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- ItemOpen Access21st century tertiary design education in post-apartheid South Africa : a question of quality(2007) Leroux, Allen; Crawhall, Nigel TThe dissertation explores the question of; what drives excellence in tertiary design education in 21st Century post-Apartheid South Africa? Is it what the state does in terms of policy and regulation or is it what the higher educational providers do in terms of curriculum and methodology that creates excellence? In the first part the dissertation traces the development of higher education policy in South Africa following the political changes from Apartheid to Democracy after 1994. It explores the development of a regulatory framework for higher education provision in post-Apartheid South Africa, due to the disparate levels of quality higher education developed under the Apartheid system for different racial groups and also the proliferation of poor quality private higher education during the first decade of democracy. It follow s the view that while the state set the regulatory control for higher education a n d bench marked educational excellence against public institutions, the realisation that market demands for access to quality higher education would require private education provision to form part of the institutional mix was soon reached. In the second part of the dissertation a case study of a newly established private higher education provider is developed. Created within the new regulatory framework for higher education in South Africa, FEDISA (Future Excellence Design Institute of South Africa) of which this author is the academic director, endeavours to show that private providers of higher education can, when pursuing excellence, become viable partners to the stat e in education provision and may even surpass the state institutions, now burdened with massification, in terms of quality education provision. The study goes on to develop an understanding of how changes in the economic markets have created change demand within design. It then considers the four tenets on which FEDISA's programme for achieving excellence is based in order to comply academically with the highest quality of 21st Century design education. This is as much in answer to the requirements of the new regulatory framework as to the institution's own analysis of what the market now wants. These tenets include the concept of what a curriculum is, drawing on Stenhouse and Smith's views of the curriculum as 'a blueprint for action'. Next, the importance of integrating the component elements of the design curriculum by drawing parallels between the 'collection type and integrated curriculum' theory of Bernstein is considered. In the third instance, an analysis of 'Knowing, Acting and Being', after the curriculum theory of Barnett and Coates is developed through the addition of a liberal arts component to the design curriculum. Special focus is afforded the importance of 'Being' development of design students in 21st Century design education. Finally, Brookfield's notion of becoming a critically reflective practitioner and how the concept of critical reflection has found its place in the 21st Century design classroom through the use of the 'tools of critical reflection' is brought into focus. The dissertation concludes that while the shift in the design markets from craft through mass production to an understanding of ethical considerations in new millennium design dictates what kind of design professionals should now be educated and that this awareness may be achieved through the refocusing of inherently simple means inside the design classroom of the 21st Century, excellence in tertiary design education, while primarily based on what happens inside our design institutions, goes hand in hand with compliance to the demands of state regulation in order to ensure the viability of our tertiary institutions.
- ItemOpen AccessA cultural-historical analysis of Grade 9 History curriculum and its pedagogical resources for learners' conceptual development(2021) Mutheiwana, Pertunia; Hardman, JoanneThis study examines the extent to which the South African Grade 9 History Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document and its supplementary teaching resources (learners' textbooks and teachers' guides) outline knowledge focused on concept development in learners. The development of concepts requires learners' mediation in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) where consideration and subsequent linkage of three knowledge forms namely: scientific concepts, everyday concepts and procedural knowledge is necessary. In light of this, a topic titled ‘National Party and apartheid' is analysed across the CAPS document and its teaching resources to examine the extent to which they outline these knowledge forms for concept development. Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory and the work of Neo-Vygotskians are used as the theoretical framework for the analysis of data in this study. The findings show that the CAPS document offer guidance to teaching resources on the necessary knowledge forms required to afford learners with full development of historical concepts outlined under the ‘National Party and apartheid' topic of the CAPS document. This is because a curriculum document is only designed to offer guidance and not to elaborate on content. As a result, teaching resources should elaborate on the contents of the curriculum and add sufficient knowledge forms. According to Vygotsky and Neo-Vygotskians, full concept development can only be possible if scientific concepts are made visible, sufficiently, and explicitly defined, linked to everyday concepts and procedural knowledge. This study shows that teaching resources failed to implement this fully. This study concludes that for teaching resources to afford learners with conceptual development, all three knowledge forms should be sufficiently and explicitly outlined and the necessary linkage between them made. This will, in turn, provide the teachers with sufficient and explicit pedagogy in the ZPD thereby affording learners with conceptual development. The development of concepts is necessary for South Africa because it helps to reduce social inequalities created in the past as well as granting learners the opportunity to live and work in a globalised environment. It is recommended that teaching resources prioritise the aims of the CAPS document by outlining knowledge forms for concept development.
