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62 apply to anyone in this study.
It is always assumed that the better the symbol the more likelihood a student has of successfully completing their diploma, preferably within the minimum time allowed. Unfortunately this is too often not the case. In this study, only one subject, a science and mathematics orientated one, was being investigated and not the entire Diploma course, so only Physics and Mathematics symbols were requested. In addition, since there are a large number of second language students being accepted into the system, it was decided that the English symbol may also be relevant.
Other languages and their symbols were requested as well. Hence, the second part was simply a request to elicit whether a student was using English passed as either a first or a second
language.
The third sub part was to determine in which ethnic group a student fell. There are four main ethnic groups in South Africa, these being Black, White, Coloured and Indian. As mentioned in Chapter 1.7.1 the racial divide of the class was fairly typical of the countrywide racial divide, except that there are more Indians in KZN due to history of immigration. However there are other minority groups outside these four categories, hence an “other” option was included.
The fourth item in this section was to determine the highest qualification of the students’ parents or guardians. This part was divided into three broad categories: less than grade 12, grade 12 or greater than grade 12. Generally it was assumed that better educated parents are more likely to encourage their children to obtain a good education. In a report by Lam et al. (2010, p.11) comprising of 4752 people aged 14-22 from the Cape Area Panel Study, of which 48% were coloured, 32% African/black and 19% white, the “mothers and fathers of African youth have around four years less schooling than the parents of white youth, with father’s schooling missing for 44% of Africans” (i.e. parent is not co-resident in household). In it they suggest that parental education can have a significant impact on the probability of secondary school leavers enrolling for tertiary education (ibid, p.19).
The fifth statement was simply to determine if a student was repeating the subject. Since the pass rate in this subject is generally in the region of 40 to 60%, it is expected that a fairly substantial portion of the class would be repeat students. This, theoretically, should give those students a fairly good chance of passing as they had seen and done the work already. They also had the advantage of being able to carry over their practical marks (Durban Institute of
63 Technology, 2006a, p.8), thus reducing their workload.
Finally the last statement in this section requested students to indicate what percentage they were hoping to achieve in this subject. It was envisaged that this would give them a specific goal to work towards.
3.9.2 Information Exchange
The second section was to get some idea of how much students used modern means of information exchange. It was divided into two parts, the first being computers and their use.
This had two questions, the first one being to determine the most likely and most common place where access was gained to a computer and the second statement was to get a feel for how much time students accessing information in a week outside the computer laboratory sessions. Some of the uses may include those mentioned in Chapter 2.2.3 and Chapter 2.2.4.3. O’Brien &
Symons (2007, p.412) cite one university in Canada, with over 4000 full-time students, providing each student with a laptop to use for their studies. If that is the future trend South Africa has a long way to go.
The second part, also with two statements, was to determine if students owned a cell phone or other similar device, and to what means they used it. Since the modern cell phone can be used to perform numerous tasks other than simply chatting, verbally or textually, they can be a powerful tool to assist students in finding valuable, or otherwise, information, including internet
browsing. They can also waste a student’s time and be a significant distraction during lectures and other formal contact times. Lipscomb, et al. (2005, pp. 50,52), in a study of 383 cell phone users in the United States included in their study etiquette of cell phone use, including in university lessons. Their findings indicate that students in general agreed that it was
inappropriate to use them during lessons. This was in agreement with other studies considering inappropriate use in class ((Wise, 2003; Moore et al., 2002; Rosmeyer, 2002), as cited in Lipscomb, et al., 2005, pp. 49-50). Another concern is the use of cell phones to cheat in exams (Batiste, 2004; ‘Lesson no. 1’, 2004; Roberts, 2004), as cited in Lipscomb, et al., 2005, p.50), a growing concern at many Institutions in South Africa, including the DUT.
3.9.3 Library Use
This section was included in an attempt to find out how much use students made of the library
64 facilities. There were four statements. The first was to see if they had ever done a library
orientation course. All students should do this during their first few weeks on campus, as mentioned in Chapter 2.2.3. The second question was to find out if they had ever requested the assistance of any of the librarians listed in their learner guide (Thurbon, 2006b, p.9) during visits to the library. In their study of library use O’Brien & Symons (2007, p.414) found that
“science students (49%) were more likely than other students (humanities, 22%; social science, 30%; professional studies, 24%) to never consult a librarian or visit the reference desk” and that 23% of science students never used the library to find books or journals. They also found that science students were the least confident in both finding relevant information and knowing how to find the material (ibid, p.418). The third and fourth statements were to determine the
frequency with which they used the library and if so to what use do they put it.
It is noted here that the Researcher failed to ask one of the most important questions and that was to see if students utilized past papers, an important resource, to assist in their studying and revision for tests and examinations. This oversight was dealt with by adding it to the interview questionnaire.
3.9.4 Subject Specifics
This section had two parts to it. The first part consisted of two statements relating to notes and textbooks, to determine their primary source of data, other than their class note taking. As mentioned in Chapter 2.2.2 they have the option of either photocopying a set of basic but comprehensive notes provided in the library, possibly for financial reasons, or they can purchase the recommended book. However, it was explained to students at the beginning of the semester that this prescribed book is often not enjoyed by the first-time user, but is an excellent reference once one has got an understanding for the subject. An alternate book often preferred by first- time users, was a book previously prescribed for this subject and subsequent follow-on subjects, costing approximately the same as the current prescribed book, although earlier editions of it did not cover all the sections required for the follow-on subjects, hence the current recommended book. There are many other good thermodynamics books available in the library that students can utilize if they so wish.
The second part of this section dealt with how much time, in hours, students devote to studying thermodynamics per week, what type of activities they do during this time and finally what
65 portion, as a percentage of this time, is spent on each activity.
