A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, June 2017 / The language issues in South Africa recently made headlines where inclusive education in respective mother tongues has been the outcry. South Africa has been a democratic state for more than 20 years and still such language inequalities are most prevalent. The issue of language redress to accommodate the country’s educational needs and demographics remains a big concern even at University levels. The focus of this study was to investigate the challenges, concerns, familiarity and understandings of the difficulties that non-technical terms presented to B.Ed. second year University students. This case study explored whether issues with non-technical terms’ science contextual meanings and familiarity in science related fields of study were still persistent at University level. The study was conducted at an English medium South African University, with student demographics coming from mostly urban settings with mixed home language backgrounds where English was highly spoken in school. The data collected in this case study was derived from University students’ responses on a questionnaire to predetermined questions that focused on non-technical terms’ meanings followed by a semi-structured group interview. The findings in the interview with participants gave an indication to their contextual familiarity and understanding of non-technical terms’ science context meanings, with the aim to improving teaching and learning of physical sciences in schools as a preparatory measure for further University studying. Similar to the findings from studies with South African teachers and Grade 12 learners’ (see Oyoo, 2016, in press; Oyoo & Semeon, 2015) which revealed that South African school learners encountered difficulties with non-technical terms presented in the science context, this study revealed that South African University students’ also experience difficulty with non-technical terms’ science context meanings. The main sources of difficulty identified in the study were attributed to the South African language and historical background which contributes to poor vocabulary. Students’ lacked the exposure, and contextual familiarity to the language that these meanings are embedded in. This led to students’ inability to differentiate between non-technical terms’ specific scientific context meaning from terms’ everyday meaning. The lowered exposure to these terms’ actual contextual use inside and outside classroom conversations is a factor that needs to be countered. Students’ acknowledged that explicit meaning of non-technical terms’ science context meanings should have been made when learning science at school. School science instruction needs to pay special attention to details on the context of the word in use as a preparatory measure for University. This claim is more on the fact that, participants acknowledged that familiarity is the major factor to their difficulty based on their different lived experiences. / LG2017

This research aimed to understand the coaching experiences in the Gauteng Primary Literacy and Mathematics Strategy of 4 Foundation Phase teachers in 1 state school in Gauteng. It is a qualitative case study in an educational setting. The participants included 3 teachers, the Head of Department of the Foundation Phase, the coach and the coach’s supervisor. Interviews and observations of teachers’ lessons and of feedback sessions were the primary research instruments. The data was analysed using a model proposed by Ehrich, Hansford & Tennent (2001). The research found that the personal attributes and performance of the coach are important features in a successful coaching relationship. It also found that coaching appears to be making a positive contribution to these teachers’ understanding and interpretation of curriculum documents, as well as adding to their content knowledge and methodology. The study suggests that a focus on enhancing teachers’ reflective capacity, especially in relation to their pedagogy, may be a beneficial addition to current coaching practice.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education / 'Ihis research report examines the position and role of South African history thought to pupils in Black Secondary schools between 1953 and 1988. This includes the perceptions of those who were pupils in Black secondary schools from 1954 to 1975, and the views of teachers who offered South African history at these schools during the period examined. (Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2019

A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Science (Mathematics Education) University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa. 10 October 2016 / This research investigates three different kinds of errors made by learners using a discursive approach when dealing with equations in grade 10. The data for the study is made up of Grade 10 learners' responses to a pre-test and post-test, and is part of a much larger data set that was collected by the Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project (WMCS) in 2013. Questions like substitution and multiplying and simplifying as well as factorization are given attention as they are related to equations. The data for this study is collected by coding pre-test and post-test scripts. The data is analyzed using codes and using commognition. The role played by the equal sign in equations and operations that are performed on symbols as well as well as errors that creep in executing these operations are given attention in the study. Special attention is given to linear equations in this study. Errors identified by Brodie and Berger (2010) are confirmed. The finding is that extent to which errors made by grade 10 learners when dealing with equations stem from errors in arithmetic is substantial. The other finding is that extent to which grade 10 learners made errors related to basic algebra, when dealing with equations, is substantial. / TG2016

