D.Cur. / The midwife is the pivot around whom training activities in midwifery revolve. Her knowledge and skill form an inseparable part of the effectiveness of her practice. The external and internal environment of the midwife play a vital role regarding the demands placed upon her. The internal and external environment of the midwife is dynamic, and change continually. The external environment in the past ten years has undergone marked changes: health policy has changed; legal-ethical changes have occurred; the roles of the private sector and fee-for-service practitioners have changed; a new government with other objectives has placed the emphasis on new needs at professional and lay levels. These changes place new demands on the midwife's practice. Because the internal and external environments are in interaction, changes in the internal environment are continually being made, for example the knowledge and competency required by the midwife must continuously be improved so that she can comply with the new demands in her practice. The training of the midwife ought to be such that she is adequately equipped to fulfil the demands set by practice. The goal of this study is: an exploration and description of the knowledge and skill required by the midwife to be able to accept her responsibility in the new health care service of South Africa and set guidelines for the basic training of midwife who is to function independently.

The value of frogs is compared to the value of canaries used in coalmines: they are indicators of the environmental status of our environments, thus crucial to our survival. One third of all frogs worldwide are threatened with extinction. Frogs are found in our immediate environment. Are our Natural Science educators, teaching the Life and Living curriculum aware of this threat, the possible impact that the extinction of frogs will have on our welfare? Are our educators making use of the resources in their immediate environment? This study aimed to investigate the prior knowledge in both the horizontal and vertical discourse, in Grade7 learners and their educators, to inform the design of an amphibian resource pack. By investigating their prior knowledge an insight would be gained in their knowledge of Natural Science concepts as well as their everyday knowledge of their immediate natural environment. It would also highlight any misconceptions formed as well as alternative concepts within both educator and learner groups. These insights would be used to inform the contents of said resource pack.

Writing skills is are an essential requirement to lifelong learner success yet the way teachers teach and provide feedback to their learners on writing is quite challenging. This study sought to explore the teaching strategies to improve writing skills as an essential requirement for effective learning in schools for grade 8 and 9 learners in English First Additional Language. For people living in the townships and rural areas in South Africa, exposure to English is limited, because the majority of people communicate with each other in local languages. With teachers and learners residing in the townships where communication occurs mostly in isiXhosa, problems in language proficiency, in particular writing in English First Additional Language, are often encountered not only by the learners, but by educators as well. This was a case study of four high schools in the Cradock Education District. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight participants in the four schools. There were eight main findings, which are as follows: Lack of support for teachers, lack of a culture of learning amongst learners, and lack of competence in English for both learners and parents, which need to be addressed; and strategies proposed to improve writing skills are: the importance of creative writing; regular feedback and the importance of drafts.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education, September 2018 / Access to mathematical concepts has for long been a major talking point, not only in South Africa, but throughout the world. Sadly, debate on ways of assisting learners to improve their understanding of mathematical concepts appear not to be yielding desirable results. One of the major barriers to effective and meaningful mathematics learning is errors which usually arise from misconceptions. To my knowledge and experience, learners hold a lot of misconceptions in the area of variability of data. In spite of this, little ground has been covered in misconception research around the study of statistics. In this regard, the study aimed at establishing the nature of errors which arise from misconceptions which learners hold particularly in representing and interpreting variability of data on ogives, frequency polygons and box plots. In addition, the study sought to establish the extent to which teaching intervention could assist towards error minimisation. Using ideas of constructivism and sociocultural theory, the study involved a group of eighteen Grade 11 learners and the researcher. It was conducted at a township high school in Gauteng, South Africa. The researcher was involved in the delivery of ten lessons on statistics. Upon completion of the topic, two tasks were assigned to learners prior to as well as after conducting a constructivist-based intervention lesson. The rationale for conducting the lesson was to determine the extent to which remediation could assist in minimising incidences of these errors. In order to capture as much data as possible, particularly on the thinking behind the errors, an interview was conducted on a sample of four learners. The study found that most errors made by learners emanated from application of irrelevant prior knowledge (conceptual errors) which led to the use of unsuitable methods (procedural errors). Through interviews, it emerged that misconceptions in the study of statistics arise from poor language proficiency. Learners struggled to express themselves in giving verbal responses to questions posed to them by the interviewer. The study recommends that teachers should always use the language of teaching and learning all the time so as to enable learners to improve their communication skills as well as enhance understanding of statistical concepts. Moreover, this study recommends that future studies be carried out on the statistical content knowledge of teachers as this could be yet another source of misconceptions held by learners in statistics. / XL2019

