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It is broadly acknowledged that, for quality management to be effective, it needs to be viewed and implemented as a dynamic and active process by people in an organisation, specifically its leaders. This study aimed to determine the level of leaders' commitment with regard to their perceptions and attitudes concerning quality management of training in corps training units within the South African Army. The Leader Perception and Attitude Scale was developed for this purpose. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 229 leaders at six of the eight South African Army's corps training units. Correlation coefficients were determined, and structural equation modelling was performed. The results indicated that leaders' attitudes had a statistically significant influence on their commitment (p < 0.001), whereas perceptions had no statistically significant influence (p = 0.488). The results contrast with previous studies, which have mostly indicated that perceptions influence employee commitment. By targeting leaders' attitudes, therefore, the South African Army may be able to design and implement appropriate strategies to improve leaders' commitment and thereby enhance training effectiveness. The potential usefulness of a scale that measures the level of commitment of leaders and is able to indicate the level of effect that perceptions and attitudes can have, may be of interest to other military settings and organisations that conduct in-house training.

This article reports on the development of a custom-made questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed with the aim to compile guidelines for the professional development (PD) of mathematics teachers for the pedagogical use of information and communication technology (ICT) integration in teaching and learning. During the standardisation and validation of the questionnaire it was distributed to 179 schools and 300 teachers in eight educational management districts in the Western Cape, South Africa. The extracted factors had a reliability level higher than 0.8, which indicates the items in the questionnaire are significant to address the research problem and the questionnaire is valid for ICT PD.

Purpose: An emphasis on school performance is not just a national issue, but must be examined within the global context. Successful leadership is ensured by school leaders' compliance to a set of basic practices within particular school contexts. The impact of leadership styles on performance, the work environment and job satisfaction is emphasized, while the appropriate leadership style could make teachers more effective in terms of job productivity. The adoption of different leadership styles by school leaders shows positive results with regard to school effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to describe school leadership styles and the influence the styles have on school performance. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach with a post-positive paradigm was followed. A systematic random sample of 72 secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was selected. The Cronbach's a coefficient, statistical significance (p-values) and effect size (d-values) were calculated, and a factor analysis was conducted. Findings: The results show a difference between teachers and principals regarding the transformational leadership style. The principals in the high-performing schools were perceived as less passive-avoidant in practice than those in the low-performing schools. A principal manages and leads a school effectively by applying an appropriate leadership style. Research limitations/implications: For future research, it will be advisable to make use of a mixed-method design. Although the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire addressed numerous aspects of leadership and leadership styles, the "voice" of the respondents lacked. Furthermore, more leadership styles could be investigated in different contexts. Practical implications: A chosen principal leadership style is not necessarily the best style for this purpose. School principals and teachers interpret leadership styles differently. Communication is therefore important. Social implications: The principal leadership style is not always necessarily the teachers' and learners' choice. It is important that schools keep up with a constantly changing world. Originality/value: If school principals and teachers agree upon a specific leadership style, there may be better collaboration which enhances better academic performance as well as effectiveness regarding schools.

This article reports on a secondary data analysis conducted on the South African mathematics teachers' dataset of the Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES 2006). The sample consisted of a stratified sample of 640 mathematics teachers from 504 randomly selected computer-using and non-computer-using schools that completed the SITES 2006 teachers' questionnaire, which investigated their pedagogical use of Information Communication Technology (ICT). The purpose of the current investigation was to investigate the level of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) of mathematics teachers, and how TPACK attributes contribute towards more effective Grade 8 mathematics teaching in South African schools, using the TPACK conceptual framework. The findings are presented according to the three clusters identified through the association between the main variables of the TPACK model and other variables on the SITES 2006 teachers' questionnaire: (1) impact of ICT use, (2) teacher practices and (3) barriers. A Cramér V of between 0.3 and 0.4 was considered to signal a medium effect that tended towards practically significant association, and a Cramér V of 0.4 or larger was considered to signal a large effect with practically significant association. The results indicate that the TPACK of mathematics teachers contributes towards more effective Grade 8 mathematics teaching in South African schools.

