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Developmental coordination disorder in children: assessment, identification and intervention
No full textThesis (Ph.D. (Exercise and Sport Sciences))--University of the Free State, 2020: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a motor skill disorder that affects children worldwide, with various prevalence rates reported in the literature. Approximately 60% of children in South Africa (SA) come from low socio-economic (SE) environments. It is, therefore, essential to determine the prevalence of possible DCD in these environments. Although various screening tools are available for identifying possible DCD, teachers' ability to use the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-2 (MABC-2) Checklist has not been established. Furthermore, children with DCD and possible DCD will continue to experience motor difficulties if motor intervention is not provided. A motor intervention guideline for children with DCD in SA in the field of Kinderkinetics has not been established.
: The first objective was to determine the prevalence of possible DCD in Grade 1 (Gr. 1) learners in a low SE environment in Mangaung, SA, using the MABC-2 Performance Test. Secondly, the study aimed to establish teachers' ability to identify Gr. 1 learners with possible DCD in low SE environments using the MABC-2 Checklist. Finally, an e-Delphi survey was used to develop a motor intervention framework as a guideline for Kinderkineticists to help children with DCD or possible DCD within the South African context.
: Two hundred and forty-two (N=242; 51.2% boys, 48.8% girls) Gr. 1 learners, 6–8-year-old from a low SE environment (quintile 1–3 schools) in Mangaung Metro, Motheo District, Free State (FS) Province, participated in study objective one. Possible DCD prevalence was determined using the MABC-2 Performance Test. For the second objective, the study was conducted in the same environment. Gr. 1 learners 6–8-year-old (N=200; 49.5% boys, 50.5% girls) and 29 female class teachers of the Gr.1 learners participated in the study. The convergent validity of the MABC-2 Performance Test and Checklist completed by teachers was determined. Lastly, for objective three, 29 Kinderkineticists in SA with expert experience participated in a three-round online e-Delphi survey by answering questions related to motor intervention for children with possible DCD.
: The results of objective one showed that the prevalence of possible DCD found in the Gr. 1 learners was 9.9%. The gender results indicated a possible DCD prevalence of 10.5% for boys and 9.3% for girls. No statistically significant difference between the boys and girls was found (p=0.94). The results concerning objective two indicated that the movement specialists identified more learners (90%) in the non-DCD group (> 15th percentile) than the teachers (54%). The teachers wrongfully identified 46% of the learners with possible DCD, who were not identified with possible DCD according to the movement specialists. The movement specialists identified 10% of the learners with possible DCD. Only a slight agreement ((k=0.17) was found between the MABC-2 Performance Test and Checklist when the ≤ 15th percentile was used as a cut-off score. The sensitivity was 85% and the specificity 58%. In the e-Delphi survey, consensus (80%) was reached on 51/89 questions in round one, 89/144 for round two, and 12/30 in round three. A motor intervention framework was developed using the feedback of each round from the participants where consensus was reached.
: The prevalence of possible DCD in low SE environments in Mangaung of Gr. 1 learners was higher than the worldwide estimated prevalence of DCD (5–6%). It is recommended that when teachers use the MABC-2 Checklist, the Performance Test should be performed in conjunction with the Checklist to obtain the most reliable results. A motor intervention framework was developed as a first draft to use as a guideline by Kinderkineticists, focusing on intervention planning, goal-setting, intervention approaches, intervention apparatus, intervention delivery mode, additional role players, settings, dosage, and evaluation
Health sciences students’ perceptions of collaborative practice on a rural learning platform, Xhariep District
No full textA retrospective analysis of the mortality, and the perinatal risk factors for mortality, of very low birth weight infants admitted to Universitas Academic Hospital over a 2-year period – January 2016 to December 2017
No full textBackground: A rise in preterm deliveries of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants, less than 1 500 grams, is currently introducing a global public health dilemma. VLBW infants are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality. Identifying and addressing perinatal risk factors in order to improve the prognosis of VLBW infants are fundamental. Objectives: The primary objectives of this study were to determine mortality rate and disease profile of VLBW infants admitted into the neonatal unit at Universitas Academic Hospital (UAH). The secondary objective was to determine perinatal factors which impacted the mortality of VLBW infants. Methods: A retrospective analytical cross-sectional study was conducted. Study participants, namely VLBW infants, were identified by making use of admission registries, electronic and paper patient records. This data was then used to identify causes of mortality, and perinatal risk factors that increased the risk of mortality. Results: Mortality of VLBW infants was 25.3%. The main causes of mortality were pulmonary haemorrhage (26.3%), necrotising enterocolitis (20%), multi-organ prematurity (20%) and intraventricular haemorrhage (3.8%). Male gender, low birth weight, low gestational age, no antenatal steroids received, hypothermia, surfactant administration, and the need for ventilation were all factors associated with increased mortality. Metabolic acidosis and hyperlactataemia also demonstrated a strong association with mortality. Conclusion: Survival rates of VLBW infants compare favourably with tertiary hospitals in South Africa and developing countries. Basic interventions, such as improving antenatal care and avoiding neonatal hypothermia, and limiting risk factors associated with pulmonary haemorrhage will minimise the mortality risk. Policy change, regarding admission of infants weighing more than 900 grams to intensive care, should be considered to allow escalation of care to improve survival