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Masters Degree in Technology : Operations and Quality Management - Durban University of Technology, 2014 / The study has been influenced by the experience of the researcher in inclusive education. In inclusive education, the educator is required to respond to the diverse individual needs of the learners. Since 1994, the education system has been continually changing, resulting in challenges. A number of policy documents have been published which provide scope for transformation and restructuring in education. The policy on inclusive education has resulted in major challenges in the classroom. This inclusive education policy document states that learners who experience barriers to learning should be accommodated in the mainstream school. The aim of this study was to evaluate the challenges of inclusive education in a mainstream school on the quality of teaching and learning. Primary data was collected for this study using a survey method. A questionnaire consisting of thirty items was used to gather the needed information from all foundation phase educators from fourteen selected schools in the eThekwini region of KwaZulu-Natal province. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. Conclusions and recommendations were thereafter drawn from the literature and the findings of the study. The study shows that the general knowledge of the respondents about inclusive education and barriers to learning are somewhat narrow. Most of the respondents have a negative attitude towards inclusive education, which can be attributed to lack of skills and the fact that inclusive education is still in its infancy stage in South Africa. It can be inferred that many of the schools are under-resourced and the implementation of inclusive education would be difficult under these conditions. The success of inclusive education is dependent on quality teacher education and training. A substantial effort is required to successfully implement the paradigm shift towards inclusive education and change the attitude of educators.

Since the advent of democracy in 1994, there have been several turning points in South African education. One of the key changes has been the conception of Social Sciences (SS) – a learning area under the National Curriculum Statement of 2002. The structure of SS has undergone a significant change with regard to evolving from Human and Social Sciences (HSS) to its current state – SS. The DoE claims that the SS curriculum is the result of integration – a concept which has been widely accepted in the international community. The aim of this study was to investigate the views and pedagogy of SS teachers with reference to the concept of integration. I engaged in qualitative research and employed the interpretivist paradigm when analysing my data. Research instruments included semi-structured interviews, a picture identification session and a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of key SS policy documents which inform SS pedagogy. Data were analysed through the method of open-coding. The study concluded that integration has a multitude of meanings, and the conceptualisation and implementation of it differs from teacher to teacher. Integration has now become a generic concept which can be applied to socio-political, economic, educational and environmental spheres of the SS curriculum. For this reason I argue that the SS curriculum may not be foregrounded by the concept of integration, but rather an alternate disciplinary collaboration/s such as interdisciplinarity, pluridisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity. The different disciplinary collaborations has been investigated and applied to the SS curriculum within the South African educational context. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.

Thesis (Dtech( Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / The study focused on teacher education in South African universities. The major purpose was to examine how teacher educators in South African universities prepared teacher education students for teaching and learning within a context of quality. It is important to start with quality teachers before being able to speak about quality education because "you cannot give what you do not have" (Parliamentary Monitoring Group of South Africa, 2009:3).Consistent with the postmodern qualitative paradigm I used phenomenology as the strategy of research. The main epistemological assumption was that the way of knowing reality was through exploring the experiences of others regarding a specific phenomenon, in this case teaching and learning of teacher education students. To this end the stories, experiences and voices of the respondents were the medium through which I explored and understood reality embedded in the teaching and learning of teacher education students.The research sites included four Faculties of Education nationally. Purposive sampling was conducted to adequately capture the heterogeneity of institutions especially of those faculties that offer Initial Professional Education for Teachers (IPET) programmes.Purposive sampling was also used to select both students and lecturers because respondents were selected on the basis of some defining characteristic that made them holders of the data needed for the study.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of South Africa, 2002.

M. Tech. Education / The study was aimed at finding out the reasons why Grade 9 learners lack interest in studying Accounting in the General Education and Training (GET) band, at selected Soshanguve schools in Tshwane North District (D3). Kunene (2008:3) asserts that teaching the subject Accounting should equip learners with the knowledge and skill they need to cope with the demands of the workplace and the pace of change in the real world. Bloch (2012:1) shares the view that teachers should be in the front line and have to lead the new liberation struggle of knowledge and skills for economic and social cohesion.

