Masters Degrees (Psychology)
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Browsing Masters Degrees (Psychology) by Subject "Academic achievement -- South Africa"
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Item Open Access Moedertaalonderrig as moderator by die verband tussen intelligensiekwosiënt en akademiese prestasie(University of the Free State, 2003-11) Louwrens, Louise; Beukes, R. B. I.; Esterhuyse, K. G. FEnglish: The primary purpose of this research was to determine what role mother-tongue teaching plays in the relationship between intelligence and academic performance. At present, English enjoys both national and international status, and as a result of this, this language is sometimes the only language in which the majority of South Africans want their children educated. Parents believe that their children need to have a command of English in order to be able to cope with international demands that they may be faced with in the future and that skill in the English language will offer their children access to training, work opportunities and economic freedom. The teaching language in our schools is a matter of great concern as well as a source of conflict between different language groups. Internationally it is accepted that mother-tongue teaching is the most effective form of teaching. The Constitution also stipulates that every person is entitled to receive teaching in the language of his choice, where this is practicable. Researchers recommend that a learner should use his mother tongue as medium of education from the commencement of the school career and that this should continue for as long as it is practically possible. Mother-tongue teaching would then at least be present during the commencement phase of the school career. In the light of all of the above, the purpose of this study was to determine whether learners who are taught in their mother tongue perform better academically than those who receive teaching in their second language. Intelligence is a factor that could have an effect upon the latter. During this study the emphasis was therefore mainly placed on the relationship between academic performance and intelligence. Academic performance is usually expressed as a percentage and in the school it is expected that learners with a high intelligence also attain high achievements. Although there are several factors that play a role in academic performance, intellectual ability is the single most important contributing factor in academic performance. Language, however, plays an important role in the intellectual development of the child. The literature indicates a close relationship between language and thoughts. Language and intelligence are inter-dependent. A learner�s verbal ability is mainly developed by his verbal assimilation, because concepts are taught to the learner through his verbal comprehension. Therefore, the better his verbal comprehension, the better he will conceptualise and the better he will use his abilities. If a learner experiences language problems, this will have a direct influence on his abilities. With regard to this latter statement, the assumption can be made that if a learner experiences problems in the second language it will negatively influence his abilities and more specifically his academic performance. The research group for this study consisted of 138 Grade 2 learners (from schools in Bloemfontein). All of the Grade 2 learners from these two schools were involved, but for various reasons not everyone took part in the research project. The selection of the schools was done on the grounds of the teaching language used and the distribution of non-mother-tongue speakers in these schools. The intelligence of the learners was determined by means of the Group Test for seven to eight-year-olds. Their academic performance was determined by the latest results in Literacy and Numeracy and the average percentage of these two subjects was used as an indication of the average academic performance of the learners. The results indicated that mother-tongue teaching was certainly a moderator in the relationship between intelligence and academic performance of the Grade 2 learners in the study. The learners who received mother-tongue teaching tended to perform better academically than those who did not receive mother-tongue teaching. These results were confirmed by the literature and indicate that learners succeed up to 6% better when taught in their mother tongue. The results of the study show that parents should be careful if they wish to have their children taught in a second language in the commencement phase of education. Key words: Mother-tongue teaching, second language teaching, commencement phase of education, intelligence, academic performance.Item Open Access The role of environmental quality and time perspective on the academic performance of grade 12 learners(University of the Free State, 2007-08) Van der Linde, Gerhard Johan; Naudé, L.; Esterhuyse, K. G. F.English: The aim of this study was to determine to what extent time perspective and environmental quality can account for the variance in the academic performance of Grade 12 learners. This research was of non-experimental nature and a prospective design was used. The dependent variable was considered to be academic performance, while the independent variables were time perspective and environmental quality. Time perspective was defined as the multidimensional cognitive structure that influences the individual’s motives and personality and determines the way in which he or she views time, and was assessed by using the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). Five types of time perspectives were identified which were past negative, past positive, present hedonistic, present fatalistic and future time. Environmental quality was defined as the quality of the environment as determined by the subjective assessment regarding the degree to which it supports the individual’s psychosocial and physical needs. A total of 413 Grade 12 learners from four English medium-schools in the Mangaung area were involved in the study. It was found that time perspective together with environmental quality accounts for approximately 14% of the variance found in the academic performance of Grade 12 learners. Although statistically significant relationships were found between time perspective and academic performance these relationships were concluded to be of little practical importance.Item Open Access Die voorspelling van die akademiese prestasie van alternatiewelik toegelate studente(University of the Free State, 1999-11) Van der Westhuizen, Stephan; Huysamen, G. K.English: Several considerations in post-apartheid South Africa compel historically white universities in particular, to admit more black students. Because of inequalities in the education system, the majority of black students have not been given an equitable opportunity to prepare for university studies. As academic failure can lead to large-scale financial and personal losses, it is essential to maximise these students' chances for academic success. Universities try to achieve the latter objective by employing two strategies. Firstly, selection methods are used to admit only those educationally disadvantaged applicants with sufficient prospects for academic success. Secondly, bridging and support programmes are implemented in an attempt to eliminate the academic drawback of educationally disadvantaged students. In view of the above, the University of the Orange Free State (UOFS) has created alternative admission channels for educationally disadvantaged students. For example, in some cases students with matriculation exemption, but lacking the minimum prescribed matriculation performance, are admitted conditionally to the university on the basis of a psychometric evaluation and a counselling interview. In the current study these students were referred to as discretionarily admitted students. The support interventions for such discretionary admissions in their first year are less intensive than an extensive bridging programme. Doubt exists about the validity of traditional predictors (Le. matriculation performance and aptitude tests) for predicting academic performance of educationally disadvantaged students. Noncognitive predictors may be more valid in this regard. However, South African research on both the prediction of the academic performance of educationally disadvantaged students and the effectiveness of academic bridging and support programmes is limited. The research results that are available, produce contradictory findings. In the first place this dissertation dealt with the prediction of academic performance of discretionarily admitted students on the basis of their matriculation performance, scholastic aptitude, English reading understanding, personality traits, interests, faculty of registration, gender and age. Secondly, the effectiveness of the interventions to improve their academic performance was studied. The first research question was studied by combining all the predictors simultaneously in a standard multiple regression equation. Apart from the interest field of sociability, none of the predictors (that is, including the traditional predictors) correlated statistically significantly (at the 5% level) with the first-year performance of discretionary admissions. The value of the multiple correlation coefficient (R = 0.58) however did not deviate so much from the (simple) correlations found typically between the matriculation and university performance of educationally non-disadvantaged students. In spite of the shortcomings of this study, it would appear that the use of traditional predictors for selection decisions on discretionarily admitted students are under suspicion. The sociability score of these students apparently do have prediction value. The second research question was studied by comparing the university performance of discretionary admissions with the performance of a group of directly admitted black students as well as two other groups of alternatively admitted black students. This was done by means of co-variance analyses (on the basis of hierarchical multiple regression analyses) of academic performance in the first, second and third years of study in which matriculation performance was controlled as co-variant. In all three years of study, group membership explained significant amounts of the variance in university performance in addition to the variance already explained by matriculation performance. The results of this study therefore suggest that after differences in previous academic performance was taken into account statistically, the support interventions that discretionary admissions are subjected to might be effective, but not for all such students, particularly not in the second and third year