An analysis of how visualisation capabilities in dynamic geometric software develop meaning-making of mathematical concepts in selected Grade 11 learners
- Authors: Mavani, Deepack Pravin
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa , Mathematics -- Computer programs , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies , Mathematics -- Study and teaching -- Activity programs , Educational technology , Visualization
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143213 , vital:38211
- Description: Visualisation plays a central role in developing mathematical ideas because it can be used to make these ideas explicit and visible, and thus has the potential to advance understanding. This study centred around the GeoGebra Literacy Initiative Project (GLIP), a teacher development initiative in Mthatha that aimed to grow and develop appropriate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills in teachers, to harness the teaching and learning potential of GeoGebra. GeoGebra is a dynamic geometric software package that is very interactive and makes use of powerful features to create images which can be moved around the computer screen for mathematical exploration. This research project was located within GLIP and analysed how GeoGebra applets develop conceptual and procedural understanding in selected Grade 11 learners. One aspect of GLIP was for teachers to use GeoGebra applets that they had developed themselves and implemented in their classrooms in pre-determined cycles that were aligned to the curriculum. My study specifically focused on how the selected learners made use of these applets and explored how learning had taken place in terms of developing mathematical meaning-making. This interpretive research study was designed as a case study. The case was a cohort of selected Grade 11 learners who had been taught by GLIP teachers, and my unit of analysis was the learners’ interaction with the applets. A screen capturing software package was used to capture learners’ interactions with the GeoGebra. My data consisted mainly of recorded observations and interviews. An analytical framework derived from the works of Kilpatrick, Swafford, and Findell (2001) and Carter et al. (2009) guided and informed the data analysis of the learners’ activities with the GeoGebra. The theoretical orientation of this study was constructivist learning. An in-depth analysis and detailed descriptions of the participants’ interactions enabled me to gain a comprehensive understanding of their meaning-making processes in a technological classroom context. An analysis across the participants identified distinguishable patterns or differences in the development of the learners’ mathematical proficiency and making sense of mathematical ideas. The research argued that technology enabled visualisation was a powerful tool to not only enrich mathematically activities, but to also enrich conceptual and procedural understanding. The findings recognised that exploration of, or manipulation on mathematical objects in GeoGebra was a key activity in the participants’ meaning-making process. It also enabled learners to offer self-proclaimed theories
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mavani, Deepack Pravin
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa , Mathematics -- Computer programs , Mathematics -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Case studies , Mathematics -- Study and teaching -- Activity programs , Educational technology , Visualization
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143213 , vital:38211
- Description: Visualisation plays a central role in developing mathematical ideas because it can be used to make these ideas explicit and visible, and thus has the potential to advance understanding. This study centred around the GeoGebra Literacy Initiative Project (GLIP), a teacher development initiative in Mthatha that aimed to grow and develop appropriate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills in teachers, to harness the teaching and learning potential of GeoGebra. GeoGebra is a dynamic geometric software package that is very interactive and makes use of powerful features to create images which can be moved around the computer screen for mathematical exploration. This research project was located within GLIP and analysed how GeoGebra applets develop conceptual and procedural understanding in selected Grade 11 learners. One aspect of GLIP was for teachers to use GeoGebra applets that they had developed themselves and implemented in their classrooms in pre-determined cycles that were aligned to the curriculum. My study specifically focused on how the selected learners made use of these applets and explored how learning had taken place in terms of developing mathematical meaning-making. This interpretive research study was designed as a case study. The case was a cohort of selected Grade 11 learners who had been taught by GLIP teachers, and my unit of analysis was the learners’ interaction with the applets. A screen capturing software package was used to capture learners’ interactions with the GeoGebra. My data consisted mainly of recorded observations and interviews. An analytical framework derived from the works of Kilpatrick, Swafford, and Findell (2001) and Carter et al. (2009) guided and informed the data analysis of the learners’ activities with the GeoGebra. The theoretical orientation of this study was constructivist learning. An in-depth analysis and detailed descriptions of the participants’ interactions enabled me to gain a comprehensive understanding of their meaning-making processes in a technological classroom context. An analysis across the participants identified distinguishable patterns or differences in the development of the learners’ mathematical proficiency and making sense of mathematical ideas. The research argued that technology enabled visualisation was a powerful tool to not only enrich mathematically activities, but to also enrich conceptual and procedural understanding. The findings recognised that exploration of, or manipulation on mathematical objects in GeoGebra was a key activity in the participants’ meaning-making process. It also enabled learners to offer self-proclaimed theories
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Exploring teaching and learning German as a foreign language at a South African institution of higher education: blended learning and collocations
- Authors: Ortner, Gwyndolen Jeanie
