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An integrative review of supportive clinical learning environment strategies for undergraduate students in health sciences
No full textThe clinical learning environment is essential for the development of healthcare students’ clinical training, clinical competence and professional identity. A supportive clinical learning environment is needed to provide the opportunity for students to integrate their theoretical knowledge with the clinical practice. The aim of the study was to critically synthesise the best available evidence describing strategies for a supportive clinical learning environment for undergraduate students in health sciences. An integrative review was chosen as research method, as studies with various methodologies can be incorporated in an integrative review. The researcher followed the five stages as stated by Whittemore and Knafl (2005:548552), namely problem identification, literature search, data evaluation, data analysis and presentation. The PICO-format (Population, Intervention, Comparative intervention and Outcome) was used to compile the review question, which again led the integrative review. EBSCOHost served as a platform to search for electronic data in 13 databases. Google Scholar was also used as a database to allow for the identification of relevant grey literature. The electronic database search strategy identified 500 potential studies, and after the filtering process, 11 studies were identified for critical evaluation. A critical evaluation was conducted in the form of a round table consensus by the researcher, the supervisor, the co-supervisor and a senior reviewer with experience in conducting integrative reviews. During the critical evaluation, 10 studies were selected for analysis. The selected studies were heterogenous and so a meta-analysis was not feasible. The results of the thematic analysis culminated in a conceptual framework of a supportive clinical learning environment. Three concluding statements, as stated below, summarise the findings of the study: 1) A variety/network of student supporters, who have been carefully selected, may be allocated specific clinical responsibilities while supporting the undergraduate student in the clinical learning environment. 2) The relationship between the student, the student supporter and the clinical staff is crucial to create a sense of belonging, self-efficacy and selfdirectedness. The relationship depends on the roster and ratio of students per student supporter, as well as appropriate learning opportunities. 3) Higher education institutions and healthcare providers (such as healthcare facilities) should support students through formal collaboration/partnerships, with student supporters employed by the institutions, and these institutions should support the student supporters in various ways. A few recommendations made by the researcher include: 1) Higher education institutions and healthcare providers should attempt to forge beneficial relationships in order to support the students. 2) Higher education institutions should support student supporters in the clinical learning environment with adequate and timely information regarding student placement, the students’ level of competence and the students’ outcomes, and also with training and support regarding student problems. 3) Healthcare providers should assist the higher education institutions by providing placement, opportunities for students to learn, and by supporting the students in clinical learning. 4) Student supporters should have certain qualities that enhance clinical teaching and student supporters should be willing to spend time with students. The comprehensive synthesis of the best available evidence has led to new insights regarding creating and maintaining supportive clinical learning environment strategies for undergraduate students in health sciences. These strategies may be implemented in innovative ways to provide the students with the best clinical learning opportunities.University of the Free State, School of Nursin
Response of wetland indicator grass species to degree of soil water saturation
No full textDifferent plant species, adapted to life in water-saturated soil conditions, have been used for quite some time as indicators of wetland presence. However, it is not quantitatively known how wet the soil should be to support these wetland plants. This study aimed to investigate the response of wetland indicator grass species to the degree of soil water saturation. There were three key aims to the study: to investigate a procedure to evaluate grass species growth at different degrees of water saturation, to determine at what degree of water saturation obligate and upland wetland plants grow and to propose a degree of water saturation guidelines for quantitative wetland delineation. The study was conducted in glasshouses at the University of Free State, under controlled environmental conditions, Two grass species: Leptochloa fusca (obligate wetland) and Themeda triandra (obligate upland), were selected and transplanted into soil-filled pots. Within these pots the different degrees of water saturation could be monitored making use of the bulk density of the soil. Two separate studies were conducted at different times with different degrees of water saturation. The first study used 60%, 70%, 80% and 90% degrees of water saturation. During this study parameter such as photosynthetic rate, water conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, and transpiration rate were monitored weekly by using the Licor-6400XL apparatus. A measuring ruler was used to measure leaf length of selected and marked leaves weekly. The second study conducted had four different degrees of saturation (20%, 40%, 60% and 80%) with measurements for the photosynthetic rate, water conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, and transpiration rate were monitored weekly making use of the Licor-6400XL apparatus. A measuring ruler was used to measure the length of selected and marked leaves weekly. In both studies the parameters for degree of water saturation and the photosynthetic rate, water conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, and transpiration rate did not show any correlations nor significant differences. In the first study the results obtained from the Chlorophyll a, b, chlorophyll a & b and carotenoid content also did not yield any significant differences or correlations. However, in the first study Leptochloa fusca grew taller than Themeda trianadra indicating that Leptochloa fusca was better adapted to all degrees of water saturation. The second study revealed that Themeda triandra grew taller than Leptochloa fusca at 20% and 40% water saturation. In contrast to this at 60% and 80% water saturation Leptochloa fusca outperformed Themeda triandra and more so at 80% than at 60% saturation. These differences were, however, not statistically significant but the result does seem to indicate that 60% soil water saturation was sufficient to support optimal obligate wetland grass growth. The results obtained might have been influenced by the fact that grasses were grown out of season or that the soil that was used was not optimal to support the grasses, especially wetland grasses. From the results, it could also be inferred that these parameters may not be such good indicators of plant adaptability to different degrees of water saturation as was initially thought. However, further experiments may be done using different soil types, other non-wetland and wetland grasses, as well as conducting the experiments within the growing season of grasses.University of the Free State postgraduate schoolIphakade programm
