Fostering Open Educational practices in cross-cultural contexts

The open content movement is breaking down traditional barriers to learning and resource sharing by promoting free access to Open Educational Resources (OERs) such as digital educational content and technological tools for teaching and learning. OERs have the potential to enable learners to champion their own learning by providing free access to educational content and tools that enable them to create, use and share knowledge. However, the design and uptake of OERs is often hampered by limited understanding of issues relating to the context in which learners access and use OERs. This paper discusses some of the approaches taken to foster open educational practices in learner use of OERs offered by The Open University’s open content initiative, OpenLearn. Drawing on these experiences, we then consider future ideas about supporting open educational practices in cross-cultural contexts, and, in collaboration with Tshwane University of Technology, examine potential impact of OERs in Africa

An evaluation of the approaches used to determine the taxability of income emanating from illegal pyramid schemes.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.No abstract available

Language and academic achievement: perspectives on the potential role of indigenous African languages as a lingua academica

Although research literature abounds with studies that show the importance of language for academic achievement, the potential role of indigenous African languages in the educational sector in South Africa has not been adequately appraised or appreciated. Accordingly, ambivalence is still rife among parents, teachers, learners and government about the use of these languages for academic purposes. This ambivalence is evident from the existing national language education policies, school language policies, language curricula and language practices in schools. Thus, the purpose of this article is to discuss the perspectives on the potential role of indigenous African languages for academic purposes in South Africa. The focus is mainly on the use of these languages to provide a scaffold for academic language proficiency which is critical to academic success. To this end, a complementary language-use framework or model for using indigenous African languages to support the development of academic language in multilingual schools and universities is proposed

Environmental education and the teaching of mathematics in the primary school

Mathematics at the primary school level should be closely linked to the reality of the learner. The school grounds and local environment provide ample opportunities to do this

Fast-tracking concept learning to English as an Additional Language (EAL) students through corpus-based multilingual glossaries

This is a copy of the published manuscript of Madiba, M. 2010. Fast-tracking concept learning to English as an Additional Language (EAL) students through corpus-based multilingual glossaries. Alternation. 17(1): 225-248. Available: http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/Files/docs/17.1/11%20Mad%20FIN.pdf.The aim of this article is to discuss the corpus-based Multilingual Concept Glossaries project at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and to show how multilingual glossaries can be used to fast-track concept literacy among English as Additional Language students (EALs). In South Africa, it is an accepted fact that most of EAL students from poor academic and family backgrounds enter higher education with limited English proficiency which makes it difficult for them to learn and understand concepts in different content learning areas (cf.Kapp 1998; Council on Higher Education 2007; National Benchmark Tests Project Progress Report 2009). Thus, the development of the multilingual glossaries is aimed at providing academic support to these students. It is the contention of this article that the development of these glossaries constitutes an important intervention strategy to optimize concepts learning in different content areas to EAL students. The pedagogic value of glossaries is widely acknowledged by many scholars in the field of academic literacy (cf. Hüllen1989; Marzano 2003, 2004; Graves 2006; Beck, McKeown & Kucan 2008; Hiebert & Kamil 2005; Farstrup & Samuels 2008; Sauer 2009). However, as the Project is still in its initial stage, the article mainly provides a conceptual argument based on two theories, namely, the theory of conceptual difficulty (cf.Perkins 2007; 2009), which provides a theoretical framework for analysing EAL students' conceptual difficulties, and Vygotsky's socio-cultural constructive theory which provides a framework of pedagogic intervention to fast-track concepts learning

Favourable Outcome After Resection for Contained Malignant Colorectal Perforation

No Abstract

The Contextual Environmental Factors Shaping Disclosure of HIV Status across Populations Groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

