Investigating Strategies for Mitigating and Avoiding Expert Blind Spot Development in Teaching English Attributive Adjectives

Teaching is a prominent paraphernalia that brings numerous insights for developing learners’ competence in educational concerns. However, teaching English to non-native learners poses challenges as innovative strategies are scant. Sometimes teachers overlook the difficulties experienced by novices when they approach a new English grammatical domain. Psychological expert blind spot sporadically and intuitively develops due to teachers’ ignorance. The paper investigated strategies for mitigating and avoiding expert blind spot in teaching English attributive adjectival phrases at Khwevha High School in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches were adopted to corroborate the findings. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 35 selected Grade 10 respondents using a simple random sampling technique. Qualitatively, semi-structured interviews were conducted on two purposely sampled schoolteachers from Dzindi Circuit, based on the researcher’s preference for obtaining an in-depth understating of the topic. Initially, learners were incompetent in using adjectives but after employing ‘points of entry’, offering ‘explanations’, presenting ‘structures’ and checking ‘comprehension’ strategies, learners improved considerably. The paper underscores using the identified strategies to mitigate and avoid the advancement of the expert blind spot in teaching English attributive adjectives

The Drivers of Innovation at Universities: A Case of South African Universities

Purpose: The study is aimed to contribute to an understanding of the drivers of innovation that lead to practical solutions at South African Universities.   Theoretical Framework: This article borrows from both Institutional Theory and organizational Theory’s perspectives on innovation. Those theories are crucial in exploring the views of employees and leaders on what they deemed to be drivers of innovation at their respective universities with the view to suggest a sustainable conceptual model for public universities’ innovativeness.   Design/methodology/approach: A mixed method approach was adopted, entailing an online survey and semi-structured interviews, to explore innovation from both an employee's and senior leaders' perspective. The population for the study included employees from two Universities, and random sampling and purposive sampling were applied respectively, for the survey and semi-structured interviews. Survey data were analysed using SPSS and semi-structured interviews data were analysed using Nvivo 12.   Results: Several drivers for innovation were found, including the need to respond to societal challenges, the drive for collaborative knowledge exchange, global rankings, individual employee drive, a nurturing environment, leadership, students, and government.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Careful reflections must be entered into by all relevant internal and external stakeholders (see figure 1) so that Universities can define the scope of innovation they wish to pursue based on their resources and contexts since Universities differ.    Originality/value: The original contribution to knowledge of this study lies in the suggested conceptual model for South African universities as they position themselves to innovatively address local and global socio-economic challenges

Approaches for Mastering Coordinative Appositions Exceptions in Simple Present Tense

Coordinative appositions bring coordination between words, phrases, and clauses in communication. They are one grammatical feature requiring second language learners’ competence in its usage. However, the use of the coordinative appositions exceptions in English language is concerning. They usually deviate from the exceptions involved in the use of the coordinating conjunction ‘and’ in the simple present tense. In South African schools, English First Additional Language learners are affected by this learning adversity. The research paper aimed at investigating a suitable approach for mastering the coordinative appositions exceptions in the simple present tense. A quantitative research approach was used by the researchers because the findings could be reduced to numbers and percentages using statistical procedures. Using a questionnaire, data were collected from the respondents. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 and IBM SPSS version 25 both were utilised to analyse data after the findings from each software were collated for validity purposes. A random sampling technique was used to sample 8 respondents from an overall enrolment of 65 Grade eight learners at Andries Mugaguli Secondary School in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Although pre-test findings showed poor performance in using ‘Hangman’ approach, after utilising the ‘coordinating conjunction board game, learners’ performance improved remarkably. The research recommends regular practise in the exceptions involved in the use of the coordinating conjunction ‘and’ in the simple present tense

Impact of new policy developments in higher education on theological education

Peer reviewedThis article analyses the impact of recent South African higher education policies on education in general and theological education in particular. This will be done in three stages. First, I offer a brief description of recent South African higher education policies imposed by the state. Second, I reflect on the effects of this policy intervention on curriculum practices in Theology. Finally, I highlight a few challenges facing theological education in South Africa.Research Institute for Theology and Religio

Empowering disadvantaged businesses through LED projects : a practitioner's approach.

M. Com. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.This thesis has been written in the context of Local Economic Development (LED). LED is recognized as a process that requires a number of role players which include government, business institutions and ordinary people representing themselves as various organizations and as individuals. From all these groups of role players, the focus of this study is on the group of business institutions, particularly small businesses from disadvantaged groups. The aim of this study has been to investigate theoretical and practical ways that small business owners in disadvantaged communities can contribute to their own business development and that of their fellows within a framework of LED. The purpose has been twofold and synergistic – to consider both empowerment and the creation of an enabling support framework. The primary goals of this study are job creation, poverty alleviation and ultimately economic development of the disadvantaged areas through the leadership of local small business owners. This study has been conducted using a qualitative research method, drawing on interviews, focus groups and learning journal as tools of data collection. This study highlighted some information from disadvantaged small businesses in squatter camps/slums that could be useful to the development of LED in Durban and in extension to the development of LED in the country. Such information drawn from the disadvantaged small business groups can be useful to the whole country because of the similar challenges faced by disadvantaged small business groups in other major towns and cities in South Africa. Such challenges are mostly around inequality and uneven economic development in different race groups, especially amongst black South Africans. Findings revealed that people from disadvantaged areas lack education and business skills and that the businesses within these areas are mostly informal and are desperately in need of finance. This study has shown that small businesses in disadvantaged areas have no formal structures in place and are not in a position to help each other financially. However, small businesses in disadvantaged areas have been found to be capable of helping each other to overcome other issues such as crime and disorder that have a negative impact on their viability. This study has shown that other role players are wary of coming into disadvantaged communities to help with investment that will bring about job creation, poverty eradication and economic development because of the crime and general disorder that prevails in disadvantaged communities. This study concludes by emphasizing the need for small business owners in disadvantaged communities to take a leading role in the fight against any issue that dissuades other role players from the outside. In conclusion it is also noted that the leadership role to be assumed by the small business within the disadvantaged areas cannot be effective without the full commitment from the government, business institutions and ordinary community members found in that locality

A comparative study of corporate criminal liability : advancing an argument for the reform of corporate criminal liability in South Africa, by introducing a new offence of corporate homicide.

