The concept of parental involvement has been viewed as an ideal style of leadership and management for school development purposes. In South Africa’s case, it is an educational policy which is expected to reign in all school management bodies. Many theorists envisaged parental involvement as enhancing active involvement of parents and it has been advocated by many scholars who believe it is the best leadership style in implementing democratic values to education, particularly South African rural education, which is still in a transitional stage. The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the extent to which parents contribute towards education of their children. This study involved transformative case study as a research design at one rural school in Waterberg district in South Africa. This research employed three data collection techniques, namely semi-structured interviews, focus groups and document analysis. When formal education was introduced in South Africa schools it was regarded as exceptional environment for teachers, school administrators and learners. To a large extent, parents and the communities regarded themselves as something outside of the education system. The main findings of this study revealed that there is a lack of joint understanding and shared vision between educators and parents in the School Governing Body. This problem underpins other more symptomatic problems, such as lack of accountability in the matter of school finances, differences in understanding the roles of School Board members and lack of parents’ motivation from the school management. It highlighted some of the challenges that hinder the effective involvement of parents in rural school governance, such as poor educational background among parents. The study has also revealed challenges and consequences of non-parental involvement in school governance. The conclusion that could be drawn from the study is that in schools where parent-community involvement is highly visible, teacher effectiveness is apparent and this contributed significantly to the improvement of learner performance while in schools where parent-community involvement is non-existent or minimal, the result is the opposite. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The aversion to the study of mathematics and the resultant poor performance by students generally cannot be overemphasized and this still poses a great threat to the needed skills in the science, technology and commerce sector in South Africa. This study therefore tends to explore the importance of Mathematics to students and the economy globally by focusing on which contributive psychological factors are responsible for low performance in mathematics among Pre degree students as a case study. In addition also, the teaching and learning strategies used in the classroom that will help curb mathematics anxiety among students will be looked into. Furthermore a test to ascertain if poor teaching methods or pedagogical content knowledge of mathematics’ teachers influence anxiety thereby leading to poor performance in mathematics will be carried out. By utilizing a mixed method approach, an integration of the qualitative and quantitative approaches, the study attempted to provide an insight into the poor performances in Mathematics by Pre-degree students in a Private Institution of higher learning by exploring the following affective domains: 1) Anxiety 2) Motivation (lack of either the Internal & External type) and also considering the teaching strategies adopted on the other hand. The theoretical framework applied to this study was three fold in nature, namely, to investigate the nature of the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement on one side, secondly, to investigate the nature of the relationship between motivational orientation and mathematics achievement on the other side. Finally, it will investigate the relationship between teaching methods and mathematics achievement. The major findings that emanated from this study were as follows: there is a strong impact of the affective factors (anxiety, beliefs, emotions and motivation) on mathematics learning and success rates among Pre-degree students in South Africa. This study shows the importance of affective factors (such as anxiety, negative attitude, lack of motivation) in determining the success and or failure of mathematics learning, with the intention of promoting and encouraging positive traits, attitudes and beliefs in the students. The issue of teaching strategies was however not of a strong impact on success rates in bridging mathematics among the students as their lecturers were commended to be on top of their subject, but only that strategies to teaching mathematics must be dynamic, effective and varied as much as possible to meeting the students diverse learning styles . / Mathematics Education / M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)

The concept of parental involvement has been viewed as an ideal style of leadership and management for school development purposes. In South Africa’s case, it is an educational policy which is expected to reign in all school management bodies. Many theorists envisaged parental involvement as enhancing active involvement of parents and it has been advocated by many scholars who believe it is the best leadership style in implementing democratic values to education, particularly South African rural education, which is still in a transitional stage. The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the extent to which parents contribute towards education of their children. This study involved transformative case study as a research design at one rural school in Waterberg district in South Africa. This research employed three data collection techniques, namely semi-structured interviews, focus groups and document analysis. When formal education was introduced in South Africa schools it was regarded as exceptional environment for teachers, school administrators and learners. To a large extent, parents and the communities regarded themselves as something outside of the education system. The main findings of this study revealed that there is a lack of joint understanding and shared vision between educators and parents in the School Governing Body. This problem underpins other more symptomatic problems, such as lack of accountability in the matter of school finances, differences in understanding the roles of School Board members and lack of parents’ motivation from the school management. It highlighted some of the challenges that hinder the effective involvement of parents in rural school governance, such as poor educational background among parents. The study has also revealed challenges and consequences of non-parental involvement in school governance. The conclusion that could be drawn from the study is that in schools where parent-community involvement is highly visible, teacher effectiveness is apparent and this contributed significantly to the improvement of learner performance while in schools where parent-community involvement is non-existent or minimal, the result is the opposite. / Educational Leadership and Management / M. Ed. (Education Management)

The aversion to the study of mathematics and the resultant poor performance by students generally cannot be overemphasized and this still poses a great threat to the needed skills in the science, technology and commerce sector in South Africa. This study therefore tends to explore the importance of Mathematics to students and the economy globally by focusing on which contributive psychological factors are responsible for low performance in mathematics among Pre degree students as a case study. In addition also, the teaching and learning strategies used in the classroom that will help curb mathematics anxiety among students will be looked into. Furthermore a test to ascertain if poor teaching methods or pedagogical content knowledge of mathematics’ teachers influence anxiety thereby leading to poor performance in mathematics will be carried out. By utilizing a mixed method approach, an integration of the qualitative and quantitative approaches, the study attempted to provide an insight into the poor performances in Mathematics by Pre-degree students in a Private Institution of higher learning by exploring the following affective domains: 1) Anxiety 2) Motivation (lack of either the Internal & External type) and also considering the teaching strategies adopted on the other hand. The theoretical framework applied to this study was three fold in nature, namely, to investigate the nature of the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement on one side, secondly, to investigate the nature of the relationship between motivational orientation and mathematics achievement on the other side. Finally, it will investigate the relationship between teaching methods and mathematics achievement. The major findings that emanated from this study were as follows: there is a strong impact of the affective factors (anxiety, beliefs, emotions and motivation) on mathematics learning and success rates among Pre-degree students in South Africa. This study shows the importance of affective factors (such as anxiety, negative attitude, lack of motivation) in determining the success and or failure of mathematics learning, with the intention of promoting and encouraging positive traits, attitudes and beliefs in the students. The issue of teaching strategies was however not of a strong impact on success rates in bridging mathematics among the students as their lecturers were commended to be on top of their subject, but only that strategies to teaching mathematics must be dynamic, effective and varied as much as possible to meeting the students diverse learning styles . / Mathematics Education / M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)