This research project focuses on skillful conversation as a strategic tool for school success in the Zeerust Central Region. The project is located within the theories of school improvement. The research project set out to investigate the improvement of teaching and learning practices in secondary schools through skillful conversation. The research project is divided into five chapters. Chapter One focuses on the problems arising in schools when there is no skillful conversation. These problems demonstrate that when there is no skillful conversation in a school, it would be difficult for educators to improve their teaching strategies. Skillful conversation was then used in this research as a strategic tool to improve secondary schools. Chapter Two focuses on a literature review about skillful conversation in secondary schools. The main discussion is based on skillful conversation as a strategic tool in managing secondary schools. Reflection and inquiry, competitive advantage and skill conversation as ongoing processes are discussed. The literature review also considers the learning loop for educators and innovation for learner success. Other factors of importance in this research project are parental involvement and external and internal environments. Chapter Three concentrates largely on empirical design. A quantitative research method was used to study the opinions of the population studied. This research was conducted from schools randomly selected out of the 39 secondary schools in the Zeerust Central Region. Chapter Four deals with the analysis and interpretation of data collected from secondary schools. The main focus was on the reliability and validity of the research instrument, which was the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 40 closed-ended items. The questions were designed to obtain the perceptions of educators and principals on skillful conversation as a strategic tool in secondary schools of the Zeerust Central Region. The questionnaire was divided into three sections namely: section A biographical details, section B, whereby each question started with the header ‘how important it is for educators to discuss’ and section C whereby each question started with the header ‘how often do the educators at your school discuss?Of the 40 closed-ended questions only two factors were realised namely, factor one, conversation with everybody and factor two, conversations with the principal. Chapter Five deals with the findings, recommendations and conclusion of the whole research project. / Prof. K.C Moloi
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3829 |
| Date | 25 August 2008 |
| Creators | Khunou, Phumza Maureen |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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