This study used diagnostic tests, questionnaires and interviews to investigate explore teachers’ subject content knowledge (SCK) and pedagogical subject knowledge (PCK). It also explored teachers’ and learners’ misconceptions within the topic of graphicacy and how teachers’ SCK and PCK possibly affect learner achievement. A small sample of teachers were drawn from the Keiskammahoek region; a deep rural area of the Eastern Cape. These teachers were part of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Amathole Cluster Schools Project who were registered for a three-year BEd (FET) in-service programme in mathematics education. As part of the programme they studied mathematics 1 and 2 at university level and received quarterly non-formal workshops on teaching mathematics at FET level. The findings of this study suggest that teachers with insufficient SCK will probably have limited PCK, although the two are not entirely dependent on each other. In cases where teachers’ displayed low levels of SCK and PCK, their learners were more likely to perform poorly and their results often indicated similar misconceptions as displayed by their teachers. This implies that we have to look at what teachers know and what they need to know in terms of SCK and PCK if we are to plan effectively for effective teacher development aimed at improving learner performance.

The purpose of the study was to assess the implementation of peer academic support programmes which are Language and Writing Advancement and Supplemental Instruction programmes in one University in South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative approach that used face-to-face interviews, focus group interviews and document analysis to collect data. Purposive sampling was used to select those who participated in the study. The participants were two coordinators of the programmes, ten facilitators working in the programmes for in-depth interviews and ten students who have been receiving services from the programmes for two focus group discussions. The study revealed that there was a general trend whereby peer facilitators of the programmes were recruited and trained. However, it was found that some facilitators abandoned the position immediately after the training which made it difficult for coordinators and Human Resource Staff (HR) to start the process of recruitment and retraining. In this regard, Teaching and Learning Centre, (TLC) and HR simply appointed other untrained facilitators to replace those who had deserted the positions. Also, some facilitators were unable to attend some of the regular trainings because of clashes with their classes. All these have a negative impact on the implementation of the programmes. The results also reveal that some of the facilitators were frustrated with students’ poor attendance in the sessions, and even those who attended their sessions, did not participate much in the discussions. It was found that most lecturers and students did not know the differences between supplemental instruction (SI) and tutorials. Neither did lecturers encourage their students to seek help from the TLC services. Reviewing of assignments from different disciplines by TLC facilitators was another burning issue that came up. Some facilitators reviewed assignments from different disciplines, because the disciplines were not represented and this is because they want to claim for more hours, which affects the quality of the programmes. The findings also show that some students did not like to take their assignment to the TLC for review because facilitators make unnecessary and harsh comments. On the contrary, some students acknowledged that they were fine with the way facilitators review assignments because it involves one-on-one consultation, and they always pass the assignments reviewed by PASS facilitators. The study also revealed that the coordinators monitored and evaluated facilitators through observation and the checking of attendance registers. Coordinators ware also monitored by senior colleagues of the department such as the manager of the TLC. Furthermore TLC has instituted a mentorship programme whereby senior facilitators mentor newly recruited facilitators. However not every facilitator had a mentor. The study also exposed the fact that the TLC venue was usually closed during examination periods to allow facilitators to prepare for their examinations. The findings show that some departments were not represented by facilitators and to remedy this situation, it is recommended that all departments be represented and lecturers encourage the students to get help from TLC. Most facilitators were undergraduate students, but they needed to be replaced by post graduates who did not have course work that will clash with PASS activities. The strategies used by facilitators were fairly good but more should be done to encourage students to participate in sessions. Finally, the monitoring and support mechanisms put in place were very functional but the TLC should make sure every facilitator is being monitored especially concerning the review of assignments. The significance of the findings of this study cannot be overemphasised. The strengths and challenges regarding the implementation of these programmes at this particular university have been revealed. Through the recommendations, it is hoped that the institution and the TLC would effect some changes in the implementation of these peer academic support programmes in order to better serve the students so as to achieve satisfactory throughput and retention rates.

