Magister Educationis - MEd / Writing is an important aspect of language learning and a tool for assessment in Basic and Higher Education across the globe. Learners need to acquire proficient writing skills to learn and to demonstrate their knowledge and creativity. Given the importance of creative writing in expressing one’s thoughts, emotions and imagination, this study sought to investigate how creative writing was taught through the medium of English First Additional Language (FAL) to Grade 9 learners in one primary school in the Western Cape province. It also sought to observe and analyse the teaching strategies employed by teachers in creative writing to Grade 9 learners who were isiXhosa home language speakers, and who were taught all the subjects (except isiXhosa language) through the medium of English (FAL).

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Vid ombyggnad av Östermalms Saluhall är ett förslag att tilläggsisolera taket, då ställs det kulturhistoriska värdet av byggnaden mot ombyggnadskraven i BBR. Idag gäller samma krav vid nybyggnad som vid ombyggnad av en byggnad. Det kan därför uppstå tvister vid ombyggnaden av saluhallen, då det är svårt att samtidigt uppfylla nybyggnads- och ombyggnadskrav på de delar som ska ändras. De delar på saluhallen som studerats är två takdetaljer och de projekteras och analyseras byggtekniskt, kulturvärdesmässigt och lagmässigt. Det kulturhistoriska värdet hotas vid ombyggnation, men samtidigt vill Stockholms stad energieffektivisera byggnaden så gott det går. Studien handlar därför om hur man på bästa sätt ska kunna energieffektivisera byggnaden och följa de ombyggnationskrav som finns utan att förvanska byggnaden. / At the rebuilding of Östermalms Saluhall a proposal has been made to add insulation to the roof. The cultural historical values of the building is set against reconstruction requirements of the building regulations made by the National board of Housing, Building and Planning. Today, requirements for a new construction are the same as for an reconstruction of a building. Contradictions therefore arise in the rebuilding of the market hall because of the difficulty to achieve the construction requirements as well as the reconstruction requirements for the parts that are to be changed. The parts that are studied is two details of the roof and they are designed and analysed by technical building aspects, cultural historical values and by legal requirements. The cultural historical values are threatened by redevelopment, but at the same time Stockholm City wants to maximize the energy efficiency of the building. The study is therefore focusing on how to best maximize energy efficiency of the building and follow the redevelopment requirements that exist without corrupting the building.

Thesis (M. A. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2023 / This study investigated the challenges experienced by Grade 10 learners in the usage of English as the first additional language in classroom academic writing. Qualitative methodology was used to conduct this study where responses from a sample of 10 learners and 2 EFAL teachers were obtained. The participants were purposefully sampled from a secondary school in Tweefontein. The researcher collected data using the semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Selected teachers were interviewed and learners were given an essay writing task. The data was analysed using the inductive thematic data analysis method. The study‟s findings point to social media as the major factor that contributes to the learners‟ usage of social language in academic essay writing. Contraction was found to be the most common language issue in the learners‟ academic writing. The study recommends that stakeholders such as the Department of Education, teachers, parents and learners should work together in order to improve the learners‟ usage of language in academic writing.

Применение дистанционных образовательных технологий является одним из трендов последних нескольких лет. Сложные обстоятельства, связанные с пандемией и непростой эпидемиологической ситуацией способствовали переходу в онлайн-среду большую часть образовательного процесса. Одним из путей решения данной проблемы может являться повышение интерактивности образовательного процесса, с целью повышения вовлеченности, а, следовательно, и повышению эффективности усвояемого материала, преподаваемого на дополнительных образовательных курсах в школе. / The use of distance learning technologies is one of the trends of the last few years. The difficult circumstances associated with the pandemic and the difficult epidemiological situation have contributed to the transition to the online environment for most of the educational process. One of the ways to solve this problem can be to increase the interactivity of the educational process, in order to increase involvement, and, consequently, increase the effectiveness of the assimilated material taught in additional educational courses at school.

