Andile Mji

Cape Peninsula University of Technology | CPUT

Lead (Pb) exposure has been a serious environmental and public health problem throughout the world over the years. The major sources of lead in the past were paint and gasoline before they were phased out due to its toxicity. Meanwhile, people continue to be exposed to lead from time to time through many other sources such as water, food, soil and...

Globally, mining and combustion of fossil fuels, especially coal, have resulted in various environmental problems. The adverse effects of these industries on human health, agriculture and the general ecosystem, and how they could result in conflict, have been widely reported. Firstly, this study examines the current state of environmental pollution...

This chapter reports on the strategy as plan using ICT policy that could impact on repositioning the lecturers for the integration of technology for the new normal in education. Global, the COVID-19 pandemic distinctly exposed the unpreparedness of lecturers to integrate technology in teaching and learning when the shutdown of the higher institutio...

Globally, academics have reconnoitered the various benefits of virtual reality (VR) in education. This study explored the lecturers’ experiences with VR resources in teaching and learning environments with pre-service teachers at one of the selected universities in South Africa. The study engaged a qualitative method, comprising of semi-structured...

The poor learners’ understanding of specific topic ‘Market Dynamics’ (MD) is a concern in South Africa secondary schools and so it is globally. Many researchers and education stakeholders in South Africa point to the need to use TS-PCK to improve learners’ understanding of MD. This research aimed to examine economics teachers’ teaching of Market Dy...

In recent times, a high rate of industrialisation, population, urbanisation and civilisation has resulted in increased and indiscriminate generation of waste, which has a negative impact on the natural environment. Studies have revealed that waste contributes to about five percent of global greenhouse gas emission leading to climate change which ha...

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether the effectiveness of the Technology-engagement Teaching Strategy using personal response systems with student’s approaches to learning will increase the pass rate in the Mathematics course Background: The challenge in this study was to develop the learning activities that acco...

Instructional practice plays a significant role in understanding teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The aim of the study reported on was to compare mathematics and technology pre-service teachers’ knowledge of PCK. The study used a case study approach of five mathematics and five technology pre-service teachers with a total of ten. Data...

Globally, water pollution is a critical problem which is inflicting serious damage on human health and the natural environment. In South Africa, many cases of water pollution have been reported. This paper assesed the physical, chemical and microbial properties of water from three locations in a coal mining region of South Africa. A mixed-methods a...

Air pollution poses a serious threat to human health and the general ecosystem both in South Africa and globally. This is mostly caused by the mining and combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal. There are some known pollutants associated with coal mining and combustion that are emitted into the air, resulting in various health implications that af...

Introducción. Para comprender mejor los enfoques de aprendizaje de los estudiantes en las clases de matemáticas, se utilizó el Inventario de Aproximaciones y Estudios de Habilidades para Estudiantes (ASSIST Short Version)Método. Los participantes fueron 345 estudiantes de matemáticas de primer y segundo año de una universidad en la provincia de Gau...

This study reports on a programme encapsulating the ideals of positive youth development. Here, a specific narrative of an observed problem, how youths were encouraged to participate in activities and the resultant effect of interactions, is described. Participants were 118 learners, 67 (56.8%) of whom were females. The learners were in Grades 10,...

Introduction. The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST Short Version) was used to better understand the students' approaches to learning in a mathematics classes. Method. Quantitave method was used in this study. Participants were 345 first and second year mathematics students from a university in the Gauteng province of South...

This paper reports on the reliability and validity of the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) 3.1 from a South African perspective. Reliability and internal validity of KLSI 3.1 have been explored in different countries, however not from a South African perspective yet. The inventory was administered to (n=345) mathematics students at a university...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the university curriculum in preparing pre-service technology teachers. The study examines the course guide of the technology education course at one of the universities of technology in South Africa in relation to grades 7-9 (senior phase) of the technology policy document. The study...

The purpose of this research study was to explore the views of rural mathematics and science schools’ educators about the impact of poor infrastructure in their work environment. Participants were seven educators whose ages ranged between 25 years and 50 years (M = 35.0 years, SD = 9.4). Data were collected through one-on-one interviews. The result...

The challenges in this study were the lack of student participation and interaction, lack of understanding student learning styles’ lack of immediate feedback on student learning throughout the lesson, insufficient time for regular formative assessment and low pass rate. The purpose of the study was to develop and integrate a technology-engagement...

The study reports the development of an instrument on the views about Mathematics Teachers’ effectiveness. Following recommendations from literature on developing instruments, 186 items were initially compiled. This was eventually reduced to a 30-item instrument. The internal consistency of scores from the accepted instrument yielded an alpha value...

In this paper, we compared the levels of awareness, knowledge and attitudes (AKA) about environmental pollution of secondary school students from two South African provinces. The purpose was to determine the levels of AKA between students living under different environmental conditions. These two groups were students from a coal-mining province (Mp...

