OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Gilmour, David"

Browsing by Author "Gilmour, David"

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Open Access
An investigation of students' experiences of student-supervisor relationships at postgraduate level
(2006) Mbwanda, Irene Olga; Gilmour, David
This thesis investigated the supervisory experiences of 20 PhD students in a single department at the University of Cape Town. This was a case study to establish the prevailing models of supervision, students' expectations, and factors considered important for successful completion of their degree. To provide a conceptual framework for the research, the thesis reviewed some of the existing models of postgraduate research supervision with particular emphasis on research conducted in the United Kingdom and Australia because South Africa and Australia have largely followed the UK model of one on one supervision. A questionnaire was developed from this literature and administered to the students. The key findings emerging from this study were: The majority of the students saw their relationship with their supervisors as semiformal, a mentorship style which was based equally on contract and trust, and which incorporated a balance of academic and personal support. The students expected this to be mediated with appropriate organizational arrangements. Surprisingly, the factors that students considered most important for completing their degrees were aspects of the affective or personal domain over academic or organizational aspects of the supervisory process. These factors included full time study, cultivating skills of confidence boosting, and matching compatible personalities. Factors such as lack of supervisor's support, financial cost and family commitments were highly considered most inhibiting for the completion of degrees followed by lack of supervisor's expertise in the subject area. Most students were highly or very satisfied with their supervision. "Where they made suggestions for improvement these were largely in the area of improved organization of the experience. On the basis of these findings, the research indicates that students prefer semi-formal relationships, namely, a 'merged' model which means a balance of the organizational, academic and personal aspects of a supervisor's role.
Open Access
Collaboration and collegiality amongst educators in high performing schools in the Western Cape
(2005) Laubscher, Susanna Maria; Gilmour, David
This study investigated the nature and extent of collaboration and collegiality amongst 195 high school educators in six high performing schools in the Cape Metropole, Western Cape, Cape Town. A case study approach was used and questionnaires and intervies were used as research instruments. This study found that the schools in this sample display high and widespread levels of collaboration and collegiality amongst educators. The collegial activities are fostered in a collaborative domain during regular on-site formal activities. These carefully structured formal collaborative activities provide training forums for inexperienced educators. (115-123 pages missing)
Open Access
The effect of consciousness of social, political and historical context on adjustment of undergraduate students at the University of Cape Town : a qualitative study
(2010) Edmon, Valerie M; Gilmour, David
It has been shown that black students are generally not finding the academic success in South African universities that would confirm a truly equitable educational system. In response to this, universities in South Africa have taken several different measures to bridge this gap and provide the support needed for these students to thrive through various programmes that provide supplementary support and extended degree programmes to educationally disadvantaged students.
Open Access
Engendering discipline : perceptions and practices of students and teachers in a secondary school in South Africa
(2010) Singh, Marcina; Gilmour, David
This thesis aimed to investigate whether there is a gender bias in the way teachers discipline boys and girls. The study was conducted in an affluent school in Cape Town and consisted of 113 participants, 97 students (48 boys and 49 girls) and 16 teachers and staff (6 males and 10 females). The data showed that although teachers assume they are being gender neutral in the way they respond to misdemeanors committed by boys and girls, in reality, this is not the case. However, even though the biases of the teachers are largely unconscious, the students were very much aware of the biased nature of the teachers. The data also revealed that male and female teachers react and respond differently when they discipline boys and girls and that male teachers focus more on serious offenses whereas female teachers focused on the less serious offenses.
Open Access
Instructional leadership of principals in high performing secondary schools in Cape Town, Western Cape
(2014) Millar, David J; Gilmour, David
The purpose of this research is to examine the extent of instructional leadership of principals in high performing secondary schools in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, Western Cape. A mixed methods design of quantitative and qualitative research was undertaken. For the quantitative phase, the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) was administered to 5 principals and 136 teachers. One sample t-tests found statistically significant differences between the mean scores of principals and those of teachers. Data analysis of the PIMRS indicated that principals were most active in protecting instructional time, promoting professional development, providing incentives for learning and framing the school’s goals and least active in supervising and evaluating instruction, maintaining a high visibility and providing incentives for teachers. In the qualitative phase, interviews with the five principals yielded a result that underscores the value which principals place on professional accountability, trusting teachers to deliver the curriculum, building coherence, promoting professional development, giving professional autonomy and fostering relationships. The study found that the principal’s role is multi-faceted and complex and is neither limited to the instructional leadership behaviours of the PIMRS nor to the job description of the Personnel Administration Measures (PAM). Instructional leadership functions not measured by the PIMRS, such as the appointment of teachers, selection of pupils, engaging with stakeholder groups, establishing internal coherence and building trust by sharing instructional leadership practises with senior teachers were very important. School leaders internalize the expectations embedded in accountability systems and have woven these into an internal set of expectations and responsibilities that represent the school’s internal accountability systems. The thesis concludes with the view that both shared leadership and instructional leadership are important as they are indirectly related to pupil achievement.
