SEALS Digital commons
Not a member yet
7805 research outputs found
Sort by
An investigation into how Grade 11 Physical Science teachers mediate learning of the topic stoichiometry : a case study
No full textStoichiometry is proven to be one of the difficult topics for learners in the NSSC Physical Science syllabus due to its abstract nature. Over the years the Examiner’s reports reveal that learners' performance is very poor in this topic. In addition, learners fear the topic and have developed a negative attitude toward it.
It is against this background that I decided to carry out a qualitative case study; investigating how teachers mediate the learning of stoichiometry. The study was conducted at two schools in the Oshikoto Region, Namibia and it involved two grade 11 Physical Science teachers.
The study is located within the interpretive paradigm and made use of interviews, document analysis and lesson observations (which were video-taped and transcribed) followed by stimulated recall interviews to generate data. The generated data were analyzed using the inductive approach whereby themes were identified. The themes were later used to develop analytical statements in relation to my research questions and these were used to interpret the data. Moreover, the study adopted the notion of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) proposed by Shulman (1986, 1987) as well as Vygotsky's (1978) mediation of learning and social constructivism as the theoretical frameworks.
The data were validated by triangulation, member checking as well as using the stimulated recall interviews while watching the videos with each participant.
The findings of the study show that teachers use several tools to mediate the learning process and this includes the use of language, learners' prior knowledge and analogies. In addition, it emerged in this study that teachers are faced with a number of challenges when mediating learning of this topic. Hence, the study recommends that teachers should develop their pedagogical content knowledge for them to effectively eliminate the challenges faced as well as to come up with the best teaching strategies which they can use to mediate learning and help learners make sense of the topic stoichiometry
Rethinking care and support of 'vulnerable' learners in the age of HIV and AIDS : an arts-based approach
No full textThis study explores secondary school children’s constructions of care and support provided for ‘vulnerable’ schoolchildren in the age of HIV and AIDS. The study attempts to respond to the following two research questions:
What are secondary school children’s constructions of care and support in a rural school context in the age of HIV and AIDS?
How can the use of participatory arts-based research enable agency in the lives of ‘vulnerable’ secondary school children in a rural school context in the age of HIV and AIDS?
The provision of care and support for ‘vulnerable’ school children is of key concern in South African schools since the number of ‘vulnerable’ children is rising because of the increase in the prevalence of HIV and AIDS, which renders many school children ‘vulnerable’. Schools are mandated by departmental policy to provide care and support to ‘vulnerable’ school children, but they are challenged in their implementation of this policy, which leaves ‘vulnerable’ school children inadequately cared for and supported. The input from school children is often not drawn upon, and this hampers the effectiveness of the provision of care and support.
This qualitative study is positioned within a critical paradigm, and employs a participatory arts-based research methodology in its intention to take an approach based on the notion of research as intervention. Twenty Grade 11 male and female school children aged 16 to 21, from two secondary schools in the rural Vulindlela district in KwaZulu-Natal, were purposively selected, using inclusion criteria. The Life Orientation teachers assisted in identifying participants from the school register of ‘vulnerable’ schoolchildren. This did not mean that they were living with HIV or AIDS, but that they were ‘vulnerable’, and at risk of dropping out of school. The study made use of a multimodal approach of data generation with the school children, in which several visual methods, such as drawing, photovoice, and collage, as well as reflective free writing, were used in a participatory way as modes of inquiry, representation, and dissemination. The ethics of research with ‘vulnerable’ school children made the dictum, “do the most good” through the research important, and hence the use of the strategy of research as intervention. The data analysis involved two levels – that of the school children’s own analysis of their visual artifacts, and my overarching thematic analysis, using Tesch’s (1990) open coding.