- ItemOpen AccessA multimodal social semiotic analysis of lecturer pedagogy for the physics concept of angular motion in physiotherapy education(2022) Gabriels, Sumaya; Muna, Natashia; Le Roux, KateAngular motion is a foundational concept in physiotherapy, applied when measuring joint range of motion (rom) in assessment and treatment of patients. Accordingly, first-year physiotherapy students are commonly taught rom measurement skills in their applied Physiotherapy course and are introduced to the concept of angular motion in their Physics course where their learning is primarily assessed through problem-solving. However, studies of student learning of angular motion show that while students can solve problems, they do not always have the necessary conceptual understanding to use their procedures appropriately and flexibly in other disciplines. Physics education researchers also demonstrate that accessing, learning, and communicating the conceptual and procedural knowledge involves using the affordances of multimodal language. Thus, a promising line of inquiry is how lecturers use the affordances of multimodal language in pedagogy to create opportunities for students to develop both conceptual and procedural understanding. My study focuses on a lecturer's pedagogy for the concept of angular motion in a Physics course for first year physiotherapy students at a South African university. Specifically, I use a multimodal social semiotic perspective to describe what and how she uses the affordances of multimodal language − verbal talk, written text, images, symbols and symbolic equations, gestures, and objects − to give presentational, organisational and orientational meanings. I also explain her pedagogical choices in the meaning-making process. In this focused ethnographic study, I observed lecture recordings to produce data on the lecturer's pedagogy. A subsequent semi-structured interview with the lecturer was analysed to understand the lecturer's choices. The multimodal social semiotic analysis shows that the lecturer organised her pedagogy to develop both conceptual and procedural meaning, while also relating these meanings to problem-solving, and to orientate students to the relevance of angular motion in physiotherapy. This organization was informed by her comprehensive understanding of the physics content, and its relation to the Physiotherapy course and physiotherapy practice, and the experiences and resources of the students in the class. Evident in her pedagogy was a pattern of starting with a focus on conceptual meaning using verbal talk, images, and gestures, following which she integrated symbols and symbolic equations which functioned as a link to focussing on procedural meaning as applied in problem-solving. This study contributes to existing physics and physiotherapy education research, an in-depth description and explanation of a lecturer's motivated, contextualised use of multimodal language to give meaning to the physics of angular motion for physiotherapy. These learnings and the multimodal social semiotic tools by which they were produced can be put to work in education development practice with disciplinary lecturers. Specifically, they serve to make explicit the affordances of various language modes for communicating particular conceptual and procedural meanings as a relevant for physiotherapy for planning pedagogy.
