Thesis (M.Mus.Ther.)--New Zealand School of Music, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Walter Wager, Florida State University, College of Education, Department of Educational Psychology and Learning systems. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 16, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Not available / text

M. Tech. Education / Learners in the Limpopo province are reported to be performing very poorly in their examination results. This is clearly seen in Grade 12 results which are published for the entire country, South Africa. This problem is caused by, among other things, the lack of effective communication between educators and learners. This study investigated the problem of communication between learners and educators by using a quantitative approach, through implementing sampling, data collection and data analysis. A total of 47 educators from four secondary schools falling under Soutpansberg East Circuit of the Vhembe District answered a questionnaire. The collected information was grouped into categories and revealed that aspects of effective communication, for example, feedback, asking questions and proximity should be considered in the teaching-learning activity to improve learner performance. The results of the study were translated in a number of recommendations for improved communication practice and further research.

This study addressed computer-supported collaborative scientific inquiries in Remote Networked Schools. Three dyads of grade 5-6 classrooms from remote locations collaborated using the knowledge-buildng tool Knowledge Forum. Customized scaffold supports embedded in the online tool were used to support student understanding and practice of an authentic inquiry process. The study studied how the use of the scaffolds could help students to understand and put into practice an authentic inquiry process, how the students' collaborative problem solving could translate into a deeper understanding of the phenomena explored and if this could lead to conceptual change. Students created notes and used the scaffold supports to support their inquiry process however without sufficient direct teacher modeling, coherent use of the scaffolds stayed low across activities. Pre- and post-test results show that the students gained a better understanding of the inquiry process, but low post-test scores suggest further need for direct teacher modeling of the inquiry process during science instruction. Content analysis of the ideas expressed by the students in two of the sites showed that students were able to generate high-level ideas especially when the directives were explanation-seeking rather than fact-seeking in nature. Teacher mediation in the online discussion tended to generate longer threads than when teachers were absent from the online environment. Unless effective collaborative conversation is already a part of the classroom culture, efforts are required to generate richer student interactions and foster deeper understanding. Recurring technical and logistical difficulties in the sites prevented teachers from concentrating on the learning objectives and should be more seriously addressed by school authorities. Evidence of conceptual change was found through micro-analysis of the students' ideas about buoyancy in the pre- and post-tests as well as in their notes showing that conceptual change is possible in this innovative collaborative learning context. Further insistence for students to complete the inquiry process is needed in order to created additional opportunities for students to express their knowledge about a scientific phenomenon and promote deeper understanding through collaboration.

This thesis focuses on the form and content of contributions of young children during news-time, a recurrent literacy event in pre-primary and junior primary schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Using the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis and both Traditional and Critical Ethnography, the researcher infers the emic categories (or norms) which guide the participants' conduct at news-time. The study reveals, inter alia, how uniform the teachers, norms for news-time behaviour are, and how assiduously they promote them. It also reveals how incompatible, in most instances, the teachers' norms are with those of their pupils; outlines the ideological strategies teachers use to discourage/silence literacy practices they disapprove of; and draws attention to the hurt feelings, self-doubt and alienation on the part of pupils that these strategies foster. On the basis of such findings the researcher argues that news-time literacy as reflected in the teachers' core norms, embeds and helps to consolidate asymmetrical teacher-pupil (and expert-other) power relations; the hegemony of expository literacy (for which newstime literacy is a fore-runner); and the hegemony of various Anglo-, Western, middle-class values and interests. Consistent with the call of critical ethnographers for ethnographies that focus on the influence of macro-contextual factors on social conduct, he suggests that central features of the South African education system under apartheid (such as the eschewal of diversity, belief in prescriptive rules of correctness, authoritarianism, exclusivism, et al) are compatible with and perhaps help further to explain the norms which the teachers promote during news-time. Finally, the researcher explores the implications as well as an application of this research for the teaching/learning of literacy in early education in the "new" - democratic - South Africa. He calls for consciousness-raising on the part of teachers and teacher-trainers regarding the form and function of news-time, in the context of a broad understanding of literacy, ideology and power. He argues that teachers need to acquire richer analytical and interpretative abilities than are evinced in his study, and suggests both content and a method by which they may be developed. He also argues for awareness-raising of alternative pedagogical options, which he outlines. Lastly, he argues that teachers need to acquire multilingual and multicultural proficiencies. As regards applications, the researcher makes two proposals for an emancipatory micro-literacy policy at the preprimary and junior primary levels of schooling. At the heart of the first are four considerations, two of which involve "literacy as teaching the 'cultures of power' and literacy as practice in acknowledging and fostering diversity" (Pennycook 1996:164). The remaining two relate to compatibility with the spirit of the National Language Policy and parity with the "orientations" that underlie the National Language Policy. The second, and more modest of these two proposals, recognises the likelihood, on the one hand, of resistance on the part of those with vested interests in the status quo, and the influence, on the other, of other potentially significant contextual factors. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1999.

