Open Journals@UKZN
Not a member yet
870 research outputs found
Sort by
Are high school teachers and university academics on the same page? An investigation into the university readiness of Business Education learners.
No full textA myriad of studies nationally and internationally are continuously finding that schools are not adequately preparing learners to cope with the demands of higher education, hence the high dropout rate particularly at first year level. We found that, in most cases, research studies conducted in South Africa focus solely on a particular stakeholder‘s perception to gain insights of students’ readiness for university as opposed to corroborating perceptions of stakeholders across the South African education system. Thus, the aim of our paper is to explore the perceptions of both Business education lecturers and high school teachers in terms of how they view the readiness of learners for university, particularly for the B Com Degree Programme.
The findings highlight the lack of communication and collaboration between schools and university. Recommendations are proposed to assist high schools and universities to work collaboratively in order to ease the transitioning for new first-year students. We argue that exploring the perceptions of high school teachers and academics collectively could be a step in the right direction in paving the way for a smoother transition from school to university for first year students in B Com Degree Programmes
About vicarious blame, containers, and contents: Rejoinder to le Grange
Get PDFIn this article, I reflect on le Grange’s (2019) response to my article (Maistry, 2019) on predatory publishing. I engage with his critique on various levels. While I agree with the notion of embracing positive action, I analyse the usefulness of the dichotomisation of ethics and morality in understanding how this phenomenon should play itself out in academia. I contemplate the “container” versus “contents” debate, and its implications for the South African scholarship context. I also draw attention to the workings of two neoliberal markets at play in the academic publishing space: the neoliberal market for publishing services, and the market for published scholarship and offer some tentative implications for academics who have to inhabit this space. Finally, I argue that for debate to reach a high level of robustness, it has to start somewhere. For a phenomenon like predatory publishing, it might mean accommodating multiple perspectives, be they moralising, engaging an immanent ethics, even defensiveness. In fact, immanent critique urges the need to resist the temptation to “moralise” right or wrong approaches to debating this phenomenon. I reflect on how le Grange has extended the debate to include predation for publishing, an issue I argue is complexly connected to the historicity of containers (journals) serving as conduits for the propagation of racist ideology. Keywords: predatory publishing, ethics, neoliberal publishing market 
Reducing practice-shock: First-year student teachers’ experiences of a campus-based teaching practice model
Get PDFMost initial teacher education programmes include a compulsory teaching practice module, and there are various models that could be used for first year students’ teaching practice. In South Africa, the Minimum Requirements for Teachers Education Qualification document provides guidelines for teaching practice in initial teacher education programmes, but it does not include specific implementation guidelines. To address this gap, a teaching practice model to prepare and support first year students was implemented at a South African university. The aim of this article is to explore first year students’ experiences of this model. A mixed methods research design was used to address this aim. Findings demonstrated that 89% of participants stated that they had benefitted from this model, as it provided them with a critical insight into what it means to be a teacher. The results of this research could benefit teacher educators and initial teacher education institutions in other contexts
2019: The Year of Teledentistry in France?
Get PDFIn France, access to a dentist for elderly people, disabled people or inmates is limited. A person’s access to a dentist decreases by 25% when joining a nursing home. A national report mentioned that 85% of residents in nursing homes didn’t have access to a dentist in the past year and 42% in the last 5 years. There are fewer data on disabled people, but 48% of people with disabilities have, at least, one important issue related to oral health. Two examples of teledentistry, the e-DENT project from University Hospital of Montpellier and the TEL-E-DENT project from the public Hospital of Guéret, are presented to describe how teledentistry works in France, the current legal framework, remuneration of teledentistry and the pros and cons of teledentistry in France. 2019 will be crucial for the development of teledentistry as a number official decisions will be made that will influence the implementation of this kind of activity
Teachers’ views on inclusive education for secondary school visually impaired learners: An example from Lesotho
Get PDFThe views of teachers and their experiences and challenges relating to their teaching of heterogeneous learners (including some who are visually impaired) in a mainstream school in Lesotho, were investigated. A case-study format was used together with semi-structured focus-group interviews to gather information from four regular teachers and four support teachers. The results showed that teachers preferred mainstream schooling for children with visual impairment, and that both teachers and learners have benefitted from the inclusion of children with visual impairment. However, some challenges such as the shortage of equipment and support staff were reported – and need to be addressed in order to improve inclusive education for the benefit of teachers and learners (with and without visual impairment) in the school(s) concerned.
