This investigation was a development of a Personalized Relaxation Technique which was used in a comparative study of the effectiveness of this technique with the Relaxation Response, a popular relaxation method. The purpose of the study were (1) to design a Personalized Relaxation Technique and (2) to determine if this Personalized Relaxation Technique is as effective as the Relaxation Response. From the analysis of the data, no significant difference was found tin the three groups. Therefore, the two hypotheses were rejected. The conclusion of the study were (1) discrepancies exist in the literature concerning various relaxation techniques, (2) individual differences may be responsible for these discrepancies, and (3) fine tuning is needed between the theoretical concepts of a study on a relaxation technique and the research measures used to explore these concepts.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, 2010. / Objectives: To investigate the perception, knowledge and utilization of chiropractic profession by Durban University of Technology students. Methods: One thousand quantitative questionnaires were handed to students during lecture times. The sample was selected through representative sampling of all the Durban University of Technology students. The questionnaire was developed utilizing a Delphi process of focus group refinement and piloting. Data was entered on the spread sheet into the computer using SPSS version 15.0. Results: A response rate of 94,6% (946/1000) was obtained. There was a low level of knowledge, perception and utilization of chiropractic amongst Durban University of Technology students, only 37% had knowledge about chiropractic which most of them admitted to having a fair knowledge . White females had a higher knowledge about chiropractic than any other group. The perceptions about the suitability of chiropractic to treat different conditions were low. Low back pain was the condition for which respondents most commonly consulted a chiropractor, with 30% of participants being referred by a doctor and another 30% referred by family members. Conclusions: The overall knowledge of chiropractic in this population was relatively poor but a better perception of chiropractic existed in some ethnic groups which was not statistically significant. The results indicated that no statistic significance relationship exists between demographic factors and perception and knowledge of DUT students with respect to chiropractic.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84).

Thesis (M. Ed.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1998. / Bibliography: leaves 112-120.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84). Also available in print.

M. Tech. Education / Higher Education in South Africa has - in the recent past - shifted from an elitist to a mass-based system of education with the aim of fostering democratic nationbuilding. One of the pressing demands on higher education institutions has been accommodating the large student diversity. Student enrolments have become increasingly dissimilar in terms of racial, cultural, socio-economic and linguistic backgrounds, as well as at the level of preparedness that students have for university programmes. The transition from high school to university is for many students an immense challenge and - without proper support - dropouts will escalate, resulting in higher levels of attrition. The above scenario has stimulated renewed interest and placed a premium on student mentorship in higher education. Students are more willing to seek assistance from peers than from lecturers; they feel less intimidated. The rationale for this study was to explore first-year student mentees' experiences of the student mentor programme - and their experiences of transition at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Data were collected from students who had attended the student mentoring sessions from different faculties and on different campuses of the TUT.

A mini-dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Educational Psychology) in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, 2004. / This study investigates the validity of the General Scholastic Aptitude Test as a tool for predicting academic success for first year Information Technology (IT) students. Secondly it seeks to establish if it is an equally good predictor for the various racial groups in South Africa. Thirdly it investigates it’s usefulness as a predictor for the different gender groups. The final aim is to establish whether the GSAT correlates with the Swedish Rating (SR) and English language ability in terms of predicting academic success for first year IT students. The student group that served as the sample was the first year IT student group over the three year peroid from 2000 to 2002 at the Port Elizabeth (PE) Technikon. The study found that there was a weak link between GSAT and academic success across the entire sample. It however proved not to be an equally good predictor across all the racial groups, where it proved to be a far more useful tool for white students than for students from the other racial groups. Insofar as the gender groups were concerned it appeared to have some predictive power across the whole sample but not necessarily equally for the different gender and racial groups. There appeared to be a positive correlation between GSAT and Swedish Rating but not between GSAT and English language ability. From this study it appears that the GSAT has some merit in predicting academic success, although with differing rates of usefulness across different demographic groupings in South Africa. In addition there are many other factors that may militate against academic success in a student’s life which may hinder the usefulness of the GSAT as a predictive tool. If such assessments are to be used it would seem that they should be used very carefully, that factors reducing the chances of academic success need to be identified, and that institutions ensure that programmes are in place to empower students to maximize their potential.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Master of Technology Degree in Library and Information Studies, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / This study investigated the impact of the digital divide on information literacy (IL) training of Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) students at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). There are students entering the tertiary education environment in South Africa who have never used the Internet or have little or no knowledge of technology. Hence South African higher education institutions have a heterogeneous mix of both digitally advantaged students and digitally disadvantaged students. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the digital divide on IL training of ECP students at the DUT and to recommend guidelines for teaching and learning of IL that would accommodate both digitally advantaged and digitally disadvantaged students. The sub-objectives of the study were: to identify in what ways the digital divide impacts on the IL training of ECP students; to identify innovative teaching and learning methods to accommodate the diversity of students in the IL classroom; and to recommend guidelines for teaching and learning of IL in the ECP that accommodates the digital divide among participating students. Hence, the three population sets for the study were: DUT ECP students of 2010, Subject Librarians teaching IL to ECP students and the DUT ECP Coordinator. The study employed a mixed method approach in its research design. Data was collected from ECP students by means of a questionnaire, an interview schedule was used to collect data from Subject Librarians involved in teaching of the IL module to ECP students and lastly, a separate interview schedule was used to collect data from the ECP Coordinator. Qualitative data that was collected from the survey questionnaire was analysed using SPSS (Version 18.0) whilst qualitative data collected from the interviews and from the questionnaires was analysed thematically using content analysis. The findings of this study reveal that the digital divide does impact on IL training in ways such as, slowing down the progress of IL lessons; basic computer skills need to be taught in the IL classroom and that disadvantaged students find it difficult to follow online lessons while advantaged students already have the expertise to access online information. Based on these findings the study recommends that computer literacy training precede IL training; that various creative teaching and learning methods, such as, group work, games, online tutorials and interactive websites be incorporated into IL training to accommodate both digitally advantaged and digitally disadvantaged students in the IL classroom.

Organisational Leadership / The purpose of this study is to determine which factors influence the formation of intention to adopt the NSFAS online financial application system at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), and to identify barriers to adoption experienced by the NSFAS applicants at TUT. To achieve these objectives, the study utilised the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Ram & Sheth (1989) concept of barriers to model TUT NSFAS adoption patterns. To test this conceptual framework, a descriptive quantitative research survey approach was conducted. Data was collected through self-completion structured questionnaires from a sample of 644 TUT students in September 2015. SPSS Version 23 and STATA 12 were utilised to conduct descriptive and multivariate analyses including correlations and structural equation modelling respectively.