This study highlighted the educators understanding of their role, the priorities that they deemed important and the practices they employed to promote in their learners the values and virtues fit for citizens of a democratic society.

As I was involved as a voluntary, part-time teacher in a local, semi-rural school in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, I became increasingly aware of the learners' lack of English literacy. I therefore decided to do a practical research on vocabulary development, focusing on dictionary skills. In this thesis I describe how I implemented a vocabulary development programme as an Action Research project. My research group was a grade 7 class of English First Additional Language learners who had minimal exposure to English at school and in their communities. The class was a mixture of Afrikaans and isiXhosa home language speakers and the medium of instruction was Afrikaans. The school served a low-income community and was poorly resourced. As dictionary skills is a requirement of the national curriculum, I used 10 time-tabled lessons over a 5 week period to introduce the learners to dictionaries. My data sources were a journal detailing my reflections on each lesson; a video-recording of the lessons; small group interviews after each lesson which were audio-recorded; tasksheets on the work covered in class and questionnaires asking the learners for written responses to the lessons. The class teacher who filmed the lessons was also asked for feedback during and after the programme. My goals were to assess my teaching approach in these circumstances and to what extent the outcomes were positive for the learners. As I had come from a background of English Home Language teaching in good, well-resourced schools I found I had to question many of my assumptions. Although I was an experienced, qualified and confident teacher, I was continually having to reassess my teaching methods which were being challenged by very different classroom conditions. The outcomes of the research show why I was not able to achieve what I had thought I could in the time given.

Die tesis is voorgelê ter verwerwing van die graad: Magister in Opvoedkunde aan die: Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012. Afrikaanse abstrak: Hierdie navorsing het die gebruik van probleemoplossings-onderrigtegnieke deur onderwysers in die Rekenaartoepassingstegnologie (RTT) –klaskamer ondersoek. Kriteria ten opsigte van probleemoplossingsvaardighede soos uiteengesit in die Nasionale Kurrikulumverklaring (NKV ) en die Nasionale Kurrikulum- en Assesserings- Beleidsverklaring (NKABV) vir RTT was toegepas in hierdie studie. RTT word slegs vanaf graad 10 in die verdere onderwys- en opleidingfase (VOO) as „n keusevak aangebied. Dus was die navorser se fokus op die omliggende sekondêre skole wat RTT aanbied. Die navorsing konsentreer op die onderwyser en sy toepassing van probleemoplossings-onderrigtegnieke. Die navorser het gebruik gemaak van gevallestudie as navorsingsontwerp en konstruktivisme as raamwerk toegepas. Klaskamer-observasies, onderhoude en beide formele en onderwyser - geskepte dokumente het gedien as bronne vir data. Die data was tematies ontleed om die betekenis daarvan te ontgin. Die analise van die data dui aan dat respondente nie aan die vereistes gestel deur die NKABV en NKV, ten opsigte van die aanbieding en assessering van probleemoplossings-onderrigtegnieke, voldoen nie. Die navorser beveel aan dat „n moontlike oplossing vir die onderwyser-respondente se gebrek aan kennis en onderrigvaardighede met betrekking tot probleemoplossings-onderrigtegnieke kan wees dat daar spesifieke kursusse oor hierdie onderwerp aangebied word. Die navorsing skep ook ʼn geleentheid vir tersiêre instellings om hulle kurrikula en opleidingsprogramme sodanig aan te pas ten einde die leemtes, soos uitgewys deur die navorsing, aan te spreek. / This research explored the utilization of problem solving techniques by Computer Applications Technology (CAT) teachers in grade 11. The requirements and criteria as set out in the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), were applied in this study. CAT is only introduced in grade 10 in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. The researcher thus focussed on the surrounding schools that offer CAT as a subject. The research focussed on the teacher and the teaching of problem solving techniques in CAT. The researcher used a case study design and employed a constructivism as the theoretical framework. Classroom observations, interviews and both teacher generated and formal documents served as data sources. A thematic analysis approach was adopted to make sense of the data. The analysis of the different data sources indicated that the respondents did not fully comply with the requirements set by the NCS and CAPA with reference to the teaching of problem solving techniques in CAT. The researcher recommends that courses are presented to address the gaps in the knowledge and skills of teachers in CAT referring to problem solving techniques. This creates both the opportunity and challenge to tertiary institutions to align their curricula and training programmes to address the gaps identified by this research.

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / The study's main focus was on the integration of the theme HIV/AIDS into Life Orientation by educators in the senior phase. The purpose of the study was to investigate to what extent HIV/AIDS is integrated into the Life Orientation Learning Area to help to curb the spread of this leprosy in farm communities. The study explored through in-depth interviews, observations and the knowledge of the educators, learners and parents. The transcripts were analysed. The key finding of this study was that the educators are able to integrate HIV/AIDS theme into Life Orientation albeit there are still uncertainties about the aims of LO and what role the educators have to play.