Open Access
Intervening in schools : an Evaluability Assessment (EA) of the Secondary Schools Partnership Project (SSPP) in the Western Cape, South Africa
(2002) Nakajima, Motoe; Gilmour, David
The Secondary Schools Partnership Projec1 (SSPP) of the Schools Development Unit at UCT is a typical example of a school intervention project. Focusing on mathematics and science, 18 months of intervention took place at two target secondary schools from Khayelitsha, and two from Mitchell's Plain. This study aims to discuss the issue of the evaluability of educational projects through a case study of the SSPP. In additionj the research raises the importance of programme theory for credible evaluation to take place.
Open Access
Leadership styles in successful schools
(2005) Usabuwera, Samuel; Gilmour, David
Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-96).
Open Access
Learning through experience : an analysis of student leaders' reflections on the 1985-6 revolt in Western Cape schools
(1992) Weber, Keith Everard; Gilmour, David; Soudien, Crain
This thesis explores the inter-relationship between theory and practice in a number of ways. I shall mainly be concerned with analysing the effects of participation in the 1985-6 Western Cape struggles upon the political consciousness of former student leaders. A representative, random sample of the 1985 Student Representative Council members of a certain high school in Cape Town was taken and respondents were then interviewed individually during the last quarter of 1990. The subject of the thesis is closely tied to the particular method used to investigate it. I shall argue and present reasons why the ethnographic interviewing commonly used in cultural anthropology is theoretically appropriate as means to collect empirical material for use in the analysis of the topic. Arising from the methodology, a secondary focus of this study concerns the interaction between the biases (or "theory") which social scientists bring to their research and the actual, raw data collected. This variation of the theory-practice nexus is not examined in detail, only when it is directly relevant to the main analysis. How was all of the foregoing arrived at? I shall show that the interplay between action and thought was central to the events which occurred during the 1985-6 rebellion. It is this fact which justifies the study of the above topic and which led to conceptualizing of the research as outlined. In addition, this same feature of the uprising can be used to examine the political consciousness of the ex-students. In other words, their present-day perceptions in regard to past experiences in mass struggle can be analysed in terms of the boycott seen as action (practice) and the boycott seen as symbolising ideas (thought). The main conclusion reached is that there is both a unity and a disjunction of theory and practice in the political outlook of respondents. On the one hand, interviewees understand and evaluated those events in which they directly participated. This was done in contradictory ways and showed a general move away from militancy towards conservatism. On the other hand, the great majority of respondents are still struggling to make sense of the wider social issues produced during the uprising. These aspects of respondent thinking are viewed in relation to one another and I try to give explanations for them. Finally, I suggest what the contemporary significance of the above conclusions for the struggle for socialism could be.
Open Access
The loci of learning in focus : a qualitative study of grade 7 students' conceptions of 'school' and 'learning'
(2000) McConnachie, Cameron; Gilmour, David
This study investigates the conceptions of 'school' and 'learning' held by twenty grade 7 students between the ages of 12 and 15. While the subjects' participating in the research were selected from two Cape Town metropolitan schools in close proximity, the schools were situated within vastly different socio-economic and cultural environments. The study aimed to explore what factors impact on the development of students' conceptions. The conceptions were analysed against an international body of literature in an attempt to discern whether a particularly South African notion of the phenomenon existed.
