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First-time supervisors' experiences on transitioning into the supervisory role within a social service organisation
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Social Work in the Faculty of Arts, University of Zululand, 2020Becoming a supervisor is one of the transitional phases that occur at workplaces, unfolding as either individual or situational opportunities or challenges or combination thereof. The literature reveals that upon appointment into supervisory positions, most first-time supervisors are summarily presumed ready to assume their responsibilities as seasoned supervisors often performing their supervisory roles without proper preparation. This study asserts that providing support measures for reflective practice is invaluable as it enables the effective transition of first-time supervisors into their new role. This study followed a two-pronged process in assessing and exploring the transitional experiences of self-defined first-time supervisors within a social service organisation, with different types of triangulation applied in the process, namely methodological, theoretical and data triangulation. Both pragmatist and constructivist paradigms were used, thus dispelling the perceived incompatibility of the different paradigms. A mixed methods inquiry was undertaken to elicit for richer data on supervision transition, which would not be possible if each approach was applied individually. The theoretical triangulation involving both the Experiential Learning Theory and Schlossberg's Transition Theory provided the underlying theoretical basis for the phenomenon in focus. In this case, data were collected sequentially from questionnaires (n=40) and semi-structured interviews (n=13), which yielded descriptive and thematic insights, respectively. Precisely, as firsttime supervisors transition into the supervisory role, they are confronted with diverse needs, challenges and responsibilities. Supervision relationships and the interface between organisational and professional contexts determine the nature and extent of transition. The study recommends the development of an integrated supervision strategy that embraces managerial synergies and professional supervision responsibilities and the need for devising reflective capacity-building measures to address the ongoing supervision needs. The study further recommends the development of an organisation that considers the development of organisation- specific supervision policy necessary to guide the supervision practice in general and supervision transition in particular. Lastly, as far as the future studies are concerned, it is recommended that undertaking a countrywide study could provide insight into the transitional experiences in the sector as a whole. An evaluative study is capable of providing criteria for measuring effective supervisory transition
In vitro mutagenesis and preliminary characterization of potential drought tolerant sugarcane lines
No full textA dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Science in the Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, at the University of Zululand, 2020.Drought is a major cause of yield loss in agriculture and its impacts are expected to increase due to future increases in temperature. Traditional breeding in sugarcane is constrained by sugarcane’s complex genome and an extensive breeding period. Tissue culture-based mutagenesis and selection is one of the most feasible and costeffective tools for developing and selecting for drought stress-tolerant plants. Ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) can increase genetic variability in the sugarcane genome resulting in the initiation of advantageous traits such as drought tolerance. Therefore, its potential application was investigated in this study. Eight-week-old sugarcane calli were exposed to 16 mM EMS for 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 hours to determine the optimal incubation period. To select for osmotic tolerance, calli were cultured on media containing 0, 150, 225 and 300 mM mannitol for eight weeks. Treatment of the callus with EMS for a minimum of 1 h resulted in a significant decrease in the average number of embryonic callus clump, callus fresh weight, and relative growth rate. Based on the embryo regeneration results, an incubation period of 1 h was optimum for inducing osmotic tolerance in sugarcane. The mannitol LD50 and LD90 concentrations for selection at embryo germination stage were determined at 224 and 407 mM mannitol, respectively. Under mannitol stress conditions, inhibition of callus growth and increase in abnormalities such as hyperhydric cells with an increase in water stress were observed. Six NCo376 putative osmotic tolerant mutants were isolated from the EMS-mutagenized callus and were in vitro characterized based on their physiological response to mannitol-induced stress. Mut1 had the highest re-rooting (RR) ability under mannitol stress and Mut4 had the highest relative water content (RWC). Mut2 and Mut6 demonstrated poor RR and RWC response and were characterized by high electrolyte leakage and H2O2 activity. Only Mut1 and Mut4 were the promising drought-tolerant mutants due to their better physiological response under mannitol stress. This study provides a preliminary in vitro screening method for osmotic stress tolerance based on sugarcane callus morphology at LD50 = 224 and LD90 = 407 mM mannitol, respectively and plantlet re-rooting at 332 mM mannitol. Future work will screen selected mutant lines in pots and under field conditions to confirm tolerance as in vitro screening may not completely eliminate escapes and may alter important agronomic traits.National Research Foundation (NRF
Managing the recruitment of scarce skills subjects’ teachers in rural secondary schools of Mutale Area in Limpopo province
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Eduction in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration in the Faculty of Education, University of Zululand, 2020.ABSTRACT