The Manifestation of healing: a therapeutic retreat for police officers, Bainsvlei, Bloemfontein
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Community-based MDR-TB management: task-shifting to community treatment supporters in Eswatini
No full textThe framing and reframing of sports news through translation in a converged media organisation
No full textThis product-oriented qualitative study used the Rugby World Cup 2019 as a case of sport news translation to investigate how sports news is framed and reframed through translation in a converged media organisation. Drawing on narrative theory, framing and media framing, the study combined the various qualitative data analysis methods from these theories in order to analyse textual sports news articles from Media24 and subsections thereof, Sport24 and Volksblad, using what was termed in this study as the methods of framing. Fourteen provisional codes were reduced to eight categories and during data analysis three major themes emerged. All ethical considerations for qualitative data collection and analysis were adhered to, especially those pertaining to the collection and analysis of secondary textual data. The findings indicate that media convergence does have an impact on the manner in which sports news articles are reframed through translation and that, in this study, the Afrikaans target texts used more eloquent and create language to reframe the sports news. Moreover, the methods of framing of selective appropriation, labelling, the power and conflict frame and human impact frame were the most prominent frames used in this study. Furthermore, the finding that media convergence influences the translation of the sports news, it means that articles were localised for the audience it served since most of the source texts were taken from Sport24 (which were aimed at an English/international audience) while the target texts were for a mostly Afrikaans-speaking South African audience. This also means that plenty of information was “recycled” and reused for numerous news articles while the localisation entailed ensuring that the translation process was made more invisible and that the target text read like an original text in its own right. Limitations of this study include that only RWC 2019 articles were used as a case of sports news translation and that this study focused solely on Media24 and subsections thereof. Researchers using a wider data collection pool of sports news or a different/multiple media organisation(s) could have varying results from this study
The values learners consider as important in the learning of mathematics
No full textLearners have different values that could affect their learning and eventually their performance in mathematics. However, many teachers are unaware of these values. Therefore, this paper reports on a study that established the values learners consider as important in the learning of mathematics. The participants were 274 Grade 9 learners, selected purposively from one school in Gauteng, South Africa. An exploratory quantitative research method was adopted and data were collected with a standardised questionnaire developed by Seah (2011b). The results revealed that learners value 1) Hard work and effort when doing mathematics; 2) Numerous different methods to obtain the answer to a mathematics problem; 3) Authentic examples of shapes to understand their properties; 4) Demonstration and explanation of mathematics
concepts and proofs; and 5) Teaching and explaining mathematical concepts. This paper highlights the values teachers should consider in the teaching and learning of mathematics in order to ensure better learner performance in mathematics. Furthermore, the paper adds to research on values in Mathematics Education within a South African context.Publisher's versio
Sorghum root rot and grain mold pathogen responses to legume rotation systems
No full textThis dissertation has four chapters with literature review included. The overall aim of this dissertation was to investigate how sorghum root rot and grain mold pathogens respond to legume rotation systems. This study looked at the cultural benefits obtained through rotation systems in promoting root and plant health and sustainable food security through the reduction of mycotoxin production.
The first chapter is the literature review, which introduces the main legume crops that were used to control root rot, grain mold and occurrence of specific mycotoxins in sorghum. It detailed why there is a need to control these constraints affecting crop growth because of its reliance as a staple food in South Africa and many other developing countries. The introduction included the origin and distribution of sorghum, its production level globally and locally and its economic value. It further includes the constraints such as grain mold, root rot and mycotoxins and their cultural management strategies.
In Chapter 2 the impact of various crop rotation systems on the nutrient status of soil and the relationship between soil health and root rot severity in subsequent sorghum crops were established. Field trials were planted at Potchefstroom (ARC-Grain Crops, South Africa) during 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 respectively. The six main plots were established during the first season (2015/16) by either fallow or planting of sorghum, dry bean, soybean, cowpea and bambara. Plants were randomly collected from sorghum plots at Potchefstroom to quantify root colonization using ergosterol content and test for 12 root pathogens in root tissues using qPCR analyses. Soil samples were collected at the beginning of every season to test for soil nutrient elements ie. N (NO3 and NH4), P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn and soil pH that contribute to improved soil and plant health.
