Browsing by Subject "academic development"

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    A Multivariate Evaluation of Mainstream and Academic Development Courses in First-year Microeconomics
    (2007) Edwards, L J; Smith, L
    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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    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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    Contradictions in the situational logic of the university: implications for student success
    (2014) Kotta, Linda; Case, Jenni; Luckett, Kathy
    Nearly sixteen years into the new democracy, student success at South African universities continues to be differentiated along lines of race. The tendency has been to define the problem in terms of student deficit. This article suggests that this is a limited view of a complex problem. The study investigates the case of a South African universitys engineering department and its historical struggle with the success of black students. It is an exploration of students progression through a design course and the associated pedagogical realities. Using a social realist approach, this study shows that the higher education environment is a complex of necessary contradictions which create a situational logic for agents. In the process of navigating the inconsistencies of a system in which academic development and quality assurance work against each other, it seems that black students get caught in the middle, with deleterious consequences for the countrys transformative agenda.
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    Measuring the impact of academic development courses in first-and second-year chemistry
    (South African Chemical Institute, 2013) Smith, Leonard C
    This paper uses multivariate analysis to estimate the impact of educational interventions in the first-year academic development chemistry courses on students' final course marks. The cohorts for seven years are pooled, which generates a more robust set of results than was previously the case. To counter the sample-selection problem that arises as academic development students are placed onto the academic development programme, a selection of control variables is included in the estimations. The results suggest that the educational interventions in the first year had a positive impact on academic development students' performance, relative to mainstream students, in both the first- and second-year courses. The implications of the results for education policy and research are considered.
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    Measuring the impact of educational interventions on the academic performance of academic development students in second-year microeconomics
    (Wiley, 2012) Smith, Leonard C; Ranchhod, Vimal
    This paper analyses the impact of educational interventions made in the first- and second-year microeconomics courses on academic development students' final mark in the second-year course. It also addresses issues of methodology, specification, and statistical analysis with respect to other studies in the field. The results suggest that the educational interventions in the first year had a positive impact on the academic performance of the academic development cohort, relative to the mainstream cohort for the first period (2000-2002). The results also suggest that the educational interventions introduced in the second period (2003-2005), in the form of voluntary workshops, improved the academic performance of the academic development and mainstream cohorts.
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    Measuring the impact of educational interventions on the academic performance of black academic development students
    (Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society, 2012) Smith, Leonard
    This article uses statistical analysis to estimate the impact of educational interventions in the first and second-year microeconomics courses on black academic development students' examination and final course marks. The results suggest that the educational interventions in the first and second years had a positive impact on the academic performance of the academic development cohorts, relative to a comparable group of mainstream students, in both the first and second-year courses. The results imply that the impact of interventions is more pronounced in respect of black students, and that the determinants of academic performance differ for black students relative to the student body as a whole. Finally, the implications of the results for education policy and research are considered.
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    Mind the gap: science and engineering education at the secondary-tertiary interface
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2013) Case, Jenni; Marshall, Delia; Grayson, Diane
    In the South African higher education sector, there is increasing concern about the poor retention and throughput rates of undergraduate students. There is also concern that the participation rates in higher education, relative to population demographics, remain extremely racially skewed. With the quality of schooling unlikely to change dramatically in the short term, universities need to look for ways to improve student success, particularly in science and engineering, where graduates are needed for a range of key roles in society. Here we review the research presented at a forum held by the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2010, which sought to bring together the latest expert thinking in this area. The major focus of academic development to date has been the establishment of extended degree programmes. However, it is clear that this model has limited capacity to deal with what is, in fact, a much broader problem. We summarise existing interventions aimed at reducing the 'gap' between secondary and tertiary education, and describe key innovations in mainstream programmes that are possible at the levels of pedagogy, curriculum and institutional environment, some of which are also becoming established internationally in science and engineering. Driving such initiatives will demand visionary university leadership in order to effect the integrated and holistic change that is needed.
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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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    A new selection model for the academic development programme for engineering at UCT
    (SASEE, 2018-02-16) Campbell, Anita; Craig, Tracy S; le Roux, Pierre
    The Academic Support Programme for Engineering at the University of Cape Town (ASPECT) has operated under a slowly evolving model since its inception in 1989. Different models of access and curriculum are frequently under consideration and in 2014 we had the opportunity to put into practice a new model, involving self-selection and delayed transition into ASPECT driven by first term assessment. In this paper we present a historical overview, reflect on the 2014 experiences of students and staff in light of relevant theory and conclude with an argument in favour of the delayed transition model.
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    Politics plus student and tutor guidebooks
    (2012-08) Duthie, Shawn
    These resources can be used by other departments which use the Plus program, or by departments who would like to start extra tutorials to teach students academic skills. There are two guides: a student guide with all the relevant information and exercises for each tutorial; and a tutor guide, which includes a lesson plan with information for each tutorial. These guides are the lesson plans and exercises for POL1008S (PolPlus) tutors and students. PolPlus offers supplementary tutorials to Extended Degree Program (EDP), Social Work and students who have done poorly on POL1004S (Introduction to Politics) as well as students who nominate themselves for the program. The tutorials focus on teaching students necessary academic skills that will benefit them for their entire university career.
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    Working with 'necessary contradictions': a social realist meta-analysis of an academic development programme review
    (Taylor & Francis, 2012) Luckett, Kathy
    This article addresses the problem of making programme evaluation sufficiently meaningful and cognisant of context such that practitioners, in this case of academic development, can gain new understandings of their situation in order to improve their practice. In order to do this, the paper uses Archer's morphogenetic framework to deepen the methodology of academic review on an academic development programme. The theory enables a richer understanding of how the programme developed within particular national and institutional situational logics and of the relationships between structure, culture and agency.