- ItemOpen AccessA neo-Vygotskian comparative analysis of the availability of simple scientific concepts in science in the English National Curriculum Year 1 and the South African National Curriculum and Policy Statement Grade 1(2022) Grüner-Hegge, Sophia Victoria; Hardman, JoanneSouth Africa continues to lag behind other countries in mathematics and science in benchmarks tests such as the TIMSS tests. The importance of teaching science early in the school curriculum has been established in research. However, some research indicates that the scientific concepts made available to teachers and students in the Foundation Phase are lacking in depth and are, in fact, not full scientific concepts (Morris, Hardman& Jacklin, 2016). In a bid to establish to what extent scientific concepts are made available to students and teachers, this study analysed and compared the availability of “simple scientific concepts” on the topic of plants for children in their first year of formal schooling in the South African and English National Curricula, as well as educational materials from these countries. This study is continuing the work conducted by Morris, Hardman, and Jacklin (2016), who analysed the prevalence of simple scientific concepts in the Grade R curriculum and materials in South Africa. The notion of a simple scientific concept is derived from Neo Vygotskian elaborations on scientific and everyday concepts, where simple scientific concepts are the foundations for the development of more complex scientific concepts. A rating scale based on these ideas was used to analyse the materials for simple scientific concepts. The findings of the current study found that in both countries' curricula and materials are largely composed of “potential scientific concepts”, which are concepts that have the potential to be translated from an everyday concept into a scientific concept by the teacher (if they have sufficient knowledge). Overall, the findings are of concern as studies show that teachers in both nations feel ill-equipped and are lacking in confidence to teach science, and since there are so many potential scientific concepts the teachers must be knowledgeable in order to translate them into scientific concepts for their students. In conclusion, the implications of this study are that the curricula and materials for Year/Grade 1 children in these nations are not conducive to them acquiring simple scientific concepts.
- ItemOpen AccessA sociological analysis of phonics lesson plans across four structured pedagogic programmes in South Africa(2022) Boyd, Colleen; Hoadley, UrsulaNationally, there has been widespread acceptance that South Africa's schooling system faces a literacy crisis. In response to this, school improvement efforts have taken the form of structured pedagogic programmes – “a triple cocktail” of interventions that offer teacher training, resource provisioning and lesson plans in an attempt to alter teacher's pedagogy and improve learning outcomes. Focusing on lesson plans (also referred to as teacher guides) that attempt to structure phonics pedagogy, this study uses a Bernsteinian framework located in the sociology of education to analyse the various ‘controls' the lesson plans place on pedagogy. It considers how these controls relate to the literature on effective phonics instruction as presented by the International Literacy Association. In addition, the study considers the various controls alongside an analysis of the level of scripting within each case, locating the discussion within current debates on the appropriate degree of scripting in lesson plans. The study finds that there are differences between the lesson plans in terms of the controls offered particularly as these relate to notions of effective phonics instruction and levels of scripting. In conclusion, this research argues for expanded lesson plans that further exteriorise the phonics curriculum by offering more explicit evaluative criteria and increased scripting that further supports teachers in enacting effective, and contextualised, phonics programmes.
- ItemOpen AccessA synthesis of cognitive science research on the mental number line, and its relation to the pedagogical use of number lines in the teaching of elementary arithmetic in the Foundation Phase of schooling(2022) McNamara, Ellen; Davis, ZainIn this paper, I examine how biologically endowed computational systems help to frame our experiences as it relates to using the number line in school mathematics. This study is a synthesis of the research findings in cognitive science and mathematics education to elucidate the mechanisms that underpin the connection between the mental number line in humans and its relation to the growth of mathematical knowledge in young children. This reported research drawn together here shows how we draw on core domain knowledge (the object tracking system (OTS), the approximate number line (ANS) and the mental number line (MNL) to construct mathematical ideas. The OTS allows us to track individual items, which provides us with the notion of exact number and the ANS creates an intuitive number sense from which we intuit that a collection can be assigned a cardinal value. Language mediates the integration of knowledge of the ANS and OTS to overcome the limits of the core systems and build the exact number system. I review the literature to investigate spatial numerical associations and the properties of the internal number line and to clarify the relationship between cognitive development, cultural factors and education. The synthesis concludes by using the ideas of representations and structure preservation to examine how closely the number line aligns with our natural intuitions about magnitude and number and the implications this has on education. I argue that educators need to understand how biologically innate conceptions of number guide subsequent learning and provides us with a foundation for domains such as mathematics. This insight will enable educators to select teaching models that build on from our intuitive notions of number and understand why certain concepts are difficult for children to understand.