Informed by the theoretical frameworks of Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) bio-ecological systems theory and Giddens’s (1984) structuration theory, the findings show that care and support in schools is constructed as a reciprocal relationship, and they point to the importance of school children’s own agency in the provision of care and support. The findings show that school children construct themselves as both visible and invisible in relation to care and support in school, in that they receive care and support but are overlooked in terms of being able to offer input on how care and support should be provided. Furthermore, the findings indicate that school children perceive the school to be an environment that enables but also constrains the provision of care and support: the infrastructure, the safety and security, and the instructional spaces in the school do provide the basics for care and support, but the overt and covert discrimination by school children and teachers, the challenge of putting policies into practice, and the overall fragmented provision of care and support in the school are constraining. Another emerging finding from this study is that secondary school children construct themselves as being included in the strengthening of care and support in rural schools.
The use of visual arts-based methods enabled the exploration of how ‘vulnerable’ school children construct care and support in a rural school; the findings also indicated how the use of visual arts-based research contributed to making a difference in the lives of ‘vulnerable’ school children: it was a joyful experience; it leveraged multiple literacies; it contributed to cooperation, collaboration, and collective construction of knowledge; and, in encouraging thought about the issue, it raised critical awareness of, and solutions to, providing care and support in the school. The findings also pointed out how the visual artifacts could be disseminated in the school, and how this could influence the well-being of the community.
The findings have implications for how schools provide care and support for ‘vulnerable’ school children. The findings could be engaged with by schools and the Department of Basic Education as a tool to accomplish strengthening the provision of care and support in rural schools, so that care and support are socially and culturally embedded, and to inform policy making through an approach that can be described as being from the ground up
An exploration of the structural, cultural and agential conditions that shape life skills teachers' responses and experiences in teaching sexuality and HIV and AIDS
No full textThis paper reports findings on how Namibian secondary school Life Skills teachers are exercising their agency to teach or not to teach Sexuality and HIV and AIDS, a subject which is regarded as sensitive and has been surrounded by secrecy and has issues which are cloaked by silence and taboos. The aim of the study was to explore the structural and cultural factors that shape the responses and experiences of Life Skills teachers in teaching sexuality and HIV and AIDS. The study was conducted through observations and interviews with four full-time Life Skills teachers. Document analysis was carried out throughout the study in which lesson plans, portfolios, assessment forms, Life Skills syllabuses, schemes of works, national curriculum documents and subject policy on HIV and AIDS were analysed. The data were analysed by identifying categories, codes and themes using the analytic dualism framework, and the literature review was used to summarise the findings. The study revealed that all teachers operate in an environment that consists of the National structures such as high teacher: learner ratio in their classrooms that they have to teach Life Skills and do day to day counselling, a lack of teaching and learning support material that they should use to scaffold the learning of sexuality and HIV and AIDS, and little time allocated to Life Skills teaching. The same study also revealed that the teaching of Life Skills is hampered by the cultural structures which emerged from teachers’ discourses as evidenced from the data which shows that cultural properties have powers that condition teachers in teaching sexuality and HIV and AIDS. This included learners’ silence in sex-related discussion versus teachers’ position; discourses on the importance of full-time Life Skills teachers in school; comfort in teaching selected topics in Life Skills; Life Skills teachers’ perceptions on parents’ feelings on teaching sexuality and HIV and AIDS in schools, and perceptions on the Life Skills teachers’ position and teaching sexuality and sex education. While the findings revealed that teachers are conditioned by the structural and cultural conditions that acted as constraints to teaching sexuality and HIV and AIDS, the observations revealed agency on their part. The study finding depicts instances where teachers acted in agreement or in contravention of the structural and cultural pressures or conditions in their environments
Electrode surface modification using metallophthalocyanines and metal nanoparticles : electrocatalytic activity
No full textMetallophthalocyanines and metal nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and applied for the electrooxidation of amitrole, nitrite and hydrazine individually or when employed together. The synthesized materials were characterized using the following techniques: predominantly scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), electrochemistry and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM).
Different electrode modification methods were used to modify the glassy carbon substrates. The methods include adsorption, electrodeposition, electropolymerization and click chemistry. Modifying the glassy carbon substrate with MPc (electropolymerization) followed by metal nanoparticles (electrodeposition) or vice versa, made a hybrid modified surface that had efficient electron transfer. This was confirmed by electrochemical impedance studies with voltammetry measurements having lower detection potentials for the analytes.
