Perspectives of teachers regarding the use of the reading period and school libraries in selected schools in the Northern Cape

CITATION: Newman, L. & Le Cordeur, M. 2014. Opvoeders se perspektiewe rakende die gebruik van die leesperiode en skoolbiblioteke in geselekteerde skole in die Noord-Kaap. Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, 54(4):805-819.The original publication is available at http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_issuetoc&pid=0041-475120140004&lng=en&nrm=isoAFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Alhoewel lees 'n noodsaaklike vaardigheid is, dui navorsing daarop dat leesprobleme ernstige afmetings aanneem in Suid-Afrika. Om die leesvermoens van leerders te verbeter, het die Noord-Kaapse Onderwysdepartement (NKOD) . verpligte leesperiode ingestel om lees tot sy reg te laat kom. Hierdie artikel beskryf die studie wat ondersoek instel na die gebruik van die leesperiode en die skoolbiblioteek. Daar is van die navorsingshipotese uitgegaan dat opvoeders leerders nie genoeg blootstelling aan lees gee nie en dus nie ’n leeskultuur by leerders kweek nie omdat hulle die leesperiode en die biblioteek as hulpbron ignoreer. Data is versamel by twee geselekteerde hoërskole in die Namakwa-distrik met behulp van vraelyste en fokusgroeponderhoude met die graad 8- en 9-opvoeders. Die studie bevestig die navorsingsvraag dat die leesperiode nie geïmplementeer word nie en dat die skoolbiblioteek as ʼn bron vir die bevordering van die geletterdheidsvlakke van die leerders, onderbenut word.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Reading is one of the cornerstones of learning. Research shows an escalating concern about the reading ability of South African learners. In an attempt to improve the literacy levels of learners, the Northern Cape Department of Education instructed schools to implement a daily reading period of 30 minutes. Schools are required to indicate the reading period on the timetable and reading must be formally instructed. The purpose of this study was to determine the perspectives of teachers on the use of the reading period and school libraries. It was hypothesised, first, that teachers do not expose learners sufficiently to reading. Secondly, teachers do not create a reading culture or foster a positive attitude towards reading, because they ignore the reading period and do not make use of the library as a resource. A mixed-method approach was followed utilising both quantitative and qualitative research designs to obtain data. The study consisted of a literature review supported by an empirical study. The empirical study was conducted at two high schools in the Namaqua district. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire which was completed by 16 Grade 8 and 9 teachers. Focus group interviews were also conducted with the participating teachers. An analysis of the empirical data showed that, although the reading period is not implemented at either of the two schools, the majority of the teachers are aware of the reading period. However, teachers indicated that they did not receive any guidance or support from the Education Department to assist learners with reading problems. The study showed that many schools do not have a school library and where schools do have a library it seems, from the responses of the teachers, that the library resources are old and insufficient. Hence learners are not exposed to the library to assist them with curriculum assignments. The study confirmed the research hypothesis that the reading period is not being implemented and that the school library is not being used by the teachers to enhance the literacy levels and academic performance of the learners.Publishers' Versio

Critical Behavior of an Ising System on the Sierpinski Carpet: A Short-Time Dynamics Study

The short-time dynamic evolution of an Ising model embedded in an infinitely ramified fractal structure with noninteger Hausdorff dimension was studied using Monte Carlo simulations. Completely ordered and disordered spin configurations were used as initial states for the dynamic simulations. In both cases, the evolution of the physical observables follows a power-law behavior. Based on this fact, the complete set of critical exponents characteristic of a second-order phase transition was evaluated. Also, the dynamic exponent $\theta$ of the critical initial increase in magnetization, as well as the critical temperature, were computed. The exponent $\theta$ exhibits a weak dependence on the initial (small) magnetization. On the other hand, the dynamic exponent $z$ shows a systematic decrease when the segmentation step is increased, i.e., when the system size becomes larger. Our results suggest that the effective noninteger dimension for the second-order phase transition is noticeably smaller than the Hausdorff dimension. Even when the behavior of the magnetization (in the case of the ordered initial state) and the autocorrelation (in the case of the disordered initial state) with time are very well fitted by power laws, the precision of our simulations allows us to detect the presence of a soft oscillation of the same type in both magnitudes that we attribute to the topological details of the generating cell at any scale.Comment: 10 figures, 4 tables and 14 page

Magnetic and electrical properties of (Pu,Lu)Pd3

We present measurements of the magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity and electrical resistivity of Pu$_{1-x}$Lu$_x$Pd$_3$, with $x$=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and 1. PuPd$_3$ is an antiferromagnetic heavy fermion compound with $T_N=24$~K. With increasing Lu doping, both the Kondo and RKKY interaction strengths fall, as judged by the Sommerfeld coefficient $\gamma$ and N\'eel temperature $T_N$. Fits to a crystal field model of the resistivity also support these conclusions. The paramagnetic effective moment $\mu_{\mathrm{eff}}$ increases with Lu dilution, indicating a decrease in the Kondo screening. In the highly dilute limit, $\mu_{\mathrm{eff}}$ approaches the value predicted by intermediate coupling calculations. In conjunction with an observed Schottky peak at $\sim$60~K in the magnetic heat capacity, corresponding to a crystal field splitting of $\sim$12~meV, a mean-field intermediate coupling model with nearest neighbour interactions has been developed.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure

Critical brain networks

Highly correlated brain dynamics produces synchronized states with no behavioral value, while weakly correlated dynamics prevents information flow. We discuss the idea put forward by Per Bak that the working brain stays at an intermediate (critical) regime characterized by power-law correlations.Comment: Contribution to the Niels Bohr Summer Institute on Complexity and Criticality (2003); to appear in a Per Bak Memorial Issue of PHYSICA

Perceived Red Tape and Precursors of Turnover: the Roles of Work Engagement and Career Adaptability

Drawing on job demands-resources theory, we propose that perceived red tape, as a hindrance job demand, triggers attitudinal and behavioral precursors of turnover in employees (turnover intentions and job search behaviors) by reducing their work engagement. In addition, we hypothesize that career adaptability, as a personal resource, buffers the detrimental effects of perceived red tape. In Study 1, three-wave data collected from employees (N = 202) working in Tanzanian public sector organizations supports the finding that work engagement mediates the effect of red tape on turnover intentions. Study 2 confirms this mediation, using data (N = 405) collected at three time points from a Chinese private organization, further verifying the mediating role of work engagement in the effect of red tape on job search behaviors. Supporting the moderating role of career adaptability, Study 2 also found that career adaptability attenuated the influence of red tape on work engagement and, subsequently, on turnover intentions and job search behaviors. Our article theoretically and empirically contributes to the understanding of how and when perceived red tape in organizations leads employees to consider leaving and prepare to leave

Stably non-synchronizable maps of the plane

Pecora and Carroll presented a notion of synchronization where an (n-1)-dimensional nonautonomous system is constructed from a given $n$-dimensional dynamical system by imposing the evolution of one coordinate. They noticed that the resulting dynamics may be contracting even if the original dynamics are not. It is easy to construct flows or maps such that no coordinate has synchronizing properties, but this cannot be done in an open set of linear maps or flows in $\R^n$, $n\geq 2$. In this paper we give examples of real analytic homeomorphisms of $\R^2$ such that the non-synchronizability is stable in the sense that in a full $C^0$ neighborhood of the given map, no homeomorphism is synchronizable

Anomalous Hydrodynamics

Our goal is to examine the role of anomalies in the hydrodynamic regime of field theories. We employ methods based on gauge/gravity duality to examine R-charge anomalies in the hydrodynamic regime of stronly t'Hooft coupled, large N, N = 4 Super Yang-Mills. We use a single particle spectrum treatment based on the familiar "level crossing" picture of chiral anomalies to investigate thermalized, massless QED. In each case, we work in the presence of a homogeneous background magnetic field, and find the same result. Regardless of whether a paricular current is anomalously non-conserved or not, as long as it participates in an anomalous 3-pt. correlator, its constitutive relation recieves a new term, proportional to a product of the anomaly coefficient, the magnetic field, and any charge density participating in the anomaly. This agrees with results found by Alekseev et.al. for QED. We include a general, symmetry based argument for the presence of such terms, and use linear response theory to determine their coefficients in a model with anomalous global charges. This last method we apply to briefly examine baryon transport in chiral QCD in a strong magnetic field.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures. To be submitted to JHE

Simplicity of State and Overlap Structure in Finite-Volume Realistic Spin Glasses

We present a combination of heuristic and rigorous arguments indicating that both the pure state structure and the overlap structure of realistic spin glasses should be relatively simple: in a large finite volume with coupling-independent boundary conditions, such as periodic, at most a pair of flip-related (or the appropriate number of symmetry-related in the non-Ising case) states appear, and the Parisi overlap distribution correspondingly exhibits at most a pair of delta-functions at plus/minus the self-overlap. This rules out the nonstandard SK picture introduced by us earlier, and when combined with our previous elimination of more standard versions of the mean field picture, argues against the possibility of even limited versions of mean field ordering in realistic spin glasses. If broken spin flip symmetry should occur, this leaves open two main possibilities for ordering in the spin glass phase: the droplet/scaling two-state picture, and the chaotic pairs many-state picture introduced by us earlier. We present scaling arguments which provide a possible physical basis for the latter picture, and discuss possible reasons behind numerical observations of more complicated overlap structures in finite volumes.Comment: 22 pages (LaTeX; needs revtex), 1 figure (PostScript); to appear in Physical Review

Polchinski equation, reparameterization invariance and the derivative expansion

The connection between the anomalous dimension and some invariance properties of the fixed point actions within exact RG is explored. As an application, Polchinski equation at next-to-leading order in the derivative expansion is studied. For the Wilson fixed point of the one-component scalar theory in three dimensions we obtain the critical exponents \eta=0.042, \nu=0.622 and \omega=0.754.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX with psfig, 12 encapsulated PostScript figures. A number wrongly quoted in the abstract correcte