Feedback has an important role to play in the performance of learners. This study looks to identify the challenges that the learners are faced with when the teachers provide them with feedback and the ways they would like like it to be used in order to see feedback assisting them in their learning and improve their performance. Feedback contributes a lot to assessment and has a close link with performance. The study used the qualitative approach to identify the challenges the learners experience when they receive the feedback from their teachers. The participants were sampled from grade 12 learners in the form of a focus group (seven to ten per school) and individual respondents. The method used semi-structured interviews and portfolio observations to collect the data from two high schools in East London (EL) district to look at the nature of the feedback provided to learners. The data was later analysed and interpreted. It has been identified that for both schools feedback conveyed certain messages to learners such motivation to do better, a need to do better and, lastly, affirmation that the learners are on the right track or they are neglected and left to figure out how to do the tasks. The study discovered that, according to Hattie and Timperley (2007)’ there are four levels of feedback. It was found that for the task level learners from school A mainly received oral feedback which was often seen as denigrating them; however, in school B learners received both the oral and written feedback. They felt that the feedback assisted them to understand the task at hand. They also saw this as a way of building up their confidence in all the tasks they come across. Secondly, in the process level, learners in school A did not report receiving feedback at this level but only oral feedback which does not show their mistakes step by step in the task, yet in school B they reported that they got feedback from their teacher individually to help them understand the task. Thirdly, for the self regulation level, in school A there was no data to confirm this. Regarding school B, learners were being assisted by the feedback they received from their teacher and this caused them to monitor their progress. The fourth and last level is the self or personal evaluation where in school A learners were not able to evaluate themselves because they did not receive written feedback, whereas in school B learners could do that freely referring to the written comments from their teacher. The research therefore concluded that in one of the schools the four levels that the study was looking at were not all addressed and thus no meaningful feedback was given. For school B the teacher gave them the feedback which has contributed a lot in their learning. The study recommends that feedback should not be used for right or wrong answers but it must also state clearly why the learner has obtained such mark or grade and what to do to correct the wrongs. Teachers should consider that learner errors also assist them to have a broader picture on what more they need to do in their subjects. It is also recommended that teachers should consider various strategies in giving feedback and the learners’ work has to be monitored timeously for the purpose of the learning process. Lastly, a good approach when feedback is provided is also important because it builds high self-esteem and develops the teacher-learner approach accordingly.

M.Cur. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. (Education) / South-Africa is on the verge of a new lifestyle, a new way of thinking and doing. The task thrust upon the teacher of today for preparing the adults of the future, is therefore a very important one. But the present teachers are not going to be there for ever, new teachers are entering the educational system all the time. The preparation of these new teachers is the focus of this study. Students qualifying as teachers need to undergo a programme of preparation to be professionally acceptable. The course of this study is both theoretical and practical. The student must have a fundamental knowledge of children, as well as the subject . matter that they must make fundamental for the children. If they know the child, and they know the subject matter, they should also be capable of conveying this knowledge successful]y to the child. This is a complex action that cannot be done only with knowledge from a book or books, but must be practised during the preparation of the students, otherwise no help can be given to the student. This is where practice teaching plays a very important role. The importance of practice teaching cannot be underestimated. The preparation of teachers may not be only theoretical or only practical, but an integration of the two aspects. With the theoretical foundation, the students set Qut for practice teaching. At the schools they interact with other teachers and with children, and prepare lessons to present to their supervisors. This is where different points of view occur over what really happened during the lesson, how the ,practice lesson should have been presented and how the student should have been evaluated on his performance. Lots of students do not think that these practice les80ns are worth while and the whole idea of practice teaching is lost. To counteract this negative feeling from students, research was done to determine which problems students experience during practice teaching. Some procedures have been identified as problems, and some procedures not. The feelings of the students were noted and the handling of practice teaching by all parties was investigated. To ensure that practice teaching has a profound impact on students, a form to evaluate the students was designed. This form aims to set aside some subjective measures that may result in negative attitudes by students. The evaluation forms of some universities and colleges have been evaluated to find a way of trying to motivate students through the process of evaluation during practice teaching.

