Open Journals@UKZN
Not a member yet
870 research outputs found
Sort by
A snapshot of teachers’ knowledge and teaching behaviour to develop self-regulated learning
No full textThis paper presents findings on South African township school teachers’ knowledge of self-regulated learning as well as their perceptions of how they develop self-regulated learning in learners. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten purposively and conveniently selected Grade 8 secondary school teachers. Participants integrate various strategies in their teaching, whereby SRL is developed directly and indirectly. Participants have positive beliefs toward SRL, but departmental pressures regarding curriculum coverage, assessment and administration inhibit the time to develop self-regulated learning. The development of self-regulated learning is not a school wide priority and high pass rates in the Annual National Assessments and Senior Secondary School Certificate has precedence over the development of self-regulated learning. Fundamental changes at school level may need to occur for teachers to be able to allocate the time and resources necessary for developing learners to be self-regulated. Most importantly, classroom curriculum and accompanying assessment systems must be organised in ways that support and value SRL
Bringing Map Learning to ‘Life’ by Using the Environment as a Learning Resource
Get PDFThe last two decades have brought to light local and international research on problems encountered by learners when learning Geography at school, especially map work. One of the reasons provided for poor learner performance relates to teacher expertise in teaching this subject. This research explored how first-year student teachers from a university in Johannesburg, South Africa, merged their coursework with their fieldwork when learning map work; and how they were able to re-imagine their teaching of map skills to learners in the Intermediate Phase of the primary school. In addressing the research aim, a qualitative case study method of inquiry, using open-ended questionnaires, was undertaken. Drawing on the findings from the data, I assert that using Kolb’s experiential learning theory, to integrate student teacher learning in coursework and fieldwork, not only strengthened pedagogic content knowledge, but also enabled student teachers to exhibit agency. The data confirmed that student teachers configured their understandings of map work by engaging their past experiences with the present (learning in coursework and fieldwork) to re-orientate their learning towards the future (how they will teach learners). For example, student teachers were empowered to take agentic action by reflecting on their learning in coursework and fieldwork to make informed pedagogical choices on how they would teach this content area to learners in the primary school. Thus, the foundations for learning to teach geographical enquiry skills were being developed
The Contribution of Online Social Networks for Drug Abuse Treatment Referral: a Pilot Study
Get PDFBackground: The consumption of psychoactive drugs is growing in Brazil, as well as the access of social networks. This study is a preliminary short report about the contribution of online social networks for drug abuse treatment. The study aimed to evaluate the role of an online social network to engage psychoactive drug users in treatment. Methods: A descriptive study was undertaken from July to September 2015. The study population were psychoactive drugs users who accessed voluntarily the webpage “Stay Free of Drugs” (SFD) from the social network Facebook. Results: A total of 25 psychoactive drug users were enrolled in the study, and 16 (64%) accessed a healthcare centre seeking treatment. The average from the users’ online contact to their visit to the healthcare centre was 8.4 days. Half of the participants were exclusive alcohol users and accessed the webpage at night (65%). Conclusions: The use of a social network showed a potential importance in referring drug users to treatment, also acting as health education strategy
Decolonising Mathematics
Get PDFMathematics is not universal. Traditional (normal) mathematics accepts both deductive and empirical proofs like science. Colonial education replaced it with formal mathematics, the unique feature of which is not the use of reasoning but exclusion of the empirical. The coloniser never critically com-pared normal and formal mathematics, and tries to block such a comparison today. In Western dogma (of the church theology of reason) deduction is infallible. In fact, deduction is fallible. (1) An invalid deductive proof may be mistaken as valid. Doubts about validity can only be settled inductively. In practice, doubts are settled by invoking authority. Hence, deductive proofs are always more fallible than empirical proofs. (2) The postulates of formal math cannot be empirically checked; they are metaphysics (a metaphysics of infinity is needed even for the formal math of 1+1=2). Thus, far from being eternal truths, formal mathematical theorems may not even be approximately valid knowledge. (3) Formal math dogmatically assumes two-valued logic (on the superstition that logic binds God). But logic is neither culturally universal (e.g. Buddhist logic) nor empirically certain (quantum logic). Therefore, the theorems of formal math (even if valid) are not even truths relative to postulates. Hence, colonial/formal math is inferior and should be rejected. This does not affect the practical value of math – what ‘works’ – which all comes from normal math which we should, accordingly, teach
Improving Grade R mathematics teaching in South Africa: Evidence from an impact evaluation of a province-wide intervention
