There is a high demand for competent Information Systems (IS) / Information Technology (IT) graduates in a globalised knowledge-driven economy with rapidly evolving Information and Communication Technology (ICT). However, becoming a competent IS/IT graduate is not a once-off event because rapid technological changes require that IS/IT graduates continually strive to be up-to-date and relevant. Continuous updating of knowledge, keeping up-to-date, acquiring a diverse set of IS/IT/ICT competencies, and being competent is a problematic task globally, and requires building competencies comprising knowledge, skills, abilities and values. This thesis employs Classic Grounded Theory Methodology (CGTM) with a single case to identify the main concern of senior IS undergraduates during their learning process, and how they resolve the concern. Data were obtained from two diverse groups of senior IS undergraduate classes using multiple data collection methods, embedded in constant comparative analyses. Understanding what was going on in the substantive research area and explaining how the senior IS undergraduates' main concern was resolved was the focus of the data collection and conceptualisation. Through the single case exploratory CGTM study, the senior IS undergraduates' main concern emerged as a perceived lack of IS Competency, and the main concern was explored. A substantive theory of Competency Maturing conceptualises and explains how these students attempt to resolve their perceived lack of IS Competency. A substantive theory of Competency Maturing is a Basic Social Process (BSP) which involves engaging in learning by doing, and spontaneous learning within an organic learning environment. Three phases of the BSP of Competency Maturing are student engagement, self-awareness of competency, and self-development. This thesis recommends a Framework for a South African senior IS undergraduates' programme and offers a set of conceptual propositions developed from empirical data. The thesis makes theoretical and practical contributions to the IS education body of knowledge of student engagement, learning environment, senior IS undergraduates' curriculum development and competency development. A substantive theory of Competency Maturing is relevant to IS educators who wish to break away from traditional, teacher-centred approaches in higher education, and are willing to create learning environments where senior IS undergraduates are motivated to learn in rich, relevant and real-world contexts. The thesis contributes to IS educators who seek to understand how the learning environment and IS educational content influence and support student engagement and Competency Maturing. This thesis also offers IS educational practitioners an understanding of the educational content and a delivery style that can provide senior IS undergraduates with strong theoretical and practical foundations. The thesis's findings suggest that creating an organic learning environment can be a useful approach to developing more competent IS graduates.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The blame for the decline in performance of Grade 11 and 12 Economics learners in District has been levelled on poor school resources, poorly trained teachers, and teachers’ ability to execute their duties. Other stakeholders blame teachers for the poor performance of learners. Due to that this study was conducted to explore teachers’ views on causes of poor performance in Economics among Grade 11 and 12 learners in Matlalane Circuit, Limpopo Province. Quantitative surveys and qualitative case study were used as research design. Data was collected using survey questionnaires and interviews. The study distributed 80 questionnaires to Economics teachers across Mogalakwena District and 100% response rate was achieved. The researcher also conducted one-to-one interviews among six Economics teachers and 3 Heads of Department (HoDs). Quantitative data was analysed using mathematical and statistical tools and was presented using tables, graphs, and charts. Qualitative data was presented using thematic and narrative analysis. This study identified seven (7) themes, namely, the (1) poor teaching environment and lack of teaching and learning resources; (2) lack of interest and negative attitudes by Economics learners; (3) poor teaching experience and content gap; (4) teachers perceive Economics as a difficult subject; (5) inadequate support from parents, school leadership and department; (6) poor discipline in schools; and (7) increased teenage pregnancy in schools in mining areas. This study recommends in-serve training of Economics teachers; provision of teaching and learning resources to schools; promotion of parents’ involvement and participation in their children’s learning; provision of support from the Department of Education in addressing school discipline and teenage pregnancy. This study identified the factors that cause poor learners’ performance in Economics. However, other aspects that are critical for changing the course of action, as required by the pragmatic paradigm, were not explored because they were not focus areas for this study. I therefore recommend further studies that on teaching and assessment strategies used by Economics teachers. There is a need for further study on strategies used by the Economics teachers; the level of commitment to their work; amount of written work given to Economics learners and the discipline in schools.