Open Access
Managing learner discipline : a case study of two secondary schools in the Khomas region, Namibia
(2009) Hipondoka, Oiva Shuuveni; Gilmour, David
This study is concerned with how two schools in the Khomas Region manage learners' discipline. In particular, it seeks to determine why the two schools experience different states of discipline despite the fact that they have learners from similar social backgrounds. The study uses a case study approach. The qualitative methods comprise on-site observations, semi-structured interviews and a review of disciplinary and other policy documents. Interviews were done with the School Boards, the two principals, heads of department, teachers, Learners' Representative Council and learners. The study draws its conceptual framework from seven factors that are believed to influence school discipline: strategy, structures and procedures, school identity and purpose, school resources, parents and community involvement, leadership and management, and school culture. The study revealed that the two schools have many disciplinary practices in common. However, active teamwork, which falls under the school culture factor, and leadership and management were more pronounced in School B than in School A. Compared with School A, School B was characterized by fairly good discipline, and the study consequently attributed these factors, teamwork, leadership and management as the major cause of different levels of discipline in these two schools. It also emerged in the study that School B has a better academic performance in comparison with School A, which suggests that there is a positive relationship between academic performance and discipline.
Open Access
NGOs and the transformational state : theorizing the ambiguities of educational development and change in post-apartheid South Africa
(1999) Browne, Philip; Gilmour, David
The focus of this thesis is the crisis currently affecting the NGO sector in South Africa and profound implications that it has for the development process South Africa. The thesis sets out to examine the extent to which the state and civil society can collaborate under conditions of transformation and restructuring to ensure the equitable achievement of wide-scale social amelioration. The thesis surveys the current state of the NGO sector in South Africa and then moves to the micro level to examine the development work of a medium-sized educational NGO and the implementation of one of its donor-funded projects the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The argument is put forward that although this project is very context- specific it illuminates a set of problems are generalizable across the NGO sector. The difficulties being experienced by NGOs are analyzed using elements of Gidden's 'structuration theory' and Hargreaves's 'educational restructuring' matrix to chart prevailing development practice within the state-civil society nexus. It is argued that these positions yield four interlinked and recursive elements that are used as theoretical tools to explore the praxis of South NGOs. The thesis proceeds to examine sequentially, and within the parameters of the structure-agency debate, how tensions and ambiguities are generated within the symbolic order, through the manifestations of power and authority within the policy-making process and through the allocation of resources determine space and contextual realities within which NGOs operate. The argument is put forward that one of the key tasks for NGOs is the necessity of constructing theoretical models that not only inform and shape their development practice but are also recursively modified by changing circumstances and conditions. The thesis concludes that engagement in this form of praxis may one for NGOs to ensure their survival and adds some suggestions for the way forward.
Open Access
Student development in the University of Cape Town residences : a training needs analysis of house commitees
(2007) Davids-January, Charmaine; Gilmour, David
This study conducts a training needs analysis in the area of student development at the University of Cape Town. Areas of student development are currently under research in South Africa. The field has its early roots in higher education at the turn of the twentieth century when United States (US) colleges professionalised the field of student affairs so as to focus on whole student development. The University of Cape Town (UCT) formally introduced student development in residences in 1998 with the intention of designing a range of interventions that would respond to the changing student profile as well as the socio-political climate, which focused on personal and institutional transformation.
Open Access
A study of factors that enable the development of sustainable FET college entrepreneur development partnerships
(2009) Taylor, Vanessa; Gilmour, David
This thesis is concerned with developing understanding of the issue of partnership sustainability and the factors that enable this. The South African further education and training (FET) college sector forms the context for the research and the specific focus is on entrepreneur development partnerships that have a community development focus. Numerous factors were found to strongly influence the sustainability of these kinds of partnerships. Of these factors, institutional 'will' was found to drive the establishment and continuation of partnerships, and the strength of this was largely determined by the relevance of a partnership to the strategy of an organisation, and the degree to which it delivered outcomes and benefits that matched expectations and were considered mutual. 'Will' on its own was found to be insufficient though as institutions also need the 'means' to put partnerships into practice and keep them going. 'Means' is understood as constituting a vision and strategy for the partnership, resources in the form of people, to lead it and carry out its work, and funding to finance its activities. Furthermore, for a partnership to be effective and continue over time it needs to be evolutionary and to go through cycles of implementation, reflection, learning and renewal. Good leadership, management and communication play a central role in this process. Additionally, healthy relationships are at the heart of effective long-term partnerships and, as such, a focus is needed on developing and maintaining the 'relationship' element of partnerships if these are to continue over time. Finally, the sustainability of partnerships is facilitated by formalised agreements, and their continuation beyond the individuals that established them is ensured through institutionalisation.
