Effects of Mediated Learning Experience, Tutor Support and Peer Collaborative Learning on Academic Achievement and IntellectualFunctioning among College Students

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of mediated learning experience, tutor support and peer collaborative learning on academic achievement and intellectual functioning. The sample comprised 111 first year engineering students (males=38, females=73, age range =16-23), who were randomly assigned to three learning conditions (Mediation: n=45, Tutor: n=36 and Peer: n=30). Data on academic achievement were based on mid-year and end-year examination results, while intellectual functioning was measured by the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices and the Organiser. Paired t-tests and Analysis of Covariances (ANCOVAs) were conducted to compare pre- and post- test academic and intellectual scores and comparison between the groups. Following a five-week intervention period, significant improvements in academic and intellectual functioning were found within the Mediation Group. The findings revealed that intervention involving mediation processes was more effective not only in enhancing students’ intellectual functioning but also improving their academic achievements

The child support grant: the reported experiences of child support grant recipients

This study examined the reported experiences of the Child Support Grant recipients. The aim of this study was to find out how Child Social Grant recipients make sense of the Child Support Grant in their daily lives. How they make sense of their position in the society as recipients of the Child Support Grant. The factors that determine their participation and how they engaged when asked about the Child Support Grant. To understand how they make sense of receiving the grant compared to others and to compare the Child Support Grant recipients reported experiences with the stated aims of the Child Support Grant as stated in the policy documents. It came into view that Child Support Grant recipients according to their reported experience have or are currently facing tensions and paradoxes. As it was found that participants both believe themselves to be entitled to the Child Support Grant as such they are dependent on it. This entitlement and dependency is justified by the participants in that it gives them a sense of empowerment and independence for economic activity, hence their fears of losing the Child Support Grant. The Child Support Grant is considered very personal and participants agree that they need the security and stability that the grant offers to the them

The relative influence of rainfall, topographical position and distance from village on composition and structure of herbaceous vegetation in a communal rangeland of Bushbuckridge

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Environmental Science (Coursework and Research Report) to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017.Various studies have been conducted on the determinants of herbaceous vegetation composition and structure in savannas, but there is still no consensus on the extent of the role played by each. This is particularly so for disturbed savannas in communal rangelands. This study aimed to investigate the relative influence of rainfall, catenal position and distance from village on composition and structure of herbaceous vegetation in communal rangelands of Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. The study used pre-existing data collected in 2012 in 56 plots located across nine villages in three rainfall zones: Low (700 mm). In each zone, the communal rangelands of three villages were sampled in upslope and downslope positions and across three distance (disturbance) categories of, 0-599 m, 600-1799 m and >1800 m relative to nearest villages. The composition-related measures investigated were: absolute and relative abundance of species present, species richness, Simpson’s Diversity Index and relative abundance of perennial and annual grasses, as well as categories of forbs whilst the herbaceous structure measures used were distance in meters measured along transect line to perennial grass tuft and grass basal cover. Both individual and interactive effects of the rainfall zone, landscape position, and distance from village on herbaceous composition and structure were investigated using bivariate and multivariate statistics. Both grass species richness and Simpson’s Diversity Index were significantly higher in the high rainfall zone than in the low and medium rainfall zones. Perennial grasses in all rainfall zones heavily dominated the herbaceous layer, with the mean percentage perennial grass contribution being lowest in the high rainfall zone whilst the low rainfall zone had the highest. The percentage composition of annual grasses was highest in the medium rainfall zone and lowest in the low rainfall zone whilst it was intermediate in the high rainfall zone. The mean distance to perennial grass, which is an index of density of perennial grass tufts, was significantly higher in the high rainfall zone than in the low rainfall zones. The mean percentage grass basal cover was higher in low rainfall zone than in high rainfall zone. The mean species richness in the upslope and downslope catenal positions was not significantly different which was contrary to what was expected. Mean Simpson’s Diversity Index was higher on the downslope position than on the upslope catenal position. The relative abundance of perennial grasses between the upslope and downslope catenal position was not significantly different. The proportion of perennial grasses was more than that of annual grasses and other life forms sampled. Neither mean distance to perennial grass nor basal cover differed significantly between catenal positions. It was established in this study that closest plots to villages had 22% more species than the plots between medium and far plots from the villages. Near the villages (0-599 m), the species richness was found to be higher than in the medium (600-1799 m) and (>1800 m) distance categories. The mean Simpson‘s Diversity Index in all distance (disturbance) categories were found to be not significantly different. There was no significant difference in the percentage of perennial grass among the disturbance gradient categories. The perennial grasses were consistently dominant over the annual grasses along the disturbance gradients. The distance to perennial grass indicated no difference across all distance gradients. Percentage basal cover decreased with increasing distance from settlements. The composition and occurrence of grass species were associated with different environmental gradients studied. There was significant interactive effect due to a combination effect of rainfall, topographical gradients and distance gradient on the distance to perennial grass. However, the mean distance to perennial was lower at distance and rainfall combination, though was not significant. The interactive effect on basal cover due to a combination effect of rainfall, catenal position and distance gradient was found to be not significant. Overall, the herbaceous composition and structure was more strongly impacted by rainfall zone than by catenal position. The herbaceous composition and structure was affected by disturbance gradient specifically on species richness and grass basal cover only, while there was no effect on Simpson’s Diversity Index, perennial grass percentage, and distance to perennial grass as measured along transect line. It was also established that there was association of species with environmental gradients. It is recommended that in future a multi-year study on the same variables that have been studied here be undertaken in order to establish long-term trends on the effect of the gradients on herbaceous vegetation. It must be ensured also that there be representativity of disturbance gradients samples when designing sampling programme. It will also be beneficial to establish the density per village or stocking rates of different villages and the management aspects of the stock and how it is related to herbaceous composition and structure. Such studies will provide further knowledge on the extent of human induced disturbance like grazing in the communal rangelands given a set of environment gradients.LG201