The overall aim of this licentiate thesis is to increase knowledge of the special educators’ professional role and work in relation to special educational support for recently arrived immigrant pupils. The need for the study is motivated by the immigrant pupils’ low achievement of goals and schools responsibility to adapt education to each pupil’s needs in a school for all. The first study examines special educators’ role and work in relation to special educational support for recently arrived immigrant pupils and the professional group's view of the reasons for special educational support for these pupils. The results are based on responses in a questionnaire directed to 483 special educators. The results show that the special educators state that the reasons why recently arrived immigrant pupils are in need of special educational support are that the knowledge requirements are too difficult for the pupils to achieve or that the pupils have individual shortcomings. The occupational group's tasks consist of administrative work and the development of learning environments. According to the special educators, most often class and subject teachers and mother tongue tutors provide special educational support. The special educators collaborate to the greatest extent with class and subject teachers and with the pupils, while they want more collaboration with mother tongue tutors. The results of the study are interpreted and discussed based on Abbott's theory (1988) reasoning about professional groups’ claims of jurisdiction, Persson's (1998) categorical and relational perspectives and Hughes' (1958) concept of dirty work. In the second study, free text answers (n = 451) from the questionnaire are examined, where the special educators describe how they and their schools have developed learning environments for recently arrived immigrant pupils in need of special educational support. The free text answers are analyzed using a qualitative content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). This analysis is then theorized based on Skrtics´ (1991; 2005) concepts of the school system to interpret obstacles and opportunities in the development of the learning environments. The results show that the development have mainly taken place through general adaptations (one size fits all solutions), language-adapted solutions and special solutions. The analysis based on Skrtics’ concepts shows how the machine and professional bureaucracy can act as an obstacle to the development of learning environments for recently arrived immigrant pupils in need of special educational support. The thesis helps to bring together the results from the two studies. A developed contextualization is made, and the results from the two studies are discussed in relation to previous research and theoretical points of departure. Abbott's (1988) reasoning on claims of jurisdiction and Skrtics’ conceptions of the school system (1991; 2005) are combined to get a deeper understanding of the deadlocks that may exist in the bureaucratic system.

Arbetet med pedagogisk dokumentation ligger till grund för ett systematisk kvalitetsarbete i förskolan. Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om pedagogernas arbete kring pedagogisk dokumentation, där de genom gruppdiskussioner utvecklar nya sätt att se på hur de arbetar med pedagogisk dokumentation. För att pedagogisk dokumentation ska fungera som ett verktyg krävs det en gemensam förståelse för den pedagogiska processen, vilket studien belyser genom en fokusgruppsmetod. Arbetslagen fick genom en fokusgruppsdiskussion beskriva och reflektera över sitt arbete med pedagogisk dokumentation för att möjliggöra en fördjupad kunskap, genom en heuristisk process. Analysprocessen utgår från begreppen mediering och appropriering utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. I resultatet framkom både viken av reflektionstid samt organisatoriska utvecklingsområden som påverkar arbetet med pedagogisk dokumentation. Studien belyser bidragande faktorer som påverkar arbetet med pedagogisk dokumentation.

