Developing a model for promoting physical fitness and healthy lifestyle of primary school learners in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Gomwe, Howard
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Physical fitness for children -- South Africa Physical education for children Schools -- Health promotion services
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , Nursing
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/10050 , vital:35307
- Description: The challenge of low level participation in physical activity and, consequently, limited physical fitness has been acknowledged as being a national public health concern in South African schools. The main aim of this study was to develop a behavioural model for promoting physical fitness and healthy lifestyle of primary school learners in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. The first thing was to determine their physical fitness level and body composition then develop a behavioural model based on the findings. The study was conducted in three phases. A quantitative, qualitative and theory-generating research design was conducted using questionnaires, deductive and inductive strategies and literature triangulation. The study involved primary school learners: 356 boys and 520 girls aged 9-14 years old, who were randomly selected. Anthropometric assessments were conducted using ISAK (Marfell-Jones et al., 2006) and EUROFIT (1988) test batteries.The following measurements of body mass, stature, skinfolds (triceps and subscapular), waist circumference and gluteal were taken. The percent BF was calculated from a sum of two skinfolds (triceps and subscapular), using Slaughter et al.‘ s (1988) equation to predict body fat. Physical fitness measurements included sit and reach, push-ups, sit-ups and a 20 metre shuttle run. Physical activity level and sedentary behaviour were assessed by means of self-report questionnaires. Demographic, psychological and environmental variables were also measured by a self-report questionnaire. Six focus group discussions were conducted with school learners. The physical fitness levels were categorized as hypoactive, minimal active and inactive. Sedentary behaviours were categorized by number of minutes spent on sedentary activities. Dietary intake was assessed by a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Food intake was classified as healthy, unhealthy/junk and traditional food. Body composition was measured by calculating body mass index (BMI) (weight/height2) and waist-to-hip ratio, respectively. Categories: underweight: 0<18, normal weight: 18, 5<25, overweight: 25<30 or obese: 30 and blood pressure measurements were classified as healthy and unhealthy. The main findings were as follows: underweight 60, 25 percent: normal weight 30, 54 percent: overweight 4, 18 percent: and obese 5, 02 percent: for the peri-urban school learners. Underweight 64, 78 percent: normal 31, 52 percent: overweight 2,83 percent: and obesity 0,87 percent:for the rural school learners. 56,25 percent underweight: 36,93 percent normal weight: 5,68 percent overweight: and 1,14 percent obese for the urban school learners. The mean body mass of learners from three locations were urban 40.0±10.185; peri-urban 39.8±10.181 and rural 38.7±10.279, respectively. (Chi-square = 3.3107; P=0.191). The mean values stature of all the three residences are urban; 144.1 ±10.400 peri-urban 144.4±9.187 and rural 143.7±12.617 (Chi-square = 1.2651; P=0.5312). The mean waist circumference for urban was (78.4±9.493), peri-urban (78.4±9.399) and rural was (77.1±10.214), respectively (Z=2.474;p=0.2903). The triceps value (z=21.4565p <.0001). Urban (13.9±5.589), (12.5±6.023) for peri-urban and (12.1±6.390) for rural. Subscapular (z=4.1151;p=0.1278). Urban area had (9.3±5.426), (9.3±5.463) for peri-urban and (8.9±6.381) for rural. The mean systolic blood pressure of urban school learners was (109.2±19.512), (107.9±19.273) for peri-urban and (107.4±19.488) for rural school learners. Lumbar and hamstring flexibility (z= 57.733; p<.0001). (25.3±5.507) for urban, (23.0±6.435) for peri-urban and (26.9±6.854) for rural. Sit-up (z=9.8414;p=0.0073). (18.3±12.571) for urban, (19.7±12.323) for peri-urban and (21.7±13.782) for rural area. Push-ups (z= 37.7591p=<.00001). (15.8±10.285) for urban, (18.5±11.086) for peri-urban and (20.9±9.981) for rural area. Maximal oxygen intake (z= 163.186p=<.0001). (25.0±6.454) for urban, (29.9±7.225) for peri-urban and (35.5±11.085) for rural area. PA enjoyment (4.1±0.698) for urban, (4.0±0.764) for peri-urban, (4.0±0.799) for rural. With regard to health-related physical fitness, the learners in the rural and peri-urban better than those in urban areas. PA attitude (z=7.5507;p=0.0563), (2.5±0.792) for urban area, (2.6±0.802) for peri-urban and (2.7±0.890) for rural area. Parental role modelling in PA (z=0.3083; p=<.000). (3.1±1.008) for urban area, (3.3±0.916) for peri-urban (3.1±0.981) for rural area. Peer encouragement (z=2.5367; p=0.2813) (3.4±0.893) for urban, (3.3±1.064) for peri-urban, (3.3±1.005) for rural area. Parental encouragement (z= 7.2266p=0.027),(3.7±0.985) for urban area, (3.5±0.906) for peri-urban and (3.7±0.774 ) for rural area. Teacher encouragement (z=2.0069p=0.3668).The mean values for three residences are (3.5±0.802) for urban area, (3.4±0.784) for peri-urban, (3.5±0.733) for rural areas. Most of the school learners in all the three residences prefer unhealthy/junky food. Based on the results, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on data to identify and analyse the factors for model development. The findings indicated that there is evidence of low level of physical fitness and high prevalence of excessive weight and obesity among primary school learners, the study, therefore, suggests the development of the behavioural model to enhance physical fitness and prevent or reduce overweight/obesity among school learners.
