Master of Science in Mathematics Education 2017 / This study focused on mathematical teachers’ beliefs about teaching critical thinking and how these beliefs informed teaching mathematics in practice. Two sets of interviews were conducted that investigated what conceptions of critical thinking, teaching strategies and tasks, and assessment methods, teachers believed promoted critical thinking in their mathematical classroom. Qualitative methods of inductive analysis were used to analyse teachers’ responses based on grounded theory where categories were constructed and re- organised into themes. The study found that teachers had a limited understanding of critical thinking and their beliefs about teaching critical thinking skills in mathematics did not appear to be reflected in practice. These newly qualified teachers demonstrated that they need assistance in developing and using teaching strategies and tasks that promote critical thinking skills in mathematics. / MT 2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, Unjversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Science. March 1995 / This thesis reports on school teaching and learning problems in the area of chemical re&ctivity and on an attempt to overcome some of these problems with an in-service course for teachers. rhase 1 of this research was a study of the conceptions of aspects of reactivity, rates of reaction and chemical equilibrium held by secondary school students. The nature and origin of the conceptual di:Eficltlties, i.n the above areas were investigated. The concepts of ret,ctivity and reactivity se.rd.e s are formally introduced at a standard 8 level. These concepts form a springboard for the understanding of more formal quantitative worl< done i.n rates of reaction and chemical equilibrium at a standard 10 level. Two multiple-choice questionnaires, a reactivity qUestionnaire and a i'a'Ceand (.,quilibrium qUestionnaire, were designed to probe for the nature and ori9i.n of views held )y st<mdard 8 & 10 students respectively. The views of both the standard 8 & 10 students on aspects of react~vity and reactivity series Were investigated using the reactivity ql.ltlstionnaire.The views of a sample of 'Jtandard 8 students were also probed during interview sessions conducted at selected schools. standard 10 students views about concepts related to aspects of rates of reaction and chemical equilibrium, were also investigated

This research report confirms the value of the Framework of Growth Points in a learner’s mathematical development in the area of functions in equation form. The study also shows that learners advance through the various growth points in a progressive, sequential fashion, which mirrors the results of Ronda’s study, on which a part of this study was based. The study was carried out in a high school in Johannesburg. Learners in Grades 9, 10 and 11 were required to do an assessment which tested for their achievement in different growth points. This study also explores the discourse of learners while they talked about the tasks in the assessment. A smaller sample of learners was interviewed so that the researcher could explore the nature of their discourse. This research report shows that there are patterns in the discourse of learners which can be related to the growth points that they achieve.

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

This dissertation describes an action research study aimed at promoting critical thinking in learners while learning physical science within the South African national curriculum. The data were primarily qualitative in nature, and were collected primarily through participant observation, composed of audio- and video- recorded lessons, interviews, questionnaires, journal entries and written material. Data collection, analysis and interpretation were done in the inductive, cyclic manner of action research. This process was guided by research questions about task characteristics, their position in the teaching sequence, the role of the learning environment, and the need to adjust tasks to fit the needs of different learners, so as to effectively promote critical thinking. A pragmatic approach was used. It was found that it is possible, using particular strategies and tasks, to promote critical thinking while meeting the curriculum outcomes, although the intense syllabus pressure of the curriculum makes this challenging. Task design characteristics and positioning in the teaching sequence, and conditions of the learning environment, were found to affect a task’s effectiveness at promoting critical thinking. Various teaching strategies can improve attainability by a wider range of learners. An instructional model, The Ladder Approach, emerged as being most likely to promote success. This was found to be successful when evaluated against criteria of active engagement and interest by learners, attainability with effort, display of critical thinking traits, and compatibility with the South African curriculum. In this model, an interesting problem is posed at the start of a section, after which direct instruction and learner engagement with the problem run parallel to one another, linked by scaffolding tools which are engaged in individually and collaboratively. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