The education system is battling with the growing shortage of permanent teachers in scarce skills subjects (Mathematics and Physical Science), particularly in rural areas of the Vhembe District of South Africa. Teachers in schools in this rural area are mostly temporary and this has a negative impact on the promotion of teaching and learning. This study aimed to explore the management of the recruitment of permanent educators for the scarce skills subjects (Mathematics and Physical science) in rural secondary schools of the Mutale area. This study employed a Pragmatist paradigm that advocates the use of mixed methods. The study uses qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. The face-to-face approach was followed for the qualitative methodology while a survey; collecting data through questionnaires, was used in this study. The target population of the study consisted of principals, teachers, heads of departments and managers at circuits and district levels. The study used purposive and simple random sampling procedures to select participants. One on one unstructured interview was used to collect qualitative data. Participants were interviewed, and questionnaires were administered to respondents. Quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package of Social Science and qualitative data were analysed with the help of the Atlas.ti programme. Results show that there are environmental and social factors that affect principals in managing the supply and demand for teachers of critical scarce skills subjects. Schools that are in a rural environment are failing to attract Mathematics and Science teachers. They need to introduce incentives to improve the already poor conditions in rural areas, which existed since the apartheid era. Training of teachers should be structured in such a way that teachers would be motivated to go and teach in rural areas. The study concludes that Mathematics and Science teachers have many opportunities to get employed in various sectors and, therefore, they need attractive incentives if they are to accept permanent employment in rural areas. A training model has been developed which can assist principals in managing the demand and supply of Mathematics and Science teachers in ruralNational Research Foundatio
Accumulation and distribution pattern of lead and cadmium and their effect on vegetative and reproductive traits of Corchorus olitorius
No full textA dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Science in the Department of Botay in the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, University of Zululand, 2020Lead and cadmium heavy metal toxicity are some of the major concerns on agriculture because they can enter the food chain through the consumption of contaminated vegetables and cause serious health issues to humans. Corchorus olitorius L. is a wild leafy vegetable that can be harvested from areas such as roadsides and mining areas, which are prone to contamination by these heavy metals. However, limited studies focus on determining the effect of toxic Pb and Cd accumulation on morphological features of wild edible plants. C. olitorius seeds were sown in potted soil treated with 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mg kg‒1 Cd(NO3)2 and 0, 150, 300, 600, 900, and 1000 mg kg‒ 1 Pb(NO3)2. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design and each concentration had five replications. Differences in germination percentage, seedling mortality, vegetative and reproductive traits were recorded among treatments. Harvested immature and mature plants were separated into leaves, stems, and roots; dried and grounded into powder; and analyzed for heavy metal accumulation using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) and Scanning
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Electron Microscopy (SEM) in combination with Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) techniques. Concentrations up to the maximum of 600 mg kg–1 Pb and 10 mg kg–1 Cd soil treatments resulted in toxic accumulation of these heavy metals in different plant parts, but either promoted or did not affect germination percentage, seedling growth, as well as vegetative and reproductive traits, when compared with the control. Pb was relatively restricted to and highly accumulated in the roots, whereas Cd was easily translocated and was concentrated in the aerial parts. In three and two informative principal components of morphological and accumulation analyses, respectively, almost all investigated traits were associated with principal component one which had the highest variability. The biplots and dendrograms in both analyses mainly grouped Pb and Cd treatments into separate clusters. Results of metal accumulation analysis using both AAS and SEM coupled with EDX techniques were complementary to each other. C. olitorius is a potential plant for the use in the phytoremediation of Pb and Cd contaminated soils but is toxic for harvest and consumption from such areas.National Research Foundatio
Belief change in probabilistic knowledge representations for open and dynamic computing environments
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Computer Science in the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering, University of Zululand, 2020.Theory refinement in Probabilistic Knowledge Representations is the task of up
dating the Graphical Network structure in light of observations inconsistent with the
current network structure. However, in the literature on Belief Change in Probabilis
tic Knowledge Representations, theory refinement is only thought of as a change in
the model parameters when data consistent with the Network structure is observed.
Such Belief Change is not rich enough to capture the semantics of Belief Change in
dynamic domains. In dynamic domains, the actual network structure at any given
time is unknown and is unobservable. Only the data emitted from the domain is
observable. Further to the foregoing, the Belief Change Model needs to cater to
both changes necessititated by the correction of incorrect Beliefs (Belief Revision)
and changes necessitated by changes in the domain (Belief Update). This thesis hy
pothesised a Belief Change Meta-Model for Bayesian Network (BN) based Knowledge
Representation in dynamic domains, and subsequently used the meta-model to de
fine a Unified Belief Change Model for Bayesian Networks that caters for both Belief
Revision and Belief Update of the Bayesian Network Structure.
