scholarly journals Relationship between access to ICT and the use of electronic library resources by scholars and postgraduate students in a rural-based South African university

2021 ◽  
Vol 87 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alugumi Samuel Ndou
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Electronic Library ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Library Resources

Use of Library Resources and Services at Stanley College of Engineering and Technology for Women, Hyderabad: A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-53
Author(s):  
N. C. H. Varadaraju .
Keyword(s):  
Response Rate ◽  
Information Services ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
Engineering And Technology ◽  
Library Resources ◽  
College Of Engineering ◽  
College Library

Engineering college libraries play an important role in imparting quality education to the undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers of engineering. This study aimed at frequency of library usage, the extent of use of library resources and services by the students and faculty. The level of satisfaction against library resources and service, the problems faced while using the library resources and services. A questionnaire was randomly given to 100 students and faculty of the college. A total of 92 filled in questionnaires returned to researcher. i.e. the response rate is 92%. It is suggested that college library should take initiative to counter problems expressed by users to provide effective and efficient library and information services to the clientele and it would in turn help faculty, students.

scholarly journals Forging a research community of practice to find out how South African children make their world mathematical

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Henning
Keyword(s):  
Community Of Practice ◽  
South African ◽  
Story Line ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Local Schools ◽  
Mathematics Competence ◽  
Shared Goal ◽  
Competence Test ◽  
The University ◽  
Different Sources

In a search for ways to capture foundation phase children’s competence in mathematics, a small research team was put together at a South African university four years ago. At first, working only in a single school where the objective was to model 80 learners’ growth in competence over four years, the team transformed into a very different entity. This article narrates the founding and development of a community of research practice, which eventually included undergraduate- and postgraduate students, researchers from institutions in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa, teachers at local schools close to the university, and an educational research and survey company. Supported by funding from four different sources, the project is fairly close to reaching the goal of delivering a standardised mathematics competence test for 4-8 year-olds, which is a first of its kind for the country where educational measurement seems to be at a crossroads. In the story line of this community of practice, it is evident that progress can be assessed best by the learning that has been taking place in a community with a notable diversity of people and interests, but with the shared goal of investigating children’s mathematical behaviour on a measure that can be trusted.

scholarly journals A Systematic Review of Challenges in Research Supervision at South African Universities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
King Costa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
South African ◽  
National Development ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Research Supervision ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning

Postgraduate students in South Africa and other parts of the world, particularly in developing nations struggle to complete the research component of their studies. According to the National Development Plan ( 2013) it has become a requirement for South African institutions to play a pivotal role in knowledge production so as to transform South Africa from a resource-based economy towards a knowledge-based economy.  In pursuit of meeting this requirement and further to increase subsidy from the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), South African institutions of higher learning have been on the drive for recruiting postgraduate students en masse. One of the main problems facing South African institutions is that the number of students enrolled does not correspond to those who graduate at the end of the postgraduate programme study period.  This study is a systematic review of literature on challenges in postgraduate supervision and further proposes a possible solution.  Five South African institutions of higher learning’s postgraduate throughput data is carefully studied and substantiated by previous research on postgraduate supervision challenges on these particular institutions. Study findings present challenges related to research capacity development and burden of supervision at these institutions.  Collaborative methods of supervision such as the C.O.S.T.A model are hereby proposed as possible solutions to the current throughput problem in South Africa.

scholarly journals The decolonial turn: reference lists in PhD theses as markers of theoretical shift/stasis in media and journalism studies at selected South African universities

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zvenyika Eckson Mugari
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Reference Lists ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Student Protest ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Protest Movement ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
South African Universities ◽  
Western Theory ◽  
Phd Theses

The supervision and production of a PhD thesis often presents a potentially interesting tension between PhDs as conforming to disciplinary epistemologies and PhDs as breaking epistemological boundaries. No academic discipline has been left untouched by decolonial thinking in the South African university space since the eruption of radicalized student protest movements in 2015. The Rhodes Must Fall student protest movement, which quickly morphed into Fees Must Fall, precipitated a new urgency to decolonize the university curriculum in post-apartheid South Africa. A new interdisciplinary conversation in the humanities and social sciences began to emerge which challenged established orthodoxies in favour of de-Westernizing, decolonizing and re-mooring epistemological and pedagogic practices away from Eurocentrism. Whether and how that theoretical ferment filtered into postgraduate students’ theses, however, remains to be established. This article deploys a decolonial theoretical framework to explore the tension between epistemic conformity and boundary transgressing in journalism studies by analysing reference lists of PhD theses submitted at three South African Universities three years after the protest movement Rhodes Must Fall. With specific focus on media and journalism studies as a discipline, this article argues that the PhD process represents a site for potential epistemic disobedience and disciplinary border-jumping, and for challenging the canonical insularity of Western theory in journalism studies. The findings appear to disconfirm the thesis that decolonial rhetoric has had a material influence so far on the media studies curriculum, as reflected in reference lists of cited works in their dissertations.

Social Media-Enhanced Phones for Productive Learning of South African Postgraduate Students

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patient Rambe
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
South African ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Space Theory ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Third Space Theory ◽  
Informal Learning Environments ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Despite growing interest in knowledge sharing processes in informal spaces, there is a paucity of research on technology-mediated learning in these spaces. Yet the surge in student use of Social Media-enabled phones presents tremendous opportunities for augmenting learning in privileged, authoritative spaces. This study investigated the potential of Facebook-enabled mobiles to leverage learning in informal learning environments. Third Space Theory illuminated understanding of how students draw on potentially contradictory, multiple “funds of knowledge” in their meaning making and discourses. Twenty six students were interviewed to explore how they exchanged learning resources and collaborated on academic matters. Findings suggest that student appropriation of Facebook-enhanced phones enhances social learning, hones digital literacies, and affords the co-production of knowledge in learning communities. Paradoxically, these educational gains are undermined by the disruptive nature of Social Media and student ambivalence about the blurring of academic (professional) and social divides that creates complex, ‘collapsed contexts.’

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