- ItemOpen AccessAccess to academic literacy : a study of the economics language and communications tutorial at the University of Cape Town(2001) Baker, David ScottIn recent years, many universities have begun to recognize the importance of providing students with some form of access to academic literacy, particularly within the learner's chosen field of study. In order to address these needs at the University of Cape Town, many disciplines now require a first-year course which aims to equip learners with the language and communication skills, which are necessary in order to successfully complete a university degree. Students in the Economics department enroll in a discipline-specific, writing-intensive course which runs throughout the first year of the learners' university experience. The focus of this study is to examine this tutorial in terms of how it meets, or fails to meet, learners' needs in terms of developing appropriate academic writing skills for students pursuing an economics degree.
- ItemOpen AccessAccommodation or confrontation? Some responses to the Eiselen commission report and the Bantu education act with special reference to the Methodist church of South Africa(1991) Rundle, Margaret; Kallaway, PeterThis study was undertaken at a time when South African politicians and educators are facing the challenge of a major restructuring of the education system, and at a time when the the Methodist Church of South Africa is being encouraged, by some, to become more involved in the provision of education again. It focusses on the three events - the appointment of the 'Commission of Inquiry into Native Education' (usually referred to as the Eiselen Commission), the Report of that Commission, and the Bantu Education Act of 1954 which led to the introduction of the system of Bantu Education in 1955. Consideration is given to the responses of various 'liberal' and 'radical' groups to those events.
- ItemOpen AccessAction research in teacher education : the case of the National University of Lesotho B.Ed programme(2002) Pholoana-Motebang, Bonane; Breen, ChrisThe purpose of this study was to examine the environment of action research project in the National University of Lesotho B.Ed. teacher education programme. The intention was to identify factors that facilitate or impede action research at the teacher education institution where student teachers are prepared for the project to be undertaken in schools during teaching practice. The study also sought to understand the student teachers' and teacher educators' perceptions and experiences of the action research project.
- ItemOpen AccessAdoption of learning management systems among information technology educators at a rural South African university : an activity systems perspective(2015) Ngandu, Matipa R; Brown, CherylThe growth of ICTs in education is a reflection of societal change. The demand for Higher Education Institutions to produce graduates who are equipped for the 21st century is a primary concern to all stakeholders in the education and development system. In as much as there is a drive to adopt emerging educational technologies there needs to be mature research which unpacks adoption. The focus of this research is lecturers and how their perceptions about LMS influence the rate of uptake in the LMS adoption process. It is important to identify the factors which influence lecturer perceptions. Through a qualitative investigative approach on a single case and guided by an Activity Theory framework, this research manages to interpret key sources of tension and contradictions which highlight the factors which influence lecturer perception. It is important to note that structural mandate does not always yield quality results and therefore it is important to establish perceptions held by key stakeholders in the LMS adoption process.
- ItemOpen Access“All these wonderful things”: the place of digital resources in newly qualified English language and literacy teachers' practices, from higher education to high schools(2021) Campbell, Eduard; Kell, Catherinel; Archer, ArleneUnderstandings of what counts as literacy and of how language is best taught are in considerable flux in the present period. The proliferation of the digital is often cited as a key factor driving this sense of flux. In initial teacher education, the place of the digital in teachers' practices is complicated by students' varying engagements with the digital, and unequal access to digital resources in schools. Research on how newly qualified teachers engage in teaching practices involving the digital is limited. Additionally, recent studies point to the immense pressures placed on these teachers during their first years as qualified teachers. This case study is an in-depth investigation of the practices of two newly qualified English language and literacy teachers, at two South African high schools, analysing their practices during a period of their initial teacher education and within their first year of teaching. The study aims to ascertain the place of the digital in poetry lessons by analysing their lesson plans, lesson observations, interviews, teaching materials, Whatsapp VoiceNotes and written reflections. The theoretical foundation draws on the New Literacy Studies and recent theories from multimodal social semiotics and discourse studies. The data analysis framework consists of three lenses: recognisable activities, multimodal ensembles and assemblages-as-tensions. The analysis of recognisable activities in lesson plans and high school lessons showed that the digital is not central to the two teachers' practices. They used digital resources as ‘placed digital artefacts': teacher-created finished products that connect with one activity and are then abandoned. Analysis of multimodal ensembles revealed the ways in which the digital, the teachers' bodily movements, their use of space in the classroom, speech and writing are entangled. Teachers have to control rapid changes in modal ensembles, or ‘beats', throughout lesson time. The analysis of assemblages-as-tensions showed that these two newly qualified teachers balance many conflicting discourses and tensions in their high school practice, which render the year following initial teacher education daunting. The digital often exacerbates these tensions. However, digital resource use is suggested to be connected to complex and powerful conceptions of language and of teaching that underpin teachers' practices. In teacher education, the digital could thus become a mediator of reflective practice and teacher support during and after initial teacher education, instead of focusing on digital technologies use per se. Consequently, classroom practices involving the digital could become more powerful.