The results of national examination in matric and universities showed that African students were performing very poorly in their studies and examinations in science and in physics in particular. The objective in this study was to investigate some of the difficulties both African teachers and students, that meant African learners, had in understanding physics, specifically mechanics. The study consisted of investigation of two themes, namely, conceptual and language difficulties. Conceptual Difficulties were investigated by means of three questionnaire tasks. Task One investigated learners' understanding of the concepts of force, energy, power, momentum, speed and other related mechanics concepts in the context of boulders rolling down and up a mountain slope. Task Two investigated subjects' understanding of the force on a ball that was thrown up by the hand, went up to the highest position, and then turned and fell freely back to the ground. Task Three investigated learners' understanding of the positions where speeds, velocities, accelerations and forces were equal on a ball as it was going up and on its way down. The Pilot group, among whom the wide pilot work of this study was done through some haphazard questionnaire, consisted of pre-service and in-service teachers selected from the North East Free State Highlands which was regarded as an appropriate location with a number of institutions with the necessary research subjects, ,since it was neither much urban nor much rural. Intensive study and analysis was done on this pilot work and it led to some real research study to be conducted within a more "focussed" group, namely, the Student group. This Student group which consisted of the first year physics students on the Pietermaritzburg Campus of the University of Natal, was selected for purposes of comparison. Two kinds of Reference groups were devised: for the Conceptual Difficulties investigation the Reference group consisted of physics lecturers and professors from several universities. Their unanimous responses together were regarded as a memorandum through which to correct the responses of the study subjects. For the Language Difficulties investigation the Reference group consisted of African physicists from several universities. There was no unanimous consensus on their mechanics concepts translations into their vernaculars. Analysis of written results and interviews showed that African students experienced Conceptual Difficulties in mechanics. The Conceptual Difficulties were similar to those conducted in many other countries around the world by physics education researchers. The Language Difficulties were of two types. Firstly, a translation from a single mother tongue term into multiple English (the language of instruction) terms revealed a lack of clear concepts differentiation among the subjects. Secondly, there was no consensus, even amongst African physicists, as to which vernacular terms and English terms correspond. In addition, the interaction of the use of African vernaculars with an alternative conceptualisation seemed to have resulted to many of the research subjects believing in a quantity that is intrinsic to a person or object. This quantity had attributes of several different mechanics quantities, such as force, momentum, energy and power. Two tasks were used in the second theme where Language Difficulties were investigated. Translations of conceptual terms that were supplied in Task One and Task Three of the first theme were given and examined. The phenomenon of reverse translation from mother tongue to English was identified as a source of Language Difficulties due to the availability of limited words for these conceptual terms in the vernaculars spoken in South Africa. However, the effect language on the subjects' understanding of mechanics was not simply the result of the lack of vocabulary, the study also showed that the research subjects conceptualised physics concepts differently from physicists, this was revealed by analysing their use of both English and their vernaculars. The results of the investigations were then discussed and compared with those obtained by other research workers in similar studies around the world. Some approaches in teaching physics to African students in an endeavour to alleviate these unearthed difficulties were proposed and recommended in the conclusion. It was further encouraged that more investigations would show to appropriately and successfully instruct the African learners the physics concepts, since some institutions lately managed to produce African physicists and physics professors. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

The purpose of this study was to determine teacher engagement with HIV/AIDS education in primary school. Since the emergence and acknowledgement of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa, the national education department's policy has advanced HIV/AIDS education as a priority. The new curriculum has opened up opportunities for HIV/AIDS education to be inserted in the curriculum especially in the learning area Life Orientation in the primary school, which previously did not exist. There is a paucity of research documenting teachers' experiences on the implementation of the HIV/AIDS curriculum. The manner in which teachers engage with the HIV/AIDS curriculum is not known. This study focused on 9 teachers in the intermediate and senior phases in a particular primary school in KwaZulu Natal who have had experience in the implementation of the HIV/AIDS curriculum over the past four years in their school. A survey questionnaire was administered to all educators in the study. The three intermediate educators participated in face-to-face interviews as well as a focus group discussion. An interview was conducted with the member of the management team who was part of the sample. The results from the survey, interviews and focus group discussion suggest that teachers were strongly implementing the HIV/AIDS curriculum in their classrooms while experiencing some practical challenges. This study also suggests that the educators found the Department Of Education's implementation plan suppressive. All three intermediate phase teachers used creative methods to assist in the implementation of the curriculum. The respondents claimed that the workshops and meetings that they had attended were invaluable to them. They however preferred seeing the community more closely involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, as this was not an issue confined to the school exclusively. Teachers would also liked to have had HIV/AIDS education implemented across the curriculum, as the task to empower learners in this regard was a mammoth one. The unique and challenging experiences of teachers implementing the HIV/AIDS curriculum must be documented before any theoretical positions can be articulated about the implementation of HIV/AIDS education in primary schools in South Africa. This study has contributed to research on the implementation of HIV/AIDS education in primary school by providing some insight into a group of educators' experiences. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

