The Place And Role Of Em-learning In Multi-mode Delivery Of Educator Training In South Africa

In any country in the world, the business and responsibility of, as well as the challenge to the education fraternity are to provide quality education to all. Therefore, quality teaching and learning should be provided to assist all learners to acquire the required competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) at the highest possible level in order to fulfil their respective and diverse roles in life (Steyn, Steyn, De Waal and Wolhuter, 2002: 34). The point of departure should be to provide quality education in such a way that it is accessible and affordable to all. The quality of education is to a large extent determined by the quality of information transfer and the quality and quantity of support that the learners receive to master the outcomes of their studies. The developments in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provide a real opportunity to improve the quality of information transfer and teaching support that learners can obtain. However, the real challenge for education in the developing world, and even in the developed world, is the level of accessibility, affordability and complexities of ICT (Dreyer, 2005: 4). The result of the ability to provide assessable ICT in developing countries is the ever-increasing digital gap that deeply influences the quality of education of less affluent people and the difference in quality of education between developed and developing countries. At the North-West University, Faculty of Education Sciences, the decision was made to provide enriched teaching and learning to a particular group of teachers via an off-campus blended teaching and learning strategy. Within the limitations of affordability and access, the decision was made to use the multi-mode teaching strategy (including some types of modern ICT) to support the students and to enhance the support that the learners obtain. The aim of this article is to report on the reasons, development and implementation of the project as well as initial results. Attention will be given to the nature and contents of the ADP-programme, the theoretical framework that was used to develop the strategy and the nature and content of the multi-mode teaching strategy that was employed. The method of research that was used to develop the teaching and learning strategy particularly applicable to this programme was that of a process of iterative and systematic critical reasoning. Based on the critical reasoning, it was through an combined (and not necessarily initially decided upon) application of several (applicable) scientific methods and processes, such as observation, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction that the strategy was developed (Stoker, 1961: 62-90; Mouton and Marais, 1989: 102; Mouton, 1996; 77-78; Harden and Thomas, 2005: 258; Bensley, 1998: 3; Ennis, 1987: 9).Faculty of Education Sciences North-West Universit

Biblical Theology of Life in the New Testament

This publication deals with A Biblical Theology of Life based on the New Testament. It forms the second of a two volume publication on A Biblical Theology of Life. These two volumes trace the concept of life throughout Protestant canon, working with the final form of the biblical books in Hebrew (vol. 5) and Greek (vol. 6) Scripture. This is done by providing the reader with a book-by-book overview of this concept. This book concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testament corpora in order to provide a summative theological perspective of the development of the concept through Scripture. It is clear that life forms a central and continuous theme throughout the Biblical text. The theme begins with the living God that creates life, but is shortly followed by death that threatens life. Despite this threat, God sustains life and awakens life from death. The text concludes with the consummation depicting eternal life in the new heaven and earth. The biblical theological approach that has been taken entails a thematic approach as it investigates the concept of life, with contextual foci on what individual books of Scripture teach about life, joined diachronically with an investigation of the progressive use of the concept of life in Scripture, while providing a theology of Scripture as a whole investigating the concept of life in all sixty-six books of the Protestant canon

Biblical Theology of Life in the New Testament

This publication deals with A Biblical Theology of Life based on the New Testament. It forms the second of a two volume publication on A Biblical Theology of Life. These two volumes trace the concept of life throughout Protestant canon, working with the final form of the biblical books in Hebrew (vol. 5) and Greek (vol. 6) Scripture. This is done by providing the reader with a book-by-book overview of this concept. This book concludes with a final chapter synthesising the findings of the respective investigations of the Old and New Testament corpora in order to provide a summative theological perspective of the development of the concept through Scripture. It is clear that life forms a central and continuous theme throughout the Biblical text. The theme begins with the living God that creates life, but is shortly followed by death that threatens life. Despite this threat, God sustains life and awakens life from death. The text concludes with the consummation depicting eternal life in the new heaven and earth. The biblical theological approach that has been taken entails a thematic approach as it investigates the concept of life, with contextual foci on what individual books of Scripture teach about life, joined diachronically with an investigation of the progressive use of the concept of life in Scripture, while providing a theology of Scripture as a whole investigating the concept of life in all sixty-six books of the Protestant canon

Live-attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine MTBVAC versus BCG in adults and neonates: a randomised controlled, double-blind dose-escalation trial