This paper reports on disadvantaged South African practising teachers' perceptions on computer literacy competencies while studying to improve their teaching qualifications. During the process of developing a learning technology integration framework for the School of Continuing Teacher Education at North-West University, South Africa, an initial exploratory survey identified issues and themes for systemic inquiry, in order to provide substance to the integration framework. The purposive sample related to a criterion-based selection of N=338 teacher-students attending supplementary computer literacy training sessions. Queues from the Technology Acceptance Model supplemented the questions intended to investigate enablers and barriers to learning technology adoption. The pragmatic approach was towards discovering which possible interventions could be introduced to enable adoption of technology in interaction and learning. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling produce a suggested parsimonious model relating to self-confidence, trust and perseverance in acquiring computer literacy. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

Increased concern about the low levels of literacy and numeracy among Grade 3 learners in South Africa is resulting in more emphasis being placed on the preparatory Grade R year. The level of learning readiness of pupils when entering formal teaching in Grade 1 is determined by perceptual motor stimulation that pupils received during the preschool phase. 'Learning readiness' can be influenced by the knowledge of teachers, teacher/child ratio, the availability of teaching aids, as well as the amount of space and time allocated to movement activities. The aim of the study recounted in this article was to determine the physical deficiencies that could negatively affect children's perceptual motor development and school readiness. Focus was placed on factors that influence perceptual motor development such as the training of teachers, availability of equipment and resources at schools with Grade R classes. Demographic information was collected with regards to; the qualification of teachers, the number of pupils, and intervention programmes that are offered at schools by outside institutions. A Likert scale questionnaire, with a combination of yes/no and open questions, was used and followed up by a personal interview. According to availability, 31 schools and 51 teachers were selected to participate in the research. Teachers of schools in developed areas and disadvantaged areas were involved in the study. The results of the study show that teachers are not sufficiently trained for the early child developmental needs within the education environment and that many schools are under-supplied in terms of resources and equipment. It is recommended that these teachers receive inservice training on learners' perceptual motor development and that the Department of Education should provide schools with resources and equipment to prevent these deficiencies in the education system.

South Africa consists of developed and developing contexts. This article reports on a study undertaken to determine the effect of a Perceptual--motor Intervention Programme in learning readiness of Grade R learners from deprived environments. Le Roux's Group Test for School Readiness was used as baseline assessments to establish the school readiness of Grade R learners from a deprived environment and to determine whether an effective intervention programme could rectify the shortcomings. The sample of the intervention group (n?=?21) and the control group (n?=?27) consisted of five to six-year-old learners. The experimental group (n?=?21) of a Grade R class in a quintile 1 school followed a 10-week perceptual-motor intervention programme, while another Grade R class from a quintile two school as control group was not exposed to perceptual--motor intervention. A mixed method was applied, within an interpretivistic research design. The outcomes of the research are as follows: the results of the school readiness test were analysed with an independent t-test before intervention, a dependent t-test on improvement over time and an ANCOVA controlling for pre-test scores on the post-test. The results showed improvement in the school readiness as the experimental group improved with 33.3% compared with 14.8% in the control group. The experimental group's standard deviation (SD) is 8.11 and control group's SD is 4.96. Qualitative information was obtained from interviews with teachers and observation at the schools. The research shows the benefit for young learners learning readiness if teachers focus on intensive intervention programmes to overcome backlogs of deprivation and that effective intervention programmes could rectify shortcomings before formal teaching in Grade 1 commences. Future research to follow up the outcomes of the intervention group as well as control group could lead to a longitudinal report on the effects of such an intervention programme. Future research could also focus on other aspects contributing to school readiness like social-emotional development of young learners.

A Hypercontextualized Game (HCG) is a locally designed game that supports its players in gathering context-specific information and in-depth understanding and knowledge regarding the context of a site. LIEKSAMYST, an exciting mobile application, with which visitors can play various games based on stories, was originally developed for the open-air section of the Pielinen Museum and is an example of such a hypercontextualized game. Each individual game (which together make up LIEKSAMYST) was developed in, for and with the co-operation of the Pielinen Museum. In its design, LIEKSAMYST purposefully attempts to connect users to the local history and thus promote affective engagement. With the co-operation of both a local school (Lieksan Keskuskoulu) and the museum authorities, we set out to discover how LIEKSAMYST guides the informal learning experience of Grade 7 pupils. We gathered information from 101 pupils on-site (through questionnaires) and used this data, as well as the pupils' academic grades, to elucidate our study by investigating the relationship between engagement and motivation. The data were analyzed using a quantitative method guided by a qualitative interpretational approach and we found a significant correlation between (a) fantasy and (b) affective and cognitive engagement. The study highlighted the importance of evoking and harnessing both affective and cognitive engagement, through the fundamental element of fantasy, in the game narrative.