Thesis (MCurr)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Scientific evidence based practices are essential to efficient health service delivery. Continuous education to Master’s Degree level is the springboard to future research projects, but the throughput of Master’s Degree students is however a concern. The poor attainment rate of Master’s Degree in nursing delays improvement in evidence based nursing practices and impedes the availability of academia. This study aimed to identify factors that influence the throughput of Master’s Degree nursing students in a distance education programme at a university in South Africa. The objective was to identify influencing factors related to • the individual • the Higher Education Institution • the employer A non-experimental, descriptive research design was applied with a quantitative approach. The target population was all the enrolled Master’s Degree Nursing students between 2004 and 2010 at the university under study. A structured electronic questionnaire was implemented for data collection. The questionnaire was presented to (n = 201) with a response rate of (n = 46/23%). Ethical approval was obtained from Stellenbosch University to conduct this study. Permission was obtained from the university under study to utilize the contact details on the data base of the target population. Reliability and validity was assured by two pilot studies to test the instrument and the use of experts in nursing research, methodology and statistics. The electronic instrument allowed automatic data capturing. The collected data was archived in the accessed controlled electronic data surveys pool of Stellenbosch University. Data analysis was done with the support of a statistician and was expressed as frequencies and in tables. Descriptive statistics and tests for statistical associations were also performed. The individual related outcomes showed that respondents had a mean age of 42 years and (n = 22/48%) had 21 to 40 years experience as a professional nurse. The majority of respondents were female (n = 45/98%) and married (n = 30/54%). Results indicated that the management of family and studies was not easy (n = 30/65%), but respondents experienced their family as an effective support (n = 37/80%) during their studies. Respondents who left their studies indicated the main reason to be a lack of a supporting network (n = 7/19%). Impeding factor results from the Higher Education Institution showed that WebCT was not an effective communication instrument (n = 19/42%) and (n = 22/48%) respondents had difficulty to access their supervisors. Enhancing factors related to study outcomes that were easy to comprehend (n = 39/85%) and efficiency of face-to-face workshops (n = 21/88%) provided support. All the respondents were employed at the time of study (n = 46/100%). Results showed that service demands were the reason why (n = 4/11%) non-completing respondents left their studies. Employers required from (n = 22/48%) respondents to do overtime during their studies. Employer demands influenced the studies of (n = 16/65%) respondents. In conclusion, this study showed specific factors that influence the throughput of Master’s Degree in Nursing students at the university under study. Recommendations were made to influence policy makers and stakeholders to reconsider their present practices regarding continuous education and support to their clients. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wetenskaplikgefundeerde uitkomsgebaseerde praktyke is noodsaakik vir doeltreffende gesondheidsdienslewering. Voortgesette onderrig tot die vlak van ’n Magistergraad is die vertrekpunt vir toekomstige navorsingsprojekte, maar die voltooiing van Magistergrade is egter ‘n bekommernis. Die gebrekkige verwerwing van Meestersgrade in Verpleegkunde het nie net ’n sleureffek op die verbetering van uitkomsgebaseerde verpleegpraktyke nie, dit strem ook die beskikbaarheid van akademici. Die studie het ten doel gehad om faktore te identifiseer wat die voltooiing van die Magistergraad in Verpleegkunde vir studente van die afstandsonderrigprogram, aan ‘n universiteit in Suid-Afrika, beïnvloed. Die doelwit behels die identifisering van faktore wat te make het met • die individu • die Hoëronderwys Instansie • die werkgewer ’n Nie–eksperimentele, beskrywende navorsingsontwerp met ’n kwantitatiewe benadering is gevolg. Die teikengroep is al die ingeskrewe Magisterstudente in Verpleegkunde tussen 2004 en 2010 aan die teiken-universiteit. ’n Gestruktureerde elektroniese-vraelys is gebruik vir dataversameling. Die vraelys is aangebied aan (n = 201) kandidate en ‘n (n = 46/23%) voltooiingrespons is verkry. Etiese goedkeuring om die studie te doen is van die Universiteit Stellenbosch verkry. Toestemming is ook van die teiken-universiteit verkry om die kontakbesonderhede van die teikenbevolking vanuit die databasis te benut. Betroubaarheid en geldigheid is deur twee loodsstudies verseker en vakkundiges in verpleegnavorsing, metodologie en statistiek is betrek by die studie. Die elektroniese instrument het voorsiening gemaak vir outomatiese datavaslegging met voltooiing. Die versamelde data is in die toegangsbeheerde elektroniese-navorsingsdatabank van die Universiteit Stellenbosch geberg. Die data is ontleed met die hulp van ‘n statistikus en is as frekwensies en tabelle weergegee. Beskrywende statistiek en toetse vir statistiese verhoudings is ook uitgevoer. Die bevindings rakende die individu dui daarop die gemiddelde ouderdom van deelnemers 42 jaar was en dat (n = 22/45%) tussen 21 en 40 jaar ervaring as professionele verpleegkundiges het. Die meeste van die deelnemers was vroulik (n = 45/98%) en getroud (n = 30/54%). Bevindings toon dat die hantering van familie en studies nie maklik was nie (n = 30/65%), maar deelnemers het egter hul familie as goeie ondersteuning (n = 37/80%) gedurende hul studies beleef. Deelnemers wat hul studies gestaak het, het as die hoofrede ’n gebrek aan ‘n ondersteuningsnetwerk aangevoer (n = 7/19%). Bevindings wat verwys na stremmende faktore van die Hoëronderwysinstelling hou verband met WebCT wat ondoeltreffend was as kommunikasie-instrument (n = 19/42%) en studieleiers wat moeilik deur deelnemers bereik kon word (n = 22/48%). Versterkende faktore was verwant aan studiedoelwitte wat maklik verstaanbaar was (n = 39/85%) en die ondersteuningsukses van aangesig tot aangesig werkswinkels (n = 21/88%). Al die deelnemers was in diens tydens hul studie (n = 46/100%). Bevindings toon dat diensverwagtinge die rede was waarom (n = 4/11%) deelnemers hul studies gestaak het. Werkgewers het van (n = 22/48%) deelnemers verwag om oortyd te werk tydens hul studies terwyl (n = 16/65%) deelnemers aangedui het dat hul studies beïnvloed was deur hul werkgewer se eise. Ten slotte, hierdie studie het getoon dat spesifieke faktore die voltooiing van Magisterstudies in Verpleegkunde aan die teiken-universiteit beïnvloed. Aanbevelings is gemaak om beleidmakers en belangegroepe te beïnvloed om hul bestaande praktyke rakende voortgesette onderrig en ondersteuning aan hul kliënte te heroorweeg.