Open Access
Teacher efficacy in primary schools : a survey of three selected schools in the Western Cape, South Africa
(2010) Daniels, Sandra V; Gilmour, David
This study investigates the concept of teacher efficacy which has its origin in Bandura's (1977) self efficacy theory, which is examined in his social cognitive theory. Teacher efficacy beliefs (individual) which are hypothesized as the "beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments" (Bandura, 1997:3) with the different dimensions which underpin this concept are examined. Since this study also wanted to establish the efficacy levels of the schools as a unit, the concept of collective efficacy was explored. The purpose of this research is two-fold. Firstly, the aim is to construct a better understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of teacher efficacy, and secondly, it aims to measure and compare teachers' levels of efficacy in three selected schools. The selection of these schools for this study was based on the results these schools obtained in the Literacy and Numeracy Systemic Evaluations conducted by the Provincial and National Departments of Education. The rationale is to determine whether or not a relation exists between teachers' levels of efficacy, and by extension whether or not it influences what they do in their classrooms and their learners' achievements. Tschannen-Moran et al's (1998) original 31-item instrument probing the aspects of teacher efficacy was used to measure (individual) teacher efficacy, and Tschannen- Moran and Ban's (2004) instrument, The Collective Teacher Belief Scale, was used to measure and determine the schools' collective sense of efficacy. The research showed a relationship between teachers' levels of efficacy, what they do in their classrooms and their schools and by extension their learners' achievement. Although the causal mechanism of this relationship was not established, nor was it part of the study, the research confirms that even though teachers' sense of efficacy is not necessarily homogeneous across the various types of tasks they are asked to perform, each of the aspects of teacher efficacy is positively related to teachers' levels of confidence about their capabilities at each of the three schools. At the schools where teachers seem to be positively inclined and more efficacious, the results are better, while the converse is applicable at the school where the propensity towards negativity is more prevalent. What is also clear is that the beliefs teachers have about their abilities (teacher self efficacy), influences their persistence when things do not go smoothly, and that ultimately this affects the learners.
Open Access
The teaching of economics : an investigation into the aims, texts, and assessment of the senior secondary economics curriculum in Western Cape schools
(1992) Long, Keith William; Gilmour, David; Siebörger, Rob
This study concerns the economics curriculum in schools in the Western Cape as defined by syllabus aims, textbooks, and the Senior Certificate examination. The research for it was conducted by means of a teacher survey in secondary schools of the Department of Education and Culture, House of Assembly, Cape Education Department (CED); and the Department of Education and Culture, House of Representatives (HOR) in the Western Cape. This includes an analysis of the textbooks currently prescribed for economics, and an analysis of past Senior Certificate examination papers. The dissertation commences with a description of the existing curriculum and its setting in the context of Christian National education (CNE). This is followed by discussion of the philosophy of economics education as practised in the west, in order to view the South African economics curriculum against this background. The main aims of the present syllabus are discussed in terms of textbooks, teacher opinion, and the Senior Certificate examination. These aims concern the Christian character of economics, economics and Afrikaner nationalism, economics and capitalist values, as well as the vocational and formative value of economics. They are considered central to an understanding of how classroom economics has been affected by CNE, apartheid doctrine, and Afrikaner master symbols. This is followed by an investigation into the operation of the specific objectives of the syllabus and classroom practice of economics. These are described in terms of three groups of questions which formed part of the teacher survey. The questions addressed issues of teaching aimed at engendering interest in current economic events and the application of theory in the analysis and interpretation thereof; the purpose of economics teaching; and the importance and influence of content, textbooks and examinations in classroom economics. The content of the 1983 core syllabus is further considered in the light of teachers' responses to it and the opinions gained from the teacher survey are used in the final chapter as part of the basis of recommendations for remaking the content of the economics curriculum. Proposals are made for the remaking of the economics curriculum in the future on the basis of: the aims in terms of "economic literacy"; classroom practice and teaching trends in terms of "process learning"; and the content of classroom economics on the basis of "citizenship".

Browsing by Author "Gilmour, David"

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