post facto research design, the study focused specifically on the influence of three sets of factors: (a) demographic characteristics, (b) "stopping-out," and (c) the developmental course. The criterion variables were college-level performance, defined in terms of the student's course grade, and college-level persistence, defined in terms of whether or not the student officially withdrew from the course. A convenience sample of 824 community college students who had completed both the exit-level developmental mathematics course and the entry-level college course during a three-year period from fall 1989 to summer 1992 was used for the data set; the students in the set were shown to be similar to several populations of developmental students. Discriminant function analysis indicated that the data supported the hypotheses. The discriminant function was calibrated on 364 cases randomly selected from the data set; the remainder of the cases were used to cross-validate the results. Cross-validated correct classification rates of 76.74% for academic success and 81.09% for persistence were obtained. The major conclusions of the study were: (1) Developmental course performance is a significant discriminator of college-level mathematics performance and persistence. (2) The length of time a student allows to pass between exiting the developmental course and entering the college-level course is a negatively related discriminator of both college-level performance and persistence. (3) Student age is a positively related discriminator of college-level mathematics performance. (4) The number of attempts at the developmental course is a negatively related discriminator of persistence. (5) African American completers of developmental mathematics appear to be more likely to withdraw from entry-level college mathematics than developmental completers in other ethnic groups. (6) Poor performance in exit-level developmental mathematics greatly increases the risk of failure or attrition for students in entry-level college mathematics. The implications of these results and those of several post hoc analyses were discussed in terms of their theoretical and applied contributions, the limitations of the study were detailed, and suggestions made for future research. / text

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The purpose of this study was to investigate foreign language anxiety and beliefs about language learning of university students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in mainland China. In addition, the relationship between foreign language anxiety and students7 beliefs about language learning was studied. A total of 175 first and second year university students participated in the study. A set of questionnaires consisting of the Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (Honvitz, 1987), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Honvitz, 1983) and a background questionnaire were translated into Chinese and administered to the subjects. Several similarities and differences were observed between the Chinese subjects7 responses to the BALLI and those of American foreign language students (Honvitz, 1988), Taiwanese EFL students (Yang, 1992), Korean EFL students (Truitt, 1995), American students of French (Kern, 1995), American students of Japanese (Oh, 1996), and Turkish-speaking students of English (Kunt, 1997). The Chinese subjects in this study reported higher levels of foreign language anxiety than the subjects in previous studies. Two BALLI factors were found to be significantly correlated with foreign language anxiety: "the difficulty about language learning" (r = .544 p< .01) and "beliefs about foreign language aptitude" (r = -.255 p< .01), suggesting that Chinese EFL students who believe English is not a very difficult language and perceive themselves as having higher language aptitude in language learning tend to have lower levels of language anxiety. This study contributes to the understanding of EFL students7 beliefs about language learning, and the frustrations and difficulties they experience in foreign language classrooms.

Looking through the philosophical lens of love, this study seeks a deeper understanding and appreciation of how postsecondary social justice educators use storytelling, in the context of critical peace education, to create social change. This research explores the guiding question of how storytelling is used to encourage social change and to inspire action toward the goal of greater social justice. The argument for the importance of this research is located within the crisis of neoliberalism, where the very tenets of democratic education are being challenged by an educational agenda that favors standards-based learning and employment training over the critical and analytical thinking skills required for democracy to flourish. The results of this study identify storytelling as a method of ideology critique, and locate it within a larger process of loving praxis. A theoretical model of loving praxis is offered to explain how postsecondary social justice educators engage story as an action that leads to the goal of social justice. The steps in the model describe how valuing the common good motivates social justice educators to take action through storytelling, toward the outcome of building transformation, voice, and agency within students as a means to build greater social justice. The sense of possibility that is cultivated in this process re-engages the cycle by validating the value of and hope for the common good.