Key words: inclusive education, visual impairment, regular teachers, support teachers, teaching strategies, mainstream school, special school
Recasting & Rethinking Education 01... in South Africa: Imperatives for making education more relevant, responsive, and authentic
Get PDFThe aim of this lead article is the setting of the frame of the Special Issue containing selected papers presented at the 2018 SAERA (South African Education Research Association) Annual Conference, with the theme “Education 01? In search of a new operating system: making education more relevant, responsive and authentic”. The article commences with an overview of the societal changes defining the early 21st century. It is suggested that, in light of these changes, education praxis, Education scholarship, and teacher education need to be re-designed, with relevance, responsiveness, and authenticity describing the critical changes required
Improving Access to Specialist Dental Services Using a Telehealth Platform in Victoria, Australia
Get PDFAustralians in rural and remote locations have worse health outcomes compared to that of their metropolitan counterparts and this is due in part to poor access to health services. Public specialist dental services in Victoria, Australia are predominantly offered in the capital city Melbourne. For rural patients this can mean considerable travel, out of pocket costs and delays due to long wait-times. In 2015 Dental Health Service Victoria (DHSV) embarked on a pilot project to enable access to rural clients by linking community dental clinics with the Royal Dental Hospital Melbourne using a Telehealth platform. Aim: The objectives of the pilot were to develop specialist care pathways and enable patient access, support community clinicians to work to full scope through a peer education approach and to identify the appropriate equipment and telehealth platform to support this model of care. Method: DHSV launched its pilot project June 2015 collaborating with four Community Dental sites. The specialties trialled during the pilot project were Oral Medicine, Oral Surgery, Endodontics and Orthodontics. An action based research framework was adopted so that improvements to the operational framework and clinical pathways could be made throughout the life of the pilot. Results: By the end of the pilot programme, DHSV was satisfied the program objectives had been met and the modality was accepted by specialists, community dentists, and patients as a satisfactory substitution for a traditional face-to-face referral and consult mode. Conclusion: Based on this outcome, the programme was endorsed and implemented across the state of Victoria in January 2018
Tele-odontology in Brazil: Strategies and Challenges for the Training of the Healthcare Network
Get PDFDifferent initiatives have been undertaken to guide the telehealth process in the Brazil. The Ministry of Health structured and implemented the Telehealth Brazil Programme initially to cover nine state centres. Later, it expanded the programme to take in the whole country, at which time it became known as the Telehealth Brazil Network. Among the goals of the Telehealth Brazil Network is the development of strategies for clinical training, health education, and training for management, planning and assessment skills, designed for the Family Health Strategy teams. In this context, this paper aims to presents the potential of and difficulties in implementing tele-odontology in Brazil, focusing on teleconsulting, tele-education and telediagnostic experiences developed to date. It will also present the legal and financial support aspects established in the country, as well as the results found so far in relation to the impacts of strategies and user satisfaction. Finally, suggestions for future perspectives are presented. Related to the strategies implemented in Brazil, it is necessary to analyse the data obtained regarding the successes and failures observed over the years. The positive results obtained with tele-education showed that the Telehealth Programme presents as an efficient tool for the training of the health care network. However, points like the limited use by professionals, some technical limitations and the impact on health indicators should still be better studied
Millennial science student teachers’ views on decolonisation and culturally responsive teaching
Get PDFGlobally the striving of decolonised education for the acknowledgement of a nation’s values, skills, beliefs and acquisition of knowledge is being debated. In science education, the integration of cultural values and beliefs into the science curriculum is often ignored, which contributes to students being unable to express their individual cultural views during interactive class discussions. The study therefore aimed to engage millennial science student teachers (n=120) of a South African university in an action research study to express their views on concepts such as “decolonisation” and “culturally responsive teaching”. The responses were categorised according to the themes of the Hernandez, Morales and Shroyer (2013) model, which included: content integration; facilitation of knowledge construction; prejudice reduction; social justice and academic achievement. The main findings indicated that a cross-cultural perspective should be used where a balance is created between Euro-American centric sciences and indigenous knowledge from diverse cultures, that students should be instructed in their mother tongue, and that content needs to be connected to familiar everyday life experiences. The findings further amplified the importance of technology-assisted methods, the application of various integrated learning methods in science education, and the inclusion in science curricula of the science role models of various cultures