The purpose was to explore who really was in charge of managing school projects in the South African context. Participants were 65 in all comprising 13 principals, 13 teachers and 39 parents who were school governing body members. There were 31 women and 34 men whose ages ranged between 21 years and 55 years (M = 35.4; SD = 9.6). Participants indic...

The purpose was through a multivariate analysis, to examine students’ and teachers’ environmental Awareness and Attitude in relation to selected biographical data. Participants were Grade 8 to Grade 12 students with ages ranging between 13 years and 23 years (M = 16.5 years, SD = 1.8) as well as their teachers with ages ranging between 23 and 57 (M...

The athlete-coach relationship is a vertical dyadic relationship in which the coach plays a critical leadership role. The direct influence of coaches on their athletes has been widely reported in many studies from various perspectives. These perspectives include sport involvement, enjoyment, and withdrawal, athlete satisfaction; athletes' physical...

South Africa's performance in international benchmark tests is a major cause for concern amongst educators and policymakers, raising questions about the effectiveness of the curriculum reform efforts of the democratic era. The purpose of the study reported in this article was to investigate the degree of alignment between the TIMSS 2003 Grade 8 Mat...

Pedagogical implications of students' misconceptions about deductive geometric proof First submission: 12 July 2011 Acceptance: 23 March 2012 The role of proof in school geometry has been a subject of intense debate throughout the twentieth century and that debate persists even today. This study aims to identify and analyse deductive geometric proo...

The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationships between and among the conceptions of mathematics, mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs and mathematics anxiety of pre-service students with mathematics as their major subject (mathematics majors). Participants were 130 mathematics majors enrolled in a college of education in South...

South Africa's poor performance in international benchmark tests in the recent past has been a cause for deep concern among South Africa (SA)'s scholars, educators, policymakers and researchers alike. The purpose of the study reported in this poster was to investigate the degree of alignment between SA's grade 8 mathematics curriculum and the Trend...

The aim of this paper is to assess and report the numeracy levels of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in three South African chrome mines in order to inform adult education practitioners of the need for greater efforts to educate mine workers. The target population consisted of 1,053 workers; the final sample was 873 participants who voluntarily...

Pedagogical implications of students' misconceptions about deductive geometric proof First submission: 12 July 2011 Acceptance: 23 March 2012 The role of proof in school geometry has been a subject of intense debate throughout the twentieth century and that debate persists even today. This study aims to identify and analyse deductive geometric proo...

The purpose was to explore teachers’ readiness to integrate computers in teaching mathematics and science in their classrooms. Participants were 58 teachers, 37 (63.8%) females and 21 males (36.2%) from 35 schools in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Data were collected through a questionnaire that required teachers to indicate whether they uti...

Language and education are interrelated because all teaching is given through the medium of language. Language is considered to be both a precondition for thought and a bearer of thought and therefore influences the extent to which a child's intelligence is actualised. In the South African context linguistic diversity is a complex issue. It has inc...

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The goal of this 3-yr. study was to explore the learning styles and approaches to learning mathematics of elementary education majors. Two questionnaires, the Learning Style Inventory and the Approaches to Learning Mathematics Questionnaire, were administered to 149 women and 32 men (M = 20.1 yr., SD. = 2.1; range = 18-31). All were in their first...

The Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale and the Attitudes Toward Statistics questionnaire were administered to 226 university of technology students. The former scale measures anxiety about learning statistics in terms of Worth of Statistics, Interpretation Anxiety, Test and Class Anxiety, Computational Self-concept, Fear of Asking for Help, and Fear o...

In this paper we document the advantages of utilising technology to enhance teachers’ instructional activities. In particular we showcase the potential and impact that the use of Geometer’s Sketchpad may have on the teaching and learning of geometry at school. A series of five, two-hour teacher development workshops in which Geometer’s Sketchpad wa...

South Africa finds itself with skills shortages in scientifically oriented professions. A major contributor to this has been students’ failure in mathematics. This study set out to identify students who self-reported mathematics anxiety and determine if this was a factor in their studies. Participants were 204 mathematics first-year students regist...

This study, using anon-experimental, exploratory and descriptive method, established learners' and educators' views about factors that contribute to poor performance in mathematics and physical science. Participants were purposefully selected from seven schools with poor pass rates in District 3 of Tshwane North. Focused group interviews with ten G...

Reddy, V., Alant, B., Gengiah, S., Mji, A. & Nyabanyaba, T. (2006). The Role of Parents In Their Children’s Science, Engineering, and Technology Career Choices. HSRC. Research conducted for the Department of Science and Technology (DST). HSRC Library: shelf number 4335.

The paper looks at interrelationships between creativity and technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics. It suggests that a proper use of various technologies especially computers in the teaching and learning of mathematics has the potential of helping learners to develop their creativity. The technologies can provide an atmosphere unde...