Hosting events and festivals is the best way of providing the wine tourism experience. Wine festivals offer a wide range of experiences that are different from day-to-day living, offer a lifestyle package and are an indicator of lifestyle tourism experience. Tourists travel to wine festivals for wine and other leisure-related experiences, including opportunities for social and/or cultural experiences, interactivity and personal development. Therefore, wine festivals should provide an experience that can influence the quality of life (QoL) of the attending tourist. QoL is influenced by various life domains, which include social, leisure and recreational, intellectual, culinary, and travel life. By its nature, a wine festival is able to influence life domains, thereby decreasing or increasing the level of satisfaction with QoL, according to the level of satisfactory experience. The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of the wine festival experience on the QoL of attending tourists. The structural relationship between the wine festival experience on tourists' QoL is shown in a structural equation model (SEM), which is based on the notion that the QoL of attending tourists will be influenced by their level of satisfaction in various life domains. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed during the Wacky Wine Festival in Robertson South Africa. The data from 329 (N) eligible questionnaires was cleaned, captured and analysed using SPSS. Furthermore, Amos was used to test the structural model providing statistical support. From the study's findings, managerial recommendations were made with the aim of maximising attending wine tourists' QoL. The research contributes to the literature related to QoL.

The Study Orientation Questionnaire in Mathematics (Primary) is being developed as a diagnostic measure for South African teachers and counsellors to help primary school students improve their orientation towards the study of mathematics. In this study, participants were primary school students in the North-West Province of South Africa. During the standardisation in 2007, 1,013 students (538 boys: M age=12.61; SD=1.53; 555 girls: M age=11.98; SD=1.35; 10 missing values) were assessed. Factor analysis yielded three factors. Analysis also showed satisfactory reliability coefficients and item-factor correlations. Step-wise linear regression indicated that three factors (Mathematics anxiety, Study attitude in mathematics, and Study habits in mathematics) contributed significantly ([R.sup.2]=.194) to predicting achievement in mathematics as measured by the Basic Mathematics Questionnaire (Primary).

It is broadly acknowledged that, for quality management to be effective, it needs to be viewed and implemented as a dynamic and active process by people in an organisation, specifically its leaders. This study aimed to determine the level of leaders' commitment with regard to their perceptions and attitudes concerning quality management of training in corps training units within the South African Army. The Leader Perception and Attitude Scale was developed for this purpose. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 229 leaders at six of the eight South African Army's corps training units. Correlation coefficients were determined, and structural equation modelling was performed. The results indicated that leaders' attitudes had a statistically significant influence on their commitment (p < 0.001), whereas perceptions had no statistically significant influence (p = 0.488). The results contrast with previous studies, which have mostly indicated that perceptions influence employee commitment. By targeting leaders' attitudes, therefore, the South African Army may be able to design and implement appropriate strategies to improve leaders' commitment and thereby enhance training effectiveness. The potential usefulness of a scale that measures the level of commitment of leaders and is able to indicate the level of effect that perceptions and attitudes can have, may be of interest to other military settings and organisations that conduct in‐house training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between common mental disorders and mental toughness in professional South African rugby players. A cross-sectional survey design was used by administering a questionnaire and preliminary and bivariate analyses were conducted. The inclusion criteria were professional rugby players who are able to communicate in English. The results indicated that, in general, these players (N = 215) portray significant mental toughness (M = 5.69) on a 7-point scale. Anxiety/depression and distress measured the lowest (M = 1.65) of all the common mental disorders measured in this study. Furthermore, the results indicated a positive relationship between mental toughness and sound sleep (r =.262). Negative relationships were found between mental toughness and all other common mental disorders with the highest relationship being with anxiety/depression positive2 (r = –.423). Other significant relationships were found with anxiety/depression (r = –.401), distress (r = –.259), and common mental disorders problems in general (r = –.220). The results indicated that the management of teams and clinicians need to look at specific aspects, such as alcohol consumption among players, the implications of alcohol use on performance, but also mental wellbeing in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]