In Chapter 3 colonization of F. graminearum Species Complex (FgSC) on three sorghum cultivars
and their response to grain mold pathogens under fallow, monoculture and legume rotation systems over a three season period (2015/16; 2016/17 and 2017/18) was determined. Ten plants were collected each season from a 10 m designated inner row per cultivar, per treatment for threshing. The threshed grains were visually rated for grain mold on a 1-5 scale. Total biofungal mass as a measure of colonization was quantified through ergosterol quantification, while FgSC was quantified using qPCR analyses.
In Chapter 4 determination of whether legume based rotational systems assist in reducing deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV) and zearalenone (ZEA) concentrations in sorghum grain and establishing whether the mycotoxin concentration in sorghum grain might be due to translocation of mycotoxins from the root system to sorghum grain was assessed. Ten plants were collected during each season from a 10 m designated inner row per cultivar, per treatment for threshing and assessment of root rot severity. The threshed grains were visually rated for grain mold on a 1-5 scale and roots were visually assessed on a scale of 0-4. Total biofungal mass as a measure of colonization was quantified through ergosterol quantification in grains and roots, while FgSC was quantified using qPCR analyses. Mycotoxins were quantified using LC-MS/MS method. Relationships between FgSC and mycotoxins were also determined
Polyphasic study, species description and significance of novel chryseobacterium species isolated from poultry sources
No full textChryseobacterial strains have been isolated from sources like soil, beer bottles, plants and hospital equipment. Other sources include poultry, meat, fish, milk, creamed rice and canned vegetables where they have been reported to cause food spoilage. They have a wide range of applications ranging from the production of keratinases for the degradation of chicken feather keratin, to the degradation of toxic environmental compounds like flubendiamide. They have also been reported to offer protection to plants where some protect plants against pathogens and possess plant growth-stimulating properties. In the first section of this study, a polyphasic approach was used to describe two novel strains of Chryseobacterium (1_F178T and 5_R23647). 16S rRNA sequencing was done and phylogenetic analysis confirmed Chryseobacterium jejuense and Chryseobacterium nakagawai as the closest relatives of strain 1_F178T, and Chryseobacterium piscium and Chryseobacterium balustinum as the closest relatives of strain 5_R23647. Phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genotypic methods confirmed the affiliation of both strains to the genus Chryseobacterium, and only confirmed strain 1_F178T as a novel species of Chryseobacterium, to which the name Chryseobacterium pennae was proposed. The growth kinetics of Chryseobacterium strain 1_F178T, 5_R23647, Chryseobacterium carnipullorum and the spoilage specific microorganism, Pseudomonas fluorescens were investigated in the second section of this study, to determine their spoilage potential. Chryseobacterium strain 1_F178T had the highest specific growth rate which indicated a higher spoilage potential. Its growth at temperatures as low as 4 °C was indicative of growth at refrigeration with possibly food spoilage. Chryseobacterium carnipullorum had the highest activation energy implying it has a high sensitivity to change in temperature. The lowest activation energy was obtained for P. fluorescens indicative of this microorganism being less sensitive to changes in temperature, hence can grow over wider temperature ranges, and will therefore have a higher spoilage potential than the chryseobacterial strains in this study and as confirmed in literature. The Huang model was seen as a more effective model in predicting the minimum and maximum temperatures for growth. Analysis using the BiologTM Phenotype MicroArray (PM) system showed the ability of Chryseobacterium strain 1_F178T to oxidise a wide range of substrates ranging from fatty acids, carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, amino acids and polymers, which is linked to its spoilage potential. Strain 1_F178T was able to oxidise a number of fungicides which showed potential of this organism for agricultural applications
Exploring the understanding of universal design for learning by the Lesotho English teachers working with deaf learners
No full textThe aim of the present study was to explore the understanding of Universal Design for learning (UDL) by the Lesotho English teachers working with Deaf learners. English language is one of the legislated subjects in Lesotho, even though it provides challenges to Deaf learners as they are included in the mainstream in the schools. These learners experience poor academic challenges and have lagged behind their counterparts. This, prevailing situation prohibited Deaf learners to become successful participating citizens. This qualitative study sought to explore the understanding of UDL by the Lesotho English teachers working with Deaf learners, and how UDL can be used to improve the academic performance of Deaf learners in the context of the English classroom. Ten participants, who were purposefully selected, were interviewed. The researcher analysed the data thematically through Braun and Clarke’s (2006) and (2013) six phases’ framework. The findings emerged revealed that some participants did not understand the term ‘Universal Design for Learning’, since this was the first time they came across such a term. However, the participants revealed that improving English teaching to Deaf learners needs some further skills and strategies, as