This work also describes for the first time the micropatterning of the glassy carbon substrate using the SECM tip. The substrate was electrografted with 4-azidobenzenediazonium salt and then the click reaction was performed using ethynylferrocene facilitated by Cu⁺ produced at the SECM tip. The SECM imaging was then used to show the clicked spot
Nonlinear optical studies of phthalocyanines and triazatetrabenzcorroles in solution and in thin films
No full textThis work presents photophysical and nonlinear optical properties of a novel Cd 2,3-[octakis{4-tert-butylphenoxyphthalocyanine}] (CdOtBPPc) and compared with those of Pb 2,3-[octakis{4-tert-butylphenoxyphthalocyanine}] (PbOtBPPc). For both the CdOtBPPc and PbOtBPPc, third order imaginary susceptibility and second order hyperpolarizability values were found to be within the limit set for good optical limiters. The Pcs were embedded in poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PBC) as thin films. The optical limiting values of the Pcs once embedded in film were found to be greatly improved and the limiting intensity of each film was well below the maximum threshold. Both PbOtBPPc and CdOtBPPc showed better optical limiting when embedded in PBC compared to PMMA. CdOtBPPc shows better nonlinear optical behaviour than PbOtBPPc in solution and as thin films, even though the former is aggregated in solution.
Novel phosphorus triazatetrabenzcorroles (TBC) tetrasubstituted at the α- and β- and octa substituted at the β- positions of the peripheral fused benzene rings with t-butylphenoxy substituents were prepared and characterized. The effects of the substituents and the missing aza-nitrogen on the electronic structures and optical spectroscopy are investigated with TD-DFT calculations and MCD spectroscopy. The optical limiting properties were investigated to examine whether the lower symmetry that results from the direct pyrrole-pyrrole bond and hence the permanent dipole moment that is introduced result in higher safety thresholds, relative to the values that have been reported for phthalocyanines. The suitability of the compounds for singlet oxygen applications has also been examined. Novel phosphorus phthalocyanines, analogous to the triazatetrabenzcorroles were also investigated. Due to their high photodegradation quantum yield however, only the fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes were able to be determined
Dear Space Dad and other stories
No full textMy stories are set around the themes of family, animals and outer space -- which leads to other themes like religion, loneliness, romance, eating animals, growing up and longing for the past. Most of the stories have non-linear structures. Some use gradual shiftings of narrator voice; in others the narrative is flat, lacking plot. I favour repetition over plot-based climaxes to create coherency and narrative flow. I also favour free indirect discourse over dialogue or description as a means to characteriz
In a town called Harmony
No full textA novella of crime and suspense set in the townships surrounding the mining town of
Welkom. Two friends, both ex-miners, start a welding business only to see it fail because of interference by corrupt officials. To make ends meet, they are drawn into the world of illegal gold-mining, working with criminals who employ ‘zama-zamas’: desperate foreign nationals who are prepared to live and work in the abandoned mine tunnels underground. The friends make money, but the dark practices of illegal mining put a strain on their
relationship, their values, and their family tie
An investigation into how Zimbabwe's Bulawayo viewers negotiate the gay storyline in Generations
No full textThis study seeks to evaluate how aspects of religion, culture, political context, education and
class, amongst others, impact on the manner with which Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo residents
make sense of media messages which explore issues of homosexuality, as encountered in the
soap opera Generations.
This is against the backdrop of Zimbabwean legislation, such as the Sexual Deviancy Act,
which criminalises homosexuality and the state victimisation of gays and lesbians in this
country. The inclusion of homosexual liberties was rejected by all political parties and both
public and private media in the recent drafting of a new rule of law. The legislation, including
gay rights exclusion in the new constitution, and state action has perpetuated an impression
that Zimbabwe is a deeply homophobic society.
