This study is an evaluation of the effectiveness of the current teacher appraisal system as practised in Botswana secondary schools. The study sought to establish inter alia the relationship between the current teacher appraisal and the day to day duties of teachers, the extent to which it leads to improvements in the teaching and students' learning process, how it addresses the staff development needs of the teachers, and whether the mechanisms and procedures for the management and implementation of the appraisal system in the schools is adequate. Teacher appraisal was defined as a process of staff development aimed at the professional development of the teacher through collegial interaction in order to enhance the quality of teaching and students' learning. Other strategies to achieve the effectiveness were also discussed in the thesis. Chapter One of the thesis provided the orientation of the study, while Chapter Two looked at the international literature on appraisal, including two case studies on the introduction of teacher appraisal in Great Britain and the United States of America. Chapter Three provided the contextual literature for the study. Chapter Four provided the research design of the study. Chapter Five discussed and analysed the research findings and Chapter Six presented the summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study. A survey questionnaire based on a five items Likert Scale and a semi-structured interview were used to collect data. The study was carried out in the Southern Region of Botswana in the Lobatse and Kanye Clusters of secondary schools. From both the literature reviews and the empirical research findings, it became clear that:  Teacher appraisal is a process and not an event;  The clarity of the purpose of the appraisal process is fundamental to its effectiveness;  The training of both the appraisees and appraisers on the appraisal process is crucial to its effectiveness;  Feedback is a sine qua non for the appraisal process to be effective. / Teacher Education / D.Ed. (Education Management)

This study is an evaluation of the effectiveness of the current teacher appraisal system as practised in Botswana secondary schools. The study sought to establish inter alia the relationship between the current teacher appraisal and the day to day duties of teachers, the extent to which it leads to improvements in the teaching and students' learning process, how it addresses the staff development needs of the teachers, and whether the mechanisms and procedures for the management and implementation of the appraisal system in the schools is adequate. Teacher appraisal was defined as a process of staff development aimed at the professional development of the teacher through collegial interaction in order to enhance the quality of teaching and students' learning. Other strategies to achieve the effectiveness were also discussed in the thesis. Chapter One of the thesis provided the orientation of the study, while Chapter Two looked at the international literature on appraisal, including two case studies on the introduction of teacher appraisal in Great Britain and the United States of America. Chapter Three provided the contextual literature for the study. Chapter Four provided the research design of the study. Chapter Five discussed and analysed the research findings and Chapter Six presented the summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study. A survey questionnaire based on a five items Likert Scale and a semi-structured interview were used to collect data. The study was carried out in the Southern Region of Botswana in the Lobatse and Kanye Clusters of secondary schools. From both the literature reviews and the empirical research findings, it became clear that:  Teacher appraisal is a process and not an event;  The clarity of the purpose of the appraisal process is fundamental to its effectiveness;  The training of both the appraisees and appraisers on the appraisal process is crucial to its effectiveness;  Feedback is a sine qua non for the appraisal process to be effective. / Teacher Education / D.Ed. (Education Management)

This research investigated the educational orientation of teacher educators in colleges of education in Botswana whether pedagogic or andragogic, and how they influence their educational practice. The methods of investigation were, a literature study of belief systems, andragogy and pedagogy as well as the nature of educational orientation, a survey of the educational orientation of teacher educators in Botswana using a structured Educational Orientation Questionnaire (EOQ) adopted from Hadley (Quam, 1998) and a semi-structured group interview to a stratified random sample of student teachers at two of the colleges of education. The results showed that most teacher educators in colleges of education in Botswana had a pedagogical rather than an andragogical orientation. They predominantly use educator-centred rather student-centred teaching methods. / Educational Studies / M Ed. (Didactics)

At every educational level reading is a powerful tool for academic success because it provides students with access to information. Comprehension is crucial to reading. Many students at Lobatse College of Education, Botswana, have problems comprehending L2 reading materials and thus struggle academically because English is the medium of instruction. To some extent, methods of teaching L2 reading contribute to students’ reading failure. It is said that how we teach is as important as what we teach. Thus, how L2 reading is taught is important for improving students’ understanding of texts and their L2 academic performance. This study focuses on teaching reading as a process which involves an application of reading strategies in order to facilitate comprehension of texts. The overall aim of the research is concerned with the improvement of methods of teaching L2 reading comprehension in Botswana Colleges of Education. The specific objective was to implement reading strategy instruction programme (RSI) to see what effect it would have on (i) on L2 students’ use of strategies during reading (ii) on L2 students’ reading comprehension, and (iii) on L2 students’ English academic performance. Using a quasi-experimental pre-posttest design, an explicit RSI programme was implemented over six-week period in a Botswana College of Education. Two intact cohorts of second-year teacher trainees were randomly assigned to a control and intervention groups. A reading strategy questionnaire and a reading comprehension test were used to examine the relationship between strategy use and level of comprehension. A discrepancy emerged between the self-reports responses of the participants and their actual performance in reading text. Although they claimed to be strategic readers the results suggested that they were not in fact reading strategically.The Cohen’s d analysis yielded a large effect size. This corroborates the significant differences that emerged between the two cohorts in their posttest comprehension results. The intervention group showed significant gains in strategy use and reading comprehension after the six-week intervention period. This suggests that even a short period of intervention can be beneficial to L2 students. However, these effects did not manifest themselves in the students’ English academic performance. This suggests that students need more exposure and more opportunities to practice applying strategies to texts that they read before the effect spill over into academic performance in general. The findings from this study have important implications for the teaching reading in Botswana in both L1 and L2 context. This research also point to further avenues for reading research in Botswana, and cautions against a reliance on questionnaire data alone in reading research; the triangulation of data is important to gain an accurate and deeper understanding of reading practices and reading performance. / Linguistics / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

