Faculty of Education
School of Educational Studies
Department of Educational Psychology
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Self-regulation (setting goals for oneself, being motivated to achieve those goals and having confidence in one’s ability to do so) has a significant influence on academic achievement.
To date, research on the subject has paid relatively little attention to the role of emotional factors in the development of self-regulation. Dr Salome Human-Vogel is conducting research that will help to address this shortcoming.
The objective of her research is to determine how undergraduate and postgraduate students perceive the relationship between self-regulation and positive emotional experiences (such as feeling optimistic and hopeful about the future).
As an initial step towards achieving this objective, the Conceptions of Self-Regulation instrument was developed. This instrument is a questionnaire containing statements about the causal relationships between numerous variables.
Respondents then have to select those statements that most accurately describe their perceptions. Their responses provide an indication of their mental models regarding the connection between positive emotional experiences and self-regulation – for instance, whether they believe optimism leads to goal-setting, goal-setting leads to optimism, or that there is no relationship between these two variables.
The instrument is currently in the process of being tested and refined. Initial findings suggest that learners do indeed consider positive subjective experiences to be significant potential mediators in the development of self-regulation.
Dr S Human-Vogel
Educational Psychology
+27 (0) 12 420 2770
salome.human@up.ac.za
Disadvantaged communities in South Africa are confronted with numerous challenges related to HIV/AIDS. Because of widespread poverty, many people infected with HIV are unable to follow a healthy diet or visit a clinic to obtain treatment.
The stigma associated with the disease also discourages many people from disclosing their HIV status, while a lack of knowledge and information about the disease prevents those who do disclose their status from receiving appropriate support.
Educators are frequently in a prime position to help the communities surrounding their schools to stand up to these challenges. A study was conducted amongst educators in the Eastern Cape Province to explore ways in which they could mobilise assets and resources within their communities to cope more effectively with HIV/AIDS.
The study led to a number of encouraging success stories. For instance, educators were empowered to visit HIV-infected community members at home on a regular basis.
During these visits, they offer advice and prayer, and also distribute hampers containing clothing, dietary supplements and vegetables. A vegetable garden was cultivated to stock these hampers, and is being managed by parents.
An information centre was also established in which educators provide community members with advice on issues such as diet, supplements, basic hygiene and the procedure of applying for a disability grant.
A general consequence of these interventions has been to increase parents’ involvement with the school, to establish the reputation of the educators and the school as a source of support, and to reduce people’s unwillingness to disclose their HIV status.
Ms R Ferreira
Educational Psychology
+27 (0) 12 420 5504
ronel.ferreira@up.ac.za
The technique of constructing memory boxes originated in Uganda, where it was used by women who were HIV-positive to create a means by which their children could remember them after they were gone.
They used a variety of containers to create memory boxes; inside of these, they would place various articles, such as photographs, a family tree, a poem for the child, a letter containing advice or outlining the mother’s aspirations for her child’s future, key documents such as a birth certificate, objects that evoked memories, and the like.
The advantages of memory-box-making as a way of helping people deal with loss, trauma, grieving and bereavement has since come to the attention of community workers and development organisations, who have introduced it into other parts of Africa.
Research was conducted at the University to evaluate the use of memory-box-making in an educational setting to support coping, specifically in the context of HIV/AIDS.
One study concentrated on its use as a means of assessing children’s psychological assets. The study showed that memory-box-making can be used to ascertain strengths in vulnerable children, as well as to assess resources in their environment.
Another study focused on volunteer workers’ experience of memory-box-making, and found that they were able to master the skill with relative ease. They were then able to apply the technique in their own working environment and teach it to other volunteer workers. A particular advantage of memory-box-making appears to be the fact that it can be applied without extensive knowledge of its underlying theory.
A third study assessed educators’ application of the technique with groups of learners during formal class time. The results indicate that educators could utilise memory-box-making as a means of establishing a more caring and warm class atmosphere.
Educators reported that the technique improved their insight and empathy regarding learners, while learners became more at ease sharing their feelings. Nevertheless, educators sometimes felt ill-equipped to deal with intense emotions that arose during the process.
Dr L Ebersöhn
Educational Psychology
+ 27 (0) 12 420 2337
liesel.ebersohn@up.ac.za
Traditional views regarding families are being challenged by the increasing prevalence of non-conventional family arrangements. A study was conducted to explore the experience of children growing up in same-gendered families.
The study focused on eight children (four girls and four boys) from five families. The ages of the children ranged from nine to 19 years. In-depth interviews were conducted with these children, and transcripts of the interviews were subjected to qualitative analysis.
The analysis revealed significant differences as well as similarities among the research participants. Among the differences was the fact that they experienced varying levels of open-mindedness among their friends and other significant individuals with whom they interact in their daily lives.
Reactions to the idea of same-gendered families ranged from openness and acceptance, to uneasiness, to outright teasing and mocking. The children also exhibited differences in their degree of “okayness” with the experience of having same-gendered parents.
Their level of okayness depended on the support they received from parents, friends, siblings and other children in similar circumstances, and influenced their willingness to disclose the nature of their family constellation to others.
Disclosure, in turn, appears to affect a child’s okayness: when a child from a same-gendered family senses uneasiness on the part of friends, he or she may choose to discuss the matter openly as a way of making them feel more okay.
Their okayness encourages openness within the friendship as well as in other significant relationships. A common denominator amongst all eight children was that they were acutely aware of the propensity of people to react in diverse ways to the notion of same-gendered couples.
This awareness has endowed them with unusual sensitivity that characterises all their interactions with other people.
Dr C Lubbe
Educational Psychology
+27 (0) 12 420 2765
carien.lubbe@up.ac.za
The rate at which mobile technologies are being adopted in Africa is among the highest in the world, with estimates suggesting that there may be as many as 100 million mobile telephone users on the continent.
Most students at the Unit for Distance Education in the Faculty of Education are from remote rural areas in South Africa where infrastructure is almost completely lacking. Nevertheless, the majority of them have mobile telephones. M-learning therefore holds out significant promise as a means of servicing distance students in South Africa.
Students at the Unit already receive administrative support via Short Message Services (SMS). This service has recently been expanded for students enrolled for the Advanced Certificate in Education (Special Needs Education).
In addition to administrative support, the expanded service also offers four types of asynchronous learning support: instructional messages pertaining to course content, quizzes, messages prompting students to ask questions via reply SMS, and pre-recorded mini-lectures that students may receive over the telephone.
Carl du Preez and Jeannie-Marie Viljoen, the program leaders, have initiated a study to determine how adult learners experience the use of academic SMS as a learning support tool.
Their experiences are assessed by means of questionnaires and telephonic interviews, and preliminary results indicate that the service contributes meaningfully to learning.
The results of this study may contribute towards the delivery of quality m-learning interventions to student populations that are otherwise excluded from the e-learning environment.
Mr CS Du Preez
Ms J-M Viljoen
Educational Psychology
+27 (0) 12 420 5506
carl.dupreez@up.ac.za
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