As a starting point the study examines the claims of the media imperialism thesis which
supposes an all-consuming power of western media and next examines Straubhaar’s thesis of
‘cultural proximity’ which argues that there is often a preference for regional media, which is
proximate to viewers’ local culture, language and identity. The study explores the
prominence of South Africa as a regional media player and that proximate identities with
some cultures in that country have played a role in drawing some Bulawayo viewers to South
African television, as they feel slighted by Zimbabwean media.
Utilising qualitative research methods, the study explores whether or not the representation
of gay images on this South African soap opera provides viewers with opportunities for
‘symbolic distancing’. The concept highlights that when people have insight into lifestyles
that are different from their own, they use that as a resource to critically analyse their own
lives and cultural understandings. The study evaluates if Bulawayo viewers’ sentiments
towards homosexuality has been challenged and changed through their interface with the
soap opera, Generations
Conscientious objection and South African medical practitioners' constructions of termination of pregnancy and emergency contraception
No full textAim: The 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act decriminalized abortion in South Africa and the South African Medicines Control Council in 2000 approved the dispensing of emergency contraceptive methods by pharmacists to women without a doctor's prescription. This legislation has been hailed as among the most progressive in the world with respect to women's reproductive justice. However the realisation of these rights in practice has not always met expectations in part due to medical practitioners' ethical objections to termination of pregnancy and the provision of related services. The aim of this study was to interpret the varying ways in which medical practitioners frame termination of pregnancy and emergency contraceptive services, their own professional identities and that of their patients/clients.
Methods: Sample of 58 doctors and 59 pharmacists drawn from all nine provinces of South Africa. Data collected using an anonymous confidential internet-based self-administered questionnaire. Participants were randomly recruited from online listings of South African doctors and pharmacists practicing in both private and public sectors. Data were analysed using theoretically derived qualitative content analysis.
Results: Participants drew on eight frames to justify their willingness or unwillingness to provide termination-of-pregnancy related services: the foetal life frame, the women's rights frame, the balancing frame, the social justice frame, the do no harm frame, the legal and professional obligation frame, the consequences frame and the moral absolutist frame.
Conclusion: Health professionals' willingness or unwillingness to provide termination of pregnancy related services is highly dependent on how they frame or understand termination of pregnancy, and how they understand their own professional identities and those of their patients/clients
Visualisation of PF firewall logs using open source
No full textIf you cannot measure, you cannot manage. This is an age old saying, but still very true,
especially within the current South African cybercrime scene and the ever-growing Internet
footprint. Due to the significant increase in cybercrime across the globe, information security
specialists are starting to see the intrinsic value of logs that can ‘tell a story’. Logs do not only
tell a story, but also provide a tool to measure a normally dark force within an organisation.
The collection of current logs from installed systems, operating systems and devices is imperative
in the event of a hacking attempt, data leak or even data theft, whether the attempt is
successful or unsuccessful. No logs mean no evidence, and in many cases not even the opportunity
to find the mistake or fault in the organisation’s defence systems.
Historically, it remains difficult to choose what logs are required by your organization. A number
of questions should be considered: should a centralised or decentralised approach for collecting
these logs be followed or a combination of both? How many events will be collected,
how much additional bandwidth will be required and will the log collection be near real time?
How long must the logs be saved and what if any hashing and encryption (integrity of data)
should be used? Lastly, what system must be used to correlate, analyse, and make alerts and
reports available?
This thesis will address these myriad questions, examining the current lack of log analysis,
practical implementations in modern organisation, and also how a need for the latter can be
fulfilled by means of a basic approach. South African organizations must use technology that is
at hand in order to know what electronic data are sent in and out of their organizations network.
Concentrating only on FreeBSD PF firewall logs, it is demonstrated within this thesis the excellent
results are possible when logs are collected to obtain a visual display of what data is
traversing the corporate network and which parts of this data are posing a threat to the corporate
network. This threat is easily determined via a visual interpretation of statistical outliers. This
thesis aims to show that in the field of corporate data protection, if you can measure, you can
manage