- ItemOpen AccessAn investigation into the relationship between student identity and academic literacy at a private higher education institution(2018) Pearton, Nicola; Thesen, LuciaAlthough academic development programmes have been well researched in the South African context, much of the research has focused on programmes at mainstream public universities and less is known about the programmes run by smaller private institutions. This research aims to identify and discuss themes around student identity and how these themes relate to academic literacy acquisition for students on a one-year bridging course programme at a private university. Gee’s (2001) identity framework is used to explore and compare how students on a bridging course were viewed by the institution, and how these students saw themselves. An analysis of data gathered through interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, and course-related materials revealed a strong deficit discourse around students on the bridging course. The institution’s view of literacy as autonomous, the deficit discourse surrounding the students, and the way these students were positioned in the institution, meant that students, although highly motivated to achieve a degree qualification, had not begun to develop the beginning of either an academic or a vocational identity. The institution did not successfully enable students to view academic practice and discourse as part of their identity, and as a result bridging course students did not adopt the practices and discourses around academic literacy as they were not convinced of their validity and legitimacy. Given that academic literacy is central to success on a degree programme, these students were not adequately prepared for their first year of degree study. The findings from this research show the need for wider research into whether academic development programmes at private institutions are really meeting the needs of the students who enrol onto these programmes.
- ItemOpen AccessAn investigation of students' experiences of student-supervisor relationships at postgraduate level(2006) Mbwanda, Irene Olga; Gilmour, DavidThis 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.
- ItemOpen AccessAn analysis of curriculum knowledge in an introductory actuarial science course(2016) Enderstein, BelindaActuarial Science is a sought after profession in South Africa with high attrition rates at university. The profession is small and dominated by white males. Slow transformation of the profession to reflect a more representative sample of the population is exacerbated by the long route to qualification. This study is an analysis of the first module of the redesigned course reader for the course 'Introduction to Actuarial Science' at the University Cape Town. It was prompted by the change in student engagement with and sentiment about the course in 2013. Data is concurrently analysed from two interviews with the course convenor exploring (a) the nature and description of the profession as well as what knowledge is valued in the field of practice and the discipline and (b) the reasons for the redesign of the course reader and the process itself. The first module of the course reader is analysed in tandem with the second interview data. The research aims to reveal the complexity of the knowledge of actuarial science which makes mastery of its content, methods and ways of thinking (summed up in the term epistemic access ) challenging. Thus careful curriculum design is important in orientating first year students to the discipline and profession. Educational theorists from the school of social realism provide conceptual frameworks through which one can identify knowledge structures and elements thereof in data. Basil Bernstein's Pedagogic Device is used in locating the course reader data in the field of recontextualisation, relying on recontextualising rules which 'regulate the formation of specific pedagogic discourse' (Bernstein, 2000, p.28) to examine the ways in which access to the discipline is facilitated in the course reader. In addition, Bernstein's pedagogic codes analysed by means of his concepts classification and framing are employed to analyse (a) the nature and description of the profession and (b) the knowledge valued in the discipline and in the field of practice. Karl Maton's Legitimation Code Theory and in particular the identification of specialisation codes on the basis of epistemic and social relation s affords the potential of understanding the key principles by which this knowledge form is legitimated. The writings of Young (2008) and Muller (2009 and Young and Muller (201 4 ) assist in delineating a few crucial issues on professional knowledge and the curriculum. This project seeks to analyse the curriculum knowledge and the pedagogic codes employed in the course reader of a newly designed introductory course to ascertain the nature of actuarial science and to suggest what forms of pedagogy might enable students to access that knowledge. Regarding the nature of actuarial science, the study found that it is a complex region that combines highly specialized techno-theoretical knowledge with specific forms of inferential reasoning and professional judgment required to address knotty problems in the business world. Regarding an effective pedagogy, the analysis of the course reader provides clues as to what an explicit, visible pedagogic discourse capable of providing access to this complex field to first generation students might entail.
