Universities depend on committed efforts of all staff members to function effectively. However, where occupational demands outweigh occupational resources, challenging work becomes stressful, followed by an exhausted, disengaged workforce. It is unlikely that disengaged university staff will provide adequate care and service to geographically…

Universities in South Africa are operating in an increasingly competitive environment with each institution aiming to attract the best students and meet their enrolment targets. The Department of Education's (DoE's) strategy to address the inadequacies of the past and the shortage of skills in maths and science in South Africa has also affected…

Open distance students differ in their preparedness for higher education studies. Students who are less self-regulated risk failure and drop out in the challenging milieu of open distance learning. In this study, the differences between the application of self-regulated learning strategies by low and high achievers were explored. A multi-method…

This article reports findings from the Pathways to Resilience study, South Africa. Rooted in a social ecological understanding of resilience, this mixed-methods study investigated resilience processes of black South African youths from poverty-stricken, rural contexts. School-attending youths (n = 951) completed the Pathways to Resilience Youth…

In Life Sciences education internationally, including South Africa, the study of animal and organ morphology has traditionally involved dissections since the early nineteenth century. The major purpose of this study was to investigate how the engagement of learners with animal organ dissections may influence the development of problem-solving…

The purpose of this study was to explore why highly trained musicians choose to teach in higher education. An international population from nine countries of music instrument teachers was sampled via online survey, to determine their reasons for teaching in higher education. Motivational constructs from the expectancy-value framework were used,…

It is commonly accepted that Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) has a topic-specific nature. However, its implementation in teacher education programmes has remained generic and tacit. This paper reports on an attempt to improve the quality of PCK in chemistry pre-service teachers in a specified topic--chemical equilibrium. By locating PCK at a…

Electronic tutors able to respond appropriately to a user's input have been shown to be effective in improving learning in a number of contexts. This study extends this research into the context of conceptual change during in-service science teacher workshops. Quantitative data were collected from 1,049 South African grade 12 physical sciences…

This article explores the notion of leadership identity construction as it happens through a leadership development programme. Influenced by a conception that leadership development is essentially about facilitating an identity transition, it uses an intersectional approach to explore school leaders' identity construction as it was shaped and…

The aim of this study was to identify family resilience characteristics in families in which a child has been bullied, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Forty-eight mothers represented their families and completed a biographical questionnaire containing an open-ended question, and seven self-report questionnaires. Results from the…

This paper addresses the affective human experiences in terms of the emotions of South African teacher-students while attaining computer competencies for teaching and learning, and for ODL. The full mixed method study investigated how computers contribute towards affective experiences of disadvantaged teacher-students. The purposive sample related…

As an academic institution that is still in its early phases of organisational growth, Monash University, South Africa does not have a pool of postgraduate students that can be utilised for teaching assistance in units with large groups of students. This necessitated the selection of high-calibre honours candidates and third-year students that…