In a study of college students in Nigeria by Emenalo (1989, p.18) he found that students did not spend enough time studying at around two hours per student per week, done at week-ends.
Student study time varies quite considerably and is likely to be dependent on the discipline. Rau and Durand (2000) (as cited in Plant, Ericsson, Hill, & Asberg (2005, p.97) reported students study time at the University of Michigan to be 25 hours per week, but was not necessarily
“representative of students in most large state universities”. They further report that whereas students at the Illinois State University studied only eight hours per week, “real benefits were only seen for students studying over 14h/week”, which was only done by 25% of the students. If one averages the study time for a typical semester consisting of five subjects at the DIT, that would equate to anywhere between one and a half and five hours per week per subject. In Plant, Ericsson, Hill, & Asberg’s (2005) study they suggest that it is not only the quantity of study time that can affect the improvement of grades, but also the quality of study, as described in Chapter 2.1.8, with less study time required to achieve the same result for better quality study.
3.9.5 Practical Experience/Exposure
This part dealt with what students had done since leaving school. Atherton (2002b, para.9) refers to what a large difference industrial exposure can have to “students’ learning”.
The first question was simply to see if students had worked, in whatever form, since leaving school. Working often leads to increased maturity and responsibility, and can be a major motivating factor for students to succeed. Kuh (2010, para4) says that work experience can help a student obtain valuable workplace skills such as “teamwork and time management” and that several colleges in the United States actually encourage it (ibid, para5). However, gaining appropriate work profession related work can often be more difficult.
The next two questions dealt with firstly, an exposure to engineering in general, students being requested to specify the type of engineering exposed to. Secondly students were requested to state if they had been exposed more specifically to any thermodynamic equipment or situations in any working environment and then to list what areas those were, such as boiler plant, refrigeration or air-conditioning, engines, compressors or any other related equipment. This form of exposure can be a great motivating factor in that students can then relate to what is
66 talked about or conceptualised in class. Without this exposure students often feel alienated, and since large items of machinery cannot be brought into the classroom for demonstrations, they do not relate to the equipment under analysis.
3.9.6 Study Techniques
The last part of the survey revolved around how students go about their learning. It consisted of two parts. The first part related to a table considering learning styles together with a statement and the second part was a series of eight statements, with multiple choice answers for each.
The first part, the table was to find out what a student’s preferred learning style was. Early ideas were influenced by Felder and Soloman’s ILS (Felder, & Soloman, 2005), having four groups of opposing styles of learners, namely sensing and intuitive, visual and verbal, active and reflective and sequential and global. This was in part due to the Researcher’s having attended a two day workshop run by Felder and Brent in 1999, as highlighted in Chapter 2, but also because many of the students who had utilized their surveys were engineering students.
However, the feeling was that students would be unfamiliar with the terminology mentioned by Felder and Soloman without detailed explanation, hence a simpler approach was embarked upon. The VARK model, as discussed in Chapter 2.1.4.1., was chosen as it was something that students could probably relate to without much prompting. Students could add further
dimension to them by choosing more than one, ranking them if they wished, by simply filling in the last column of the table. The statement below the table was simply to determine if students had indeed visited a web-site to determine their own learning style preferences as suggested in their learner guide (Thurbon, 2006b, p.9).
The last six statements revolved around the “how” and “what” students do in going about their general daily routines when learning new work. The first, relating to group work, has become popularised in the literature as a learning format, as mentioned in Chapter 2.2.6 and encouraged by the CCFO’s of SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority, 2001, p.24). It has also been observed by the Researcher during interactions in and out of the classroom with students.
Boehler et al. (2001, pp.269) reports that students who studied in groups showed a slightly higher score compared to those who didn’t. Plant, Ericsson, Hill, & Asberg (2005, p.101) suggest “choosing study environments with a low probability of distraction (e.g., studying alone in the library)” for better quality study, as described in Chapter 2.1.8.
67 The second statement mentioned note-taking, done by almost every student. How they go about doing this is probably an acquired and preferred style. Some of the alternatives that students may use were mentioned in Chapter 2.1.8. Boehler et al. (2001, pp.270) investigated ways that their students take notes during lectures, described in Chapter 2.1.8. As all the students in the class are generally seen taking notes themselves, with no one recording lectures, only the rewriting and adding to notes was considered along with its frequency.
The third statement related to the student’s Learner Guide (Thurbon, 2006b), as mentioned in Chapter 3.8.3 in reference to the programme specific and subject learning outcomes, highlighted in Appendices L and W. It is mandatory to hand the Learner Guide out at the beginning of every semester for each subject. They contain detailed information about the subject, the lecturer, the purpose, the requirements, the assessments and assessment criteria, reference material, rules and policies and so on. The Researcher always goes through it in class in detail, pointing out
important and relevant information, and any future queries associated with the information therein are directed straight back to the document. They are thus important sources of
information for students and should be consulted as and when necessary. Students who fall foul of DIT rules often do so despite having the information in the study guide and rarely realise it until they are found guilty of the offence.
The next two statements were associated with the tutorials and the attendance thereof. It has been noticed in recent years that student attendance at the tutorials has dropped. To assume that this is because the students have completed all their work and know exactly what’s going on is somewhat wishful thinking. Emenalo (1989, p. 18) concluded that there were no tutorials but that they are “very powerful aid to teaching” and recommended that they should be a
compulsory component of the teaching.
The last statement on what students do before a test was put in somewhat facetiously. The Researcher had tried all the methods suggested in the survey during his own years as a student, as most students surely have, not always with successful outcomes. It was interesting to note what answers would be given to this question.
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