This research investigated the educational orientation of teacher educators in colleges of education in Botswana whether pedagogic or andragogic, and how they influence their educational practice. The methods of investigation were, a literature study of belief systems, andragogy and pedagogy as well as the nature of educational orientation, a survey of the educational orientation of teacher educators in Botswana using a structured Educational Orientation Questionnaire (EOQ) adopted from Hadley (Quam, 1998) and a semi-structured group interview to a stratified random sample of student teachers at two of the colleges of education. The results showed that most teacher educators in colleges of education in Botswana had a pedagogical rather than an andragogical orientation. They predominantly use educator-centred rather student-centred teaching methods. / Educational Studies / M Ed. (Didactics)

At every educational level reading is a powerful tool for academic success because it provides students with access to information. Comprehension is crucial to reading. Many students at Lobatse College of Education, Botswana, have problems comprehending L2 reading materials and thus struggle academically because English is the medium of instruction. To some extent, methods of teaching L2 reading contribute to students’ reading failure. It is said that how we teach is as important as what we teach. Thus, how L2 reading is taught is important for improving students’ understanding of texts and their L2 academic performance. This study focuses on teaching reading as a process which involves an application of reading strategies in order to facilitate comprehension of texts. The overall aim of the research is concerned with the improvement of methods of teaching L2 reading comprehension in Botswana Colleges of Education. The specific objective was to implement reading strategy instruction programme (RSI) to see what effect it would have on (i) on L2 students’ use of strategies during reading (ii) on L2 students’ reading comprehension, and (iii) on L2 students’ English academic performance. Using a quasi-experimental pre-posttest design, an explicit RSI programme was implemented over six-week period in a Botswana College of Education. Two intact cohorts of second-year teacher trainees were randomly assigned to a control and intervention groups. A reading strategy questionnaire and a reading comprehension test were used to examine the relationship between strategy use and level of comprehension. A discrepancy emerged between the self-reports responses of the participants and their actual performance in reading text. Although they claimed to be strategic readers the results suggested that they were not in fact reading strategically.The Cohen’s d analysis yielded a large effect size. This corroborates the significant differences that emerged between the two cohorts in their posttest comprehension results. The intervention group showed significant gains in strategy use and reading comprehension after the six-week intervention period. This suggests that even a short period of intervention can be beneficial to L2 students. However, these effects did not manifest themselves in the students’ English academic performance. This suggests that students need more exposure and more opportunities to practice applying strategies to texts that they read before the effect spill over into academic performance in general. The findings from this study have important implications for the teaching reading in Botswana in both L1 and L2 context. This research also point to further avenues for reading research in Botswana, and cautions against a reliance on questionnaire data alone in reading research; the triangulation of data is important to gain an accurate and deeper understanding of reading practices and reading performance. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)

This study investigated the challenges English (as a second language) teachers face in primary schools. The objectives of the study were to identify particular challenges encountered by teachers of English as a second language to young learners and explore how training and development programmes can support teachers in meeting those challenges, describe the reading policies, where they are in place, of Letlhakane Primary Schools and devise solutions/ recommendations on how to tackle the challenges that teachers face in English reading. The sample for the study was drawn from the teachers serving at government primary schools. A sample of 30 teachers was purposively selected from three (3) primary schools identified as large in Letlhakane. The study adopted the following qualitative data collection strategies: focus group discussion, individual interviews and classroom observations. The findings revealed that there are many challenges that teachers face in teaching reading in the schools observed. Some of the challenges include exceptionally large numbers of children in class, limited time, lack of expertise in the teachers and shortage of materials and resources for teaching reading in English. The study recommends that class size be reduced, reading be made the main subject and timetabled, which will give it more time to be taught, teaching of reading must be introduced and made a compulsory course at all levels in colleges of education for primary school teachers. Teachers should be given regular in-service training in the teaching of reading. The Ministry of Basic Education should supply primary schools with the necessary materials for teaching reading and increase those that have a shortage of such resources. It is also recommended that building of libraries furnished with appropriate readers be done and the use of English as a language of instruction in all subjects except for Setswana should be started as early as in standard/grade 1. Reading policies should also be developed in schools so that teachers know what to do or follow when it comes to the teaching of reading. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)