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: German language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , German language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa , German language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- English speakers -- South Africa , Rhodes University -- Students , Rhodes University. German Studies
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167295 , vital:41465
- Description: German Studies students at Rhodes University have normally never studied the German language before enrolling for the first-year course and face the challenge of a fairly rapid linguistic advancement, in a context with very limited exposure to the foreign language outside the classroom. Free writing is an area which students find particularly challenging as it requires students to syndissertatione grammatical and vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, South African students are often underprepared for the challenges they face at university regarding language, technology and finance, as they try to to assimilate to the academic environment and gain epistemological access to their various subjects, in this case, language acquisition and the attendant modules of translation, literature and cultural studies. The use of technology in teaching and learning, known as blended learning, is said to produce better results than face-to face teaching alone, through creating opportunities for more autonomous student learning. Scholars of instructed second-language acquisition also suggest using technology to improve language instruction. One particular area which is gaining ground is teaching students collocational structures through exploring large language corpora, to improve students’ language competencies such as writing fluency. However, both blended learning practices and corpus-based teaching practices suggested by scholars are often not reported on in a particular teaching and learning context, taking into account factors such as institutional infrastructure, student and staff backgrounds and preparedness, and larger socio-political factors. Thus, it remains unclear how these practices (blended learning and corpus-based teaching of collocations) may be integrated into standard urricula, particularly for languages other than English, which have been severely under-researched. The purpose of this research is to take a context-based approach to language teaching and thereby investigate current blended learning practices for German Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa and explore through an action research approach how to integrate collocational awareness into the curriculum, within the blended learning model. Insights from corpus linguistics guide an adaptation of teaching practice, helping students develop skills to aid with writing fluency, seeking to make the patterned nature of language salient to our students. This is undertaken in a scaffolded way, within the curriculum, making use firstly of the texts to which students are exposed in the textbook (comprehensible input) as a source of collocational examples, and following this by making use of reallife language data from an online German corpus, DWDS. Findings from the study reveal a number of best practices related to the use of blended learning and teaching collocations in context of the German foreign language curriculum at a South African institution of higher education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Ortner, Gwyndolen Jeanie
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: German language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , German language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Foreign speakers -- South Africa , German language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- English speakers -- South Africa , Rhodes University -- Students , Rhodes University. German Studies
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167295 , vital:41465
- Description: German Studies students at Rhodes University have normally never studied the German language before enrolling for the first-year course and face the challenge of a fairly rapid linguistic advancement, in a context with very limited exposure to the foreign language outside the classroom. Free writing is an area which students find particularly challenging as it requires students to syndissertatione grammatical and vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, South African students are often underprepared for the challenges they face at university regarding language, technology and finance, as they try to to assimilate to the academic environment and gain epistemological access to their various subjects, in this case, language acquisition and the attendant modules of translation, literature and cultural studies. The use of technology in teaching and learning, known as blended learning, is said to produce better results than face-to face teaching alone, through creating opportunities for more autonomous student learning. Scholars of instructed second-language acquisition also suggest using technology to improve language instruction. One particular area which is gaining ground is teaching students collocational structures through exploring large language corpora, to improve students’ language competencies such as writing fluency. However, both blended learning practices and corpus-based teaching practices suggested by scholars are often not reported on in a particular teaching and learning context, taking into account factors such as institutional infrastructure, student and staff backgrounds and preparedness, and larger socio-political factors. Thus, it remains unclear how these practices (blended learning and corpus-based teaching of collocations) may be integrated into standard urricula, particularly for languages other than English, which have been severely under-researched. The purpose of this research is to take a context-based approach to language teaching and thereby investigate current blended learning practices for German Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa and explore through an action research approach how to integrate collocational awareness into the curriculum, within the blended learning model. Insights from corpus linguistics guide an adaptation of teaching practice, helping students develop skills to aid with writing fluency, seeking to make the patterned nature of language salient to our students. This is undertaken in a scaffolded way, within the curriculum, making use firstly of the texts to which students are exposed in the textbook (comprehensible input) as a source of collocational examples, and following this by making use of reallife language data from an online German corpus, DWDS. Findings from the study reveal a number of best practices related to the use of blended learning and teaching collocations in context of the German foreign language curriculum at a South African institution of higher education.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