Chronic aircraft noise exposure effects on children's learning and development

A PhD Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2014The effects of exposure to environmental noise on individuals’ functioning have been researched extensively in recent times. However, most of this research has focused on adults who, unlike children, have the cognitive capacity to anticipate and cope with noisy environments. This research was based largely on laboratory studies that lacked ecological validity thus avoiding the implications of long-term, real-life exposure to noise. The increasing exposure of people (currently over 80 million people) to unacceptable levels of aircraft noise worldwide gives rise to crucial questions such as the long-term effects of exposure to aircraft noise on children’s reading comprehension, health and annoyance reactions and how children cope with exposure to noise. The objectives of this epidemiological study were to investigate the effects of chronic exposure to aircraft noise on primary school children’s reading comprehension; to determine whether their learning was affected by noise; to uncover how these children coped with exposure to noise; to determine whether they were annoyed by exposure to noise; and to evaluate their subjective perceptions of whether exposure to noise impacted negatively on their health. The primary objective was to evaluate the children’s reactions to the above factors after the relocation of an international airport to another area in order to determine whether the cessation of exposure to noise resulted in improved performance and functioning. This thesis is based on the publication of four scholarly articles that deal with the need for empirical research in an emerging field as well as the need for public education and the advocacy of a worthwhile form of environmental health. Children living in the vicinity of an international airport (noisy group) and those living in quieter areas, who matched the noisy group in terms of socio-economic status and language spoken at home, were recruited for the research. This yielded a cohort of 732 children with a mean age of 11.1 who participated in baseline measurements in 2009 as well as cohorts of 649 (mean age = 12.3) and 174 (mean age = 13.1) children. These children were reassessed after the closure and relocation of the airport for two subsequent years. The findings revealed that, unlike their peers from quieter backgrounds, the children exposed to aircraft noise reported that the noise significantly interfered with their learning and social activities at school, and they continued to report more interference than their counterparts despite the relocation of the airport. These findings were validated by the results of the objective measurement of reading comprehension, which showed that these children performed poorly in comparison to their peers. The children exposed to aircraft noise also reported higher levels of annoyance in all the waves of the study (from 2009 to 2011), and they continued to use more coping strategies following the relocation of the airport than the children from quieter environments. However, the findings revealed no significant impact of the noise on the children’s health. Taken together, these findings suggest that chronic exposure to aircraft noise may have a significant and detrimental impact on children’s learning and level of annoyance but not on their subjective health ratings. This was one of the first longitudinal studies of this nature on the African continent. Keywords: Aircraft Noise; Reading Comprehension; Annoyance; Coping; Health

Effect of zinc oxide nanoridge height on solar cell performance

>Magister Scientiae - MScEnvironmentally friendly photovoltaic devices make use of solar radiation as the energy source to generate electricity. Organic solar cells (OSCs) have been making headway in the last decade due to their cost-effectiveness and potential application in flexible devices. One of the disadvantages of OSCs is the short lifetime of the charge carriers, where the various interfaces that are present in the material play a significant role. In the inverted organic solar cell (IOSC), electrons are injected into the transparent conducting oxide, whereby the electrode alignment is reversed compared to the conventional structure. Nanosized zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-films with nanoridges/ripples embedded on the surface of the thin-film can be used as an electron transport/hole-blocking layers in inverted organic solar cells to enhance light-capturing by the active layer of the solar cell

Marriage, cohabitation and domestic violence in Mpumalanga

Domestic violence is a pressing issue in South Africa and has been the subject of much debate, activism and academic research. It is commonly argued that violence between intimate partners remains largely hidden and that women in marital and cohabiting unions endure much physical, emotional and sexual abuse. This qualitative study focuses on the experiences of a small group of women living in KwaMhlanga, in Mpumalanga. Although the women had been fearful of reporting their abuse and had spent years suffering silently, all had finally displayed much urgency in reporting the actions of their abusers. In reflecting on their circumstances, the women refer to the primary factors influencing their partners to become abusers: unemployment, financial hardships and poverty, alcohol and drugs, and factors such as immature attitudes, cultural beliefs and jealousy. It is also argued that the institutions of ‘marriage’ and ‘cohabitation’, whilst similar, introduce slightly different constraints and expectations. Married women suffered more abuse and were controlled than their cohabitant counterparts. The study makes no policy recommendations but emphasises the importance of doing substantive work to probe women’s experiences of abuse in intimate unions in all parts of South Africa. CopyrightDissertation (MSocSci)--University of Pretoria, 2010.Sociologyunrestricte