This study set out to establish and record headteachers’ and teachers’ perceptions of the role of collegial teams in enhancing continuous instructional improvement. The concept collegial teams is based on the collegial model. The model advocates that for instructional improvement, teachers ought to work together as colleagues. The study began by investigating whether the participants had the basic understanding of collegial teams in the first place. It then established whether the teams exist in the selected schools. It proceeded to find out how these teams operate and whether they play any role in enhancing continuous instructional improvement. Furthermore, the study solicited respondents’ perceptions of the obstacles that hinder the operation of the teams. Lastly, the study made effort to obtain respondents’ recommendations on how best to improve the operation of the teams. This study has found that headteachers and teachers perceive collegial teams as playing a very significant role in enhancing continuous instructional improvement. The degree of the role was found to hinge on the headteacher’s attitude and support of the teams. These two elements in turn determined the degree of the teachers’ empowerment by the headteacher. Empowerment in this study is synonymous with treating teachers as professionals. Where empowerment prevailed, professional interaction arid collaboration tended to prevail also. The latter seem to result in the deepening of subject content and increasing diversification of teaching strategies as teachers work together zmd share ideas. The ultimate result of teachers’ working as colleagues was noticeable improvement in students’ performance. However, contextual factors tended to affect some teams negatively more than others apparently depending on each team’s ‘mastery’ of group dynamics. Finally, among others, two key recommendations were made; in school A, working on the master time- table in order to accommodate peer evaluation was recommended. In school B, it was recommended that teamwork be built on the good elements of the teacher assessment form over which teachers have no control.

The primary objectives of this study were to identify the professional vocational technical education competencies needed by Swaziland agricultural, commercial (business), home economics, and technical teachers; and to assess the teachers' perceived importance of and the perceived ability to perform these competencies. The study also sought to determine if differences existed as functions of the four teacher specialty groups (areas), levels of education, and years of teaching experience. The professional vocational technical education competencies were developed in two, one-day focus group workshops with Swaziland teacher educators, curriculum development specialists, and school senior inspectors (supervisors) from the four specialty groups (areas) of agricultural, commercial, home economics, and technical studies. The workshop results were a universe of 161 professional vocational technical education competencies needed by Swaziland secondary/high school vocational teachers. Data were collected via a mailed instrument to determine the teachers’ perceptions of the importance and ability to perform the 161 competencies. The respondents surveyed were a stratified, random sample of 191 teachers, composed of agricultural (57), commercial (54), home economics (40), and technical (40) studies. All questionnaires were returned. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and summarize the data. Measurement scales of importance and performance corresponding to the Likert scales utilized in the survey instrument were employed for data analysis purposes. Major findings were that teachers, regardless of specialty groups (areas), educational levels, and years teaching experience, agreed on the high importance of and a good ability to perform the 161 professional vocational technical education competencies needed to fulfill job expectations of secondary/high school vocational technical teachers. From these results, it was concluded that the professional vocational technical education competencies developed are needed by Swaziland teachers of agricultural, commercial, home economics, and technical studies. Hence, it was recommended that the developed competencies be adopted for inclusion in the teacher education programs, and that further study is needed to determine the more critical inservice needs of teachers. / Ph. D.

Attitudes to extensive reading have been shown to be crucial in the additional language (AL) learning classroom. Research seems to confirm that the affective domain – attitudes, motivations, interests and personal evaluations – is essential in a study of behaviour and practice in the AL classroom. The current study aims to find out what the reading attitudes and practices of students at a teacher training college are and explore whether there are significant relationships between the students’ reading attitudes and their reading ability, vocabulary skills and academic performance. It is in light of the above-mentioned quest that we seek to understand what reading attitudes are and what they entail. The ‘attitude’ construct is defined by Guthrie and Greaney (1991: 87) who state that people’s attitudes to reading are resultant from “perceptions” acquired from past reading experiences regarding how pleasurable and valuable reading is. It appears that positive reading outcomes assist in the development of a positive attitude, whereas negative outcomes of reading tend to discourage further ventures into reading, resulting in the development of a negative attitude (McKenna, Kear & Ellsworth, 1995: 941). / Educational Studies / M. A. (Applied Linguistics)