- ItemOpen AccessAn analysis of dominant discourse in Grade 8 English Home Language textbooks(2016) Cahl, Gregory Elkan; Kapp, RochellePost-Apartheid South Africa has heralded a period of intense curriculum reform, explicitly aimed at fostering social transformation and a shift from the uncritical rote-learning which dominated Apartheid-era schooling. There have been three major curriculum shifts since 1994 and each change has required the production of new textbooks for every single school subject, usually within highly limited time-frames. This study focuses on textbooks produced for the most recent iteration of the Language curriculum, that is, the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement, commonly known as CAPS. The study draws on poststructuralist theory on discourse, in particular Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), to engage in close, critical analysis of the dominant discourses in two grade 8 English home language learner textbooks. The textbooks are examined in terms of how social issues are depicted; the notions of English education; the extent to which they promote a critical approach to language and literacy learning as outlined in the curriculum and the ways in which learners are constructed as subject. The analysis of different levels of discourse evident in the texts and text-based tasks demonstrates that the orientations to reading that are offered are focussed largely on the surface meaning of the texts. While social issues related to contemporary South African and global topics are evident in the choice of content, the texts often perpetuate fairly conservative ideologies, either through their content, the exercises that follow or through the silences implicit in the selection of excerpts. Many of the text-based exercises are decontextualized, cognitively undemanding and learners are often steered towards particular answers, leaving very limited space for critical engagement. The thesis ends with a consideration of the implications of this analysis for teaching and learning.
- ItemOpen AccessAn analysis of Grade 9 learners' performance in the 2004 Natural Science common tasks for assessment with special reference to science process skills, learning outcomes and assessment standards(2008) Mullajee, Ferial; Rochford, KevinIn 2004 an educational evaluation strategy consisting of Common Tasks for Assessment (CTAs) was introduced nationally into South African high schools as an external examination, marked internally by individual teachers. It took the form of a systemic assessment for Grade 9 learners with the main intentions of promoting a common standard and serving as a validating tool for school-based assessment. This analytical descriptive investigation in 12 schools (in the Western Cape is a contribution to the research fields of academic performance testing, achievement and response. CTAs use the framework of the curriculum, broadly defined as the organising principle in how educational opportunities are provided to learners. Hence, the basis of the CT A model has three aspects: the intended curriculum, the implemented curriculum, and the attained and experienced curriculum. The CTA testing took place in 2004 with many schools participating. The CTA assessment in the area of Natural Science was framed by two organising dimensions: a content domain and a cognitive domain. The content domains that framed the science curriculum were presented as themes: life and living; energy and change and matter and materials. The cognitive domains were: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, and reasoning and analysis.