One of the major challenges associated with nursing education in this 21st century is the practice preparation of student nurses in this complex healthcare environment to ensure their fitness to practice. Practice training relies largely on mentoring which is central to the professional development of student nurses. In the local context of Mauritius, the clinical mentoring of students is service-led rather than education-driven. In the context of the current debate, it is becoming evident that the clinical mentoring system in Mauritius needs rethinking in order to respond to the emerging training and education needs of nurses. The aim of the study was to develop a contextually relevant clinical mentoring framework for student nurses in Mauritius in order to enhance the standard of student nurses’ training during clinical placements. A descriptive exploratory sequential mixed method with a cross-sectional design was used in this study. The sample for the qualitative phase consisted of eight nurses, while there were 255 nurses and 115 students in the quantitative phase. Data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and a self-administered questionnaire, respectively. The findings were synthesised using Dickoff et al’s (1968) survey list to develop the clinical mentoring framework for student nurses. The findings of the qualitative phase indicated that the current learning support system for students in the clinical settings did not reflect what mentoring should be about. Mentoring per se was not practiced, but rather a form of clinical accompaniment resulting in the practice being less effective for its purpose. A variety of activities/roles were described that nurses fulfil in everyday clinical practice that included some aspects of a mentoring approach. Participants provided a number of pre-requisites needed for the mentoring process. The results of the quantitative phase revealed that both students and nurses recognised that the mentoring system was informal. They also shared the same views regarding barriers to mentoring, such as staff shortage, lack of resources, and inadequate support from management and the Central School of Nursing (CSN). Along with mentoring competencies, teaching, assessing, communication, managerial and leadership skills, were identified as core competencies for mentors. Effective clinical mentoring requires an understanding of the mentoring process from a broader perspective. Mentors should be equipped with core competencies. Successful mentoring outcomes are dependent on a conducive clinical learning environment (CLE) and the approach used to mentor. The framework on mentoring could guide and provide a holistic approach to mentoring students in CLEs. However, emphasis must be placed on the collaboration between the management, the clinical setting and the CSN. The clinical framework developed from this study can be tested for its effectiveness. / Health Studies / Ph. D. (Nursing)

In recent years, the adoption of digital learning environments has been proven as a suitable complement to traditional lectures, allowing to involve students more actively. However, current approaches lack at supporting both lecturers' individual teaching scenarios and collaborative activities. Thus, this thesis introduces an adaptable collaborative learning environment that enables lecturers to model and execute customized teaching scenarios. In addition to expressive means of adaptation, it includes collaborative functions which support group and peer interactions. The approach was implemented in a role-based prototype called scenario-tailored Audience Response System (stARS), demonstrating its applicability through seven well-known teaching scenarios. Furthermore, a thorough evaluation based on various user studies and lecture experiments confirmed the ability to support lecturers' individual teaching scenarios and integrate advanced collaborative activities into digital learning environments.

The aim of the submitted diploma thesis is to complete a series of graded tasks from the manipulative environment of Parquet. Then apply these tasks to preschool and school children in the 1st year of elementary school. Not only observe how they cope with these activities, but also how they think, explain their actions, and how they communicate with each other. Observe myself, as a researcher, how do I work with children, how do I communicate with them and how do I submit them the tasks. Record my knowledge and learn from it. The theoretical part defines the individual stages for the preschool and pupils in terms of the development of psychology, they are constructive concepts of teaching mathematics with reference to the RVP ZV and RVP PV. Studied textbooks for the 1st and 2nd year of elementary school searched for activities from the environment of Parquet. Activities are selected that illustrate the typology of tasks. The relevant didactic games related to the Parquet environment are also described. For the practical part is chosen method of qualitative research on the basis of experiments in two research groups. The experiments are composed of individual activities, which are graded from the very basic creation of the parquet, specifying the rules of laying them down on the floor, to the final...

This case study focused on the understandings of the administration and teaching staff with regard to the implementation and student academic growth of the B-L Upward program. The understandings were formed from data collected through structured, face-to-face interviews. The questioning of the staff members assisted in determining an understanding of the instructional model of the B-L Upward program. The experimental nature of the B-L Upward program allowed students, primarily those graduating from eighth grade and heading into high school, to choose an alternative to the traditional secondary learning environment. The current case study is an examination of the B-L Upward program through the interview process involving the administrative and teaching staff with regard to program implementation and student academic growth. Four members of the administrative staff directly responsible for the management of the B-L Upward program and eight members of the teaching staff currently employed at the school were interviewed regarding their understandings of the BLU program. The case study approach provides a detailed picture of the understandings of these staff members. Recommendations for practice and for the continuation of further research were included at the study’s conclusion.

