Browsing by Department "ADP: Science"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    An analysis of the impact of pedagogic interventions in first-year academic development and mainstream courses in microeconomics
    (Wiley, 2009) Smith, Leonard C
    This paper analyses the impact of pedagogic interventions in first-year academic development and mainstream courses in microeconomics on students' performance in the final examination. The data for six cohorts, covering the years 1999 and 2001-2005, are pooled, and the Heckman two-part procedure is used to account for those students who started the course but did not write the final examination. The results suggest that the pedagogic interventions have a positive impact on the performance of academic development students relative to the mainstream cohort and on the performance of mainstream students.
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    Aspects of non-central multivariate t distributions
    (1973) Juritz, June M; Troskie, Casper G
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    Integrating multidisciplinary engineering knowledge
    (Taylor & Francis, 2012) Wolff, Karin; Luckett, Kathy
    In order to design two distinct engineering qualification levels for an existing University of Technology programme, empirical evidence based on the current diploma is necessary to illuminate the nature of and the relationship between the contextual and conceptual elements underpinning a multidisciplinary engineering curriculum. The increasing focus on contextual application could result in decreasing opportunities to develop the conceptual disciplinary grasp required for a dynamic, emerging region at the forefront of technological innovation. Using the theoretical tools of Bernstein and Maton to analyse final year student practice, the research addresses the question of how multidisciplinary knowledge is integrated by students, and what this reveals about the nature of such knowledge. The paper presents a conceptualisation of multidisciplinary knowledge integration practices as a dynamic process along two axes simultaneously, shifting between different forms and levels of conceptual and contextual knowledge.
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    A multivariate evaluation of mainstream and academic development courses in first-year microeconomics
    (Wiley, 2007) Smith, Leonard; Edwards, Lawrence
    This paper analyses the impact of the University of Cape Town's first-year microeconomics academic development course on performance in examinations. The paper makes two advances to existing empirical literature in this area. Firstly, we compare performance with a control group drawn from the mainstream economic course. Secondly, we evaluate performance in subsequent courses in first-year macroeconomics and second-year microeconomics. The results suggest that the academic development course has a major impact on students' performance in the structured/essay questions, relative to the control group, in first- and second-year microeconomics, and for the multiple-choice questions in first-year macroeconomics. Matriculation results, mathematics, English first language, physical science and gender are also important determinants of performance.
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    The story of a physiclal science curriculum: transformation or transmutation?
    (Taylor & Francis, 2012) Nakedi, Mpunki; Taylor, Dale; Mundalamo, Fhatuwani; Rollnick, Marissa; Mokeleche, Maebeebe
    Recently Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) were introduced in South Africa in response to confusion precipitated by previous curriculum documents. The purpose of this paper is to explore that confusion in the subject 'Physical Sciences' and consider the nature of the transformation from the previous curriculum by looking at curriculum documents and examination papers. We present a two phase curriculum change model which suggests that congruency between curriculum documents and examinations is critical for effective curriculum change. We analyse the pre-CAPS curriculum, the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), on its own terms by using the stated outcomes as our reference point. Our analysis reveals that the weighting and conceptualization of the outcomes shifted through successive documents, which undermined congruency between the documents and meant that content-oriented science masqueraded as inquiry-oriented science. This led to a retreat from the original vision of weighting skills and relevance equally with content. The examinations took this retreat a step further. Evidence of the retreat is that the nature of the questions asked in the 2008 examinations on the NCS was similar to that of the 2007 examinations on the previous curriculum which had not changed since apartheid. However, in the NCS examinations there was a small shift towards contextualisation and inquiry oriented science. The retreat means the vision of transformation which was the rationale for the NCS curriculum was eroded – instead of transformation, there was transmutation back to the old apartheid curriculum. The Physical Sciences CAPS cements the retreat and creates new confusion by changing the syllabus again without signposting the change.