DSpace 9

This site is running DSpace 9. For more information, see the DSpace 9 Release Notes.

DSpace is the world leading open source repository platform that enables organisations to:

easily ingest documents, audio, video, datasets and their corresponding Dublin Core metadata
open up this content to local and global audiences, thanks to the OAI-PMH interface and Google Scholar optimizations
issue permanent urls and trustworthy identifiers, including optional integrations with handle.net and DataCite DOI

Join an international community of leading institutions using DSpace.

The test user accounts below have their password set to the name of this software in lowercase.

Demo Site Administrator = dspacedemo+admin@gmail.com
Demo Community Administrator = dspacedemo+commadmin@gmail.com
Demo Collection Administrator = dspacedemo+colladmin@gmail.com
Demo Submitter = dspacedemo+submit@gmail.com

Photo by @inspiredimages

Communities in DSpace

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 5 of 13

Recent Submissions

Language and literacy development for a Grade 10 English first additional language classroom: a reading to learn case study
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Education, 2017) Mataka, Tawanda Wallace; Mgqwashu, E M
The problem of poor reading skills is a serious one in South Africa, with negative implications for learners' educational achievement. The failure of learners to read at age- and grade-appropriate levels presents a major challenge to the teaching of reading in South African schools. It is against this background that this study aimed at ascertaining the positive impact of the Reading to Learn methodology in improving the literacy levels of learners in a Grade 10 English First Additional Language classroom in a township school. Reading ability levels were established via a passage extracted from a Grade Platinum English First Additional Learner's book. Pronunciation and word recognition formed the basis of the reading assessment. Reading translates into writing, so the learners were also assessed in comprehension and creative writing. The results indicated that the learners' reading abilities were weak, the methodology used to teach reading led to research findings that caused the study to yield findings that suggest that RtL may be the solution to reading problems in the classroom. In addition the study revealed that the ability to read corresponds with cognitive development. The study therefore calls for the adoption of RtL to assist in alleviating reading problems in the classroom.
An examination of teaching strategies for mediating the construction of environmental content knowledge: a case of Grade 11 Life Sciences teaching in two Eastern Cape schools
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Education, 2016) Chitsiga, Christina; Schudel, Ingrid
In South Africa the new Curriculum Assessment and Policy Statement (CAPS) introduced a more strongly content referenced curriculum which has commitments to active and critical approaches to learning, and to environment and sustainability content. Successful implementation of CAPS requires that teachers attain the requisite knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge for working with environmental and sustainability content. The study examined teachers' knowledge of environmental content as well as how teachers are mediating learning, through exploring the classroom techniques used by teachers working with environmental content. This was to examine how teachers are through their teaching bridging the gap in the understanding, investigation and application of environmental content in the curriculum. The study used a number of approaches from the field of environmental education which offer different lenses (or pedagogical sensitizing constructs) for viewing mediation processes as a relational process of knowledge construction. These pedagogical constructs were: knowledge co-construction where perspectives and understandings are shared in the process of social relations (deliberation); relating environmental content knowledge to cultural historical context (situated learning); relating environmental content knowledge to everyday and intergenerational knowledge through hands on experience (proximity experience) and developing an iterative relationship between environmental content knowledge and sustainability practices (practical reasoning). Practice theory as suggested by Schatzki (2005) and a theory of practice architectures elaborating on Schatzki's practice theory (Kemmis & Heikkinen, 2011) was used as the ontological lens to help in understanding the mediation of environmental content knowledge. Practice theory was used for exploring pedagogical practice in terms of sayings, doings and relatings by teachers, and practice architectures that represent enabling or constraining factors of teachers practice. This research was an interpretive case study drawing on findings from lesson observations, semi structured interviews, stimulated recall interviews and document analysis. The research found that teachers used different strategies to enhance their environmental content and pedagogical content knowledge to present the mediation. Teachers are supporting situated learning and deliberation in environmental learning. Another finding was that teachers could be enabled to enhance proximity experiences and practical reason in their mediating