Get PDFImpact on learner outcomes of a province-wide Grade R Mathematics intervention (termed R-Maths) are presented in relation to theoretical frameworks established from a meta-evaluation of education evaluation studies in South Africa. The changes in Mathematics performance from base- to endline, of learners taught by R-Maths-trained teacher/practitioners and those not, indicated that the greatest effects on performance were from language of learning and teaching, and district. But the intervention group did perform better than the comparison group: 2.9 percentage points better over the whole Marko-D test, with a small effect size. The R-Maths case indicates that a modified cascade model which includes some elements of the ‘educational triple cocktail’ (structured learning materials, teacher training, and support) may be successful by working with, and through, department of education structures, in this case subject advisors. Whether the effects are retained over time and if these effects can be replicated in other South African provinces with significantly different contexts is not yet known
Implementation challenges influencing the efficacy of group-work tasks that require inductive or deductive reasoning during physical sciences lessons
Get PDFWe explore the implementation challenges and efficacy of instructional strategies focussing on tasks which require learners to attempt sense-making either using inductive, or deductive, reasoning during group discussions. Data were collected via participant observation from 73 grade 10-12 learners the first author taught and included field notes, audio visual recordings, interviews, questionnaires and learner journals. The researchers underwent the inductive, cyclic process of implementation, data collection, reflection and modification over 20 research cycles, 4 of which are reported here, over 3 years. The study suggests considerably more variability in efficacy, time-consumption and implementation challenges, for the inductive instructional strategy. We did, however, find consistent efficacy for an overall deductive oriented strategy, although such a strategy is also accompanied by a number of challenges. These findings provide support for the value of sense-making group discussions when carefully planned
Adopting Digital Technology in Midwifery Practice – Experiences and Perspectives From Six Projects in Eight Countries (2014 – 2016)
Get PDFThis paper describes the cases of six midwifery projects of the Women Observatory for eHealth at the Millennia2025 Women and Innovation Foundation, to support the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in midwifery practice in eight countries from 2014 to 2016. The WeObservatory is a digital inclusion incubator aimed at reducing maternal and neonatal mortality in countries with limited resources by strengthening midwifery practice through the access to ICTs and eHealth applications. This paper describes how the collaboration with the WeObservatory supported these projects in the development and adoption of digital solutions for midwifery practice. It examines responses from the project leaders to an online survey conducted by the WeObservatory in January of 2018. Their responses provide insights on opportunities and challenges faced by these projects that can inform future midwifery eHealth projects. Building capacity among midwives for the adoption of digital competencies will help improve the quality of healthcare provided to mothers and their newborn babies in low-income countries
A Train-the-Trainers (TtT) Program for Engineers for Hosting Multiparty International Clinical Teleconferences
Get PDFBackground: International clinical teleconferencing connecting hospitals contributes to the standardisation of medical care. Introduction: The perception that participating in international teleconferences is easy while hosting and coordinating them is difficult has limited the expansion of these kinds of programmes. We evaluated the effectiveness of a Train-the-Trainer (TtT) programme on hosting international multiparty teleconferences targeted at hospital engineers. Methods: From 2015 to 2017, 20 engineers and physicians from 17 institutions in 10 countries participated in Kyushu University Hospital’s TtT programme. Hands-on training and hosting a Training Report Conference (TRC) were conducted. The impact of the programme was assessed using questionnaires about the participants’ confidence, perception of barriers, and teleconference activity before and one year after the training period. Results: The mean training period was 16.7 days (median, 19 days). Twelve TRCs were hosted by trainees connecting 56 institutions in 11 countries. All participants gave positive evaluations of the overall programme, 19 (95%) "very good" and 1 (5%) "good", and the trainers 9 (90%) "very good" and 1 (10%) "good"). Following the TtT programme, the mean number of trainee-hosted events increased significantly (0.8 to 1.3, p<0.001), and more respondents (12/17, 71%) reported barriers to hosting a programme than participating in one (5/17, 29%, p<0.001). Trainee confidence in both hosting and participating in international teleconferences was significantly higher after TtT. Conclusion: There are more barriers to hosting than participating in international clinical teleconferences. This TtT programmes for engineers could contribute to more active hosting engagement
Dialects matter: The impact of dialects and code-switching on the literacy and numeracy achievement of isiXhosa Grade 1 learners in the Western Cape
Get PDFAfrican languages have been historically disadvantaged and issues of dialects are not fully understood and acknowledged. The current study examined the effects of dialects and code-switching on the literacy and numeracy achievement of isiXhosa Grade 1 learners, when controlling for other factors such as between school variance, socio-economic status and gender with multi-level modelling. The project used stratified random sampling to select Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa schools in three districts in the Western Cape. A total of 2 497 learners were assessed, of which 768 learners were in isiXhosa schools. Dialects and code-switching to another language had a significant, negative impact on both literacy and numeracy scores for isiXhosa learners. The findings highlight the importance of investigating dialectic issues in isiXhosa. Decolonisation of African languages require the development of resources within the languages for classrooms, strengthening African educational research and finding ways to address the complexities of dialects within pedagogical frameworks