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Education. Johannesburg, 2016 / Argumentation is viewed as an important pedagogical tool that is central to the teaching and learning of science. Research has shown argumentation as one of the pedagogical practices that promote meaningful learner talk and engagement. In South Africa, most such research has been carried out in high schools and universities on tutored ability in argumentation. There is no research on untutored learner ability in argumentation in primary school science. This study sought to address this gap by determining untutored learner argumentation in science in a Gauteng primary school. I wanted to establish whether and how untutored learners argue and the nature of their arguments. I also wanted to examine the evidence that they give to support assertions. I observed learner interactions in my two Grade 7 science classes through small group discussions and whole class discussions. All the participants were from a public primary school in Gauteng. These learners were untutored (had not been taught) in argumentation, but as their teacher, I had been exposed to argumentation through participation in a masters course. I used qualitative research methodology and drew from Toulmin’s Argument Pattern (TAP) to determine the construction of arguments during the science lessons. I used an analytic frame work by Erduran, Simon and Osborne (2004) which helps to categorize the various components of an argument into different levels. My findings indicated that learners who are untutored in argumentation are able to formulate arguments. Literature has reported that untutored learners in high schools in South Africa present only level 2 arguments. In this study, Grade 7 learners who are untutored in argumentation were able to formulate level 3 arguments in some instances. The study further revealed that some of the learners were able to support their arguments using scientific evidence although most tended to be simple constructs consisting of only data and claims. The fact that they were taught by a teacher, who is tutored in argumentation, may have literature bearing on the learners’ argument ability. Current work in South Africa has shown how untutored teachers do not argue: how untutored learners do not argue: how tutored teachers learn to argue and how tutored learners can learn to argue. What we do not know is how untutored learners argue if they have a tutored teacher. Further research might inform teacher education and classroom argumentation in constrained environments where learners are generally untutored as is the case in many South African classrooms.

A thesis submitted to the Wits School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2016. / This study explores the potential for Web-based diagnostic assessments in the classroom, with specific focus on certain common challenges experienced by learners in the development of their rational number knowledge. Two schools were used in this study, both having adequate facilities for this study, comprising a well-equipped computer room with one-computer-per-learner and a fast, reliable broadband connection. Prior research on misconceptions in the rational numbers has been surveyed to identify a small set of problem types with proven effectiveness in eliciting evidence of misconceptions in learners. In addition to the problem types found from prior studies, other problem types have been included to examine how the approach can be extended. For each problem type a small item bank was created and these items were presented to the learners in test batteries of between four and ten questions. A multiple-choice format was used, with distractor choices included to elicit misconceptions, including those previously reported in prior research. The test batteries were presented in dedicated lessons to learners over four consecutive weeks to Grade 7 (school one) and Grade 8 (school two) classes from the participating schools. A number of test batteries were presented in each weekly session and, following the learners’ completion of each battery, feedback was provided to the learner with notes to help them reflect on their performance. The focus of this study has been on diagnosis alone, rather than remediation, with the intention of building a base for producing valid evidence of the fine-grained thinking of learners. This evidence can serve a variety of purposes, most significantly to inform the teacher on each learners’ stage of development in the specific micro-domains. Each micro-domain is a fine-grained area of knowledge that is the basis for lesson-sized teaching and learning, and which is highly suited to diagnostic assessment. A fine-grained theory of constructivist learning is introduced for positioning learners at a development stage in each micro-domain. This theory of development stages is the foundation I have used to explore the role of diagnostic assessment as it may be used in future classroom activity. To achieve successful implementation into time-constrained mathematics classrooms requires that diagnostic assessments are conducted as effectively and efficiently as possible. To meet this requirement, the following elements of diagnostic assessments were investigated: (1) Why are some questions better than others for diagnostic purposes? (2) How many questions need to be asked to produce valid conclusions? (3) To what extent is learner self-knowledge of item difficulty useful to identify learner thinking? A Rasch modeling approach was used for analyzing the data, and this was applied in a novel way by measuring the construct of the learners’ propensity to select a distractor for a misconception, as distinct from the common application of Rasch to measure learner ability. To accommodate multiple possible misconceptions used by a learner, parallel Rasch analyses were performed to determine the likely causes of learner mistakes. These analyses were used to then identify which questions appeared to be better for diagnosis. The results produced clear evidence that some questions are far better diagnostic discriminators than others for specific misconceptions, but failed to identify the detailed rules which govern this behavior, with the conclusion that to determine these would require a far larger research population. The results also determined that the number of such good diagnostic questions needed is often surprisingly low, and in some cases a single question and response is sufficient to infer learner thinking. The results show promise for a future in which Web-based diagnostic assessments are a daily part of classroom practice. However, there appears to be no additional benefit in gathering subjective self-knowledge from the learners, over using the objective test item results alone. Keywords: diagnostic assessment; rational numbers; common fractions; decimal numbers; decimal fractions; misconceptions; Rasch models; World-Wide Web; Web-based assessment; computer-based assessments; formative assessment; development stages; learning trajectories.