Worldview-philosophy-through-film: an account of cognitive discomfiture in viewer-engagement
No full textThe philosophy of painful art has a lineage that goes back at least as far as Aristotle's treatment of tragedy. Since the 1990s, the problem of cognitively confusing, negatively valenced film-viewing experiences has achieved a renewed significance because of the flourishing of the puzzle film and its unresolvable variant, the impossible puzzle film. This trend, which has unfolded within the emergence of mass art films and a mass cinephilia that have popularised the techniques of art and avant-garde cinema, may be best embodied in the films of David Lynch and specifically in his early masterwork, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), a disorienting tale of incestuous sexual abuse. To investigate this topic, I adopt the piecemeal, mid-level approach that Noël Carroll has established within the broader research programme of cognitive (biocultural) film theory. Accordingly, I construct a rich-disclosure framework that accounts for cognitive discomfiture film-viewing experiences from well-founded, constructive explanatory material within film theory and the philosophy of film, and interdisciplinary support from social scientific research in media psychology. The most important of these sources are David Bordwell's neo-formalist model of conventional and unconventional cinema; Todd Berliner's reappreciation of the challenging dimensions of mainstream film; Torben Grodal's PEMCA flow/freeze model of viewer-engagement plus the saturationacceptance and upstream intentional access that it encompasses; Noël Carroll's dramaof-disclosure and erotetic, criterial prefocusing; and Aaron Smuts' integrative, nonhedonic theory of rich, value-constitutive film-viewing. The latter two sources contribute a further five important elements to the integrative cognitive-emotive model of viewerengagement, namely folk psychology, asymmetrical, 'twofolded' character engagement, negatively valenced affects, maieutically guided moral involvement, and narrative practice with therapeutic potential. Thereafter, I complete the overall conceptual framework by positioning rich-disclosure within the broader field of eudaimonic viewing practices. This basically involves linking the foregoing film theoretical/philosophical material to the film-based popularisation of philosophy (movie-made thought experiments), to William Charlton's relatively uncontroversial definition of academic philosophy, and to Mark Koltko-Rivera's systematic worldview theory. It produces a sense of popular philosophical, eudaimonic viewer-engagement that is characteristically mentalisation-dependent, worldviewinvolving, and conversational. In the end, the problem of motivated viewer-engagement with cognitively irresolvable impossible puzzle films is addressed in terms of, what I call, worldview-philosophythrough-film. The latter is defended in two moves: A primary, reflective, and descriptive definition of this gradually emerging, graded kind of viewer-centred popular philosophy. And, a secondary, integrative set of considerations of possible objections to this preliminary effort to characterise and account for an important-but-unaddressed filmic popularisation of philosophy via painful viewing experiences that hold the promise of renewing viewers' insights into their most basic beliefs
Curriculum leadership role of subject advisors for mathematics improvement in South Africa
No full textThe aim of the study was to explore the curriculum leadership role of Mathematics subject advisors for Mathematics improvement in South Africa. Researchers in developing countries have struggled to describe and capture the curriculum leadership role of Mathematics subject advisors and the way it influences learner achievement results in Mathematics. In the same vein, their counterparts in developed countries also continue to struggle to document actual success stories of the curriculum leadership role of Mathematics subject advisors in improving the teaching and learning of Mathematics. To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, not many studies focusing on curriculum leadership and the role of subject advisors for Mathematics improvement have been conducted in the South African context. This qualitative case study convenience and purposively sampled Mathematics subject advisors and ten Mathematics educators in all the five districts of the Free State province in South Africa. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis. Data was coded according to the eight steps of Tesch (1990). The study established that the curriculum leadership role of subject advisors includes but is not limited to providing support and guidance to educators, educator appraisal, monitoring, controlling educators and learners’ work books, mentoring and developing educators’ professionally. In addition, subject advisors are tasked with carrying out administrative work including the provision of resources and paper work such as using monitoring tools. While all subject advisors tried to get the best possible learner achievement in Mathematics, they managed and led their schools differently. Some reflected on previous strategies while others worked according to the availability of resources. In addition, the individual educational philosophies of the subject advisors played a role. Besides this, the study established that subject advisors do not operate in isolation. The interactions amongst subject advisors, principals, educators, learners and the context are important in promoting subject advisors’ effective curriculum leadership. Lastly, none of the subject advisors that were interviewed knew everything that was going on in his or her subject area. Some of the interviewed subject advisors did not major in Mathematics or a science-related subject. The subject advisors in this study each pointed out that they need training in specific areas such as the management and leadership of supporting progressed learners. It is in this vein that the findings of this study may be used by scholars in future to assist in the development of a standardised model, which can be used to inform leadership training of Mathematics subject advisors wishing to improve subject advisors’ curriculum leadership role, and which would then influence educators’ classroom and teaching practices and learners’ performance.National Research Foundation (NRF
Strengthening the alignment between an academic literacy course and the literacy needs of Education students
No full textDue to the increased enrolment of students in the HE environment since 2015, the need for academic literacy intervention has increased. A contributing factor to this is the failure of the South African schooling system to provide students with sufficient linguistic knowledge. Therefore, entering students struggle to cope with general academic literacy demands in the HE environment and furthermore often require academic support to meet the specific demands of their academic fields of study. At the University of the Free State, the academic literacy programme is structured in such a way that the students of the Faculty of Education are enrolled in the same academic literacy course as the students of the Faculty of Humanities and are, thus, exposed to the same academic literacy interventions. This study aimed to determine the extent to which the current academic literacy faculty-specific course for the Faculty of Humanities, EALH1508, aligns with the literacy needs of the Faculty of Education students in terms of addressing their academic needs to successfully negotiate their academic content and assessment requirements, and whether it is necessary to develop a separate academic literacy course for the Faculty of Education students. In an effort to address the aim of this study in a satisfactory manner, document analyses were conducted on the EALH1508 textbook as well as on the study material of several selected Faculty of Education first-year modules. These two analyses were compared in terms of academic literacy abilities taught in the literacy course and the abilities needed to successfully engage with the study material in the Faculty of Education. Furthermore, three sets of semi-structured questionnaires were conducted with the relevant stakeholders, accompanied by follow-up focus group discussions with these parties. Lastly, data received from a pre- and post-diagnostic test, the ALDI-test, were also considered during the analysis process. The data collection instruments were informed by a constructed academic literacy framework (cf. Table 3.1), which in turn was informed by a thorough literature review of relevant academic literacy abilities needed to meet the academic demands of HE. The data analyses revealed that there exists a significant gap in terms of the academic literacy abilities required to effectively negotiate the course material from the Faculty of Education’ selected first-year modules and those being taught in the academic literacy course that the Education students are enrolled in. These discrepancies are in particular relevant to academic research abilities, academic reading and writing abilities, and analytical and logical reasoning skills. Based on the findings of the data analyses, it was concluded that it is of importance to replace the current academic literacy course offered to the Education students, as the current academic literacy course does not cater to their specific and unique literacy needs. A further recommendation was made to adjust the assessment plan of the literacy course to align better with the assessment programme of the Faculty of Education. This study firstly contributes to the field of academic literacy studies in terms of identifying the specific academic literacy needs of students in different HE academic faculties, as well as the necessity to develop faculty-specific academic literacy courses. I argue that a generic approach to teaching academic literacy in the South African HE environment, although not entirely inadequate, would not be as beneficial as a faculty-specific approach. This is especially true in terms of the development of students’ academic discourse that is relevant to their particular discourse community. Secondly, the study outlined and illustrated a programme evaluation process to identify the relevant academic literacy abilities needed within a specific field of study. This programme evaluation process is transferable to other academic literacy contexts. Thirdly, based on the findings I argue the need to amend current institutional policies relating to academic literacy development to ensure that academic literacy courses follow a faculty-specific approach in order to sufficiently support students to achieve academic success in their chosen field of study
Geochemical characterisation of the Witbank coalfields, South Africa