Doctor of Philosophy in Law. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2015.With corporations playing a prominent role in economies worldwide, economic activities sometimes result in the negligent deaths of people. Corporate criminal liability is a concept that is accepted in many countries including South Africa. In South Africa it is currently regulated by section 332 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977. Despite the fact that corporations are juristic persons with no ability to think and act with intent, the concept of corporate criminal liability is in existence and several theories have been relied upon by various jurisdictions as their basis for corporate criminal liability. Two of these theories are ‘vicarious liability’ which result in the corporation being held vicariously liable for crimes committed by its officers and the ‘identification theory’ which result in the corporation being held personally liable for crimes committed by its officers. (A Pinto & M Evans Corporate Criminal Liability 2nd ed (2008) 24). Developments during the past twenty five years have shown that these theories are fraught with problems and these have led to corporations escaping liability, especially where there has been negligent loss of lives. To overcome these problems, jurisdictions such as England and Canada have recently resorted to having legislation that deal specifically with corporations that have negligently caused deaths. (England’s Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 and Canada’s Bill C-45 which became law on March 31 2004 and is now section 217.1 of the Canadian Criminal Code). In South Africa the rules governing corporate criminal liability include all crimes generally and there is a lack of successful prosecutions for deaths negligently caused by corporations. In this research the concepts of corporate criminal liability and corporate homicide in the three jurisdictions are fully examined. It is determined that regardless of the basis that each jurisdiction relies on, there are various problems that one encounters when dealing with corporate criminal liability and corporate homicide. Problems experienced by these countries will be fully discussed and these will include accounts of situations that led directly to the acceptance of corporate criminal liability into their laws as well as the subsequent decision to treat corporate homicide as a separate offence. The research is intended to be a thorough examination of the concepts of corporate criminal liability and corporate homicide and it is aimed at serving as a guide to South Africa on how to deal effectively with the challenge of corporate crime, specifically negligent deaths caused by corporations or corporate activities.Only digital copy of thesis available

The use of Ezra-Nehemiah in a quest for a theology of renewal, transformation and reconstruction in the (South) African context.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.The purpose of this study is to reflect on how Ezra-Nehemiah can be used as a new paradigm in a quest for an African theology of renewal, transformation and reconstruction. The particular context of crisis of this study is the (South) African situation of poverty, debt, civil wars, ethnicity, racism, xenophobia, military coups, HIV/AIDS, child and women abuse etc. The study, then, consists of four related parts. One part consists of a detailed analysis of the philosophies of Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance. The focus here is on how these two concepts can be a theoretical framework within which the entire thesis rests. The second part consists of an analysis of how Ezra-Nehemiah has been used by African scholars, in a quest for a theology of renewal, transformation and reconstruction. The focus here is on Charles Villa-Vicencio, Jesse Mugambi and Andre Karamaga. The third part consists of a critical study of the text of Ezra-Nehemiah. The focus here is on three related issues. Firstly, we identify the prevalent ideology within the text, and how this ideology is used to sideline the am haaretz. Secondly, we analyse the possible author(s) and date(s) of Ezra-Nehemiah. Thirdly, we offer a sociological analysis of the ideology(ies) of the author(s) of the text of Ezra-Nehemiah. And the fourth part consists of the relevance of the critical study of the text for the (South) African context. The focus here is on contextualizing selected aspects arising out of the analysis of the study of Ezra-Nehemiah, as a way of making such contextualisation a basis for a theology of renewal, transformation and reconstruction for the (South) African continent. The setting for this study is Old Testament biblical studies. While this study begins by analysing both the philosophies of Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance as a theoretical framework for the whole thesis, its methodology is biblical sociological analysis

Theology disrupted : doing theology with children in African contexts

The thrust of this article is an attempt to respond to the question whether we can read and interpret the bible in Africa from the child theology vantage point. The author’s answer is in the affirmative in two ways: Firstly, it is that the majority of children in Africa are facing abuses of unprecedented proportions. Historically and traditionally, African scholars always read and interpreted the bible with African lenses. The African bible critic and exegete should be part of the church, the body of Christ which ought to be a lotus of healing. Theologising in the context of the crisis of the ‘child’ in Africa is fairly a new development and needs to be aggressively pursued. The second aspect of this author’s response is that when Christianity entered the Graeco-Roman as well the Jewish milieu, it used the family symbolism such as father, brothers, love, house of God, children of God, and so on. The New Testament authors therefore used family as reality and metaphor to proclaim the gospel. The African theologian, critic and exegete, is therefore in this article challenged to make a significant contribution using the African context in that, ‘… the African concept of child, family and community appears to be closer to ecclesiology than the Western concepts’.This article emanates from a consultation on ‘Child Theology’ in August 2015, co-hosted by the Centre of Contextual Ministry, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria.http://www.hts.org.zaam2017Centre for Contextual Ministr