Includes bibliographica references (leaves 34-40). / This research sought to investigate new aesthetic approaches in the creation of feminist Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA), specifically for early adolescent girls, through two collaborative workshop processes designed to be ethical and respectful of the participants' contribution. The parallels between the research into a new aesthetic for TYA and current trends in Applied Theatre practice led the researcher to shift focus into self-study and a critique of practice to enhance self-reflexive praxis, which strives to be ethical. Issues surrounding representation took precedence in an attempt to speak to the lived experiences of the early adolescent South African girl. The difficulties in the process resulted in an inequitable relationship between the researcher and the participants who were unable to meet the criteria for successful theatre making without the researcher's facilitation.

Prior investigation of a new rater training paradigm, rater variability training (RVT), found no clear empirical distinction between RVT and the more established frame-of-reference training (FOR), (Hauenstein, Facteau, & Schmidt, 1999). The purpose of the present study was to expand upon this previous investigation by including a purpose manipulation, alternative operationalizations of Cronbach's accuracy components, finer-grained distinctions in the rating stimuli, and a second control group receiving quantitative accuracy feedback void of a substantive training lecture. Results indicate that finer-grained distinctions in the rating stimuli result in the best differential elevation accuracy for RVT trainees. Furthermore, RVT may be best suited for improving raters' abilities to accurately evaluate average performing ratees when the performance appraisal is used for an administrative purpose. Evidence also suggests that in many cases, the use of Cronbach's accuracy components obscures underlying patterns of rating accuracy. Finally, there is evidence to suggest that accuracy feedback without a training lecture improves some types of rating accuracy. / Master of Science

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of Master of Arts in the Department of Social Work in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2013. / The study investigates the implementation process of the Employee performance management development systems policy within the Department of Social Development, attitude of staff and policy makers towards whether or not it is achieving its goals, the strengths and constraints in its implementation as a way to improve it. This study is conducted with an aim of coming up with solution to the problem or to identify drawbacks and establish if the policy is implemented correctly with the required tools for the purpose of improving service delivery. Since the EPMDS aims at organizational development and efficiency, this study will investigate if social workers are delivering their services to their best and to find out it is the right tool in the grooming and career pathing of social workers. The study reveals that there has been some dissatisfaction the way in which retention strategy was implemented, thus roll out campaigns are highly recommended for the provision of clarity provision of information on how it was implemented by the implementers. It explores the processes involved in implementation of Employee Performance Management Systems (EPMDS) it also identify what tools are used in the identification of other support mechanism and implementation of EPMDS mechanism. It establishes challenges that exist in the implementation and gain from participants possible recommendations for successful implementation of EPMDS. The study also establishes if there is integration of EPMDS with Integrated Service Delivery model (ISDM) and Situational Leadership Supervision Model (SLS), and focuses in the investigation of how Retention Strategy was implemented. The researcher utilizes evaluative research because the study aims at evaluating how EPMDS policy has been implemented within the Department of Social Development .Evaluation research, frequently referred to as program evaluation or practice evaluation, involves searching for practical knowledge in considering the implementation and effects of social policies and the impact of programs.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009. / While entering the university is often a wonderful experience to a number of students, to some students it is very a challenging exposure to a degree where they even end up discontinuing their studies. This study was concerned with the challenges and coping mechanisms that students used as they were confronted by the university environment. The purposive sample of ten students was selected from the University of Zululand student population and they volunteered participation in the study. The research findings of this study indicated that many students found entering the university very challenging, as the environment there was experienced as impersonal, demanding, competitive and directionless. The aim of the research study was to investigate students' experiences in association with the transition from high school to university and to identify mechanisms that they used to handle the transition in question.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology & Special Needs Education at the University Of Zululand, 2017 / This study focused in investigating student’s poor academic performance with emphasis on the relationship between motivational factors and scholastic achievement amongst students across the Further Education and Training phase. Using rural-based schools as a case study that underperformed in 2014, this study presented the results from a survey and that was conducted to Grade 10 to 12 students using Motivation and Engagement Scale-High School (MES-H). The findings suggested that both internal and external factors contributed to student’s academic performance. The results showed that internal factors like student self-confidence, planning, hard work were some of the dominant internal factors that promoted student engagement high academic performance while anxiety, uncertain control and self-sabotage were major indicators of poor academic performance and disengagement. The study found that external factors like parental involvement, collaborative learning and good life were highly illuminated as positive external contributors to student’s high academic performance. This study argued that both the internal and external factors played a vital role towards enhancing and developing student’s high academic performance standards. This study contributed to the body of knowledge in the student academic performance arguing that parents and teachers have an equal and dual responsibility towards student success. For the future research, the researcher propose that the investigation should be extended to the majority of students for the better generalization of the findings based on the relationship between motivational factors and school success. Further research that includes educators, students and parents in the education system could be ideal. The research that will focus on parents, teachers and students should be undertaken to further contribute to the research agenda that seeks to understand student motivation and academic success. This type of research will extend the understanding of motivational factors and student success from an extended view beyond the classroom and school setting. The research should be conducted in both urban and rural areas. The study gives some information relating to the issue of students affected by their environment. Further investigation can be done on students from, different environments (township, suburbs, rural etc.)