approaches in environmental learning. The research further showed that teachers could benefit from teacher professional development programmes that explicitly develop pedagogical content knowledge to support critical deliberation, proximity encounters, situated learning and practical reasoning in order to work with the diverse complex places-based, socio-cultural-historical nature of environmental curriculum content in the context of sustainability practices. Findings also showed that there were constraining factors to mediation of environmental learning. These constraining factors from the research were firstly in material economic arrangements of timetable compliance in CAPS, ability to find internet resources and availability of resources. Secondly, present were constraining factors of socio-political arrangements of CAPS curriculum document prescriptiveness, multiculturalism, learning institution management and governance. Thirdly, cultural discursive arrangements of teacher learner language, knowledge of the language of the field affected mediation. Teachers passion for environmental content topics, the ability of teachers' to improvise resources in mediating environmental content lessons and the ability of teachers' to navigate a stringent CAPS timetable were found in this research to be enabling mediation. Recommendations from the research are ongoing teacher refresher workshops on the environmental content in the CAPS curriculum, teachers' need more input on strategies to mediate environmental content, teachers' prior knowledge of new knowledge can be used to strengthen teacher professional development processes, teachers' prior knowledge needs to be deepened and reinforced, there is need to develop quality educational resources encompassing a variety of pedagogical sensitizing constructs and support needs to be given for familiarising teachers with teaching materials and their appropriate use . These could help to strengthen mediation of environmental content knowledge in the Grade 11 CAPS Life Sciences and inform South African teacher professional development programmes seeking to understand classroom practices in relation to environmental content.
Female school principals: perceptions of leadership in a male dominated education environment
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Education, 2000) Mwingi, Mweru P; Van der Mescht, Hennie
Many well-known studies on leadership have ignored the perspective of women yet bear an emphasis on the importance of portraying leadership in its entirety. This would mean that all leadership perspectives are included and that leaders are allowed to speak for themselves and about themselves. It is this connection I have sought to establish how women perceive leadership by relating the experiences of four women in school principalship. I have used a factual questionnaire to establish the background of each one but, it is the in-depth interviews that yield the leadership perceptions. Borrowing from phenomenological procedures, the leadership experiences are related as Natural Meaning Units (NMUS) whereby all prior knowledge and possible bias are bracketed out. Reinforced by their journal entries, it is only the voice of the women that is heard. My study reinforces the observation of researchers and feminist scholars that women leaders are not only marginalised but also viewed from a perspective that is not their own. From the study, however, the one element about leadership that emerges as unique is the functioning of transformational leadership elements among women leaders in educational set-ups that are inherently traditional, bureaucratic and hierarchical. This is significant because there is an indication that women leaders are inclined to transformational leadership because it favours their feminine qualities. There is also evidence that school principals can embrace leadership diversity and finally, that leadership and the structures of leadership operation are not developed from without but from within the person of the leader and this is an incorporation of their vision and beliefs. In the context of South Africa, this study should be of potential significance because of the change that is taking place in the development and training of school principals.
Exploring the influence of learners' participation in an after-school science enrichment programme on their disposition towards science: a case study of Khanya Maths and Science Club
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Department of Education, 2016) Agunbiade, Esther Arinola; Ngcoza, Kenneth
The ongoing advancement of science and technology is creating an increasing need for more entrants into science oriented careers. However, numerous studies have fueled growing concerns regarding the poor achievement of learners in science. Over the years, science education researchers have emphasized the importance of the affective domain of learning as a central component of strategies used to address learners' lack of interest and poor achievement in science. In the literature, the affective domain is characterized by constructs such as disposition, attitude, interest, and motivation. Studies showing a correlation between the affective domain and academic achievement suggest that nurturing a positive disposition towards science is an antecedent to learners' improved science achievement and entering science fields. This study