Disclosure of HIV‐positive status is a public health intervention strategy to reduce HIV infections and improve HIV treatment and care. While disclosure occurs for different reasons for different population groups, the focus of studies has been on programmatic concerns such as disclosure to sexual partners to prevent HIV transmission or to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. However, HIV disclosure occurs within a broad range of social and cultural contexts. Disclosure is facilitated or deterred by relationships at play within the social context beyond just the need for prevention of HIV. This chapter will highlight how the construction of HIV as an incurable, fatal, and contagious disease, stigma and discrimination, cultural and societal norms, secrecy, and the contextual environment influence HIV disclosure across different population groups. The chapter further demonstrated that stigma is the threat that connects the contextual environment and negatively influences disclosure across different population groups. This chapter is based on disclosure studies conducted in South Africa and extensive findings from disclosure research from sub‐Saharan Africa. The data comprise qualitative studies on disclosing HIV to perinatally infected children by caregivers, the parental disclosure of own HIV‐positive status to HIV‐negative children, disclosure to sexual partners, disclosure to parents, and adolescent self‐disclosure to romantic partners and friends

Development, competition and Hillbrow: the Inner-City High Schools Drama Festival 2005-2015, a community arts project

This thesis is submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Arts and Culture Management by dissertation, 2016This study looks into the artistic strategies employed by the Inner-City High Schools Drama Festival to promote an appreciation for arts and culture programmes in inner-city high schools and beyond, and, by extension, reflects on how the festival impacts on participants’ perceptions of Hillbrow as home. Through an analysis of South African art historian Lize van Robbroeck’s conceptual framework of community arts centres, this case study unpacks how site specificities of the centre being in Hillbrow, starts to debunk what has become a widely understood framework of arts centres as inherently pro-marginal, thereby associated with ‘blackness’, both during apartheid and post-apartheid. Qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews with the Hillbrow Theatre Project staff, facilitators and school teachers, focus group discussions with school-goers, letters and organisational documents have therefore been used in order to get a deeper understanding of the workings of the Outreach Foundation as a centre and its artistic programme under the Hillbrow Theatre Project called the Inner-City High Schools Drama Festival. The study reveals that the artistic strategies employed by the Inner-City High Schools Drama Festival are effective in promoting an appreciation for an arts and culture programme, and it further shows that the festival can indeed effect some measure of change in participants’ attitudes about Hillbrow as home.GR201

Exposure to Human Immunodeficiency Disease. What Precautions for the Healthcare Professional?

Background: The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic is more pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa. The ever-increasing prevalence of HIV infection and the continued improvement in clinical management has increased the likelihood of these patients being managed by healthcare workers. The aim of the review was to assess current literature on the risks of transmission of HIV infection and protection of the healthcare worker.Methods: A literature review was performed using MEDLINE articles addressing ‘human immunodeficiency virus’, ‘HIV’, ‘Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome’, ‘AIDS’, ‘HIV and Surgery’. We also manually searched relevant surgical journals and completed the bibliographic compilation by collecting cross references from published papers.Results: Transmission is by contamination with body fluids for example needle-stick injury and blood splashes. The risk of HIV transmission from patient to healthcare worker always exists. The risk of transmission is very small and depends on the type of discipline and type of procedure. Hollow needles are more dangerous than suture needles. Sero-conversion is, however, very minimal. Universal precautions are emphasised. In case of needle-stick injury or splash it is important that affected healthcare workers take post-exposure prophylaxis.Conclusion: Occupational HIV transmission is lower than that for other infections. However, protection of all health care personnel should be the prime objective. Universal infection control guidelines must be accepted and strictly enforced. A prompt response to blood contact is crucial and post-exposure prophylaxis is essentia

Haemorrhage - the main presenting feature of diverticular disease of the colon in blacks

Haemqrrhage is one of the less common presentations of diverticular disease. This retrospective 5 year study of 23 patients has identified it as the main presentation (74%) among South African blacks in whom the disease is uncommon, but emerging as a clinical problem. Women constituted a statistically significant majority of patients with bleeding (76%); this was in excess of their overall proportion among patients with diverticular disease (61%) (P =0,018)