D.Phil. (Curriculum Studies) / The three-year long study (2008-2010) highlights the conceptual and practical challenges in providing professional teacher development that is research-driven. It aimed to develop teachers‟ understanding of how they could use their individual interpretation and translation of the concepts and underlying principles of the content they were teaching as a resource or foundation for their own professional development. The study involved three schools in the North West province of South Africa. It investigated a research approach that was used with English First Additional language (EFAL) teachers (N=9) to initiate a self-driven professional development model. The study adopted a participatory action research (PAR) approach to elicit the teachers‟ voices about their teaching and experience of the research process. Classroom observations, stimulated recall discussions and focus groups were employed. While teachers were interested in the research process they still indicated difficulties in engaging in a self-reflective process that required them to problematise their taken-for-granted professional beliefs and practices. The finding amongst others is that teachers could not refer directly to the theories on additional bilingualism that ought to have informed their teaching unless researchers engaged them in deliberations that were not self-sacrificing or professionally threatening. For them to be willing to reveal tacit beliefs and values and expose themselves in a process of self-explanation requires „empathetic neutrality‟ from researchers. Consequently, to understand how teachers experience and understand their teaching the study had to adopt a broader view of competence that was not restricted to their practice. The argument in the study is that the type of competence that would be consistent with the logic of the Revsed National Curriculum Statement (RNCS) is an integrated/complex model of competence, underpinned by excellence and rational decision-making and based on moral and ethical values The school-based study provided teachers with a platform in which their voices and practices witnessed were meaningful resources for their professional development. It highlights a strategy that may be useful for promoting self-initiated professional development.

M.A (Linguistics) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

MA (English) / Department of English

A research submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Education / It is increasingly becoming important for students to have a good command of technology for them to succeed at higher institutions of learning (Calderhead, 2011; Brown & Czerniewicz, 2010). However, there are still inequalities that exist in democratic South Africa. This may challenge the academic performance of students from various backgrounds who come to the university with a lower level of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills. This study investigated the first-year university students’ perceptions and experience, attitude and intention to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to access learning at the University. Nine Thousand One Hundred and Ninety-Five (9195) first year university students were involved in the study. The researcher used a quantitative method research design, followed by qualitative findings which were used to complement the quantitative results. Even though most first-year students had a positive attitude towards the use of technology at the university, the majority of students did not feel self-efficacious in the use of personal computers (PC) and online tools. Therefore, as means to get a better understanding of each student’s skill set, an ICT competency test was administered. Students who did not pass this competency test were required to attend digital literacy training. Many students lacked the confidence to even attempt the test and opted to sign up for computer literacy training. About 70 % of the students who participated in the test before training scored below the set score of 80%. The researcher and team, then provided them with Digital Skills for Students training including skill sets for the university’s Learning Management System (LMS). After we trained the students, we again administered the post-test to observe if there were any changes. The post-test showed a significant average increase of 30 % in students’ ICT competency skills. It, therefore, became clear that inasmuch as today’s first-year university students are known as digital natives, they still require the training on digital tools for them to succeed at the university. The results also indicate that these students gained positive attitudes after acquiring digital skills for learning, altering their perceptions of technological knowledge. The usefulness of these digital tools, as well as ease of access, are significant predictors of student’s acceptance and intention to use ICT for learning. / NG (2020)

Bibliography: pages 167-177. / Accompanied by: Faizal's journey : discovering the past through objects. / The topic of this dissertation developed out of the 1980s era of resistance to Apartheid. At that time, mass-campaigns produced the concept of People's Education, which challenged established State-structures. People's Education was based on participatory democracy and drew on communities' knowledge rather than state-sanctioned knowledge. The concept of People's Archaeology is a product of that time-period. It focuses on involving communities in the practice of archaeology, beyond the stage of consultation. Within the forthcoming election process, Black communities are to be empowered politically and this empowerment has, in other countries seen an accompanying growth in concerns about identity, cultural property and ownership. I argue that identity politics will be crucial in the future South African society and that archaeology will play an important role in this debate. The discipline faces transformation in the coming decade and education will be critical in this change. In this dissertation I contend that past attempts at popular education in archaeology have had very limited success. Archaeology still remains a discipline unknown to the majority of South Africans. This dissertation explores the reasons for the limited success of these attempts by critically examining the structure of the discipline in South Africa, and the perception that it creates to the public. It also goes further by exploring an alternative to these efforts at popular education through the use of principles and methods developed in People's Education. This project takes the debate about People's Archaeology beyond theory and attempts to implement some of the ideas through two projects, one dealing with an excavation, the other focusing on the production of a popular resource. I explore the pitfalls and benefits of these projects and make recommendations concerning the future of the discipline.