The Belief Change Model was conceptualised by first modelling the evolving
Bayesian Network structure as a dynamical system whose impetus for change is driven
by the occurrence of some events in the domain. The derived Unified Belief Change
Model was formally validated by analogy using the Qualitative Belief Change Model
for dynamic environments and the theory of Partially Observable Markov Decision
Processes (POMDP). It was also proven that the proposed Belief Change model meets
the postulates for revision of p-functions.
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Apart from arguing the efficacy of the proposed Unified Belief Change Model from
a theoretical standpoint, this thesis also provides empirical evidence for the same. A
Belief Change operator, the Unified Belief Change Operator for Bayesian Networks
(UBCOBaN), based on the proposed Belief Change Model was developed. The opera
tor was then used to illustrate how the model achieves Belief Change using a synthetic
example with one (1) iteration of Belief Change. Further to the fore-going the operator
was implemented in java and was used for evaluating the efficacy of the model in both
Propositional Bayesian Networks and in Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks (MEBN).
MEBN is a variant of First Order Probabilistic Logic (FOPL) this research chose to
use for evaluating the proposed model for Belief Change in First-Order Probabilis
tic Knowledge Representations. The benchmark propositional Bayesian Networks
used in the study were the ASIA, ALARM, HAILFINDER, HEPAR II, and the AN
DES Bayesian Networks. The benchmark relational datasets considered for MEBN
were the CORA, WebKP, UW std, and Financial std datasets. The results obtained
showed that the proposed model adheres to the principle of minimal change (prin
ciple information economy) better than the classical Search-and-Score algorithm in
all the afore-mentioned propositional Bayesian Networks and all the datasets consid
ered for MEBN. The model was also found to be at least as agile as the classical
Search-and-Score algorithm in instances where data inconsistent with the assumed
network structure was observed. This was observed for all the benchmark proposi
tional Bayesian Networks used in ths study, and all the relational datasets consid
ered for MEBN. The results obtained for an investigation on whether Belief Update
improves rationality of the proposed Unified Belief Change Model on propositional
Bayesian Networks showed that the Unified Belief Change Model with Belief Update
has superior performance compared to the one without Belief Update. However, the
superior performance was not statistically significant at 95% Confidence Interval
Insight into ethical cyber behaviour of undergraduate students at selected African universities
Get PDFBackground: Worldwide, immoral cyberspace users have continued to use the Internet to commit crimes; this has caused unease and has called for quick response to the problem especially within the educational sector. The practical value of this study is in its benefit to other researchers who may be attempting to understand South African or Nigerian cyber technology user‘s behaviour; it may also help relevant educational authorities to get relevant understanding of behaviour in the realm of cyberspace. Objectives: This study examined undergraduate students in relation to cyber technology at the University of Zululand (UNIZULU), South Africa, and the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria. Method: A survey design, questionnaire as the tool for data collection was adapted and samples for the study were drawn from undergraduate students in two conveniently selected universities in South Africa and Nigeria. Overall, 450 undergraduate students were invited to participate in the survey; 380 respondents completed and returned the questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 84.4%. Results: Most of the respondents from the sampled universities reported that they were aware of what constitutes unethical cyber behaviour. Furthermore, the participants revealed that they hardly received orientation at the universities on cyber behaviour. The challenges that the students faces were reported. Conclusion: This study recommends that universities should sustain orientation and/or training programmes on cyber-ethics and cyber security awareness at the start of each academic year. The results of this study may spark further discussions and research on cyber technology access and use in contemporary society
Practices and challenges facing physical science educators in Vuwani rural schools in improving grade 12 results
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Comparative & Science Education in the Faculty of Arts, University of Zululand, 2019The quality of Physical Science results in rural areas is a matter of concern. As a developing country, South Africa’s focus must be on uplifting the standard of education in rural areas in order to have more skilled people. The study of Physical Science can help improve science skills in our country. The aim of this study was to determine practices and challenges facing Physical Science educators in improving Grade 12 results in Vuwani’s rural schools. The study was done qualitatively. Data was collected through interviews and observations. The findings, as based on interviews, indicate that Physical Science educators in Vuwani are faced with challenges such as lack of resources, work overload, lack of support from SMT, insufficient training by the Department of Basic Education when curricula change, overcrowded classes and bad classroom environment. The study also revealed that learners fail because of lack of proper support from parents, lack of discipline and improper use of language of instruction during teaching and learning. Physical Science educators in Vuwani indicated that to improve results, the following strategies could be useful: engage learners in enrichment classes, work as a team, mentor the new comers, give learners more assessment activities, motivate learners and monitor educators’ activities through SMT. Findings obtained through classroom teaching observation indicate that educators have challenges with regard to resources, content knowledge, language usage, assessment and feedback provision on activities taught. The study recommends that schools with less learner enrolment should reduce streams in order to lessen workloads on educators. Learners should be assessed regularly to improve performance
An intrusion detection system for SDN-based tactical networks: a machine learning approach
No full textA thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2020.Network security is increasingly becoming a critical and continuous issue due to ongoing
advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the concomitant
rise in the number of security threats. This is especially true for military communication
networks as security breaches may have detrimental effects. However, over the years, it has
become increasingly difficult to attain high levels of detection accuracy in military tactical
networks with conventional anomaly detection systems due to the dynamic nature of network
traffic in the battlefield, special operations, and the harsh environment where they operate.
