Research Projects

Title	Partners	Team members	Brief description
Migrant teachers in South African schools: principals views	n/a	Prof Rian de Villiers	This study aimed to find out about school principals’ recruitment experiences with migrant teachers, their views on the effectiveness of these teachers, and the advantages/disadvantages of employing them.
Pathways to success for engineering students: creating African theories of student success and tailoring interventions	International and national collaborators: Esther Matemba, Zachery Simpson, So Yoon Yoon & Inês Direito	Dr Celeste Combrinck; Dr Helen Inglis; Prof Alta van der Merwe
Informing evidence-based teacher professional development in inquiry-based practical work, in resource-constrained South African schools	RDP	Dr Fru Vitalis Akuma, Prof Jenna Koenen	The goal is to arrive at a content and construct valid professional development framework that is also practical and effective in supporting inquiry-based practical work in resource-constrained South African physical science classrooms. We will reach this goal through a step-wise on-going design research process, that will last until 2023.
Informing evidence-based teacher professional development in inquiry-based practical work, in resource-constrained South African schools		Dr Fru Akuma
The case of an assessment course in Distance Education	n/a	Dr Maryke Mihai
Exploring in-service chemistry teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge about environmental sustainability education	PhD student	Dr Corene Coetzee
Teaching vertical projectile motion for the first time: The role of teaching experience on pedagogical content knowledge development.	MEd student	Dr Corene Coetzee
Lesson Study as a teacher development model	MEd and PhD students University of Fukui (Japan)	Dr David Sekao	Lesson Study is a teacher development model which originated in Japan but has since been adopted by numerous countries globally for development of pre- and in-service teachers. It involves teacher action research where a team of teachers identify challenging topics for learners, plan the lesson collaboratively to address the challenges, one teacher teaches the lesson while other teachers observe learner thinking, and then they (teachers) engage in a reflection session to improve their practice. I am currently supervising four masters and four doctoral students whose research focus is on Lesson Study. In addition, I have partnered with the University of Fukui in Japan for research purposes – where they bring their expert knowledge of reflective practice in Lesson Study.
Developing Bachelor of Education (BEd) life sciences pre-service teachers’ identity as prospective Life Sciences teachers in a community of inquiry.	n/a	Dr Climant Khoza	N/A
Science classroom talk in South African township and rural schools: Perceptions and practices; In search of the knowledge base for teaching science pre-service teachers.		Dr Climant Khoza
Transformation of the mathematics classroom employing digital technology Impact of pandemic on teaching mathematics Using videos in teaching mathematics	N/A	Prof Johann Engelbrecht	N/A
EBIT Student Success Project		Dr Celeste Combrinck
Establishing Holism Evolution as a valid research paradigm/ontology; Taking a scientific approach to depicting scent through abstract art		Dr Phillip Mirkin

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