This thesis investigates the possibility of creating a Virtual Reality learning environment prototype designed for firefighters. There are a lot of complications with the current training setup for firefighters, such as the environmental impact and that it is very timeconsuming. Another issue is that the firefighters are always training at the same location, which makes it very difficult to practice navigation with a thermal camera since they know the location by heart. A prototype has been designed and developed in cooperation with firefighters in Östergötland. The prototype was created to emulate a search and rescue mission where smoke diving is required. The main task of the mission is to navigate with a thermal camera in an unfamiliar apartment where training of the decision making process is in focus. The learning environment was tested and evaluated both by staff at Combitech as well as with the public at an exhibit. Moreover, it was also tested and evaluated by actual firefighters. The evaluation of the prototype concluded that it had a lot of potential to be used as a VR learning environment for firefighters. Some firefighters suggested that the prototype could already be used as a learning tool today, while others meant that it needed some improvements such as more tasks and multiple environments in order to be used to its full potential. The test results did also provide positive feedback on the usability of the VR learning environment. With some work, the VR learning environment can help the firefighters in their training.

The purpose of this study is to invetigate preschool teachers' perceptions of opportunities and difficulties in work with aesthetic forms of expression in the preschool's learning environment. According to the preschool curriculum (Skolverktet, 2018), preschool education must give children the opportunity to experience, shape and communicate through aestethic forms of expression such as image, form, drama, movement, song, music  and dance. It is also the preschool teachers' responsibility to develop pedagogical content and environments in the teaching that inspire development and learning (Skolverket, 2018). To investigate preschool teachers' own perceptions of opportunities and difficulties at work, a phenomenographic methodological approach and qualitative semi-structured interviews were used, which were also recorded and enabled in-depth answers. The results and the analysis shed light on preschool teachers' perceptions of the opportunities and difficulties that exist in the work of creating conditions for children to experience, shape and communicate in the learning enviroinment through aesthetic forms of expression. What preschool teachers preceive can create opportunities and difficulties are the educator, the physical environment and time, above all in the form of the preschool's daily routines. What dose not emerge are preschool teaschers' perceptions of how aesthetic subject knowledge is a possible contributing factor to the possibilities or difficulties that are experienced. Since previous research by Lindqvist (2019) showed that preschool teacher students preceive their aesthetic subject knowledge as insufficient, it would be interesting to possibly further investigate how active preschool teachers perceive that their subject knowledge in the aesthetic subjects affects preschool education. This can be seen as important in order to contribute to a further understanding of preschool teachers' perceptions of the aesthetic subject and the possibilities and difficulties of forms of expression. / Denna studies syfte är att undersöka förskollärares uppfattningar av möjligheter och svårigheter i arbetet med estetiska uttrycksformer i förskolans lärmiljö. Enligt förskolans läroplan (Skolverket, 2018) ska förskolans utbildning ge barn möjlighet att uppleva, gestalta och kommunicera genom estetiska uttrycksformer som bild, form, drama, rörelse, sång, musik och dans. Det är också förskollärarnas ansvar att i undervisningen utveckla pedagogiskt innehåll och miljöer som inspirerar till utveckling och lärande (Skolverket, 2018).För att undersöka förskollärares egna uppfattningar om möjligheter och svårigheter i arbetet användes en fenomenografisk metodansats och kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer, vilka också spelades in och möjliggjorde fördjupade svar. Resultatet och analysen belyser förskollärares uppfattningar om vilka möjligheter och svårigheter som finns i arbetet med att skapa förutsättningar för barn att i lärmiljön uppleva, gestalta och kommunicera genom estetiska uttrycksformer. Det förskollärarna uppfattar kan skapa möjligheter och svårigheter är pedagogen, den fysiska miljön och tiden, framför allt i form av förskolans dagliga rutiner. Det som inte framkommer är förskollärares uppfattningar kring hur estetiska ämneskunskaper är en eventuell bidragande faktor till de möjligheter eller svårigheter som upplevs. Eftersom tidigare forskning av Lindqvist (2019) visade att förskollärarstudenter upplever sina estetiska ämneskunskaper som otillräckliga vore det intressant att eventuellt vidare undersöka hur verksammaförskollärare uppfattar att sina ämneskunskaper inom de estetiska ämnena påverkar förskolans utbildning. Detta kan ses som viktig för att bidra till ytterligare förståelse för förskollärares uppfattningar om de estetiska ämnena och uttrycksformernas möjligheter och svårigheter