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- Date Issued: 2018
The supervisor’s tale: postgraduate supervisors’ experiences in a changing Higher Education environment
- Authors: Searle, Ruth Lesley
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Graduate students -- Supervision of -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Archer, Margaret Scotford -- Political and social views , Critical realism , Knowledge, Sociology of , Dissertations, Academic , Faculty advisors -- South Africa , Education -- Study and teaching (Graduate) -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Graduate work
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1331 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019952
- Description: The environment in which higher education institutions operate is changing, and these changes are impacting on all aspects of higher education, including postgraduate levels. Changes wrought by globalisation, heralded by rapid advances in technology have inaugurated a new era in which there are long term consequences for higher education. The shift towards more quantitative and measurable "outputs" signifies a fundamental change in the educational ethos in institutions. Effectiveness is now judged primarily on numbers of graduates and publications rather than on other aspects. The drive is to produce a highly educated population, especially through increasing postgraduates who can drive national innovation and improve national economies. This affects academics in a range of ways, not least in the ways in which they engage in teaching, what they are willing to do and how they do it. Such changes influence the kinds of research done, the structures and funding which support research, and thus naturally shapes the kinds of postgraduate programmes and teaching that occurs. This study, situated in the field of Higher Education Studies, adopting a critical realist stance and drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and the concepts of expert and novice, explores the experiences of postgraduate supervisors from one South African institution across a range of disciplines. Individual experiences at the level of the Empirical and embodied in practice at the level of the Actual allow for the identification of possible mechanisms at the level of the Real which structure the sector. The research design then allows for an exploration across mezzo, macro and micro levels. Individuals outline their own particular situations, identifying a number of elements which enabled or constrained them and how, in exercising their agency, they develop their strategies for supervision drawing on a range of different resources that they identify and that may be available to them. Student characteristics, discipline status and placement, funding, and the emergent policy environment are all identified as influencing their practice. In some instances supervisors recognise the broader influences on the system that involve them in their undertaking, noting the international trends. Through their narratives and the discourses they engage a number of contradictions that have developed in the system with growing neo-liberal trends and vocationalism highlighting tensions between academic freedom and autonomy, and demands for productivity, efficiency and compliance, and between an educational focus and a training bias in particular along with others. Especially notable is how this contributes to the current ideologies surrounding knowledge and knowledge production. Their individual interests and concerns, and emergent academic identities as they take shape over time, also modifies the process and how individual supervisors influence their own environments in agentic moves becomes apparent. Whilst often individuals highlight the lack of support especially in the early phases of supervision, the emergent policy-constrained environment is also seen as curtailing possibilities and especially in limiting the possibilities for the exercise of agency. Whilst the study has some limitations in the range and number of respondents nevertheless the data provided rich evidence of how individual supervisors are affected, and how they respond in varied conditions. What is highlighted through these experiences are ways pressures are increasing for both supervisors and students and changing how they engage. Concerns in particular are raised about the growing functional and instrumental nature of the process with an emphasis on the effects on the kinds of researchers being developed and the knowledge that is therefore being produced. As costs increase for academics through the environments developed and with the varied roles they take on so they become more selective and reluctant to expand the role. This research has provided insights into ideas, beliefs and values relating to the postgraduate sector and to the process of postgraduate supervision and how it occurs. This includes the structures and cultural conditions that enable or constrain practitioners as they develop in the role in this particular institution. It has explored some of the ways that mechanisms at international, national and institutional levels shape the role and practices of supervisors. The effects of mechanisms are in no way a given or simply understood. In this way the research may contribute to more emancipatory knowledge which could be used in planning and deciding on emergent policies and practices which might create a more supportive and creative postgraduate environment.