In recent years, deficiencies in construction documents has become a common problem in the construction industry. In most cases this leads to financial consequences, both for clients and building contractors. The risk of financial consequences can be minimized if the deficiencies and errors are eliminated before the construction phase or if it’s detected in an early stage of a project. Within Peab Skellefteå, a lot of time, energy and money are spent to investigate the deficiencies and errors in construction documents. This mostly occur in the construction phase, since that is where the deficiencies and errors usually are discovered. Previous studies concerning the same area indicate that financial consequences is a result of inadequate construction documents and alteration and additional works, but none of the studies includes further investigation concerning how it practically appears in projects and in what way it affects the client’s and building contractor’s economy. Based on this, the purpose of the report has been formulated: The purpose of the master thesis is to investigate and understand how inadequate construction documents affects individual construction projects in terms of economy. Based on the results from the interviews, recommendations will be proposed regarding how the risk of financial consequences can be reduced to help entrepreneurs avoid these types of situations. The content of this report is essentially based on interviews with nine participants, either site managers, construction engineers or purchasers from Peab Skellefteå. Theory from previous studies is also used and the report is limited to traditional contracts. The results of the interview study revealed that both the building contractor and the client have been negatively affected in terms of economy in project 1–6. It is hard to report accurate numbers, since inadequate construction documents might affect the next work stage, contract rate, time that should have been spent doing something else and the time spent to investigate deficiencies and errors, which can be difficult to prove. Some costs could be deduced to the discovered deficiencies and errors, see Table 1. Generally, it’s stated that deficiencies in construction documents entails financial consequences for both entrepreneurs and clients. The respondents explain that the drawings are the most problematic construction document and that’s where most errors are discovered. The parts of the drawings that’s usually inadequate is piercings, fittings, inner walls, details, attachments and contradictory information. Deficiencies typically connected to financial consequences for the building contractor is piercings, reinforcement, fire sealing and time spent investigating the deficiencies. For the client, typical deficiencies connected to financial consequences are lack of foundation- and ground investigation, quantifying errors, when incorrect dying times leads to extra costs and additional work. The respondents’ suggestions for improvement in collaboration with the author’s own thoughts is the basis of the given recommendation. The main potential improvements for designers are to review construction documents more accurate, increase their knowledge about production and materials, work with BIM-coordination and be receptive to feedback. Clients should check the coordination, increase their knowledge about work steps and materials and have consistent solutions through the project. Building contractors should have coordination meetings with designers, clients and installers, make an appropriate number of tender calculations, provide feedback to designers and clients, use the question/answer-method, design a useful contract administration and increase the review of contract documents for the often-deficient parts.

As the population increases, Swedish cities are becoming more urbanized. Consequently, people’s well-being deteriorates, and global warming has become reality. Buildings are replacing green spaces, necessitating the implementation of new methods to reintroduce greenery into urban areas. This study was conducted to investigate how a wall of an existing building in Halmstad, Sweden, is affected by supporting a living wall concerning load-bearing capacity, moisture, energy performance and economics. The methodology of this qualitative study includes literature review, interviews, and calculations for moisture, heat, and load-bearing capacity. The study found that living walls serve as additional insulation and that moisture does not affect the existing wall due to a vapor barrier. Also that the calculated wall withstands the weight of the living wall. Installation and maintenance costs can vary widely, and there is a wide range of plant species available. It's important to find plants that can withstand the climate for the specific wall. A broader selection of plants is available among those that wither in a beautiful way and are thus not evergreen. After interviews, it can be noted that living walls require minimal maintenance and thus maintenance costs are constant. Over time, some costs will be reduced as cooling and heating expenses decrease since the living wall acts as additional insulation.

Syftet med det här arbetet är att ge förslag på renoveringsåtgärder som kan förbättra energieffektiviteten i en kulturmärkt tegelbyggnad utan att riskera den befintliga konstruktionens karaktär. För att uppnå syftet undersöks en byggnad med ett stort kulturhistoriskt värde beläget i Halmstads stadskärna. I denna studie genomförs en energiinventering av byggnadens konstruktion och dess installationer. Energiinventeringen genomförs genom en intervju med en brukare av byggnaden, sammanställning av tidigare dokumentation om byggnaden och annan litteratur. Förslag på renoveringsåtgärder för byggnaden undersöks genom att studera slutsatser från tidigare forskning. Därefter undersöks det vilka åtgärder som kan tillämpas på byggnaden. För att fastställa hur renoveringsåtgärderna kan förbättra energieffektiviteten beräknas den nya genomsnittliga värmegenomgångskoefficienten och det nya primärenergitalet för byggnaden. Dessa beräkningar utförs med beprövade byggfysikaliska formler. I resultatet av studien framgår det att de valda renoveringsåtgärderna förbättrar byggnadens isolerande förmåga, vilket minskar behovet för uppvärmning. Detta sänker byggnadens primärenergital. Däremot uppnår inte det nya beräknade primärenergitalet det krav som ställs för nyproducerade byggnader. En möjlig anledning till att primärenergitalet inte uppnår kraven är att användningen av fastighetsel för byggnaden är mycket hög. Om de föreslagna renoveringsåtgärderna från detta arbete appliceras på en byggnad där fastighetselen är lägre hade möjligen ett lägre primärenergital uppnåtts. / This paper aims to suggest renovation measures to enhance energy efficiency in a historically significant brick building without altering its character. The case study focuses on a building with a high cultural value in the city center of Halmstad. An energy inventory is conducted through interviews, documentation of the building, and other relevant literature. Proposed renovation measures are examined by analyzing prior research and assessing how these solutions can be applied to the case study. The new average thermal transmittance and the new primary energy number are calculated using established building physics formulas to determine the potential energy efficiency improvements. Results show that the proposed renovation measures improve the building’s insulation, reducing the need for heating, which in turn lowers the primary energy number.  However, the new primary energy number does not meet the standards for new constructions, possibly due to high property electricity consumption in the reference building. If the proposed renovation measures were applied to a building with a lower property electricity consumption, a more significant reduction in the primary energy number might be achieved.