well as to employ some new approaches, such as UDL that can bring change to their performance and therefore mediate the dropout. They further illustrated that this does not concern only English teachers, but involve both collaboration of the views by Deaf learners and the understanding of UDL by English teachers, curriculum designers, the examination council of Lesotho, as well as the Ministry of Education and Training. The participants admitted that since they experience limited knowledge about UDL, they recommend the in-service training, conferences and workshops by UDL expects, professionals and researchers to equip them to understand it better and its principles in practice. The study therefore concludes that improving the English performance to DLs will be the result of understanding of UDL and its usage through the practice of representation, action and expression, as well as engagement by collaboration and interrelationship of all stakeholders through interacting and being involved in the deaf education. Additionally, the study concludes that English teachers working with DLs through their daily interaction with learners, experience, skills and capabilities have the potential to bring change to the English performance. Therefore, the study recommends the awareness of UDL and its practical usage through training of teachers, workshops, conferences and different medias. The study also recommends considering identifying the English teachers as agents of change, hence they need to be updated with upcoming approaches like UDL
Contesting patriotic identities: A study of literary counter-discourse in the advent of the Third Chimurenga
No full textThis study examines how selected Zimbabwean writers have re-imagined patriotism as a mechanism of re-inventing the nation. It particularly seeks to demonstrate how a literary approach interjects, unsettles, unmakes and re-makes knowledges about contemporary manifestations and (ab)uses of the concept, as well as its historical trajectory and shifts since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. The thesis explores literary constructions of national and patriotic identities in the context of the ruling ZANU PF party’s black (neo)nationalist ideological dominance vis-à-vis perceptions of self, agency and the idea of nation, especially in the face of a socio-political and economic crisis that affected Zimbabwe from the year 2000, a period better known as the Third Chimurenga. Therefore, the study is situated within the historically specific temporal and spatial context of the Third Chimurenga where ZANU PF, which has dominated political power since 1980, has propagated grand narratives which authorise a homogeneous vision of the nation and patriotic identities in the Zimbabwean citizenry. The study specifically focusses on contestations between state-sanctioned patriotic identities and counter-discursive imaginaries of patriotism in selected Zimbabwean literary texts. It explores how the literature maps the purported state vision and the counter vision of the nation and engages, at a counter discursive level, with the notion of patriotic identities propagated in the ruling ZANU PF party grand narratives. To this end, the study closely reads novels and short stories by ten different writers, namely Shimmer Chinodya’s “Queues”, Nevanji Madanhire’s “The Grim Reaper’s Car”, Lawrence Hoba’s The Trek and Other Stories, Freedom Nyamubaya’s “That Special Place”, Petina Gappah’s “The President Always Dies in January” and “From a Town called Enkeeldorn”, Christopher Mlalazi’s Running with Mother, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s House of Stone, John Eppel’s “The Awards Ceremony”, Diana Charsley’s “The Pencil Test” and Monireh Jassat’s “A Lazy Sunday Afternoon.” The study argues that these texts reflect on different experiences of marginalised patriotisms and contest various forms of exclusion such as political, economic, gender, ethnic and racial in order to counter toxic political processes and debilitating economic circumstances. Thus, the texts’ counter-discursive thrust is broad and an expression of writerly and personal responses to political and economic circumstances birthed by crisis conditions. The study argues that the texts perform various forms of deconstructive acts and each of the texts analysed in this study constitutes a significant archive of the subversion of patriotic identities in post-2000 Zimbabwe. The writers write in idioms of subversion and defiance and evolve and employ multiple textual strategies including exposure, satire, parody, disruption, deconstruction and an engagement in the practice of everyday life to contest the ZANU PF-crafted grand narratives that authorise and prop up patriotic identities. Thus, the study highlights how the texts analysed are at variance with the patriotic history project and construct an alternative vision of the nation and identities, otherwise termed counter-discourses, that is in contradistinction to the patriotic identities that ZANU PF advocates during the Third Chimurenga. The study utilises various strands in postcolonial theory, particularly postcolonial concepts on counter-discourse, notions on identity construction, and ideas on Zimbabwean patriotic identities. Drawing on these concepts, the study explores the deeply political mapping of the idea and memories of the nation and the concept of patriotic identities evident in post-2000 Zimbabwe and contested in the research’s selected texts. The study concludes by noting how these literary interventions are critical in the enunciation of democratic ideals and the suggestion that future research should explore literatures about hegemonic systems and their entrenchment.University of the Free State English Departmen