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- Date Issued: 2015
An empirical phenomenological investigation of procrastinating behaviour
- Authors: Barratt, Neal Anthony
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Procrastination Self-actualization (Psychology) Cognitive psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2929 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002438
- Description: A qualitative empirical phenomenological study was undertaken to determine the self-experience of procrastinating behaviour. Five students each gave an account of an occasion when they procrastinated. The resultant protocols were analysed and the Situated Structure of each individual’s experience was reported. From these, the General Structure of procrastinating behaviour was determined. A further, novel step was added to the standard methodology, whereby ‘themes’ were extracted from participant protocols and a ‘Composite Reality’ of everyday-life procrastination was rendered. Participants’ accounts suggest they are concerned the results of intellectual tasks they undertake will be seen as equivalent to their quality of being-as-an-individual: poor work results will be interpreted by important-others as evidence of participants’ poor quality of self – which is to be avoided. This study suggests that procrastination is a ploy used by individuals to avoid criticism, by deflecting assessment of their capacity to complete a task well, to instead, what they are capable of when only a limited time is available. Conclusions drawn by the important-others of participants’ true ability are thereby confounded. The results achieved in the phenomenological study were compared with others originating from various quantitative studies, and considerable overlap was found. The experiential richness of the phenomenological results point to a worthwhile methodological strategy for future procrastination research.
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- Date Issued: 2010
Urban agriculture: advocacy and practice: a discursive study with particular reference to three Eastern Cape centres
- Authors: Webb, Nigel Leigh
- Date: 1997
- Subjects: Urban agriculture -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Land use, Urban -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Agriculture -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2095 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002658
- Description: The purpose of this thesis is to explain the continued advocacy of 'urban agriculture' (UA) in the literature in the face of the seemingly modest role played by cultivation in practice. The analytical framework adopted isrthat of discourse, the theoretical underpinnings of which are derived from the early works of Foucault, and applications such as those of Escobar (1989; 1991) and Ferguson (1990). Using a discursive orientation involves two main tasks - an explanation of how 'UA' has gained some prominence and the man~er in which its currency is able to be maintained. The investigation included an in-depth analysis of the literature and empirical research in th!"e~Eastern Cape centres. The function of the empirical findings is to expose the discourse, as well as to extend the empirical base relating to 'urban agricultural' research in general. The thesis suggests that the growth in interest in 'UA' is a result of a Foucaultian "gap" opening in the discourse. Changes in the conceptualisation of development, the rise-in prominence of the urban poor and emerging ecodevelopment views, among others, have given proponents of "UA' greater room for manoeuvre. However, most case studies promote 'UA' despite providing little evidence of its role in household welfare. The way the discourse maintains its' currency is in the manner in which the objects of 'UA' are constituted. Firstly, the people are characterised as poor, largely divorced from their rural origins, and mainly female. Each of these assertions is questioned on the basis of the literature itself and the empirical findings. Secondly, in the practice of cultivation, emphasis is placed on the inputs used, and the crops that are produced. The treatment of both the inputs and the crops by the literature is cursory. Investigations show that land availability, garden size and irrigation water are e~pecially problematic and vegetable consumption remains low. Four types of alleged benefit associated with 'UA' are analysed - environmental and ecological, psychological and social, financial, and nutritional. In each case commonly held assumptions are undermined by closer investigation. Thus, the thesis contends that the role played by cultivation is a modest one. Most of the claims made on behalf of 'UA' are more congruent with development discourse than actual cultivation practice.