Magister Educationis - MEd / This study highlighted the educators understanding of their role, the priorities that they deemed important and the practices they employed to promote in their learners the values and virtues fit for citizens of a democratic society. / South Africa

This study examines the role of academic literacies and academic-writing practices at two diverse South African senior secondary schools and the implications that these practices have for academic-literacy teaching in Higher Education (HE). As student academic writing is central to teaching, learning and assessment in HE, learner academic-writing standards at schools will often impact on academic success in HE. This is a concern for HE as research from South African schooling contexts have found that students from secondary schools are seldom equipped to cope with the demands of HE writing practices. In addition, the introduction of a new curriculum (National Curriculum Statement – NCS) based on the principles of the South African constitution and informed by the Bill of Rights, impacted for the first time on senior secondary schools in 2006, when it was implemented in grade 10, and HE received its first cohort of matriculants with an NCS educational background in 2009. Therefore, this study specifically explores teachers' writing practices within an NCS writing-practice design for grades 11 and 12, and assesses its current implications for academic-writing practices in HE. Critical ethnography was selected as the primary methodology as it is concerned with multiple perspectives and explores local-practice contexts. Therefore, it provides a holistic understanding of the complexity of writing practices by examining the participants' writing-practice perceptions, observing their teaching practices and analysing their written responses or feedback to first and final drafts. The data/study sample consisted of three grades 11 and one grade 12 English Home Language and English First Additional Language teachers as well as selected learners from two secondary schools in the Port Elizabeth district. The data was collected by means of classroom observations, teacher interviews and learner samples of academic writing. Although this study focused on the teaching of academic writing by the four teachers, literacy understandings were also explored by describing what literacy practices subjectively meant to the four teachers by determining the meanings they collectively and individually gave to dominant literacy practices in academic writing, especially feedback practices in text production. A detailed examination of the new NCS requirements suggest that it offers an understanding of knowledge as a social construct, advocates a multiple literacies approach to teaching and learning, and allows for a process approach to cognitively-demanding writing which takes cognisance of the rhetorical, social and cultural dimensions of literacy. Collectively, the ASs in LO3 reflect a process approach to writing, from planning, drafting, feedback, revision to presentation of the final text. It also considers the specific rhetorical dimensions of purpose, audience, and context. Therefore, these NCS writing practices should benefit learners advancing to HE. This study argues that if teachers in secondary schools were to adhere more closely to the NCS's LO3 and its ASs implementation guidelines, learners would be better prepared to cope with HE academic-writing requirements. Instead, the study found that the teachers tended to reduce writing practices to the mastery of discrete sets of technical skills with a focus on surface features of language like spelling and grammar. In addition, the study found that when the teachers' perceptions of the NCS and their own classroom-writing practices were explored, they tended to resist a social-practice approach to academic writing, and, as a result, mostly adapted LO3 of the NCS rather than adopting it as intended by the policy-makers. Similar to other South African studies, this study concludes that teachers remain largely rooted in their autonomous teaching practices favouring traditional methods with which they are familiar over curricula policies which could emancipate learners toward levels of achievement which would better prepare them for both HE and the world of work. In other words, teachers in the sample tend to conserve their traditional methodologies which are predominantly informed by deficit views of learners‟ problems, selectively including new policy requirements which create the impression of compliance, rather than fundamentally altering their approaches pedagogically in the classroom and their academic-writing practices in particular.