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education for the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Zululand, 2019. / Poverty has and will continue to precipitate enormous suffering for countless of learners living in ab-ject poverty in the rural area of Nongoma. The study examine how poverty trap limit the academic performance of learners in the rural secondary schools of Nongoma. Also, it identifies various poli-cies and programme designed to alleviate the negative effect of poverty on the learning outcome. The study is underpin by Urie Bronfenbrenner,s ecological theory . The Quantitative and qualitative approach was used with questionnaires and focus group interview. In the study 5 schools was used with 100 learners for questionnaires and 5 educators for focus group interview .The Tesch,s open coding method of data analysis was used to identify Themes and categories whiles SPSS was used to analysis and determines frequency and percentages of data collected through questionnaires Findings from this study revealed that the majority of the learners in the rural area of Nongoma can-not afford even afford even the basic human needs which are necessary on the learners health, their emotional, physical, moral, social and academic achievements. This study also established that learner’s academics performance affected by financial constraint, poor health due to lack of good food, delinquent behavior, child abuse and prostitution ,the long distance to and from school , stigmatization and stereotyping , school drop –out and absenteeism . This study recommend rural development policies , policies for even distribution of income to close the achievement gap between the rich and poor , feeding scheme in all schools most especially in the rural schools , and adequate provision of learning aids such as library , laboratory and computer in the rural schools . The study also recommend that the problem be addressed by the micro system of the school and of the families, the neighborhood mesosystem and exosystem, as well as by by the macro system. Col-laborative work is also needed among all the stakeholders to chase away the elephant in the house and look in-depth to the root causes of poverty.

Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements of the Degree of Master of Education in the Department of Foundations of Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2002. / The research examined the impact of discipline on learner performance in KwaZulu-Natal. This study made use of questionnaires and interviews to determine whether discipline has any impact on learner performance. On the basis of views from respondents, the study concluded that in the areas studies learner-performance is indeed influenced by discipline. Further than that, there was a high percentage of respondents who suggested that in restoring discipline in schools, societal background of learners must be taken into consideration.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 1997. / This study examined the impact of home-environment on pupils' academic achievement. The first aim was to find out the association, if any, between parental structure and pupils' academic achievement. The second aim was to find out the relationship, if any, between parent-occupational status and pupils' academic achievement. The third aim was to find out the relationship, if any, between parental-involvement and pupils' academic achievement. The fourth aim was to discover the association, if any, between parental-managed learning programmes and pupils' academic achievement. The findings reveal that there is consistent relationship between parental-structure and pupils' academic achievement. Two-parent families are the most influential variable on pupils' academic achievement. There is a relationship between parent-occupational status and pupils' academic achievement. The type of job the parent is doing has an impact on child's academic performance. The study showed that pupils bom of professional parents, obtain highest scores on academic performance. There is a relationship between parentai-invoivement and pupils' academic achievement. Children, whose parents show high level of involvement, perform better in their academic tasks than those children whose parents are not involved in school matters. There is a relationship between parental-managed learning programmes and pupils' academic achievement. Parental two-way communication with the school, enhances pupils' academic performance.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instructional Studies at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015. / Low academic performance of grade twelve learners is one of the major concerns in South Africa. Mbizana district is one of the areas where grade twelve results have remained relatively low over the years. The Eastern Cape National School Certificate (NSC) provincial pass rate in 2007 was 56.9% and the pass rate for Mbizana district was 42.7%. In 2008 the provincial pass rate was 50.6%, while the pass rate for Mbizana slumped down to 29.3%. Thus, it is clear that Mbizana grade twelve learners were under-achieving in the NSC examinations. Although the situation has since shown some notable improvements, the district still remains one of the worst performing, both provincially and nationally – standing at the NSC pass rate of 58.7% in 2013, against 64.9% and 78.2% provincial and national pass rates, respectively. It was against this background that the researcher felt that the case of Mbizana warranted a systematic investigation. This study focused on the environmental and socio-economic factors that were presumed to affect learner academic achievement in the Mbizana district. More specifically, the this study sought to find out what learners, educators, school management team (SMT) members, and school governing body (SGB) members considered to be the major contributory factors to the relatively low academic performance of Mbizana district school learners in the NSC examinations. It was also of interest to the study, to establish the major similarities and differences in the factors that the various stakeholders considered to be the major contributory factors to the reported low learner academic achievement. To give the study a theoretical base, three theoretical perspectives that focus on various factors affecting learner performance were presented and discussed, namely Caroll’s Model of School Learning, Slamin’s QAIT Model of Effective Classroom Practice and Huitt’s Model of Teaching/Learning Process. The researcher chose Huitt’s Model of Teaching/Learning Process as the most appropriate to guide and direct her study. In addition to this, the researcher also II undertook a review of literature focusing on previous empirical studies related to factors considered to affect learner performance, in line with the research questions. The study used a mixed-methods research paradigm, involving both qualitative and quantitative research data. The chosen research design was Descriptive Survey, and the data gathering techniques were questionnaires and interview schedules for face to face interviews with the respective respondent groups. The research sample comprised ninety randomly selected respondents, broken down as follows: forty grade twelve learners, fifteen SMT members, twenty five subject educators and ten SGB members. All the participants were drawn from the Mbizana district, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. With regard to the major findings, the factors considered by grade twelve learners to be the major contributors to their low academic performance included a lack of parental support, road poor infrastructure, and a shortage of physical (laboratories, libraries) and qualified educators. On their part, SMT members considered learners’ socio-economic statuses, a shortage of qualified educators and a lack of physical and material learning/teaching resources. For the educators, there was a view that owing to a number of factors, teacher morale and motivation were low – and that this adversely affected learner academic performance in Mbizana schools. The educators further contended that some among them experienced difficulties in adequately implementing the new curriculum; and also that many were either unqualified or under-qualified for the classes that they With regard to SGB members, the cited major contributors to low learner academic performance were the absence of supportive infrastructure (laboratories, libraries), a shortage of qualified educators, lack of parental support, a non-supportive socio-economic background of learners, and the unstable education system, occasioned by never-ending curricular changes. The similarities and differences in the responses of the various stakeholders were noted. / Mbizana Human Resource Skills Development

Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M Ed (Ed. Psych) in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2005. / Reading is generally considered to be a critical skill, both within and beyond the walls of the classroom. Its importance for academic success within a school is unlikely to be contested by many people. Reading is well-integrated into our education system generally, such that educational or academic success is almost synonymous with reading success. With this in mind, the purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between reading difficulties and academic performance. To this end a group of Foundation Phase learners were selected on the basis of having an already identified reading difficulty. Using data from their school academic progress reports and from a scholastic assessment carried out by an educational psychologist, correlations were calculated between the learners' reading ability and academic performance. The research findings showed no significant correlation. These results were not in line with the general opinion supported by the literature, in that the children's reading difficulties did not appear to be impacting negatively on their academic potential. Various factors are discussed as possible explanations for this phenomenon.