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- Date Issued: 1997
Vocabulary proficiency in English of students in the primary teachers' certificate course
- Authors: Harlech-Jones, Brian Arthur
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: English language -- Study and teaching (Elementary) Vocabulary -- Study and teaching (Elementary)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1903 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006347
- Description: This work investigates vocabulary proficiency in English of a group of students in the Primary Teacher's Certificate course. It is shown that this is the major certification course for teachers in Black education in South Africa, and, that primary school teachers are the major source of English for Black pupils for a considerable period, if not for the duration of their school education. The quality of the teachers' English thus has a major influence on that used by the pupils. In addition to the established needs for proficiency in a national and international medium such as English, it is emphasized that , with the increasing use of English as a medium of instruction, a lack of proficiency will adversely affect general scholastic achievement. The investigation proceeds by two means: (1) a series of vocabulary tests and (2) an error analysis (lexis and morphology) , based on scripts produced by the same group to whom the tests were administered. Prior to the presentation of the tests and the results and conclusions, there is a discussion of what constitutes vocabulary. This is introduced by a discussion of the dichotemy 'structure/lexis', primarily by reference to the writings on structuralism by Charles Fries - This discussion shows that the progress in vocabulary study is intimately related to the as-yet undeveloped state of investigations into the semantics of the language . There is a referenoe to the role of frequency-counts in vocabulary teaching with specific reference to Michael West's General Service List of English Words. In the absence of other prescribed standards of attainment in vocabulary, the General Service List serves as control for the tests , and is itself under examination as a possible major resource for vocabulary teaching. It is shown that structuralism has produced the instructional method known as 'audio- lingualism', which has gained wide credence, not least in the educational system through which the subjects of this study have passed. The contributions and defects of this method are discussed , with particular reference to its deleterious effect on vocabulary teaching. It is shown that vocabulary teaching becomes increasingly important in the later stages of language learning. There is reference to the current emphasis on ' commununicative' language teaching/learning, and it is shown that a major area of application is in the presentation of materials which embody an across-the-curriculum approach. The Pre- Tests are concerned only with the four major 'parts of speech ' and use only items from the General Service List ('G.S.L'). A particular feature is the development of tests based on the 'partial productivity of lexical rules' , which proved significantly effective in distinguishing between testees of high and low proficiency . The Final Tests, compiled from items which discriminated successfully in the Pre-Tests , are presented , and a Post- Final Test form of ultimately successful items is provided. There is a brief theoretical discussion of Error Analysis, and this is followed by the presentation of the categorization of lexical and morphological errors extracted from a corpus produced by the same group which provided subjects for the tests . There is comment on this categorization, which points to both the usefulness and shortcomings of such data . Amongst the conclusions and recommendations are the following: that vocabulary teaching has languished, both because of present inadequacies in semantic investigation, and because of the predominance of structuralism; that vocabulary teaching is important throughout , but particularly in the post-initial stages ; that word-counts (specifically the G. S. L.)have a valuable place in vocabulary teaching, as controls, prompts and suppliers of resource material ; that there is a wide range of proficiency amongst these subjects , even within the limits of a word-count such as the G.S.L. (the most frequent 2000 'words ' in English , with a samantic count, and related items formed by various processes) ; that this range of proficiency and the shortcomings shown are disturbing in teachers- in- training , who are also in their eleventh and twelfth years of formal instruction in English; that there is further cause for concern when it is remembered that their pupils will need English for success in a number of subjects , and will be instructed in English mainly by teachers. drawn from this group ; that there is some evidence of a relationship between vocabulary proficiency and the frequency of items in the G.S .L. (reinforcing the suggesting that the G.S .L. is a useful ' teaching tool ' ) ; that the categorization of errors shows that mastery of the · contents of the G. S. L. would , in theory , eliminate the great majority of errors attested in the categorization, and that mastery of even the most common areas of lexis and lexical formation cannot and should not be taken for granted; and that acquaintance with the contents of a word frequency-count , and with categorizations of errors , will sharpen teachers' perceptions as to the nature of their task and the directions in which vocabulary teaching should proceed.
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- Date Issued: 1981