Intrusion detection systems (IDS) have emerged as essential countermeasures to preserve
network security. In addition, the introduction of software-defined networks (SDN) in tactical
networks presents countless opportunities for security.
This study developed an IDS model for military tactical networks that utilizes Machine
Learning (ML) techniques for high detection rates and SDN for network global view and
centralised data collection. Following the Design Science methodology, the model was
designed based on guidelines from related literature, and a proof-of-concept prototype of the
model was implemented to assess its effectiveness. The experimental results indicated that
Machine Learning using network flow data collected via SDN can improve intrusion detection
rates in tactical networks. Among the machine learning techniques, ensemble learning methods
utilising Decision Tree classification methods, namely Random Forest and Adaptive Boosting,
obtained high recall and precision when detecting DDoS attacks, malicious, and misbehaving
nodes in an SDN-enabled tactical network
The King Cetshwayo District Municipality’s Reputational Communication Management within its amalgamated municipalities
No full textA dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in the Department of Communication Science in the Faculty of Arts, University of Zululand, 2020.The study examines how the King Cetshwayo district municipality managed its reputation after the 2016 local provincial elections where many municipalities were incorporated into one municipality. The purpose of the study is to analyse how new communication technologies aid municipalities in maintaining their reputation. Modern technologies are emerging and evolving rapidly; therefore, the study focuses on how these swift changes impact on society’s perspectives of municipal trends. Further, the study examines forces of change within the King Cetshwayo District Municipality as well as communication strategies which the merged municipality has in place to satisfy customer needs. The study also evaluates brand reputational management techniques used by the new municipality. The research strategy employed a triangulation of methodologies which included qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data was gathered using survey questionnaires and structured interviews, where the researcher personally interacted with the respondents. There has been a strong indication that communication in rural areas is still problematic. Respondents preferred the municipality to use innovative ways of communication which are associated with new communication technology. Respondents also indicated that municipalities should communicate effectively with the media and that they ought to incorporate integrated communication strategies to ensure that internal and external communication with key stakeholders is maintained. Recommendations included major improvement to communications which included the application of up to date communication technologies. Analysis of findings also stressed the need for improving transparency within the organisation
Effects of discipline on learners’ well-being in rural primary schools in Mutshindudi circuit
No full textA thesis submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Foundations of Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Zululand, 2020.The significance of classroom discipline and management has been appreciated both from a social practice perspective and an effective teaching stand. The study investigated the effects of discipline on learners’ wellbeing in rural based primary schools in Mutshindudi circuit. This study opted for interpretivist and constructivist paradigms which afforded the researcher to understand the circumstances in with the respondents experienced discipline and its relationship with learners’ well-being. The study adopted a case study design which provided an opportunity for triangulation. Purposive sampling was done to draw a sample from a population of learners, staff and SGB members of two primary schools. Data collection was done through open-ended questionnaires and interviews. The findings showed sentiments from all the participating parents that discipline is vital for healthy child development, necessary to build relationships, self-respect and the ability to cooperate with peers. From experience with their children they found that most learners who are not disciplined have their school performance affected adversely. The SGB members who participated in the study revealed how they as leadership were endeavouring by all means to encourage discipline through cooperation with other stakeholders listed as including management, teachers, learners, parents and guardians. One area the SGB is fighting hard is working with the parents to ensure their children do not bring dangerous weapons to school. One extreme case involved a learner who stole his father’s gun and brought it to school where he shot at a class teacher. The study found lack of discipline having a bearing on poor class performance and threatening learners’ wellbeing. In one school teachers adopt ill-disciplined learners to provide the father-figure that these learners could be missing in their lives. This has led to improved performance by the adopted learners and cessation of misdemeanours. The study recommends that a close working relationship must prevail amongst all stakeholders for a school to afford the best of learners’ wellbeing.National Research Foundation (NRF