Text in Afrikaans / 'n Leerling se wiskunde-selfkonsep wys heen na die konsep wat hy van homself op wiskundige vakgebied het. Die kwaliteit van hierdie konsep word bepaal deur die kwaliteit van sy eie betrokkenheid by, belewing van en sin- en betekenisgewing aan wiskundige vakinhoud. Wanneer die kwaliteit van 'n leerling se wiskunde-selfkonsep ontoereikend is, word sy onvermoe om op daardie tydstip sukses op wiskundige vakgebied te behaal, geopenbaar. Dit plaas die opvoeder voor die opgawe om bemoeienis met die leerling te maak en hom ten aansien van sy probleem te help. In die lig hiervan is 'n hulpverleningsprogram ter bevordering van die wiskunde-selfkonsep ontwerp. Aangesien leerlinge in Suid-Afrikaanse skole tans gedurende die st.7-skooljaar die besluit neem om die studie van wiskunde te staak of daarmee voort te gaan, is die inhoud van die program derhalwe op die st.7-leerling van toepassing gemaak. Spesifieke doelsteilings wat in die ontwerp van die program nagestreef is, is die volgende: Om die leerling te begelei tot insig in en die begryp van die kwaliteit van sy eie wiskunde-selfkonsep en grondliggende oorsake vir die vorming daarvan, ten einde hom in staat te stel om sy eie situasie in perspektief te plaas. Om die leerling te begelei tot die ontwikkeling van spesifieke vaardighede aan die hand waarvan hy homself op 'n meer selfstandige wyse kan handhaaf ten aansien van die begripmatige bemeestering van wiskunde as vak. By wyse van 'n loodsondersoek is die toepasbaarheid van die onderhawige program ondersoek. Uit die terugvoergesprekke met die leerlinge tydens die groepsessies en die inligtingstukke wat hulle voltooi het, blyk dit dat hulle baat gevind het by hulle deelname aan die program. Met die oog op moontlike toekomstige navorsing is spesifieke leemtes ten opsigte van die onderhawige studie uitgelig en aanbevelings gedoen wat as verdere riglyne geimplementeer kan word. / A pupil's mathematical self-concept is the concept a pupil has of himself in the sphere of Mathematics as a subject. The quality of this concept is determined by the quality of his own involvement in, live-experiencing of, and significance attribution in respect of mathematical subject content. When the quality of a pupil's mathematical self-concept is inadequate, his inability is manifested in his failure to master Mathematics as a subject. This confronts the educator with the task of becoming involved with the pupil and helping him with his problem. In view of this, an aid programme was designed to improve the mathematical self-concept. Owing to the fact that, at present, pupils in South African schools have to decide during their Std 7 school year whether they are going to continue with their study of Mathematics or discontinue these studies, the content of the programme was aimed at the Std 7 age group. The following are the specific aims that were pursued in the designing of the programme: To guide the pupil to insight in and understanding of the quality of his own mathematical self-concept and its underlying causes, in order to enable him to place his own situation in perspective. To guide the pupil in the development of specific skills to help him cope more independently with the successful mastery of Mathematics as a subject. The possibility of implementing such a programme in practice was established by means of a pilot investigation. From feedback discussions with the sample group during group sessions and from questionnaires they filled in, it appears that they benefited from their participation in the programme. With a view to possible future research, specific shortcomings with respect to the investigation were highlighted and recommendations made which can be implemented as further guidelines. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Sielkundige Opvoedkunde)

Prompted by increasing demand in South Africa for the development of a focused but flexible English Second Language (ESL) curriculum at university level, this thesis contends that substantial theoretical under-pinning is needed for decisions on ESL course materials. Once the theoretical constructs are determined, a model based on a systematic approach to course design is proposed. It maximizes the individualization of experiential learning, despite the large numbers of students who take these courses, through a multi-form course structure offering four streams of study at three levels of difficulty. Entry is possible at the start of the year and at mid-year. The empirical research which forms the basis of the study is an analysis of the 1985 student group at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Several methods are used, including post-course questionnaires, diagnostic assignments and a detailed language and stylistic error count linked with a clause analysis of a sample of assignments and examination scripts. The model curriculum meets the contextually basic science requirements of a university course, within the parameters of response needed in regard to the ESL student profile determined by the needs and role analysis completed in Chapter 2. Model aims and terminal learning objectives are presented in Chapter 3 as the foundation on which the rest of the thesis is constructed, and include comprehension, applied composition, oral and aural skills, use of reference works, methods of thinking, and occupationally relevant specialist language. In Chapters 4 and 5, in-depth analyses of appropriate course content and methods emphasize the use of Afrocentric English literature in contemporary settings with appropriate readability levels, language in use in specified contexts, development of vocabulary, remedying incorrect usage, comprehension skills, composition skills, development of cognitive processes, oral and listening skills, and the purpose and place of grammar. The final chapters outline approaches to criterion-referenced assessment and evaluation, and suggest appropriate set works and criteria for their selection. The course materials aim at improving English communicative performance. The underlying principles used in developing this course design and its associated materials can be valuably extrapolated and applied at universities and other tertiary institutions. / English Studies / D. Litt et Phil. (English)

M. Tech. Education / There are two systems of secondary education in South Africa. Some secondary schools are composed of five grades: 8 to 12 (Secondary System A, SS-A), while others start at Grade 10-12 (Secondary System B, SS-B). As can be anticipated, these two systems are compositionally different, with schools in SS-B being dependent on feeder schools around them for enrolment of Grade 10 learners every year. This means that the composition of Grade 10 learners in these two systems is not the same. This study acknowledges that there are important differences in Grade 10 learners belonging to these two systems.

