The topic of resources for learning mathematics commonly becomes of interest during times of disruption and rapid change in education. The considerable research on undergraduate mathematics students' resource use largely focuses on learning resources in the form of material technologies and texts. Concerned that contemporary decisions about…

This article explores the use of the AutoScholar Advisor System (Auto-Ad) to provide useful learning support analytics for self-mediated student academic support. The study is part of a pilot project for enhancing student success in a four-year undergraduate degree (BEd) programme. Adopting students' self-authorship as an organising framework and…

A concern in engineering education is students adopting a 'recognise and reproduce' approach to problem solving. In this study, an assignment was conceived and analysed through Legitimation Code Theory -- which allows for visualisation of students' thinking, and to illuminate how students construct knowledge in open-ended problem solving. The…

This qualitative study explored and described South African students' experiences and perceptions regarding academic success. Focus group participants related academic success not only to achievement, but also to goal attainment, feelings of satisfaction, and the application of new skills. Academically successful students were associated with…

Exploring students' habits of using WhatsApp is important: such introspection helps students to reflect, and improve their actions. Habits are subconscious thoughts that drive students, for example, to use WhatsApp, even without concentrating on their learning actions. Habits are formed after students have repeated the same action. Twelve…

Since 1994, there has been a doubling in the enrolment of students in South Africa's public universities. Students, especially first-generation students, face numerous challenges that may impact their subjective perceptions of their well-being. In a milieu of high levels of suicide and depression amongst South Africa's student population, the…

Introduction: The Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST Short Version) was used to better understand the students' approaches to learning in a mathematics classes. Method: Quantitave method was used in this study. Participants were 345 first and second year mathematics students from a university in the Gauteng province of…

The academic success of first-year Economics students has been the focus of many South African studies in Economic Education. Many used the last school examination (Matric) results as a proxy for students' academic ability. In 2008 a new Matric curriculum was introduced. Given various changes in the curriculum, the question arises as to whether…

The historical black universities (HBUs) in South Africa were established by the apartheid government to serve black students banned from attending segregated white-only universities. These universities were poorly funded compared to the white-only universities. The poor funding affected their output (research and postgraduates) adversely. With…

Several studies have emphasised the importance of addressing social and emotional factors in facilitating adjustment to tertiary education. This article describes the Skills for Success in Science programme at the University of Cape Town. The broad aims were life skills development and improved adjustment which are assumed to underpin academic…

To improve throughput rates in higher education it is important to investigate ways in which instruction can be made more effective when students have to use language(s) that are not their home or primary language. At the University of Stellenbosch, as is the case elsewhere in South Africa, a language policy and implementation plan was formulated…

This article presents the results of a recent investigation at the University of South Africa that attempted to identify the post-enrolment factors that lecturers and students see as having important influences on students' success in undergraduate Business Studies courses. Data were gathered from students enrolled in all years of the BCom degree…

The purpose of this article is to identify factors that distinguish between Achievers and At Risk Students in Accounting 1A, and to explore how qualitative and quantitative research methods complement each other. Differences between the two groups were explored from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective, focusing on study habits,…