An investigation of learning and emerging knowledge in the Mpophomeni Sanitation Education Project, Howick, KwaZulu-Natal
- Authors: Boothway, Reinetta Louina
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Environmental education -- South Africa , Mpophomeni Sanitation Education Project (South Africa) , Water quality management -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , Knowledge and learning
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115377 , vital:34121
- Description: This study took place within the broader context of water resources management in South Africa. With the democratisation of water stewardship through an enabling international and South African water policy landscape, an opportunity opened up for citizens to participate in the effective management of their own water resources. In this context, a community-engaged citizen science project known as the Mpophomeni Sanitation Education Project emerged to demonstrate how a diverse range of knowledge agents can work and learn together to better manage their water resources and address problems of sewage pollution threatening their provincial water source. The following study aimed to shed light on the learning and emerging knowledge in the MSEP. The study was conducted in three phases. Wenger’s Communities of Practice (CoP) theory provided a lens to look at Phase One, which aimed to answer the following sub-question: Is the MSEP a CoP? Wenger’s CoP theory also assisted with the investigation during Phase Two, which looked at the following question: What is the nature of learning in the MSEP? Social realist theories of knowledge and education, and Tàbara and Chabay with their Ideal Type (IT) worldviews, provided suitable lenses for Phase Three’s investigation of the following question: What is the nature of emerging knowledge in the MSEP? The main finding for Phase One is that the MSEP does function as a CoP. With its strong focus on relationships, it’s clearly defined joint enterprise of solving the problem of sewage pollution, individual and joint commitment to engage with the problem and the sharing of a repertoire of tools, ideas and practices it is cultivating a culture conducive to purposeful learning. Regarding the exploration of the nature of learning in Phase Two, findings confirming the engagement of identity with learning and the importance of context for meaning-making emerged. Finally, study findings about the nature of knowledge in the MSEP found that the knowledge practices in the MSEP that are both social and epistemic in nature are produced by a diverse range of knowledge agents in an open knowledge space.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Boothway, Reinetta Louina
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Environmental education -- South Africa , Mpophomeni Sanitation Education Project (South Africa) , Water quality management -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , Knowledge and learning
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/115377 , vital:34121
- Description: This study took place within the broader context of water resources management in South Africa. With the democratisation of water stewardship through an enabling international and South African water policy landscape, an opportunity opened up for citizens to participate in the effective management of their own water resources. In this context, a community-engaged citizen science project known as the Mpophomeni Sanitation Education Project emerged to demonstrate how a diverse range of knowledge agents can work and learn together to better manage their water resources and address problems of sewage pollution threatening their provincial water source. The following study aimed to shed light on the learning and emerging knowledge in the MSEP. The study was conducted in three phases. Wenger’s Communities of Practice (CoP) theory provided a lens to look at Phase One, which aimed to answer the following sub-question: Is the MSEP a CoP? Wenger’s CoP theory also assisted with the investigation during Phase Two, which looked at the following question: What is the nature of learning in the MSEP? Social realist theories of knowledge and education, and Tàbara and Chabay with their Ideal Type (IT) worldviews, provided suitable lenses for Phase Three’s investigation of the following question: What is the nature of emerging knowledge in the MSEP? The main finding for Phase One is that the MSEP does function as a CoP. With its strong focus on relationships, it’s clearly defined joint enterprise of solving the problem of sewage pollution, individual and joint commitment to engage with the problem and the sharing of a repertoire of tools, ideas and practices it is cultivating a culture conducive to purposeful learning. Regarding the exploration of the nature of learning in Phase Two, findings confirming the engagement of identity with learning and the importance of context for meaning-making emerged. Finally, study findings about the nature of knowledge in the MSEP found that the knowledge practices in the MSEP that are both social and epistemic in nature are produced by a diverse range of knowledge agents in an open knowledge space.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Rehabilitation of grasslands after eradication of alien invasive trees
- Palmer, Anthony R, Gwate, Onalenna, Gushaa, Bukho, Gibson, Lesley A, Münch, Zahn, Mantel, Sukhmani K, Murata, Chenai, de Wet, Chris, Zondani, Thantaswa, Perry, Adam
- Authors: Palmer, Anthony R , Gwate, Onalenna , Gushaa, Bukho , Gibson, Lesley A , Münch, Zahn , Mantel, Sukhmani K , Murata, Chenai , de Wet, Chris , Zondani, Thantaswa , Perry, Adam
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438195 , vital:73442 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0098-9 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT 786_final web.pdf
