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Now showing 1 - 5 of 19

Recent Submissions

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An unmet need Pancreatic beta cell replacement
Constance Adams; Brett Mansfield; Farzahna Mohamed
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The Development and Validation of a Theoretical Construct Describing Content Knowledge for Teaching Science: A Case Study with Organic Chemistry
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Ndlovu, Bongani Prince; Mavhunga, Elizabeth
The distinction between academic disciplines and school subjects has not found enough attention in teacher education research. Thus, a question about the nature of content knowledge suitable for pre-service teacher education and as a base for PCK development in science was raised. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize and validate a theoretical construct that describes a version of content knowledge appropriate for training secondary school science teachers. This construct was termed Teacher-related Science Content Knowledge (TerSCK). The study followed the traditional two-step process of developing a theoretical construct. The first phase entailed the conceptualization of the envisaged theoretical construct through a systematic literature review. This was followed by the second phase which empirically proved the validity of the conceptualization as a theoretical construct TerSCK. The validation of the conceptualization was located in the methodology class of the 3rd year pre-service science teachers (PSTs), who majored in physical sciences. As such, the study employed a mixed-method research design with a whole class sample of 35 PSTs. The PSTs were exposed to a TerSCK-based intervention to explore various shifts in the quality of their content knowledge for teaching Organic Chemistry. The findings from the systematic review presented TerSCK as a unique construct located between the academic discipline content and the school science content knowledge. The construct is described through three dimensions that describe the relationship between academic discipline and school subjects. These relational dimensions are the “logical, epistemological and social dimensions”. Translating the relational dimensions into the curriculum through Schwab’s three faces yielded five curriculum elements of TerSCK. These are (i) Fundamentals of the discipline on the topic, (ii) Interconnections between the concepts that make up the fundamental concepts, (iii) Tensions emerging from the process of filtering the discipline fundamentals into the school curriculum scope, (iv) Scientific and other modes of inquiry from other disciplines, and (v) Cultivating social agency. Findings emerging from the empirical study presented the TerSCK construct as valid based on the acceptable calculated fit statistics values at 0.5 to 1.5 and -2.0 to +2.0 for MNSQ and ZSTD, respectively. The empirical findings further indicated that participant PSTs experienced a significant improvement in the quality of TerSCK after the intervention. Implications for initial teacher education have been drawn and the recommendations include large-scale research on the nature of TerSCK in organic chemistry and other chemistry curriculum topics.
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Towards a Decolonized and Africanized School History Curriculum in post apartheid South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-10) Maluleka, Paul; Ramoupi, Neo Lekgotla; Mathebula, Thokozani
This study explores and discusses ways in which the School History Curriculum (SHC) in South Africa was designed by colonialists to depict their history favourably and how this continues to be the case after independence. The study also investigates ways in which the SHC could be decolonized and Africanized, especially where knowledge building is a concern. This is done both conceptually and empirically. Conceptually, a critical decolonial conceptual framework strengthened with Bernstein’s Code Theory and Pedagogic Device, Maton’s Epistemic-Pedagogic Device, and Legitimation Code Theory’s Autonomy dimension were employed. Firstly, to highlight how the legacy of colonialism, apartheid, coloniality, and their monolithic epistemic nature, and to some extent, their alienating pedagogic and assessment practices, continue to underpin the SHC in post-apartheid South Africa. Secondly, to explore conceptual ways in which decoloniality could be applied in curriculum knowledge building and its structures in cumulative and principled ways. This was done to counter much of the knowledge blindness that characterize sociology of education including many of the calls for decolonization and Africanization. In turn, this was meant to reposition scholarship on decolonization and Africanization to also be vested in a sociological approach to knowledge and curriculum that is vested in investigating the relations within knowledge and curriculum and their intrinsic structures. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were used as methods of generating empirical data, with descriptive and interpretive elements of data analysis used to engage the data. Empirically, four in-service history educators from Gauteng and Limpopo Provinces were purposefully and conveniently selected. The purpose of interviewing in-service history educators was to gain insights into how they thought of the current SHC. Whether, according to them, calls to decolonize and Africanize the SHC were imperative and justified, and how they could be carried out. Both the conceptual and empirical findings reveal that there is a need to decolonize and Africanize SHC in post-apartheid South Africa given that its knowledge base is still characterized by the legacy of colonialism, apartheid, and coloniality. To achieve this, both the conceptual and empirical findings pointed out the need to reimagine and construct epistemologies, ontologies and methodologies that not only move beyond universal explanations of the world; but embrace trans-modernist and pluriversal explanations of the world. These are informed and shaped by time and the place, perspective, orientation, and situatedness of their authors. Secondly, the findings of the study revealed how historical knowledge is both dialectically and intersectionally produced, recontextualized and reproduced in the three fields of practice. Interrogating critically who are the knowers that are legitimated and de-legitimated in all these processes, can enable us to better understand the colonizing gaze that continues to characterize the SHC. It can also allow us to better understand how these fields of practice can also be seen as spaces where de-legitimated knowledge and knowers are recentred and where decolonization and Africanization can happen. This would see the continued marginalization of indigenous knowledge systems, traditions, and cultural practices in the SHC at the altar of Eurocentric methods being disrupted. Thirdly, the findings also pointed out that presently CAPS SHC does not have a settled African philosophy (of education): it is torn between two worlds, i.e., the universal and the particular. In a strict education for Africanization sense, the SHC in post-apartheid South African schools should be perceived first and foremost as a professional philosophical project that African philosophers in higher education devote their time and energy to. Second, a sage project that oMakhulu’s as part of the broader school communities help in-service history educators and their learners through oral history and research projects to address problems and deal with issues facing locals. Last, but not least, it should be perceived as a hermeneutic project that brings philosophy down from the sky, i.e., helps both in-service educators and their learners to make practical sense of deep philosophical issues in post-apartheid South African schools.
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Evaluating the marketing effect that COVID-19 has on broker channels in the South African insurance industry
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Nookiah, Preeantha; Wotela, Kambidima
The World Health Organization announced COVID-19 (Coronavirus) as a pandemic early 2020 and this had an impact on people around the world. Governments closed their borders with strict regulations around movements to work, school, travel, and even gyms or any extracurricular activities. Economies around the world struggled with many people losing their jobs. Companies have struggled to move to a digital environment to keep business going. Customers were forced to start purchasing online because of the movement restriction. The way people contacted family and friends were by calling, messaging or on social media platforms. In the South African insurance sector, COVID-19 has also affected the brokers community, due to restrictions brokers could not meet with their clients, other methods had to be used to contact and sign-up clients. Brokers have always played a vital role in the insurance industry in South Africa. The aim of this study was to give an understanding of the marketing effects of COVID- 19 on the broker channels in the insurance industry in South Africa, and to gain insights on a way forward for brokers on marketing and to provide trends or hints of what customers want post COVID-19. An online questionnaire was sent to participants in Johannesburg, South Africa. The data was cleaned, coded, and analysed using Pearson correlation, multiple regression, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Cronbach alpha for a reliability test on SPSS. The main findings identified were that customers who watch videos on insurance companies on social media were more inclined to read more about that company and would leave their details to be contacted. Customers also are chatting on telephone, email or on digital platforms during COVID-19 and want to continue with these communication methods after COVID-19. There is a strong positive relationship with customers feeling comfortable on online platform and there is a sense of comfort using digital platforms provided they are on a secured part of a company’s website. The limitation was the access to people during this period, consideration had to be given if people were not feeling well, as it was during the second wave of COVID-19. The study guided current behaviour at the time, but it was recommended that future studies provide insights and guide trends on future customer behaviour by increasing the sample size and investigate having a wider audience within South Africa