focuses on the 'disposition' aspect of the affective domain, and follows in the path of earlier studies which use the term interchangeably with 'attitude'. Learners' experiences in a particular science education environment influence the development of a positive or negative disposition towards science. However, there is a need to explore the factors in the learning environments which influence learners' disposition towards science. Previous studies have shown that the informal science environment may influence learners' disposition towards science. One example of an informal science environment is the Khanya Maths and Science Club, which is an after-school science and mathematics enrichment programme in Grahamstown, South Africa. This study explores the influence of learners' participation in an informal science education environment on their dispositions towards science, using the case of the Khanya Maths and Science Club. This study views disposition through the constructivist-developmental lens. The community of practice elements from situated learning theory is drawn on to explore how learners' disposition can be influenced by their interactions in the context of the Khanya Maths and Science Club. The pragmatic paradigm is adopted, which considers how well the research tools work to provide answers to the research questions. This thus, provides an avenue for exploring how learners' disposition towards science is influenced and what factors influenced their shift in disposition through their participation in the club. A mixed-methods approach is employed when focusing on the affective domain sub-constructs of: enjoyment of science, interest in science and perception of science. These are sub-scales in the test of science related attitude (TOSRA) questionnaire which was adapted for use in measuring learners' attitude before and after 16 weeks of participating in the science club. The particular mixed-methods approach selected can be summarized as quan QUAL since the method is primarily qualitative, but sequential with the quantitative phase preceding the qualitative phase. The TOSRA questionnaire was used as the quantitative data collection instrument while semi-structured interviews and learners' journal entries were the qualitative data collection instruments. The results revealed significant shifts in learners' perception of, interest in science and enjoyment of science though interest in science and enjoyment of science shifted appreciably in a positive direction more than the perception of science. It was also found that learners' attitude towards science was influenced by; instructional characteristics, facilitators/environmental characteristics, learners making connection between science and everyday life and learners' perceived difficulty of science. These factors variably influenced their attitude towards science in the club, corroborating what had been found in similar studies. This study corroborates what the literature offers for achieving effective outcomes in Afterschool science enrichment programmes. It contributes to the growing body of literature on features for quality outcomes in Afterschool science enrichment programmes. This study also makes a theoretical contribution to science education research particularly with regard to how the emergence of a community of practice framework in the club activities provide useful information for planning club activities and the analysis of learners' evolving disposition towards science. Key words: Khanya Maths and Science Club, disposition, attitude, after-school enrichment programmes, constructivist-developmental approach, situated learning theory, community of practice, Test of Science Related Attitude (TOSRA).
Structural analysis of proteases from South African HIV-1 (subtype C) patients undergoing Lopinavir treatment, using comparative modeling, ligand-docking and molecular dynamics
(Rhodes University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, 2017) Sheik Amamuddy, Olivier; Lobb, Kevin; Bishop, Özlem Tastan
HIV is regarded as one of the most devastating infectious diseases of the last few decades, and has a high prevalence in South Africa, subtype C being the most common. Palliative measures used to fight HIV involve the use various types of inhibitors, including the use of HIV protease inhibitors. Representatives from this class of inhibitors are gradually losing their efficacy due to development of resistance mutations from HIV-1. In this study, compounds from the South African Natural Compound Database (SANCDB) were screened against HIV-1 protease models generated from protease protein sequences belonging to 11 South African HIV patients before and after treatment with Lopinavir. The effect of Lopinavir on the alteration of drug-binding affinity before and after treatment is investigated by molecular docking of the protease against other FDA-approved drugs and detection of mutation types using the HIVdb tool. A network representation of hydrogen bonding between docked ligands and their receptor proteases has been developed and a profiling method of visualizing receptor-ligand docking energies at the local level is presented. Four potential HIV-1 protease inhibitors were identified from the list of 599 natural compounds on the basis of receptor conformation and binding free energy. Ligand stabilities were monitored by 20ns molecular dynamics runs using the GROMACS software.