Browsing by Author "James, Angela."

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Exploring Mauritian upper secondary students’ conceptions of and approaches to learning biology.
(2023) Patpur, Deenesh.; Chirikure, Tamirirofa.; James, Angela.; Ramjaun, Anwar Bhai.
The low enrolment in science subjects, particularly biology, beyond the compulsory level (Grade 9) is a matter of concern to the Mauritian education authorities, teachers and other stakeholders, as it is a prerequisite to a wide range of university degrees and professional careers. Many studies have tried to explain the low enrolment in biology at secondary and tertiary levels, however, little is known about how conceptions of learning (COL) and approaches to learning (AL) respond to the issue. Conceptions of learning refer to students' or learners' views on their educational experiences and preferred methods of carrying out the learning process. Approaches to learning are the ways that students or learners learn or accomplish their academic assignments. Arguably, the existence of positive COL and AL in learning biology increases learners’ chances of achieving the intended learning outcomes and improved student performances. This invariably creates positive perceptions of the subject and possibly helps to attract more students to study biology at School Certificate level and consequently at Higher School Certificate level. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore Mauritian upper secondary school students’ COL and AL. The approaches to learning and conceptions of learning theoretical perspectives informed this study. This study adopted a pragmatic approach with the assumption that using a variety of research methods would result in an informed grasp of the problem. An explanatory mixed methods sequential research design was used to first collect quantitative data, and then gather qualitative data to explain the quantitative results. Convenience sampling was employed with respect to the schools where the participants were drawn from. Quantitative data were collected from 497 Grade 11 biology students through survey questionnaires before purposely selecting 16 of them to participate in the face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data, whereas coding, categorisation, pattern recognition, and inference were used to analyse the qualitative data. Analysis of the quantitative and the qualitative data identified COL and AL, much of which resonate with the theoretical framework that guided this study. The study revealed that Mauritian students had mixed conceptions and thus, adopted mixed or hybrid approaches to learning biology. The study also revealed that the students’ COL influenced their AL. The findings of this study have significance for curriculum designers, resource people, and secondary school educators who want to improve biology instruction.
Investigating the effectiveness of academic boards in academic governance: a case study of TVET Colleges in Mpumalanga.
(2017) Siboza, Faniekie Henry Judas.; James, Angela.
ABSTRACT The Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) colleges are public institutions that abide by the policies of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The DHET legislation requires that the colleges should establish the Academic Boards. Their responsibility is to plan and manage the academic activities in the colleges and ultimately meeting its targets for students’ academic performance and, the production of skilled graduates who could participate in the labour market. The poor academic performance of students in the college signals that amongst others, the Academic Boards as the driving force behind academic performance in Mpumalanga have not met their targets and therefore, are not delivering on their mandate, in terms of the certification rates in the National Certificate (Vocational) and the Report 191 learning programmes, hence the investigation into the effectiveness of the Academic Boards in the academic governance of the colleges as the main aim of the research study. The conceptual framework that informed this research is on academic governance, focusing on leadership, policies and implementation, college industry partnerships and collaborations with other stakeholders. The population from which the respondents were drawn is 18 and 26 members from the two colleges respectively. A sample of 10 respondents, 5 from each college was selected using purposive sampling. They were investigated to ascertain how effective they were in their role as board members. A pragmatic paradigm, a mixed method approach and a case study was used as it could give in-depth understanding of the effectiveness of the board members in their roles. Data from the respondents was collected using the questionnaire, interviews and documents analysis. The thematic approach was used to analyse data. The findings indicate that amongst others, the management role of the Academic Boards is not clear to some members, policies are not abided by, and the boards do not approach matters of concerns as a collective, only senior management serving on the boards that engage stakeholders to form partnerships, not the entire boards. The conclusions made are that the Academic Boards are not effective in their functions. Recommendations based on the research findings, aiming at improving the academic performance of the college, have been made. Page | vi Keywords: Academic Boards, academic performance, colleges, academic governance, partnerships.
OBE in action.
(2000) James, Angela.; Vithal, Renuka.
Abstract not available.
The relationship between novice physical sciences teachers’ beliefs and goals to inquiry-based instruction.
(2022) Ngema, Sebenzile Helga.; James, Angela.; Sibanda, Doras.
Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) has been positively associated with quality science education for the past 50 years. Research studies in science education cite beliefs and goals as the main reasons for the lack of IBI in science classrooms. Nevertheless, previous attempts to understand the reasons for this lack of IBI revealed a mismatch between science teachers’ beliefs to classroom practices. The research gap on improving physical sciences teachers’ IBI practices persists despite studies on teachers’ beliefs to classroom practices. This gap in the literature and continued use of traditional instruction have motivated this study to ascertain the impact of beliefs and goals in classroom practices. Framed by the constructivist learning theory and goal-driven teacher cognition model, this study explored the relationship between novice physical sciences teachers’ beliefs and goals to IBI practices. From a goal-driven theory of cognition perspective, teachers’ actions are an attempt to satisfy one or more of the goals they hold. This multiple qualitative case study was couched within the constructivist research paradigm. Four novice physical sciences teachers were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data were collected through multiple sources, including three open-ended questionnaires (TBI, POSTT, TGI), classroom observations, stimulated-recall interviews, collected artefacts, and field notes. The findings of this study revealed that despite the curriculum advocating IBI, novice physical sciences teachers’ enactment is at a low level, teacher-centred in their classrooms. Findings suggest that IBI practice is facilitated by mediating teaching and learning beliefs with environmental factors for goal adoption. They further provide evidence suggesting that the goals teachers pursue are influenced by their teaching and learning beliefs and their schools’ environmental factors. Among the key lessons from this study is that it is essential to help physical sciences teachers develop and pursue beliefs and goals that characterise IBI practices that have the potential to improve science education. This study provides several implications for teacher education and research.