.

The research focused on the importance of and the problem of English proficiency/literacy regarding Grade 12 learners exiting the school system and seeking entry at Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs). Grade 12 learners’ final results have been used as a benchmark for admission into tertiary education for many years. These results have come under scrutiny over the past few years. IHLs are faced with the problem to generate ways to address the access of ill-prepared learners exiting Grade 12 and then to solve the problem of low levels of throughput and high drop-out rates among first year students, therefore the multi-faceted nature of access into South African IHLs was discussed, as well as alternative routes to enter IHLs. The researcher has experienced that the dropout rates of first year BEd English major students have been rather high. The purpose of this research was to determine what the predictive power of two measures, the English matric results of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) and the English Literacy Skills Assessment (ELSA) were on the academic success of first year BEd English major students of the North-West University on the Vaal Triangle Campus. This was primarily done to improve first year BEd English major students’ English proficiency/literacy, as well as to increase their throughput rate. The major findings of this study pointed to the lack of English language proficiency/literacy of first year BEd English major students and the low throughput rate of these students. Although the ELSA proved to be the best predictor of academic success for first year BEd English major students, the Grade 12 English results also showed a statistical significant prediction capability. The results showed that there was no significant difference between ELSA 1 (which was used as pre-test) and ELSA 2 (which was used as post-test). An improvement in the ELSA 2 results was expected, as it was written as a post-test at the end of the first year BEd English major modules, indicating that the curriculum of the first year BEd English major students had little or no positive influence on the results of the ELSA 2. This resulted in the recommendation that it would be to the advantage of first year BEd English major students to change the current first year BEd English major curriculum in order to improve students’ English proficiency/literacy, as well as their throughput rate, which will result in improved academic success. / PhD, Teaching and Learning, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

A comprehensive programme evaluation can provide rational, credible data to support the decision to implement a new programme, to improve an existing one or to discontinue an ineffective one. The main aim of a formative evaluation is to offer suggestions for programme improvement. A qualitative study was conducted to explore how the introduction of a team effectiveness programme provided a process that individuals in the organisation were exposed to that linked the constructs of self-awareness and interpersonal sensitivity as a way to empower individuals with tools for effective team communication and collaboration. The main findings indicate that individuals who are more self-aware make an effort to understand and adapt their behaviour to accommodate others. By contrast, there are individuals who use this as a defence mechanism or as an excuse for not adapting their behaviour. The polar opposite results in a breakdown of trust, team cohesion and communication that counteracts the effectiveness of the programme. In the absence of effective leadership to drive and continually reinforce desired behaviour, the individual tends to revert back to old behavioural practices. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

The focus of this paper is on cross-region R&D collaboration funded by the 5th EU Framework Programme (FP5). The objective is to measure distance, institutional, language and technological barrier effects that may hamper collaborative activities between European regions. Particular emphasis is laid on measuring discrepancies between two types of collaborative R&D activities, those generating output in terms of scientific publications and those that do not. The study area is composed of 255 NUTS-2 regions that cover the pre-2007 member states of the European Union (excluding Malta and Cyprus) as well as Norway and Switzerland. We employ a negative binomial spatial interaction model specification to address the research question, along with an eigenvector spatial filtering technique suggested by Fischer and Griffith (2008) to account for the presence of network autocorrelation in the origin-destination cooperation data. The study provides evidence that the role of geographic distance as collaborative deterrent is significantly lower if collaborations generate scientific output. Institutional barriers do not play a significant role for collaborations with scientific output. Language and technological barriers are smaller but the estimates indicate no significant discrepancies between the two types of collaborative R&D activities that are in focus of this study. (authors' abstract) / Series: Working Papers in Regional Science

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Cette thèse propose d'interroger les dynamiques communicationnelles à l’œuvre au sein des programmes et projets de recherche sur la biodiversité selon trois dimensions : relationnelle, organisationnelle et symbolique. La biodiversité est une question qui mobilise un nombre croissant de personnes, d’objets naturels, de réseaux à partir de dispositifs qui organisent les interfaces entre tous ces éléments. Mon approche s’inscrit dans un dialogue entre sciences de l’information et de la communication et études des sciences autour de trois notions : en quoi les projets et programmes recomposent-ils les collectifs autour de la biodiversité, quelles modalités organisationnelles ces dispositifs mettent-ils en œuvre et autour de quels standards ?Les programmes et projets de recherche deviennent des dispositifs fondamentaux du développement de la recherche sur la biodiversité en France par la convergence d’opportunités scientifiques, financières, rhétoriques et politiques. Deux terrains, le projet Inbioprocess (ANR-IFB-2006) et le programme « Agriculture, Biodiversité et Action publique » (DIVA2-Ministère de l’Ecologie-2006) ont été particulièrement étudiés. Pour cela, les méthodes d'observation participante, d'entretiens, d'animation de réunion et d'analyses sémiotiques ont été combinées. L’analyse de la dimension relationnelle des dispositifs permet de décrire l’ensemble des interactions et médiations dans lesquelles je suis impliquée. Ces contrastes ressentis entre les deux terrains sont confirmés au niveau organisationnel par la singularité du travail d’articulation et de médiation en jeu. Cependant, ces deux dispositifs mobilisent des standards communicationnels dont la fonction symbolique est de donner un espace au dialogue science et société. Ces dispositifs en tant que lieux de constitution de collectifs et de publics sont marqués par des tensions entre différentes modalités de communication et d’articulation des échelles. / This thesis investigates the communicational dynamics at work within research project and program about biodiversity. It focuses on three dimensions: relational, organizational and symbolic. The issue of biodiversity gathers a growing number of persons, objects, and networks through devices that organize their interfaces. My research benefits from the interplay of sciences of information and communication on the one hand, and sciences studies on the other hand, based on three notions: how projects and programs reshape the collectives around biodiversity; which organizational forms arise from those devices and around which “standards"? Research programmes and projects have become fundamental devices for the development of French research on biodiversity through the convergence of scientific, financial, rhetorical and political opportunities. Two case studies were analyzed : the project Inbioprocess (ANR-IFB-2008) and the program “Agriculture, Biodiversity and Public Action” (DIVA2-Ministère de l’Ecologie-2006) based on data collected through participant observation, interviews, animation of meetings methods combined with semiotic analysis. The study of devices’ relational dimension allows to describe the interactions and mediations in which I was involved. The contrasts between the two cases are confirmed at the organizational level by the singularity of the work of articulation and mediation at play. However, the two devices borrow communicational standards whose symbolic function is to open a space enabling the dialogue between science and society to take place.As spaces where collectives and publics are constituted, those devices reveal tensions between different modalities of communication and between the articulation of different scales.