The status of technical/technology education in the Ethekwini district in South Africa.

Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.Historically, technical education has always being perceived as "inferior education". It i

Exploring teachers' conceptions of caring within teaching in the foundation phase at a school outside the greater Durban area.

Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.This small-scale study explored teachers’ conceptions of caring within teaching in the Foundation Phase at a combined school outside the greater Durban area. The school serviced children from the nearby squatter camps and surrounding working class community. In this study, I wanted to know how conceptions of caring were made by Foundation Phase teachers’ within the context of their work experiences. Their meaning making and their practice was important to consider. A qualitative approach was suitable for this study. The data for the study was obtained by semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. The findings show that Foundation Phase teachers have multiple conceptions of caring within teaching. This is influenced by the context they teach in and the frames of references they use. It was evident that teachers were using frames of reference from child development in vulnerable situations, teaching and learning with lack of strong support (from the home and education department) and the futuristic image of the child in order to shape caring within teaching. Teachers position themselves as caring teachers who do culturally situated practice through forming relationships with the children. As such, they identify characteristics that are supportive and responsive to the needs of young children. Their conceptions in relation to pedagogy are supportive of the idea that they need to connect with their learners and create an inclusive environment. This, however, is challenged by circumstances which limits the type of caring that is made possible. A demanding curriculum and large class numbers are limiting the possibilities for caring acts within teaching in the Foundation Phase

Effect of Nafion and platinum content in a catalyst layer processed in a radio frequency helicon plasma system

A helicon plasma sputtering system is used to deposit small amounts of platinum on microporous carbon support composed of Vulcan XC 72 carbon particles (known as gas diffusion layer) to form Pt catalyzed electrodes for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Electrodes with low Pt loading are prepared, assembled in custom-made membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) and tested for the hydrogen oxydation and the oxygen reduction. Initially, the Nafion loading spread on these plasma prepared electrodes is optimized by measuring the MEA performance. It is found that the optimum Nafion loading is 1 mg cm-2 for an electrode previously covered with 0.1 mgPt cm-2 using the helicon plasma system. For a commercial electrode prepared by ink processes with 0.5 mgPt cm-2, the optimized Nafion loading is 2 mg cm-2. Using the respective optimized Nafion loading, the electrical performance of the custom-made MEA with one plasma prepared electrode (either anode or cathode) is compared with that of a reference MEA from Electrochem Inc. (Pt loading per electrode of 0.5 mg cm-2 and maximum power density of 425 mW cm-2) without gas humidification. The custom-made MEA fitted with an anode covered with 0.005 mgPt cm -2 leads to the same performance as that of the reference MEA at low current density (<500 mA cm-2) and high gas backpressure (3 bar). This result indicates that the catalyst utilization efficiency in the plasma prepared anode is 100 times higher than that in the commercial anode ( versus ). For plasma prepared cathodes with 0.1 mgPt cm-2, the cathodic Pt utilization efficiency is , which is 3 times higher than that obtained in the commercial cathode

Effect of Nafion and platinum content in a catalyst layer processed in a radiofrequency helicon plasma system

International audienceA helicon plasma sputtering system is used to deposit small amounts of platinum on microporous carbon support composed of Vulcan XC 72 carbon particles (known as gas diffusion layer - GDL) to form Pt catalysed electrodes for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Electrodes with low Pt loading are prepared, assembled in custom-made membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) and tested for the hydrogen oxydation and the oxygen reduction. Initially, the Nafion loading spread on these plasma prepared electrodes is optimized by measuring the MEA performance. It is found that the optimum Nafion® loading is 1 mg cm-2 for an electrode previously covered with 0.1 mgPt cm-2 using the helicon plasma system. For a commercial electrode prepared by ink-processes with 0.5 mgPt cm-2, the optimized Nafion® loading is 2 mg cm-2. Using the respective optimized Nafion® loading, the electrical performance of the custom-made MEA with one plasma prepared electrode (either anode or cathode) is compared with that of a reference MEA from Electrochem Inc. (Pt loading per electrode of 0.5 mg cm-2 and maximum power density of 425 mW cm-2) without gas humidification. The custom-made MEA fitted with an anode covered with 0.005 mgPt cm-2 leads to the same performance than that of the reference MEA at low current density (< 500 mA cm-2) and high gas backpressure (3 bar). This result indicates that the catalyst utilization efficiency in the plasma prepared anode is 100 times higher than that in the commercial anode (85 kW gPt-1 vs 0.85 kW gPt-1). For plasma prepared cathodes with 0.1 mgPt cm-2, the cathodic Pt utilization efficiency is 2.7 kW gPt−1, which is 3 times higher than that obtained in the commercial cathode