This exploratory study describes high school students' perceptions of their parents' involvement in their education and in relation to school achievement. A new 12-item Parental Involvement Scale was used to measure parents' involvement in curricular and extracurricular activities and using exploratory analyses to estimate the scale's properties. E...

The combined coefficient alpha from studies reporting the reliability of scores using the Conceptions of Mathematics Questionnaire were computed. Five studies comprising 898 participants were evaluated. A test of differences among the independent coefficients alpha was statistically significant (chi42= 10.38, p = .04) for the Fragmented and (chi42...

To investigate the attitudes of 200 university students (83% freshmen) toward mathematics, a questionnaire was administered to report on their attitudes toward mathematics. Analysis indicated that students studying precalculus had a somewhat positive attitude toward mathematics.

The Conceptions of Mathematics Questionnaire by Crawford, et al. was administered to 130 southwest Nigerian undergraduate education majors who took mathematics. Coefficient alphas of .86 and .84 for the Fragmented and Cohesive subscales were similar to prior values. There were no statistically significant mean differences between men and women or b...

The mathematics performance of graduating preservice teachers over a period of 3 years was examined for gender differences. Data were drawn from students (170 men and 202 women) final year results from a College of Education in Nigeria. Findings revealed that the gender gap in mathematics achievement among the sample data could be disappearing. Thi...

R. J. Cruise and E. M. Wilkins's (1980) Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS), which measures levels of statistics anxiety, was administered to 169 technikon students (70.9% women) in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Evidence of score reliability and validity was provided, suggesting that the STARS can be used with this population.

The psychometric properties of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Inventory are reported, based on responses of 200 (88 men and 112 women) elementary science teachers in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Previous factor analytic studies of this inventory have identified a two-factor solution but this has not been investigated in a South African con...

The Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Inventory developed by Riggs and Enoch was administered to 88 men and 112 women, elementary science teachers in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Significant mean sex differences (t=4.55, p<.01) were observed on the Personal subscale but not on the General subscale. This result has major implications for education...

The paper reports a compilation of results from three studies conducted over three years to determine students' conceptions of mathematics, and orientations they follow in learning the subject. Respondents were 459 first year mathematics students from four universities and one teacher college. Results indicated that more than half the sample report...

South Africa has been experiencing a concerning decline in the number of students entering university. This is of course taking place at a time when major shortages of qualified personnel in business, commerce, science, engineering and technology are experienced in this country. Many reasons have been advanced for this apparent decline hence it was...

A major objective of the University of Transkei Research Resource Centre is to enable staff and students to acquire research knowledge and skills. This is intended to empower faculty to initiate quality research projects and participate effectively in ongoing research. We recognised that research skills of staff and students ranged from none to wel...

This study describes the psychometric characteristics of the 19-item Conceptions of Mathematics Questionnaire for a total of 158 students (86 women and 72 men). The coefficient alpha of internal consistency reliability was .75. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation indicated a two-component solution could be extracted. The two theoret...

At the University of Transkei teaching and research are considered to be two sides of the same coin. Research is thus regarded as a fundamental and indispensable activity. With the University facing the challenge of becoming competitive within the new structure of higher education in South Africa, a strategic plan for research in the Humanities and...

Pearson correlation coefficients indicated a different relationship between conceptions of mathematics and approaches to learning mathematics to that reported in literature. It was concluded that the 154 students (82 women and 72 men) followed a strategic approach to learning mathematics.

At the University of Transkei teaching and research are considered to be two sides of the same coin. Research is thus regarded as a fundamental and indispensable activity. With the University facing the challenge of becoming competitive within the new structure of higher education in South Africa, a strategic plan for research in the Humanities and...

The purpose was to analyze first-year university mathematics students' responses to a questionnaire which asked 93 students to report on their approaches to learning and attitudes toward mathematics. A majority of the students studying analytical geometry, calculus, and trigonometry had positive attitudes toward mathematics and preferred learning t...

The article reports reliability and validity of the Conceptions of Mathematics Questionnaires, based on responses of 154 undergraduate mathematics majors from four universities in South Africa. The reliability estimated as internal consistency had a Cronbach alpha of .84. To establish the validity, Principal components analysis with varimax rotatio...

The objective was to explore how 94 Year 1 university students conceptualise learning mathematics. Scores on nine items indicated that students adopted different approaches depending on the demands of the learning task at hand.

This paper describes preferences of the lecturer-student relationship of 169 first-year undergraduates in business management. They were dependent on authority to guide them but wished to be treated as equals by their faculty.

This preliminary study investigated, pre-service teachers' conceptions of mathematics as well as their approaches to learning the subject. Thirty one, second year students reading for the College Higher Education Diploma responded to the administered instrument. Results indicated that the majority of the students preferred learning mathematics by d...

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