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Teachers are expected to be self-directed and to instil in their learners the ability to self-regulate their own learning processes. There are however personal and contextual factors that promote or inhibit teachers' abilities to develop self-regulated learning skills. This study was conducted in two South African secondary township schools and in two Namibian rural secondary schools. Twenty-eight, conveniently and purposively selected teachers participated. This interpretive basic qualitative study was intended to provide food for thought about the perceptions of South African and Namibian teachers regarding the development of self-regulated learning skills, differences in their perceptions as well as consistencies and inconsistencies between their perceptions and their actual teaching practices. Data were collected via observations and semistructured interviews. The results indicate a need for interventions to train practising teachers to be activators and facilitators of selfregulated learning (SRL) skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to accentuate the value of reflective practices in the lived experiences and professional development of a teacher educator and a nursing educator at a higher education institution in South Africa. Reflective practice promotes the continuous (re)creation of local knowledge through a critical reflection on beliefs, assumptions, experiences and practices in order to identify successful strategies for teaching practice, reflect upon challenges, adapt, and evolve their practice. Reflective practice encapsulates a process of continuous learning and growth that not only resonates with pedagogical and methodological viewpoints and also ontological and epistemological situatedness and is at the same time aligned with national and institutional aims and requirements. In this self-study project based on LaBoskey's five characteristics of self-study, educators in higher education become both the researcher and the researched and the emphasis of the research is on the self as a theorist, researcher and practitioner. The authors explore and elucidate their journey of discovery towards the various dimensions of their reflective practice through a critical evaluation of their teaching and learning theory and of their teaching and assessment strategies. Both authors have been awarded institutional teaching excellence awards. This article contributes to their joint discourse on higher education as well as their conceptualization of their respective scholarships of teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This interpretive study is situated within a qualitative paradigm. The sample included four education faculties in South Africa. Data collection instruments comprised of focus-group and semi-structured interviews. Data was collected from final-year BEd students and their lecturers. An interpretation drawn from the results of this article is that most lecturers still subscribe to outmoded, authoritarian ways of teaching. Affiliation to this retrograde pedagogy limits the development of a dialogic relation between the lecturer and the student; feeding the notion of passive learning. Teacher educators should possess a knowledge of various teaching and learning theories; a large repertoire of teaching strategies. It is recommended that monitoring tools be introduced to ensure that all teacher educators have, or are in the process of, using a broader selection of methodologies to empower, inspire and sustain development of teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paying attention to the planning of lessons represents a crucial teaching task. This paper analyses teachers' framing of lesson objectives and their descriptions of how they would introduce particular mathematics topics. Connections between the objectives and the instructional strategies employed, were also studied. The study involved 75 South African mathematics teachers who were teaching Grades 4-12, in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. These teachers completed a questionnaire asking them to reflect upon and describe their teaching practices with respect to a chosen topic. The findings revealed that setting up clear lesson objectives is not easily done with only 64.0% of the participants providing clear learning objectives. The findings also showed that teachers preferred introducing the topics using teacher-centred methods. It was also found that for more than half of the teachers, there were clear connections between lesson objectives and the introduction of the topic in the classroom whereas less than a quarter of them made connections between lesson objectives and teaching and assessment strategies. Teachers, as important drivers of education, should prioritize the setting of clear objectives around which coherent lessons can be developed so that their teaching can be more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of the worldwide trend to integrate indigenous knowledge (IK) in education disciplines and life orientation (LO) in education, South Africa is void of literature on IK and LO integration. This article investigated (1) the conceptual meanings of IK, LO and integration; (2) the dominant theory applicable during IK integration; (3) the main themes emerging from LO, IK and integration literature published in South Africa and abroad between 2000 to 2017; and (4) the lessons learnt to foreground IK and LO integration in South Africa. A systematic content analysis was done using ATLAS.ti version 8 (2015) to determine the themes, codes, co-occurrences, matching themes and networks grounded in the literature. Both inductive and deductive text analysis was done to identify, develop and consolidate the constructs and propositions obtained in the study. Broad themes identified and discussed were related to (1) the nature of LO, policies, content, challenges and teaching strategies; (2) the meaning of IK; (3) the philosophical differences of IK and LO, strengths and weaknesses of IK and LO, methods and partnerships and politics-scales-laws and policies. Considering the identified missing links in LO education, integrating IK and LO will strengthen the dual education processes in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, a woman is killed by a male partner every six hours, making South Africa's intimate femicide rate the highest, globally. Nurses are in a unique position to identify, assist and support women who are at risk or who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) when such women seek help. Unfortunately, nurses often fail to use this critical opportunity to break the cycle of violence because of a lack of confidence, skills and support systems. The purpose of the systematic review was to appraise learning needs and curricula of nurse education on intervention and prevention of intimate partner violence. A selection of electronic databases for the period 2009-2014 was used as data sources. The systematic review involved a computerised search of the selected databases to identify and assess published studies on nurse education curricula and learning programmes on intimate partner violence intervention and prevention. Of the 1 446 identified studies, 56 studies were initially identified for review and then reduced to 14 after excluding studies that did not meet the selection criteria. These articles were critically appraised with the use of a set of qualitative criteria. Studies reviewed identified the need for training nurses on their roles and responsibilities on IPV intervention and prevention and developing their core competencies in this domain. Studies also indicated the skills needed by nurse educators in the education and training of student nurses on IPV intervention and prevention. The key aspects of IPV curricula content that were positively accepted by nurses included knowledge, attitudinal and skills components, as well as environmental-, management- and systems components. A limitation of the study was the exclusion of domestic violence. While intimate partner violence and domestic violence overlap, it may well be that in the literature some studies may have focused on domestic violence prevention and intervention. The outcomes of this review gives insight into how nurse education and professional development can be structured in local- and international health care education settings for IPV intervention and prevention. Recommendations are offered for curriculum design and development for nurse educators and nurse education on IPV intervention and prevention. The findings of the study could contribute to developing nurse education curricula in local and international contexts to prevent and intervene in IPV as a global public health care phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]