Background: Infants are a key target population for new tuberculosis vaccines. We assessed the safety and immunogenicity of the live-attenuated Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccine candidate MTBVAC in adults and infants in a region where transmission of tuberculosis is very high. Methods: We did a randomised, double-blind, BCG-controlled, dose-escalation trial at the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative site near Cape Town, South Africa. Healthy adult community volunteers who were aged 18–50 years, had received BCG vaccination as infants, were HIV negative, had negative interferon-¿ release assay (IGRA) results, and had no personal history of tuberculosis or current household contact with someone with tuberculosis were enrolled in a safety cohort. Infants born to HIV-negative women with no personal history of tuberculosis or current household contact with a person with tuberculosis and who were 96 h old or younger, generally healthy, and had not yet received routine BCG vaccination were enrolled in a separate infant cohort. Eligible adults were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either BCG Vaccine SSI (5 × 105 colony forming units [CFU] of Danish strain 1331 in 0·1 mL diluent) or MTBVAC (5 × 105 CFU in 0·1 mL) intradermally in the deltoid region of the arm. After favourable review of 28-day reactogenicity and safety data in the adult cohort, infants were randomly assigned (1:3) to receive either BCG Vaccine SSI (2·5 × 105 CFU in 0·05 mL diluent) or MTBVAC in three sequential cohorts of increasing MTBVAC dose (2·5 × 103 CFU, 2·5 × 104 CFU, and 2·5 × 105 CFU in 0·05 mL) intradermally in the deltoid region of the arm. QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube IGRA was done on days 180 and 360. For both randomisations, a pre-prepared block randomisation schedule was used. Participants (and their parents or guardians in the case of infant participants), investigators, and other clinical and laboratory staff were masked to intervention allocation. The primary outcomes, which were all measured in the infant cohort, were solicited and unsolicited local adverse events and serious adverse events until day 360; non-serious systemic adverse events until day 28 and vaccine-specific CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses on days 7, 28, 70, 180, and 360. Secondary outcomes measured in adults were local injection-site and systemic reactions and haematology and biochemistry at study day 7 and 28. Safety analyses and immunogenicity analyses were done in all participants who received a dose of vaccine. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02729571. Findings: Between Sept 29, 2015, and Nov 16, 2015, 62 adults were screened and 18 were enrolled and randomly assigned, nine each to the BCG and MTBVAC groups. Between Feb 12, 2016, and Sept 21, 2016, 36 infants were randomly assigned—eight to the BCG group, nine to the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, nine to the 2·5 × 104 CFU group, and ten to the 2·5 × 105 CFU group. Mild injection-site reactions occurred only in infants in the BCG and the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group, with no evidence of local or regional injection-site complications. Systemic adverse events were evenly distributed across BCG and MTBVAC dose groups, and were mostly mild in severity. Eight serious adverse events were reported in seven vaccine recipients (one adult MTBVAC recipient, one infant BCG recipient, one infant in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, two in the 2·5 × 104 CFU MTBVAC group, and two in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group), including one infant in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group treated for unconfirmed tuberculosis and one in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group treated for unlikely tuberculosis. One infant died as a result of possible viral pneumonia. Vaccination with all MTBVAC doses induced durable antigen-specific T-helper-1 cytokine-expressing CD4 cell responses in infants that peaked 70 days after vaccination and were detectable 360 days after vaccination. For the highest MTBVAC dose (ie, 2·5 × 105 CFU), these responses exceeded responses induced by an equivalent dose of the BCG vaccine up to 360 days after vaccination. Dose-related IGRA conversion was noted in three (38%) of eight infants in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, six (75%) of eight in the 2·5 × 104 CFU MTBVAC group, and seven (78%) of nine in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group at day 180, compared with none of seven infants in the BCG group. By day 360, IGRA reversion had occurred in all three infants (100%) in the 2·5 × 103 CFU MTBVAC group, four (67%) of the six in the 2·5 × 104 CFU MTBVAC group, and three (43%) of the seven in the 2·5 × 105 CFU MTBVAC group. Interpretation: MTBVAC had acceptable reactogenicity, and induced a durable CD4 cell response in infants. The evidence of immunogenicity supports progression of MTBVAC into larger safety and efficacy trials, but also confounds interpretation of tests for M tuberculosis infection, highlighting the need for stringent endpoint definition. Funding: Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative, UK Department for International Development, and Biofabri

Critical Issues in South African Education

The main thesis of this book is that, given that South African education faces major challenges, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) constellation of states offers — thus far overlooked — a valuable tertium comparationis, a source of international comparative perspectives, to inform the domestic scholarly discourse on education. This book first investigates the national contexts and development of education in the BRICS countries, arguing that this grouping represents a valuable but yet overlooked field for illuminating South African education issues with international perspectives. The book consists of chapters arguing for and illustrating this thesis from a variety of angles. Common to all chapters is that authors used the comparative method in education, that is comparing the national education system, in their education societal context interrelationships, of the BRICS countries. The chapters focus on a number of critical issues in South African education, including the language of learning and teaching issue, the alignment of the world of education with the world of work, early childhood education, and the development of world-class universities. Regarding the last, for example, China has been the terrain of the most intensive national projects of establishing world-class universities, with Project 985, Project 211, and the “Double First Class University” project. The chapters demonstrate what South Africa, in approaching her education issues, can learn from the experience of the BRICS countries

Critical Issues in South African Education

The main thesis of this book is that, given that South African education faces major challenges, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) constellation of states offers — thus far overlooked — a valuable tertium comparationis, a source of international comparative perspectives, to inform the domestic scholarly discourse on education. This book first investigates the national contexts and development of education in the BRICS countries, arguing that this grouping represents a valuable but yet overlooked field for illuminating South African education issues with international perspectives. The book consists of chapters arguing for and illustrating this thesis from a variety of angles. Common to all chapters is that authors used the comparative method in education, that is comparing the national education system, in their education societal context interrelationships, of the BRICS countries. The chapters focus on a number of critical issues in South African education, including the language of learning and teaching issue, the alignment of the world of education with the world of work, early childhood education, and the development of world-class universities. Regarding the last, for example, China has been the terrain of the most intensive national projects of establishing world-class universities, with Project 985, Project 211, and the “Double First Class University” project. The chapters demonstrate what South Africa, in approaching her education issues, can learn from the experience of the BRICS countries