ETD Collection

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Motivation in education--South Africa

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Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Academic motivation, psychological distress and student adjustment in black female first year university students living on campus
    (2017) Rasoaisi, Lerato
    This study was aimed at investigating the relationship between academic motivation, psychological distress, and various aspects of adjustment. The specific aim of this research was to explore the unique contributions of each of the seven types of academic motivation, depression, anxiety and stress in predicting each of four types of student adjustment in the first year of university education. Quantitative data collection methods were used to collect data from a sample of predominantly Black, first-year female students residing within the Wits University campus. The collected data were analysed utilising Pearson’s product moment correlations and step-wise multiple regression analyses. Results suggested that psychological distress, particularly depression was a critical factor in academic, personal emotional and attachment adjustment, whereas anxiety and stress were mostly strongly related to social adjustment. A motivation and the lack of certain types of intrinsic motivation were also found to be risk factors for poorer adjustment. Implications of this research as well as limitations and directions for future research are discussed
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    The role of family dynamics in schooling and academic success: the stories of black postgraduate women
    (2016) Otukile, Agisanyang
    This study explored the stories of South African black female postgraduates, in particular, focusing on family dynamics in their childhoods and the role these relationships played in their academic development. South African higher education is a site of contestations as access opens up for students previously excluded from universities. However access and success continue to be racialized and gendered hence black women are unevenly represented in higher education particularly at postgraduate level. This study brings forth stories of women who have succeeded in this context, exploring questions of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 1994).Thematic analysis highlights predominant themes across the narratives of these women. There is a very strong thread across the narratives that these women feel that their academic achievement is primarily due to hard work and a ‘natural’ or intrinsic intellectual talent that was recognised by their families and teachers from a young age. Despite the emphasis on individual aptitude, the findings also highlight participants’ recognition of the value of support from family in their schooling and even continuing into their lives as young adult postgraduate students. The nature of family dynamics in these women’s childhood and adult lives was revealed, including, the friendship that characterises daughter-mother relationships, the absence of fathers, and the role of grandmothers and other members of the extended family and community networks . It is worth noting that all participants talk of the sudden movement from public township schools to private or Model C schools that disrupts their narratives of schooling. The lack of reading in the childhood homes of some of these women contradicts the common assumption that a reading home environment is vital for the development of the appropriate cultural capital necessary for academic success. Instead, it is evident that these multigenerational families provide a range of support that allows learning to take place, including emotional and financial support, providing critical social capital.
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    Investigating the relationship between attitudes towards tablet usage, access, learning styles, motivation and learner achievement in a blended learning environment
    (2016) Hart, Samantha
    The use of various information technologies in education is becoming more prevalent due to the fact that they are thought to have several advantages over traditional pen and paper as well as the fact that they are seen as a means to decrease the digital divide and ensure equal access to educational resources. In South Africa, initiatives such as the Smart Schools program aim to make schools paperless in the near future through the use of smartboards and tablets. With such emphasis on the success of the integration of educational technology it is imperative that we understand the factors which influence this process. Current research points to the idea that the mere provision of educational technology is not sufficient to garner success and that there are also intrinsic factors which need to be considered when integrating educational technology. This study follows on from this premise of intrinsic factors in that it investigates learner attitudes towards tablet usage in a blended learning environment. An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model which posits that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyability are the factors which need to be taken into account when exploring learner attitudes is used as the theoretical basis for this study. Other factors which are thought to influence attitudes as well as the success of tablet integration (as measured by learner achievement) are learning style preferences, motivation as well as access to various form of technology and thus familiarity with such technology. These factors were also explored through this research. Access to technology, learning style preference and motivation as predictors of overall attitudes and the three components of attitudes were thus explored. This study further investigated whether attitudes (and the three components of attitudes), learning style preferences or learner motivation best predicted academic achievement. The sample consisted of 276 learners from one independent and one public school in Johannesburg where tablets had already been introduced into the learning environment. A questionnaire consisting of an Attitudes Towards Tablet Usage Scale, a Learning Styles Scale, a Motivation Scale and an Access Scale was used. The results of this study indicated that overall attitudes towards tablet usage were relatively positive. The most positive component was perceived ease of use followed by perceived usefulness and then perceived enjoyability. Attitudes towards ECT (and the three components) were influenced by learning style preferences, motivation and access to technology while learner achievement was influenced by learner attitudes as well as learning style preferences. This provides valuable insights into the tablet integration process in that we conclude that tablet provision, while necessary, is not sufficient for the successful integration of tablets and subsequent reduction in the digital divide.