The South African Language in Education Policy (LiEP) of 1997 and the Department of Education National Curriculum Statement (2002) require that learners‘ mother tongue is maintained and developed and used as a language of learning and teaching (LOLT) for the first three years of the Foundation Phase. English is recommended as the (LOLT) from Grade 4 upwards. This sudden change presents enormous language challenges especially in Grade 4 as teachers and their learners negotiate transition from isiZulu as first language (L1) to English as LOLT. This study investigates language challenges that Grade 4 learners and their teachers encounter in three South African mainstream schools as they negotiate transition from isiZulu to English as Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) and the implication of these challenges on language policy development. The study adopted a qualitative-interpretative methodology. Six Grade 4 teachers were purposively selected from three mainstream schools in KwaZulu-Natal for interviews three of which were observed and interviewed after the classroom observations. Data was generated through pre-observation interviews, video-recorded lesson observations, and post-observation interviews. The data collected was analysed and interpreted using an open coding in order to answer the study‘s critical questions. The findings revealed that serious language challenges occur whilst teaching Grade 4 learners in English as a FAL due to learners‘ limited knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in the LOLT. The study also revealed limited understanding ability, (s)low articulation, poor performance and participation, and psychological distress emanating from learners‘ social problems as part of the challenges. The study further showed that teachers frequently switched to the mother tongue to ensure sufficient meaningful communication in their classrooms. Additionally, the study revealed teachers‘ exclusion in policy formulation and development process and lack of adequate training which exacerbates teachers‘ ignorance of the policy contents leading to the teachers‘ indiscriminate use of code-switching. These worsen learners‘ language difficulties, thus under-develop the learners, and create unequal opportunities for effective learning by all learners through English as LOLT. They widen the gap and hinder education when teachers are not able to negotiate the transition from the foundation phase to Grade 4. Teachers were convinced that the study by EFAL learners of English in the Foundation Phase would go a long way in alleviating the language and learning challenges encountered by learners in Grade 4 and thus improve the quality of communication and interaction that needs to take place in the classroom between the learners and their teachers as they negotiate transition to English as LOLT. The study recommends a review of language policy that will integrate quality in the learning of English in the Foundation Phase, in addition to learning the mother tongue throughout high school education. It also recommends an increased participation of teachers in policy-making processes and intensification of teacher professional development in language teaching in relation to the language in education policy. / Thesis (M.Ed)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This thesis argues that generic communication practice plays an important role in preparing engineering students for the workplace. Engineering courses, being contextually-bound, cannot prepare students in the same way as generic courses, which can be more flexible in being able to bring workplace practices, documents and artefacts into the academic domain. Therefore the thesis promotes the view that the communication course can provide a basic structure in terms of genre training and technical language from which the students may access further knowledge from the workplace. In an engineering faculty, the communication course facilitates the student’s interactions in classroom discourse. The course also plays a vital role in the student’s transition from academic discourse to the professional discourse of the workplace. This research views this transition from a social perspective, placing the student within the context of the engineering faculty’s discourse community, and, subsequently, sees the student-trainee in the workplace as part of a community of practice. The study concentrates on the contradictions between these two contexts in order to investigate how the communication course impacts on the progress of the student’s discourse practices between classroom and workplace. The observable features of discourse which the investigation focuses on are genre rules, the use of technical language, and the student-trainee’s interaction with colleagues, supervisors, and artifacts of the workplace. The study uses discourse theory with an academic literacy underpinning to establish a framework for the student’s interactions with academic language. These interactions are explored by means of 100 questionnaires administered to first-intake engineering students at Durban University of Technology. The findings reveal that, while students say they do not always understand what is expected of them in terms of using genres to produce documents assigned by the communication course, they appear to be capable of using genre rules when applied to group tasks. Furthermore, students do not seem to regard technical language in its wider context, as a feature of classroom discourse practices. Instead they see it narrowly, as a necessary but isolated skill to be learnt for workplace discourse practices. The research considers the impact of these perceptions and practices on the findings and analysis of workplace practices. The investigation into workplace discourse practices is guided by activity theory which sees a document’s genre rules in a mediating function, and community of practice theory, which places the student-trainee’s interactions within the construct, situated learning. The study used the participant-observer technique to explore workplace discourse in eight engineering companies in Durban and surrounding areas. The observations were complemented by follow-up questions in interviews with thirty six student-trainees in these companies. The findings have shown that, even though students said they had difficulties with technical language in the classroom, they were able to apply it adequately within the context of the workplace. Furthermore, genre rules needed to be adapted to suit workplace practices, therefore the rules of document design in classroom practices should focus on flexibility as well as structure. The findings also suggest that the communication course should see the classroom and the workplace as two activity systems which complement each other, and the communication course should be placed in close proximity to the student’s entrance to the workplace. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Computer-based distance education, as a vehicle for overcoming barriers such as time and place, is a vital new opportunity for enhancing lifelong learning.The purpose of this study was to investigate the computer and communication skills of teachers who have taught computer-based distance education classes and of the students who registered in computer-based distance education in the Fall 1996 in any of the higher education institutions in Indiana. Teacher and student questionnaires were developed for data collection. Both questionnaires were available in printed and World Wide Web versions. Teachers and students from six higher education institutions in Indiana responded to various questions about technical skills in computer and communication tools and applications, training and support programs, motivation and objectives of participants, concerns about computer-based distance education, and advantages of this method of education.Analysis of faculty data revealed that nearly all the faculty were competent in the use of computer for communication and in access to resources. About 57% of the faculty responded that they had competence in designing computer educational applications. The majority of faculty had training in computer connections (52.9%) and the use of computer resources (76.5%), but only 11.8% had training in instructional design for computer-based distance education. The faculty had many concerns such as student/teacher communication (94.2%) and lack of personal interaction among students (94.1%) in computer-based distance education. The faculty saw many advantages such as new opportunities for adult education (100%), and the teacher's role as facilitator (64.7%) in computer-based distance education.Analysis of student data revealed that the majority of students had adequate skills in e-mail (98.2%), File Transfer Protocol (61.4%), and WWW (80%). The students had concerns for training and support programs in higher education institutions in Indiana. Over 57% of the students were married and 95% were studying toward a degree. The main motivations for participation were educational value (61%), career promotion (47.5%) and improving job performance (23.7%). The students had many concerns such as teacher/student communication (98.3%), training program by university (86%), and connection costs (91.2%). Students also saw many advantages such as flexibility of time and place (90.7%) and variety of learning resources (76.6%) in computer-based distance education.The results of this study indicate that higher education institutions should design faculty development programs beyond technical skills to include instructional design. Furthermore, a practical training program based on needs assessment and an off hours support program are essential for the success of a computer-based distance education program and for positive educational experience for teachers and students.There are tremendous needs for research in computer-based distance education in areas such as computer and communication skills of teacher and student, student objectives for participation, effectiveness of training and support programs, effectiveness of instructional design, educational experience of teachers and students, the teacher's role, and subjects and contents which are feasible online. / Department of Educational Leadership

This study introduces themes and trends apparent from notable research and literature regarding the value and usefulness of bilingual teaching methods in the ESOL classroom, and the perceptions of ESOL managers and teachers regarding these, both from an international and a New Zealand perspective. From this, a shortage of awareness and research in the New Zealand context was identified, which created an opportunity for further research. The study aimed specifically to investigate the knowledge and perceptions of Auckland based ESOL-school professionals regarding the value of teacher bilingualism and the use of other languages in the ESOL classroom. The basic method employed was a survey involving the distribution of questionnaires to 60 Auckland language school teachers and 20 Auckland language school managers, and included both qualitative and quantitative type questions. The study probed the foreign language skills and overseas work experience of the managers and teachers, and investigated whether these factors had influenced their perceptions regarding the value of teacher bilingualism and the use of other languages as an ESOL teaching tool. The study identifies the perceptions of Auckland ESOL professionals regarding these issues and analyses further differentiating factors likely to have influenced these perceptions. It identifies differences of opinion between managers and teachers and investigates reasons for these. The study analyses the linguistic composition of the Auckland language school clientele and considers implications for the industry resulting from the identified perceptions of ESOL professionals. Finally, the study offers suggestions for further future research, in the interest of improvement and enhancement of the industry.