- ItemOpen AccessAn analysis of how knowledge is differentiated in a vocationally based curriculum for a new profession(2015) Halliday, Linda; Shay, SuellenInspired by Muller’s (2009) ‘Forms of Knowledge and Curriculum Coherence’ and his theories relating to types of knowledge and curricula differentiation, this study interrogates knowledge in a vocational qualification, asking how it is differentiated in a vocationally based curriculum intended for a new ‘fourth generation’ profession (as opposed to ‘first generation’ professions such as medicine or engineering). The study specifically examines and compares two recontextualising processes; a vocational, unit-standards-based qualification intended for the fitness profession and its curriculum that is designed to meet the qualification’s requirements. The analysis reveals the type of knowledge developed in both. According to Muller (2009), market-related shifts have given rise to many new professions – fourth generation professions - which he claims lack the epistemic foundation of traditional disciplines. To meet the growing demand for these emerging professions, institutions of higher education are being asked to make knowledge and skills more accessible through a range of sector-based, vocational and higher education pathways, leading to clearly-defined outcomes. According to Wheelahan (2007), reducing knowledge to observable outcomes or competencies simply produces a ‘fragmented and atomistic view of knowledge’. Thus, the concern is about knowledge and the call from many educational sociologists is for ‘powerful knowledge’; that increases access, encourages cumulative learning and enables its transferability (Young, 2008a, Wheelahan, 2007). Acknowledging the socio-epistemic nature of knowledge, this study focuses on the epistemic, exploring different types of knowledge in a vocationally based higher education setting. Working within the recontextualising field of Bernstein’s (2000) Pedagogic Device, the study explores types of knowledge and the organising principles that constitute knowledge practices within a South African vocational educational setting. Of particular interest to the study are ways in which conceptual knowledge increases through a process of concept-integration, and whether or not such knowledge informs practice. The analysis calls upon Maton’s (2000) Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), specifically LCT Semantics, to explore meanings in curriculum texts in order to identify different types of knowledge. In using LCT Semantics, conceptual and practice-based knowledge is identified and graded according to differing levels of conceptual complexity and context-dependence. While the analysis exposes a range of theoretical knowledges, from simple to relatively complex concepts which emanate from the disciplines that form exercise science, it also explains the nature of contextually based knowledge, shaped by the demands of vocational practice (Muller, 2009, Shay, 2013). This study reveals that, despite the segmental nature of its unit-standards-based qualification, it is possible for vocational curricula to ensure concept-building, while being informed by its vocational requirements.
- ItemOpen AccessAn analysis of students' experiences during their acquisition of academic literacy, based on their consultations with the UCT Writing Centre : looking towards improving the feasibility of academic mentorship within higher education(2002) Hutchings, Catherine Mary; Hall, MartinIn this dissertation I investigate students' experiences during their acquisition of academic literacy skills, evident in their use of a support service at a higher educational institution. The focus of study is the University of Cape Town's (UCT's) Writing Centre, where students are able to discuss drafts of their written assignments with consultants. Through a detailed analysis of a large set of consultation records, I explore whether students' experiences and use of the Writing Centre vary according to language, gender and degree level. And based on this analysis, I discuss more generally the role that the UCT Writing Centre has played. Arguing that the type of relationships developed between students and consultants in the Writing Centre can be regarded as a form of mentorship, and taking into account such experiences from the Writing Centre, I look towards the feasibility of a model of academic mentorship forming part of a necessary wider institutional developmental endeavour aimed at catering adequately for a diverse student population, such as that of UCT's today.
- ItemOpen AccessAn analysis of the contestation over the pedagogic device in an applied design curriculum in post apartheid South Africa(2010) Thoms, MichaelThis project investigates a contested pedagogic discourse operating in the field of fashion design education in the post-Apartheid South African higher education context. The investigation is realised through a case study analysis of the pedagogic practices and context of a registered private provider of higher education that is externally moderated by a public institution operating in the same vocational field and education band.
- ItemOpen AccessAn analysis of the experiences of learners who completed a university-based programme for trade union women what factors facilitated or hindered their 'plough back' of learning to build their trade union organization?(2012) Pillay, Kanagie Vanessa; Cooper, LindaThis study set out to explore the effects of learning on a trade union organisation. The emphasis on learning in the South African trade union movement is often whether it results in building and strengthening union organisation. The trade union jargon used to describe this phenomenon is 'plough back'. The question that led to this research was whether the concept of 'plough back' was practically implemented in the case of a university course commissioned by the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU).