In the study reported on here we investigated the effects of sign language barriers among Deaf learners in special schools for the Deaf and Blind in the Motheo District in the Free State province of South Africa. Semi-structured focus group interviews were held with 7 teachers (2 males and 5 females) and 10 Grade 8 learners (6 males and 4 females)…

This article explores the way in which values education is incorporated in the Life Orientation (LO) curriculum of the Senior Phase (Grades 7-9) in South Africa. Researchers agree that in the light of the current need to regenerate morals and re-norm the nation, values are critical. From the moment they are born, children learn by observing…

Creating a classroom learning environment that is suitably designed for promotion of learners' performance in geometry, a branch of mathematics that addresses spatial sense and geometric reasoning, is a daunting task. This article focuses on how grade 8 teachers' action learning changed the learning environment for the promotion of geometry…

We report research into associations between the school-level and classroom-level environment in science classrooms in South Africa. An instrument, developed to assess students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment as a means of monitoring and guiding changes towards outcomes-based education, was administered to 2,638 Grade 8…

This paper reports on secondary analysis of TIMSS 2003 data, based on a sound conceptual model, aiming to explain differential science achievement in South Africa from the perspective of educational effectiveness research. The conceptual framework was developed by refining existing school effectiveness models and including factors related to…

The "Comparative Indicators of Education" report series has been published on a biennial basis since it began in 2002, although this year's is the first to expand its focus to the G-20 countries, having previously been focused on the G-8 countries. "Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-20 Countries:…

In South Africa, as in many parts of postcolonial Africa, English dominates the political economy and as a result is the medium of instruction chosen by the majority of South African schools, despite the fact that most learners do not have the opportunity to acquire English to the levels necessary for effective engagement with the curriculum.…

This article describes the development and validation of an instrument that can be used to assess students' perceptions of their learning environment as a means of monitoring and guiding changes towards outcomes-based education. In the first phase, data collected from 2638 Grade 8 science students from 50 classes in 50 schools in the Limpopo…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2017), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the…

Background: This study investigated associations among adolescents' self-esteem in 6 domains (peers, school, family, sports/athletics, body image and global self-worth) and risk behaviours related to substance use, bullying, suicidality and sexuality. Method: A multistage stratified sampling strategy was used to select a representative sample of…