There has been growing concern in the higher education sector in South Africa about the high number of students with low academic literacy (AL) levels who are gaining entry into the sector. This influx necessitated the introduction of academic literacy interventions which are aimed at supporting these students in meeting the academic literacy requirements of university education. As a result, the tertiary sector has seen a growing number of AL interventions, each catering for a different context. However, the available literature reports very little substantial evidence on the impact/effectiveness of such interventions regarding the purpose for which they have been designed. The Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of the North-West University has also found that the majority of first year students who register at this Campus in order to attain a tertiary qualification, show inadequate levels of academic literacy in English. However, the academic literacy intervention that is currently used at this campus has never been formally assessed for its effectiveness in improving students’ academic literacy levels. The purpose of the current study was therefore to investigate the impact of the academic literacy intervention on students’ academic literacy levels. This intervention, which consists of two complementary semester modules, is offered over a one-year period to new first year students. As a first step, a comprehensive literature survey was conducted on important changes that took place in the tertiary education sector after 1994. The reason for this enquiry is based on the fact that many of these changes, such as the ‘massification’ of tertiary education, had far-reaching consequences for the tertiary sector in terms of more underprepared students who gained access to university education. Furthermore, available literature on the types of academic literacy interventions in South Africa, as well as specific sources on the reported impact of such interventions, were critiqued. The empirical part of the study made use of both a qualitative and quantitative research paradigm in order to investigate the impact of the AL intervention at the VTC. A highly reliable academic literacy test (the TALL – Test of Academic Literacy Levels) was used to determine whether students showed any significant improvement in their levels of academic literacy as a result of the intervention. This study reports positive findings in this regard. The investigation further gathered opinion-based data through the administration of three questionnaires aimed at determining student and lecturer perceptions of the impact of the intervention. The main findings of the two student questionnaires (one administered for each AL module) show that students generally see the value in attending the academic literacy modules because they feel that they derive benefit from them. The findings of the lecturer survey indicate that although mainstream lecturers are acutely aware of the low academic literacy levels of their students, they do not see the impact of the intervention on improving such levels. They are further not very knowledgeable about what the focus of the intervention entails. The main conclusion of this study is, in brief, that the academic literacy intervention has a definite effect on the improvement of students’ academic literacy levels. However, no conclusive data was found to support the idea that the improvement was due only to the influence of the intervention. / MA (Applied Language Studies), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

There has been growing concern in the higher education sector in South Africa about the high number of students with low academic literacy (AL) levels who are gaining entry into the sector. This influx necessitated the introduction of academic literacy interventions which are aimed at supporting these students in meeting the academic literacy requirements of university education. As a result, the tertiary sector has seen a growing number of AL interventions, each catering for a different context. However, the available literature reports very little substantial evidence on the impact/effectiveness of such interventions regarding the purpose for which they have been designed. The Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of the North-West University has also found that the majority of first year students who register at this Campus in order to attain a tertiary qualification, show inadequate levels of academic literacy in English. However, the academic literacy intervention that is currently used at this campus has never been formally assessed for its effectiveness in improving students’ academic literacy levels. The purpose of the current study was therefore to investigate the impact of the academic literacy intervention on students’ academic literacy levels. This intervention, which consists of two complementary semester modules, is offered over a one-year period to new first year students. As a first step, a comprehensive literature survey was conducted on important changes that took place in the tertiary education sector after 1994. The reason for this enquiry is based on the fact that many of these changes, such as the ‘massification’ of tertiary education, had far-reaching consequences for the tertiary sector in terms of more underprepared students who gained access to university education. Furthermore, available literature on the types of academic literacy interventions in South Africa, as well as specific sources on the reported impact of such interventions, were critiqued. The empirical part of the study made use of both a qualitative and quantitative research paradigm in order to investigate the impact of the AL intervention at the VTC. A highly reliable academic literacy test (the TALL – Test of Academic Literacy Levels) was used to determine whether students showed any significant improvement in their levels of academic literacy as a result of the intervention. This study reports positive findings in this regard. The investigation further gathered opinion-based data through the administration of three questionnaires aimed at determining student and lecturer perceptions of the impact of the intervention. The main findings of the two student questionnaires (one administered for each AL module) show that students generally see the value in attending the academic literacy modules because they feel that they derive benefit from them. The findings of the lecturer survey indicate that although mainstream lecturers are acutely aware of the low academic literacy levels of their students, they do not see the impact of the intervention on improving such levels. They are further not very knowledgeable about what the focus of the intervention entails. The main conclusion of this study is, in brief, that the academic literacy intervention has a definite effect on the improvement of students’ academic literacy levels. However, no conclusive data was found to support the idea that the improvement was due only to the influence of the intervention. / MA (Applied Language Studies), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014