Research

Staff member

Research focus

Mr Peter Binsbergen

Peter Binsbergen researches aspects of Visual Literacy and standards for contemporary art in South Africa as set by the profile of the Sasol New Signatures competition.

Prof. Adelia Carstens

Adelia Carstens investigates the design and evaluation of academic writing programmes for undergraduate university students. She has just completed a second doctorate in applied linguistics, entitled The effectiveness of genre-based approaches in teaching academic writing: subject-specific versus cross-disciplinary emphases.

Mrs Dina Cloete

Dina Cloete researches the effectiveness of group work and cooperative learning as facilitation strategies as well as education students’ knowledge of multiple intelligences and individual differences. In addition she researches the value of group work and cooperative learning for the development of emotional intelligence.

Mr Johann Cloete

Johann Cloete’s research focuses on the motor skills of education students specialising in Human Movement Studies. His findings show that there is a lack of participation in physical activities at school level, which necessitates the adaptation of facilitation strategies for first year students in Human Movement Studies. Johann also does research on the role of trampoline jumping on achievement in sport.

Dr Lizette de Jager

Lizette de Jager's research interests and activities include the following:
Applied linguistics, specifically inter-cultural and cross-cultural pragmatics; English Language and Literature; Methodology and classroom practice; Instructional Design. She is particularly interested in rich linguistic and cultural range that learners bring to the multilingual classroom. Her research highlights the fact that beginner teachers cannot be assumed to be adequately proficient in English, which requires focused attention in teacher education programmes and policy documents.

Dr Hanlie Dippenaar

Hanlie Dippenaar's research focus is twofold. She is investigating the English proficiency required by teachers across the curriculum, ways to improve this and ways to assess a beginner teacher's language proficiency. Furthermore she is investigating the viability of using community engagement to improve the language proficiency and communication skills of undergraduate student teachers.

Dr Pieter du Toit

Pieter Du Toit's field of specialisation is teaching and learning in higher education. He advocates using the principles of action research as a process for professional development for academic staff. His research in higher education and educator professional development has different foci, such as learning styles, education innovation, action learning, work-based learning, professional portfolios and facilitating learning.

Dr Alta Engelbrecht

Alta Engelbrecht researches the influence of ideology on representation of identities in Afrikaans text books. Based on the assumption that textbooks serve as a mirror of the social and political order, the research for her PhD (awarded in 2009) was aimed at determining the extent to which Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans language textbook series foster cultural stereotyping of the 'other’. She co-authored a methodology textbook for students: Vuvuzela-Afrikaans: Taalonderrig wat nie geïgnoreer kan word nie (2011). Her research interests also include teacher/learner interaction and its long term effects.

Dr Rinelle Evans

Rinelle Evans is involved in a joint initiative with Concordia University in Canada, which focuses on linguistically diverse Foundation Phase classrooms. The purpose is to point to the complexity of encounters between teachers and learners when neither are first language speakers of English, the instructional language. Instructional dissonance and negative social consequences for learners underline the critical role of language for learning and underscore the importance of recognizing the rich linguistic and cultural repertoire that learners bring to the multilingual classroom. Her research intends to underscore that teacher graduates cannot be assumed to be adequately proficient in English; which requires focused attention in policy documents and in teacher education programmes.

Ms Ronel Swart

Ronel Swart's research interests and activities include the following: emotional and other effects of mergers in Higher Education on staff and students; comparative content analysis of illustrations in South African History text books and the capacity of critical education to inform the sociology of learning in South African schools. Her current research focuses on critical pedagogy in Environmental Education, the work of Paulo Freire and the South African curriculum (National Curriculum Statement).

Prof. Saloshna Vandeyar

Saloshna Vandeyar is the leader of a SANPAD funded project on Immigrant student identity in South African schools. One of the outcomes of her research will be a volume edited by Prof. Vandeyar, Hyphenated Selves - Construction, Negotiation and Mediation of Immigrant Identity within schools: Transnational experiences. She also conducts research on xenophobia and the dynamics of ethnic integration in Black township schools.

Dr Riekie van Aswegen

Riekie van Aswegen conducts research on choral conducting and repertoire in Music Education. Challenges presented by the integrated arts are addressed in the article “Jack of all trades, master of some … or none: Training teachers in Integrated Arts” published in the Australian Journal of Arts Education. She regards folk music as an important field of research and this resulted into an article “Folk music for children’s choirs, currently peer reviewed for the Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa. Other research interests include Music Education in early childhood and school-based community projects as part of student training and research.