- Description: Invasive alien plants (IAPs) remain a serious threat to the water supply and to stor-age reservoirs throughout South Africa. IAPs are known to use a large quantity of water through evapotranspiration, and the clearing and control of IAPs has been a major activity of the Working for Water (WfW) programme. Successful clearing of these often aggressive woody trees and shrubs requires careful regeneration of ef-fective indigenous vegetation cover after the physical clear-felling and removal of the IAPs. Application of effective post-clearing management regimes is required in order to improve the grass cover within catchments and this can ensure that there is controlled runoff and groundwater re-charge. South Africa's water catchment areas receive insufficient rainfall (Blignaut and De Wit 2004). In addition, limited options for the construction of new reservoirs and water schemes has stimulated the need to explore other options for increasing and conserving water supplies (Ashton and Seetal 2002) and improved demand management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Palmer, Anthony R , Gwate, Onalenna , Gushaa, Bukho , Gibson, Lesley A , Münch, Zahn , Mantel, Sukhmani K , Murata, Chenai , de Wet, Chris , Zondani, Thantaswa , Perry, Adam
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , report
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/438195 , vital:73442 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0098-9 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/TT 786_final web.pdf
- Description: Invasive alien plants (IAPs) remain a serious threat to the water supply and to stor-age reservoirs throughout South Africa. IAPs are known to use a large quantity of water through evapotranspiration, and the clearing and control of IAPs has been a major activity of the Working for Water (WfW) programme. Successful clearing of these often aggressive woody trees and shrubs requires careful regeneration of ef-fective indigenous vegetation cover after the physical clear-felling and removal of the IAPs. Application of effective post-clearing management regimes is required in order to improve the grass cover within catchments and this can ensure that there is controlled runoff and groundwater re-charge. South Africa's water catchment areas receive insufficient rainfall (Blignaut and De Wit 2004). In addition, limited options for the construction of new reservoirs and water schemes has stimulated the need to explore other options for increasing and conserving water supplies (Ashton and Seetal 2002) and improved demand management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Some aspects of John Clare's pastoral vision as reflected in the The Shepherd's Calendar, sonnets and other selected poems
- Authors: Pyott, Maureen
- Date: 1974
- Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Clare, John, 1793-1864 -- Criticism and interpretation , Pastoral poetry, English , Country life -- England -- Poetry , Nature -- Poetry
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2281 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007580 , Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Clare, John, 1793-1864 -- Criticism and interpretation , Pastoral poetry, English , Country life -- England -- Poetry , Nature -- Poetry
- Description: From Preface: In this thesis it is proposed to examine the pastoral vision, symbolized by Eden, which permeates Clare's poetry, as it is reflected in The Shepherd's Calendar, the sonnets (certain of which will be analysed in detail) and a group of lyrics. This pastoral vision, while including time and space, transcends them in such a way that Eternity becomes an important concept in Clare's pastoral poems. The final chapter of this thesis will, therefore, concentrate on this aspect of Clare's pastoral vision, not by attempting to define Clare's understanding of Eternity, but by illustrating it in four of his lyrics. Because of the lack of a full and reliable text of the complete works of John Clare and the inability of the present writer to establish for certain the chronological order of his poems, there will be no attempt in this thesis to show a development in Clare's poetry. Nor will there be an attempt to evaluate in the light of Clare's "madness" those poems known to have been written while he was in a mental asylum - a non-literary study requiring knowledge associated with the discipline of psychology; and the present writer concurs in the opinion that "it is the continuity of Clare's life and ways of thought and feeling which claims one's attention, rather than the disruptions of insanity".
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1974
- Authors: Pyott, Maureen
- Date: 1974
- Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Clare, John, 1793-1864 -- Criticism and interpretation , Pastoral poetry, English , Country life -- England -- Poetry , Nature -- Poetry
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2281 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007580 , Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Clare, John, 1793-1864 -- Criticism and interpretation , Pastoral poetry, English , Country life -- England -- Poetry , Nature -- Poetry
- Description: From Preface: In this thesis it is proposed to examine the pastoral vision, symbolized by Eden, which permeates Clare's poetry, as it is reflected in The Shepherd's Calendar, the sonnets (certain of which will be analysed in detail) and a group of lyrics. This pastoral vision, while including time and space, transcends them in such a way that Eternity becomes an important concept in Clare's pastoral poems. The final chapter of this thesis will, therefore, concentrate on this aspect of Clare's pastoral vision, not by attempting to define Clare's understanding of Eternity, but by illustrating it in four of his lyrics. Because of the lack of a full and reliable text of the complete works of John Clare and the inability of the present writer to establish for certain the chronological order of his poems, there will be no attempt in this thesis to show a development in Clare's poetry. Nor will there be an attempt to evaluate in the light of Clare's "madness" those poems known to have been written while he was in a mental asylum - a non-literary study requiring knowledge associated with the discipline of psychology; and the present writer concurs in the opinion that "it is the continuity of Clare's life and ways of thought and feeling which claims one's attention, rather than the disruptions of insanity".
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1974
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