As someone with a qualification in the Natural Sciences, (and a teacher on a programme offering s... more As someone with a qualification in the Natural Sciences, (and a teacher on a programme offering students alternative access to university Science studies), I was ill prepared to engage with the philosophical nature of my own studies towards a postgraduate degree in Higher Education. Naively, I came across postpositivism, the emergent, contemporary form of positivism. Amid a wide range of paradigmatic stances, and apparent misunderstandings of positivism in particular, I have been forced to find my own interpretation of postpositivism. The following essay is the result of these deliberations. Critical realism is found to be a sagacious ontological position to take within postpositivism. Not only is this framework revealed to be a good opportunity to explore anti-dualistic approaches to educational research, but it is a convincing compromise in the context of a Science Faculty where the discourse is typically not relativist, and quantitative methods are hegemonic.
Alternative Access routes into tertiary science degrees have become a well recognized option for ... more Alternative Access routes into tertiary science degrees have become a well recognized option for Black South African students with academic potential but who do not make Science Faculty entry requirements (Altink, 1987; Downs, 2005; Downs, 2010; Mabila et al., 2006; Parkinson, 2000; Rollnick, 2006; van der Flier, Thijs & Zaaiman, 2003; Wood & Lithauer, 2005; Zaaiman, 1998). Rollnick (2006) cites Pinto (2001) when claiming that, by 2001, almost every university (including those institutions formerly considered technikons) in South Africa was offering some form of alternative access to disadvantaged students, most of these programmes being science based. Foundation Programmes in particular have been at the fore-front of educational change in South Africa. Defined by Kloot, Case and Marshall (2008) as "special programmes for students whose prior learning has been adversely affected by educational or social inequalities" (pg.800), these authors report that, the Foundation Prog...
ABSTRACT The Foundation Programme of the Centre for Science Access at the University of KwaZulu-N... more ABSTRACT The Foundation Programme of the Centre for Science Access at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa provides access to tertiary science studies to educationally disadvantaged students who do not meet formal faculty entrance requirements. The low number of students proceeding from the programme into mainstream is of concern, particularly given the national imperative to increase participation and levels of performance in tertiary-level science. An attempt was made to understand foundation student performance in a campus of this university, with the view to identifying challenges and opportunities for remediation in the curriculum and processes of selection into the programme. A classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify which variables best described student performance. The explanatory variables included biographical and school-history data, performance in selection tests, and socio-economic data pertaining to their year in the programme. The results illustrate the prognostic reliability of the model used to select students, raise concerns about the inefficiency of school performance indicators as a measure of students’ academic potential in the Foundation Programme, and highlight the importance of accommodation arrangements and financial support for student success in their access year.
The Centre for Science Access Foundation Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal provides al... more The Centre for Science Access Foundation Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal provides alternative access to tertiary science studies to educationally disadvantaged students. The philosophical basis for this Programme is that of constructivism, as adopted by the original Science Foundation Programme (SFP) which was initiated in 1991 on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal. Philosophical perspectives have obvious implications for pedagogy and curriculum development. Within the context of the Foundation Biology modules in particular, this constructivist position is revisited, drawing from current theoretical perspectives, and the pedagogical implications are presented.
As someone with a qualification in the Natural Sciences, (and a teacher on a programme offering s... more As someone with a qualification in the Natural Sciences, (and a teacher on a programme offering students alternative access to university Science studies), I was ill prepared to engage with the philosophical nature of my own studies towards a postgraduate degree in Higher Education. Naively, I came across postpositivism, the emergent, contemporary form of positivism. Amid a wide range of paradigmatic stances, and apparent misunderstandings of positivism in particular, I have been forced to find my own interpretation of postpositivism. The following essay is the result of these deliberations. Critical realism is found to be a sagacious ontological position to take within postpositivism. Not only is this framework revealed to be a good opportunity to explore anti-dualistic approaches to educational research, but it is a convincing compromise in the context of a Science Faculty where the discourse is typically not relativist, and quantitative methods are hegemonic.
Alternative Access routes into tertiary science degrees have become a well recognized option for ... more Alternative Access routes into tertiary science degrees have become a well recognized option for Black South African students with academic potential but who do not make Science Faculty entry requirements (Altink, 1987; Downs, 2005; Downs, 2010; Mabila et al., 2006; Parkinson, 2000; Rollnick, 2006; van der Flier, Thijs & Zaaiman, 2003; Wood & Lithauer, 2005; Zaaiman, 1998). Rollnick (2006) cites Pinto (2001) when claiming that, by 2001, almost every university (including those institutions formerly considered technikons) in South Africa was offering some form of alternative access to disadvantaged students, most of these programmes being science based. Foundation Programmes in particular have been at the fore-front of educational change in South Africa. Defined by Kloot, Case and Marshall (2008) as "special programmes for students whose prior learning has been adversely affected by educational or social inequalities" (pg.800), these authors report that, the Foundation Prog...
ABSTRACT The Foundation Programme of the Centre for Science Access at the University of KwaZulu-N... more ABSTRACT The Foundation Programme of the Centre for Science Access at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa provides access to tertiary science studies to educationally disadvantaged students who do not meet formal faculty entrance requirements. The low number of students proceeding from the programme into mainstream is of concern, particularly given the national imperative to increase participation and levels of performance in tertiary-level science. An attempt was made to understand foundation student performance in a campus of this university, with the view to identifying challenges and opportunities for remediation in the curriculum and processes of selection into the programme. A classification and regression tree analysis was used to identify which variables best described student performance. The explanatory variables included biographical and school-history data, performance in selection tests, and socio-economic data pertaining to their year in the programme. The results illustrate the prognostic reliability of the model used to select students, raise concerns about the inefficiency of school performance indicators as a measure of students’ academic potential in the Foundation Programme, and highlight the importance of accommodation arrangements and financial support for student success in their access year.
The Centre for Science Access Foundation Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal provides al... more The Centre for Science Access Foundation Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal provides alternative access to tertiary science studies to educationally disadvantaged students. The philosophical basis for this Programme is that of constructivism, as adopted by the original Science Foundation Programme (SFP) which was initiated in 1991 on the Pietermaritzburg campus of the University of Natal. Philosophical perspectives have obvious implications for pedagogy and curriculum development. Within the context of the Foundation Biology modules in particular, this constructivist position is revisited, drawing from current theoretical perspectives, and the pedagogical implications are presented.
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