Attitudes to extensive reading have been shown to be crucial in the additional language (AL) learning classroom. Research seems to confirm that the affective domain – attitudes, motivations, interests and personal evaluations – is essential in a study of behaviour and practice in the AL classroom. The current study aims to find out what the reading attitudes and practices of students at a teacher training college are and explore whether there are significant relationships between the students’ reading attitudes and their reading ability, vocabulary skills and academic performance. It is in light of the above-mentioned quest that we seek to understand what reading attitudes are and what they entail. The ‘attitude’ construct is defined by Guthrie and Greaney (1991: 87) who state that people’s attitudes to reading are resultant from “perceptions” acquired from past reading experiences regarding how pleasurable and valuable reading is. It appears that positive reading outcomes assist in the development of a positive attitude, whereas negative outcomes of reading tend to discourage further ventures into reading, resulting in the development of a negative attitude (McKenna, Kear & Ellsworth, 1995: 941). / Educational Studies / M. A. (Applied Linguistics)

Teacher training is a significant and integral component of a sound education system. The need for quality programmes and relevantly qualified personnel cannot be overemphasised. Effective learning organisations result from good governance and strategic management. The purpose of this study was to determine how teacher training colleges (TTCs) in Swaziland could be transformed into effective Learning Organisations (LOs)? The following research questions guided the study. These were formulated as follows: What were the characteristics of effective learning organisations?; which factors had the potential for developing TTCs as learning organisations?; which factors restricted the TTCs in Swaziland from functioning as effective learning organizations? And how were TTCs in Swaziland governed and strategically managed? The study emanated from concerns raised for a number of years on the quality and relevancy of TTCs in Swaziland. Such concerns were noted by both the print and electronic media as well as members of the general public. The training programmes in TTCs have been widely criticized, particularly with regard to standards, quality and relevance of the training process in relation to meeting the nation and the global requirements. The study was qualitative and was underpinned by the interpretism research paradigm employing an ethnographic approach. The study was conducted in three selected teacher training colleges in Swaziland namely; the Nazarene College of Education and the William Pitcher Teacher Training College both based in the Manzini Region, and Ngwane Teachers’ College based in the Shiselweni Region. This study employed the purposive sampling procedure. Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was used for the data analysis process. The findings of the study revealed that participants felt that characteristics of effective LOs included the availability of both well qualified academic and specialized non academic staff, adequate and relevant infrastructure, dynamic, innovative and responsive curriculum, quality assurance checks and balances mechanisms, good libraries and IT facilities , sufficient funding and innovative leadership. Regarding the factors that have the potential for developing TTCs to LOs, participants felt that institutional support from TTC leaders, adherence to professional and institutional values, using of mistakes as learning curve rather than criticism, and serious engagement in learning by all members was of paramount significance. On the factors that restricted TTCs in Swaziland from functioning as effective LOs, the study revealed that these included cumbersome bureaucracy, lack of rewards and incentives for staff members, poor mobility structures, poor promotion formula as well as lack of recognition for professional development or academic achievements. Regarding the manner in which TTCs are governed and strategically managed, the study revealed that this was characterized by a centralized, top down, weak unresponsive governance system seriously lacking autonomy, long and confusing bureaucracy, unresponsive and cumbersome procurement procedures. The conclusion was that the Government needs to restructure the governance and management systems of TTCs. The country should consider granting autonomy especially in the procurement processes. The promotion of staff in TTCs must be based on academic achievements and the Government needs to recognize the significance of giving rewards and incentive to here employees. For transformation to occur in TTCs there is need for college lecturers to adapt to change and for leaders to disseminate vital information to staff members all the time. The study concluded by developing a strategic management model to guide the development governance, management and operations of TTCs in Swaziland and their subsequent transformation to effective LOs. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)