Thesis (MEd)--University of Stellenbsoch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary concern of the study is how pre-service teachers perform after they have been exposed to a section of a linear algebra course based on the problem-centred approach. The students were in their final (3rd ) year of a teacher education course at a college of education which prepares them to teach mathematics at high school level. Sixty students, who formed the experimental group, were exposed to a linear algebra section, which was underpinned by the tenets of the problem-centred approach. The control group comprised of 60 students of similar mathematical background and they were taught the linear algebra section in the conventional way. The main study is preceded by an overview of the history of the teaching of linear algebra and this overview rendered that certain aspects of linear algebra were historically taught in context. Furthermore an analysis of current secondary school mathematics curricula indicated that there are components of linear algebra present in these syllabi. To test whether there was any significant effect of the experimental course, both groups were subjected to the same linear algebra test items at the end of the experimental period. The null hypothesis tested was: there will be no significant difference between the achievement scores of the experimental and control groups. A simple statistical two-tailed test for the difference between two means was done. This test confirmed the rejection of the null hypothesis at the 0,01 level of significance. It is thus accepted that the superior achievement of the experimental group was due to the intervention - approaching aspects of linear algebra through the problem-centred approach. To get an indication of the strategies the experimental group followed to solve linear algebra problems, an analysis was done of the written work of the students. This analysis showed that students applied an absolute calculation strategy to seek solutions to the problems. The study had the following limitations: 1. The students were not representative of the pre-service secondary teachers in South Africa. Only students from the developing population group were involved. 2. The students were not randomly assigned to the experimental and control group. They were in their normal college classes . . Notwithstanding the above limitations it is recommended that: 1. The problem-centred approach, which support the ideals of outcomes-based education, be applied to a major part of the South African school and college of education mathematics syllabi. 2. Appropriate assessment procedures consonant with the problem-centered approach are installed. 3. Adequate support systems are put in place to support teacher transition from the conventional to the problem-centred approach. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die primêre fokus van die studie is die effek van In lineêre algebra kursus, aangebied volgens die probleem-gesentreerde benadering, op kollege onderwysstudente. Die studente was in hulle finale (3de) jaar van In kursus aan In onderwyskollege wat hulle voorberei om wiskunde op hoërskoolvlak te onderrig. Die eksperimentele groep, bestaande uit 60 studente, het aspekte van lineêre algebra geleer, onderrig volgens die probleem-gesentreerde benadering. Die kontrolegroep, bestaande uit 60 studente met omtrent dieselfde wiskunde agtergrond, het dieselfde lineêre algebra geleer, onderrig volgens die konvensionele metode. Die hoofstudie is voorafgegaan deur In oorsig van die geskiedenis van die onderrig van lineêre algebra, wat getoon het dat dat sekere aspekte van lineêre algebra histories in konteks onderrig is. In Ontleding van die huidige hoërkool wiskundekurrikulum toon dat dit komponente van lineêre algebra bevat. Om die impak van die eksperimentele kursus te bepaal, het beide groepe aan die einde van die eksperimentele periode dieselfde lineêre algebra toetsitems voltooi. Die volgende nul-hipotese is getoets: Daar is geen beduidende verskil tussen die prestasies van die eksperimentele en die kontrole groepe nie. In Eenvoudige tweevlerk statistiese toets vir die verskil tussen twee gemiddeldes is gedoen. Die toets bevestig die verwerping van die nul-hipotese op die 0,01 vlak van beduidendheid. Dit word dus aanvaar dat die beter prestasie van die eksperimentele groep toegeskryf kan word aan die intervensie, naamlik die leer van lineêre algebra volgens die probleem-gesentreerde benadering. Om "n aanduiding te kry van die strategieë wat die eksperimentele groep gebruik het in die oplos van lineêre algebra probleme, is die geskrewe werk van die studente ontleed. Die ontleding het getoon dat studente 'n absolute rekenstrategie gebruik het om oplossings vir die probleme te soek. Die studie het die volgende beperkings: 1. Die studente was nie verteenwoordigend van sekondêre onderwysstudente in Suid Afrika nie. Slegs studente uit die onwikkelinggroep was betrokke. 2. Die studente is nie willekeurig aan die eksperimentele en kontrole groepe toegewys nie. Hulle was in hul gewone kollege klasse. Ondanks die bogenoemde beperkings, word daar aanbeveel dat: 1. Die probleem-gesentreerde benadering, wat die beginsels van uitkomsgebaseerde onderwys ondersteun, behoort in die wiskunde kurrikulum vir skole en onderwyserskolleges gebruik te word. 2. Gepaste assesseringsmetodes, soos in die probleem-gesentreerde benadering gebruik, moet toegepas word. 3. Doeltreffende ondersteuningstelsels moet geïmplementeer word om onderwysers te ondersteun in huloorgang na die probleem-gesentreerde benadering.