The dire need for capacitating Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) educators in subject-specific knowledge occurred to me whilst conducting workshops for EMS educators within the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. Educators often complained that they neglected EMS as a Learning Area as they lacked the requisite subject~specific knowledge. This, they claimed was exacerbated by the paucity of EMS educator and learner support materials. This prompted me to undertake a case study of the current capacity building strategies of heads of department, curriculum co-ordinators and level 1 educators in (EMS) Learning Area. The case study was restricted to a cluster of 5 pnmary schools in the Ethekwini Region of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Department of Education. Schools were chosen on the basis of convenience, cost, proximity to each other and previous professional involvement with the schools. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and observation at workshops. Findings suggest that there existed a lack of fundamental knowledge in the EMS learning area and further that current development strategies did not necessarily meet the needs of educators. Stemming from the research findings, the study recommends that continuous professional development of educators must be seen as an evolving set of activities that should respond to the specific contextual needs of educators at different stages in their lifelong development as professionals. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

The rapid rate, at which HIV/AIDS is being spread, is changing the face of modern society. The alarming statistics revealed by research, bears testimony to this fact. According to Bennell (2003), the total number of HIV/AIDS maternal and two-parent orphans for subSaharan Africa is expected to increase from 9.85 million in 2001 to 18.67 million in 201 0. Education has a pivotal role to play in effectively dealing with the effects of the pandemic, as well as in creating awareness among learners on HIV/AIDS preventative education. The chief medium through which ideas are conveyed and awareness is raised, is through the use of language. The focus of this dissertation was to critically explore the language used by educators within the context of HIV/AIDS Education , at primary school level. This was done in two ways. The first was conducting an in-depth analysis of documents pertinent to HIV/AIDS Education, in an attempt to ascertain which themes, concepts and terms frequently feature in these various documents. The second was exploring these themes, concepts and terms with regard to how these were perceived and understood by the participants in the study. The translation of the meanings the participants attached to these concepts and terms, and how these translated into learning activities within the classroom context, received attention during classroom and lesson observations. A case-study design within the qualitative mode of inquiry was employed. Document analysis, observation and in-depth interviews were used to obtain data pertaining to the area of study. Three Life Orientation educators, from a suburban, co-educational school in the Kwa - Zulu Natal area, participated in the study. The Critical Discourse Analysis framework informed the study. The study also explored the usage of non-verbal signs and suggestions to convey meaning and understanding among learners. The participants' predispositions, ideologies and pre-conceived notions of what was appropriate, in terms of themes explored within the context of HIV/AIDS education, were also examined in light of any bearing these might have had in the process of facilitating understanding among learners. Due consideration was given to contextual factors, and how these might have influenced the processes of creating meaning and understanding among learners. The findings revealed by this research, provide valuable insights into some of the interpretations of some of the terms and concepts that are commonly associated with HIV/AIDS by educators. In addition, they present the possibility of alternate meanings of these terms and concepts, suggesting that multiple meanings are possible within the context of HIV/AIDS education. The implications of this study for classroom practice are numerous. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2006.

This research presents an understanding of the teaching and learning practices in the context of HIV/AIDS education in the intermediate phase. Against a milieu of change and restructuring in education is the HIV/AIDS education curriculum which teachers are expected to deal with in schools. From an identity perspective, I try to understand how teaching practices which are adopted by teachers in the teaching of HIV/AIDS education either challenges or perpetuates the status of HIV/AIDS in society. Therefore the focus of this study is primarily the teacher. By employing Samuel's Forcefield Model as a structure for this study, I demonstrate how the choices that the teacher makes in teaching practice, are shaped by a range of diverse forces, which are frequently in conflict with each other. In this study I want to understand how teachers are engaging with their new roles and multiple responsibilities (as described in The Norms and Standards for Teacher Educators) when teaching HIV/AIDS education in the intermediate phase - given that this aspect is a relatively new dimension to the curriculum. From a methodological perspective, the collection and analysis of data were consistent with the Hermeneutic research paradigm. For the purpose of this study interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data from educators. Furthermore, in order to present a more holistic picture of the teacher and to ascertain to what extent, what the teacher teaches is actually what the learner learns, data was also collected from learners via observations, conversations and through an analysis of drawings and poems. It must be emphasised that although learners in this study play a pivotal role as sources of data, they are not the unit of analysis for this study. Thus the major part of this thesis focuses on the teacher. The findings of this study indicate that the guiding principles of a teacher's life, such as race, religion and culture are important forces that mould what, why and how teachers teach HIV/AIDS education in the intermediate phase. On the other hand, the forces that mould learners' experiences of HIV/AIDS education is determined by the social environment that the learner lives in. The forces that shape what the teacher does are not the same as the forces that shape what the learner learns. The concept of 'othering' is predominant in the interactions between teachers and learners and teachers are socially distanced from learners, parents and the child's social environment. Hence the 'caring and sharing' as espoused by teachers is not being articulated in practice. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2005.