Numeracy skills are vital for a child with diabetes as they need to be able to manage their diabetes effectively, in order to protect one from the complications that come with diabetes. There have been numerous studies that illustrate the poor numeracy skills in children with diabetes. A numeracy intervention specifically related to diabetes was put into place to illustrate whether or not such an intervention is effective in improving a child’s diabetic numeracy ability, which will lead to the improvement of diabetes self-management in the future. A Quantitative quasi-experimental pre-test - post-test non equivalent control group design was conducted to explore the efficacy of an applied numeracy intervention in a South Africa type 1 diabetic child population. The study group comprised of 58 children with type 1 diabetes, each group consisted of 29 participants, and each participant in the experimental group was closely matched according to their level of formal education, grade, age and sex to a research participant in the control group. Both groups were measured before and after the intervention. The children were between the ages of 8 and 13. All participants were in formal education between Grades 3 and Grade 8. Results revealed that participants in both groups had lower ‘functional’ grades as compared to their ‘actual grade’ level which suggests that they performed below their expected grade level. Participants performed better in areas assessing basic mathematical skills than areas which assessed applied diabetes mathematical skills. The intervention was shown to be effective as analyses revealed that there was a highly significant difference (p<0.001) between the Pre and Post Test (applied mathematical sections) of the experimental group which took part in the intervention. This research is only the starting point for the assessment of the effectiveness of a numeracy component in diabetes related education in South Africa, and through this one would hope that more research in South Africa will be done in this area.

A research project submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, .Johannesburg, in part fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg 1993. / This study aims at providing some evaluation of the impact of the Transvaal Senior Certificate, Higher Grade, Biology Examination on Biology teaching in the Transvaal, It also looks. at the effectiveness of this exarnlnatlon as an assessment/evaluation instrument. A questlonnalre is used to secure the views qf practising Biology teachers, and teacher trainers, about the stated objectives of Biology teaching at senior high school level in terms of:- - their relative merit and importance. - their attainment through current teachinq practices. - their evaluation by the examination Board, The views of 63 teachers and 9 teacher trainers are analysed and the views of Transvaal and Natal teachers are compared to those of Teacher Trainers. Much consensus is found in the responses of all three groups of educators. They are well aware of modern trends and methodologies in the field of Biology Education but are pessimistic about the current achievement of many of the objectives they identify as being Important for effective Biology Teaching. They see the examination as one which focuses mainly on the assessment of Recall of Knowledge, The implications of these findings are discussed and several recommendations are made. / AC2017

Thesis (M.A. (English)) --University of Limpopo (Turfloop Campus), 2007 / The study sought to investigate the challenges which teachers and learners encountered on daily basis when they use English as the medium of instruction (MOI) in content subjects. The study was conducted at Jim Chavani High school which was convenient for the researcher who is a deputy principal of the school. The researcher has purposively selected Biology which is regarded as one of the most difficult subjects and which has high failure rate in most schools in the Malamulele area. The literature review was obtained from a variety of sources which include library books, journals, government gazettes, news papers and the internet. The review shed light on the challenges of teaching through the medium of English among learners with indigenous language backgrounds. This body of research has shown that attention was placed on townships and urban areas with little or no focus on remote rural areas such as Malamulele. The researcher used the qualitative research methodology to collect data through classroom observations, interviews, and writing protocols.The use of qualitative enquiry enabled the researcher to explore the challenges in a natural setting. Three teachers and eighteen learners were respondents in the study. Data collected were discussed and analysed in order to select the most suitable information which could address the aim and objectives of the study. The result of the study showed that the learners were negative towards the use of English as the MOI. On the converse, the teachers have mixed feeling on the choice for English even though they acknowledge difficulties iv posed by English in their classrooms. Spoken data showed a varied degree of code-alternation and culturally induced strategies were found in their writing protocols. Given these findings, the study draws a conclusion that using English as the MOI in remote rural areas further disadvantages the learners from getting the full benefits for comprehension in the content subject. It was therefore recommended that language planners needed to step up the process of allowing indigenous African languages as the media of learning while English is taught as the school subject.

Thesis (M.Tech. degree in Education) -- Tshwane University of Technology, 2009 / The study made the following findings: All the results clearly indicated how the four (4) challenges discussed affected each school and the areas in which they are situated. Some educators were not quite equipped with the content knowledge to teach the Technology learning area. There were however, some educators with adequate content knowledge to teach Technology. The training received by educators was insufficient because it introduced them to Technology content within a short space of time. The shortage of resources has made educators rely on old methods of teaching whereby, textbooks and chalkboards were used. Urban schools are however happy with their resources. There is an obvious difference between the Technology taught in the General Education and Training (GET) Band and what the learners learn at Further Education and Training FET Band. Large classes contribute to the attitudes of learners having a lack of interest in the teaching and learning of Technology. This is caused by lack of adequate and appropriate resources to use during the lesson. The ignorance of some communities in technology hinders schools from getting assistance in the teaching and learning of Technology. Hence this study confirmed that there are constraints and challenges in teaching and learning Technology, at senior phase.