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Making the transition from calculus to advanced calculus/real analysis can be challenging for undergraduate students. Part of this challenge lies in the shift in the focus of student activity, from a focus on algorithms and computational techniques to activities focused around definitions, theorems, and proofs. The goal of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) is to support students in making this transition by building on and formalizing their informal knowledge. There are a growing number of projects in this vein at the undergraduate level, in the areas of abstract algebra (TAAFU: Larsen, 2013; Larsen & Lockwood, 2013), differential equations (IO-DE: Rasmussen & Kwon, 2007), geometry (Zandieh & Rasmussen, 2010), and linear algebra (IOLA: Wawro, et al., 2012). This project represents the first steps in a similar RME-based, inquiry-oriented instructional design project aimed at advanced calculus. The results of this project are presented as three journal articles. In the first article I describe the development of a local instructional theory (LIT) for supporting the reinvention of formal conceptions of sequence convergence, the completeness property of the real numbers, and continuity of real functions. This LIT was inspired by Cauchy's proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem, and has been developed and refined using the instructional design heuristics of RME through the course of two teaching experiments. I found that a proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem was a powerful context for supporting the reinvention of a number of the core concepts of advanced calculus. The second article reports on two students' reinventions of formal conceptions of sequence convergence and the completeness property of the real numbers in the context of developing a proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem (IVT). Over the course of ten, hour-long sessions I worked with two students in a clinical setting, as these students collaborated on a sequence of tasks designed to support them in producing a proof of the IVT. Along the way, these students conjectured and developed a proof of the Monotone Convergence Theorem. Through this development I found that student conceptions of completeness were based on the geometric representation of the real numbers as a number line, and that the development of formal conceptions of sequence convergence and completeness were inextricably intertwined and supported one another in powerful ways. The third and final article takes the findings from the two aforementioned papers and translates them for use in an advanced calculus classroom. Specifically, Cauchy's proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem is used as an inspiration and touchstone for developing some of the core concepts of advanced calculus/real analysis: namely, sequence convergence, the completeness property of the real numbers, and continuous functions. These are presented as a succession of student investigations, within the context of students developing their own formal proof of the Intermediate Value Theorem.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / The purpose of this study was to determine whether the goals of the practical component of the cytology section of the biology course at Basic University Science Course Experimental Project (BUSCEP) at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo were being achieved. Two kinds of instruments were used in this study. They were (i) a written practical test and (ii) an observation schedule (checklist I and II). A total of 41 first year biology students of the BeSCEP course were involved in the study. The written practical test determined whether the students had mastered the knowledge of the parts of the microscope and their functions and whether they had understood how to use the microscope. Checklist I tested whether the students had mastered the physical skills necessary to operate a light microscope correctly. Checklist II tested whether the students had mastered the skills needed to prepare a wet mount slide. The results revealed that the goals of the practical component of the cytology section of the biology course at BUSCEP were not achieved. This was because most students have problems in understanding how to use the microscope as well as in mastering the logical sequence of the skills needed for effective use of the microscope. It is imperative that teachers find and use effective ways of assessing laboratory activities and skills during practicals, as this will contribute to the improvement of the BUSCEP biology course. / AC 2018

Submitted in partial fulfilment of an M.Com. degree in Information Systems, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, March 2017 / Purpose – The aim of this research is to examine one case of the adoption and contextualisation of an international computing curriculum at a South African university in order to improve the understanding of this process for literature as well as practice. An international computing curriculum is a curriculum developed by international professional and scientific bodies such as the Association for Information Systems (AIS), Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) or the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts an interpretivist approach and follows an exploratory research design using qualitative methods to gather data and directed content analysis for data analysis. The research site is a traditional South African university which has used the IS2010 curriculum as a guideline for their undergraduate Information Systems degrees. The site was chosen using convenience sampling. Data was obtained through interviews with staff at the Information Systems department as well as university documentation. Findings - The research indicates that university objectives, university context and industry skills needs have shaped the way the university has adopted and contextualised the IS2010 curriculum. The research also indicates that there are two types of challenges that were encountered: challenges caused by IS2010 and existing challenges that affected IS2010. The major challenges caused by IS2010 were the absence of important elements related to teaching and learning, particularly pedagogy. The challenges that affected the adoption of IS2010 but were not caused by IS2010 were challenges that the university was already facing. These include the language of instruction, institutional culture, staff shortages and students’ cultural and educational background. Originality and Practical contribution – Most of the research on this area focuses on African countries other than South Africa. Researchers have argued that it is important to conduct this kind of research on an individual country level because of the unique nature of the challenges facing each country. This research is an attempt to conduct such research specifically for South Africa. The research findings have shed light on how a South African university may adopt and contextualise an international computing curriculum and the challenges the university might face in doing so. This will in turn help computing educators in addressing such challenges and provide some guidance on how to go about doing so. The research also puts forward a conceptual framework that can be used to research computing curriculum contextualisation in South Africa. / GR2018

Racial literacy is vital in a contemporary American society that professes meritocracy and post-racialism yet where racial tensions continue to give rise to fear, violence, and inequity. This is especially important in educational institutions, which have the potential to either inspire social progress or maintain inequitable hierarchies. This dissertation explores how college students talk about race in the composition classroom; how those language practices contribute to the practice of racial literacy; and how these racial literacy practices contribute to student engagement and achievement in academic writing. Through a qualitative two-year teacher research project, I explored two distinct curricula for racial literacy in the college First Year Composition (FYC) composition classroom. The first study, conducted at an urban, public two-year college, explored the use of what I have come to term Narrative Song Lyrics (NSL) texts to encourage race talk and student engagement in the classroom. The second study, conducted in an urban, private residential university, explored the potential of an explicit racial literacy curriculum to improve students’ critical writing skills. To highlight classroom culture, I drew upon the ethnographic and discourse analysis methods of data collection and analysis. In student writing, thematic categories were examined for their parallels with foundational rhetorical and writing skills, including authorial voice, audience awareness, language choice, and critical textual interpretation. The purpose of this research was to examine the ways in which racial literacy might transfer to academic writing and to more broadly consider what the racial literacy framework may offer scholars, researchers, instructors and students of First Year Composition. As there are no best practices yet associated with racial literacy development, the dual studies represented in this dissertation serve to illuminate the many possibilities for racial literacy curricula in the college classroom. While two distinct studies, each with their own lines of inquiry, were conducted, I synthesize the findings of these studies to identify the ways in which racial literacy might be practiced and embodied, as well as to proffer a vision of what racial literacy could mean for the college composition classroom.