No full textThe Witbank Coalfield is one of the 19 coalfields found in South Africa and has been exploited for coal for more than a century. The coalfield is located in the Mpumalanga Province, roughly 100 km east of Johannesburg. The dissertation focuses on the Witbank Coalfield wherein Arnot, Goedehoop, Mafube, Zibulo, Landau and Greenside collieries, as well as Blaauwkrans and Greenside Discard Facilities were investigated. Coal mining in this area has proven to be problematic, has caused contamination of surface and groundwater resources, and changed the quality of the water over the years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the acid generating potential of the Witbank coalfield by examining the groundwater chemistry, acid-base-accounting predictions as well as sulphur contents of the coal seams and host rocks. The data obtained from the mines were processed using tools such as WISH, ABACUS and PHREEQC to create descriptive diagrams that aided in further understanding the acid generating properties of the study area. Arnot, Goedehoop, Greenside colliery and its discard dump are the most problematic due to their high sulphate concentrations. Sulphur contents of coal seams were compared to the groundwater sulphate concentrations. Although this was instrumental in understanding the relationship between sulphur and sulphate concentrations, sulphur is not evenly distributed amongst and within the different seams, leading to certain hotspots. Geochemical speciation showed hydrated metals and carbonates are likely to precipitate as secondary mineral phases. Overall, the results demonstrated that the groundwater of the investigated study sites was sulphate contaminated and that the majority of samples collected from the sites were potentially acid generating. ABA data was compared with the groundwater chemistry to evaluate whether the ABA predictions were reflected in the groundwater quality. Results of this study confirmed that ABA is a useful tool to predict potential constituents of concern in groundwater
Mapping science teachers’ knowledge of force and momentum to classroom practices in selected schools in Lesotho
No full textThis study used a mixed methods explanatory sequential design to investigate physical science teachers‟ perceptions of their knowledge of force and momentum to establish how it shapes classroom practice, if at all. The study sought to determine the teachers‟ knowledge of: the science curriculum, how students understand science, instructional and assessment strategies, as well as their orientations towards teaching science. The research question that guided this study was, what is the knowledge base of science teachers in Lesotho on the topic of force and momentum and how does it shape classroom practice in grade 11? A survey of ninety-two physical science teachers, who were randomly sampled from five districts, was done. Out of the surveyed teachers, three were purposefully sampled and observed as they taught the concepts of force with the purpose of establishing the knowledge domains they realised when teaching. A follow-up interview was done with each of them in order to ascertain whether their classroom decisions were motivated by what they do or do not know.
Moreover, the teachers‟ lesson plans and physical science syllabus were analysed. The findings of the study revealed that, although the teachers had positive perceptions of the knowledge needed to teach the concepts of force, their practices were not influenced by them; rather, various aspects in the field
and during teaching determined what they did. Even within the knowledge domains that were found to influence their practice, there were variations in how the teachers realised them. The findings also revealed that the mismatch between perceptions and practice was the result of little or inadequate reflection-on-practice by the teachers, as it was found lacking. The study therefore suggests that teachers should be assisted in continuous reflection-on-practice, as that has been proved to assist teachers to develop their PCK, thereby being able to realise and integrate most of the knowledge domains during practice
School-based instructional leadership support for information technology and computer applications technology subject teachers
No full textThe objective of this quantitative study was to determine who the instructional leaders are for information technology (IT) and computer applications technology (CAT) in schools, what activities characterise instructional leadership, what new competencies school-based leaders need to develop in order to be effective in their new roles as technology leaders, and how to improve instructional leadership support for IT and CAT subject teachers. The framework for this study combined three different perspectives: instructional leadership, distributed leadership and ideas on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). A pencil-and-paper questionnaire form was distributed to 50 CAT and IT teachers at the secondary schools that offer CAT or IT in the Free State province. Descriptive analysis was carried out using SPSS Version 20.0. The statistics used were descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The findings of the study shed light on how schools provide instructional leadership support to IT and CAT teachers. From the findings it is clear that the absence of an instructional leader with technological background and knowledge might lead to CAT and IT teachers feeling neglected. Instructional leaders need to understand the nature and purpose of CAT/IT and to understand CAT/IT as part of the curriculum, and to clarify the responsibilities regarding technology leadership. It is recommended that further studies are undertaken to explore school technology leadership more broadly and in greater depth, to determine the explicit role of technology leadership for CAT and IT subject teachers.SANRAL Chair in Science, Mathematics and Technology Education
Thuthuka National Research Foundation (NRF