Inquiry-based science education has been advocated as a goal in the South African school science curriculum. Despite this goal, the implementation of inquiry in this country has been largely fragmented due to contextual factors that exert an influence on its traction in the classroom. This phenomenologically orientated study reports on the…

Few people who did not grow up speaking Zulu have learned the language later. There are limited resources for second language Zulu learning, whether textbooks, readers, or computerised resources. We set out to develop software for this purpose, to support learners' independent learning. Drawing on research on language learning, we used a number of…

A number of universities in South Africa are sharing teaching materials online making them freely available as Open Educational Resources (OER). The open sharing of teaching materials has been coupled with a number of institutional policy initiatives. This paper seeks to explore the institutional policy landscape of OER in South Africa in order to…

This article reports on an explorative study into the relationship between the implementation of cooperative learning strategies and students' self-directedness in learning. Participants in this study were first-year Computer Applications Technology student teachers. Students completed a self-directed learning questionnaire at the beginning of the…

The South African Physical Sciences Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) requires learners to develop science inquiry skills, including Integrated Science Inquiry Skills (ISIS). However, the performance of learners in assessment tasks related to ISIS has been consistently poor over several years. The use of ineffective pedagogical…

First-year seminars and university induction programmes are embedded with academic and social skills required by students to transition into their first year of study. The first-year seminar at the University of the Free State is a credit-bearing module called UFS101, and is a prerequisite for degree completion. Students are assessed through…

A need exists to facilitate social as well as communal constructivism while fostering self-directed learning in language classrooms at university level. In this regard, videos can be used as a means to motivate students to critically interact with content and to engage collaboratively with new technologies. Furthermore, it is important to consider…

This paper reports on a study into pre-school children's self-regulated learning. Analysis is provided through findings taken from a larger study, the core aim of which was to contribute to developing and strengthening self-regulated learning competencies through merging Traditional African music and mathematics. An…

Research in self-directed learning (SDL) has become imperative for education and training in the international arena, and in South Africa. This is a result of the changing education landscape all over the world, initiated by the demands of the 21st century and the changes in knowledge and information production. Teacher-centred methods are still…

Indications of poor quality in students' written work necessitated the need for deeper investigations aimed at designing and applying appropriate teaching/learning and assessment innovations in the course curriculum. The project-exercise engaged a conceptual-explorative approach through: reviews/investigations; educational diagnosis;…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is one of the possible training strategies that could be more fully implemented in the South African formal education system. The intention to migrate from teacher-centred to learner-centred instructions in higher education institutions and schools makes PBL a plausible option. Geography education students might be…

This article reports on the qualitative aspects of a study that examined whether introducing a "Problem-based Learning" ("PBL") approach in a one-year foundation programme can create conditions for learners to develop and sustain self-directed learning skills. This interpretive constructivist case study was located in…

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the 15th International Conference on Mobile Learning 2019, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and co-organised by the University of Applied Sciences, in Utrecht, The Netherlands, April 11-13, 2019. The Mobile Learning 2019 Conference…

This edited volume brings together large-scale research as well as case studies from a range of geographical contexts and represents a variety of educational settings involving second language learners and users. Its aim is to explore the interrelated issues of psychology and technology use in second language learning settings as well as in more…

Physiology is an integral component of any medical curriculum. Traditionally, the learning of physiology has relied heavily on systems-based didactic lectures. In 2001, the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine (NRMSM; Durban, South Africa) embarked on a problem-based curriculum in which the learning of physiology was integrated with relevant…