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Research and praxis in the field teaching and learning in the South African higher education context has been characterised by calls to expand the languages of teaching and learning through the inclusive use of African languages in higher education. Such calls are based on the realisation of the critical role that students' home language can play in cognitive and linguistic development, among other things, in education. The focus of this paper is to ascertain the perceptions of students about the inclusive use of isiZulu, an African language, as a language of teaching and learning. Data were gathered through a survey which employed a questionnaire targeting 120 students from a Faculty of Engineering at a South African university of technology. The study found that students' understanding of the use of isiZulu for teaching and learning conflated issues of language as 'problem' and 'resource'. The study also discovered elements of language ambivalence. The paper argues that helping students to shift their perceptions from a 'problem' view of language to a view of language as a 'resource' could enhance their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand how tertiary education institutions in South Africa have formulated a strategy for students embarking on a degree programme for the fledgling profession in the field of engineering, a field that is expanding in both scope and depth. Literature on the sociology of professsions connects qualification to a cultural mandate, industry demands, and accredited associations as the key determining factors for the legitimisation of a fledgling profession. Therefore, consideration is given to the aspect of a qualifications framework and how tertiary institutions understand these new professions and develop curricula for them, based on a constructivist approach to curriculum development and knowledge construction. To delve into this dynamic, the author focus on how tertiary institutions in South Africa concepttualise mechatronic engineering and equip students with the necessitous skills and qualifications required; ultimately ensuring that graduates are equipped with the specialised skills required to operate as a mechatronic engineer. The scholarship provides evidence that the field of mechatronics has been subjected to haphazard expansion globally and that courses for mechatronics contrast across the world. Japan incorporated mechatronic engineering into its curricula in the 1970s, compared to South Africa which began this process only 30 years ago, indicating evidence of the contrast. While the field continues to expand and scale across disciplines, it is becoming increasingly necessary for developing economies like South Africa to prioritise mechatronics processes for professionals to remain competitive within the global manufacturing indus try. Relatedly, a study on the development of mechatronic engineering courses has not been undertaken in South Africa. This predicament gives impetus to a study of this nature. Theoretically, this research contemplates how education counters to the new constructs in mechatronics. Based on 50 in-depth interviews in three provinces, it considers the nature of mechatronic engineering and its accreditation status from the Engineering Council of South Africa, focusing on how six tertiary institutions across South Africa have designed their curricula to meet the industry demand for mechatronic engineers. These locations included the Western Cape (3), Eastern Cape (1) and KwaZulu-Natal (2). Discourses among students and academics, which affect the perception of mechatronic engineers within the broader engineering fraternity, are interrogated. Based on this research, the paper illustrates that constructing a qualification for an emerging qualification is an arduous process, often founded on the perceptions of the institution, its previous knowledge and directed by industry demands. By utilising the discipline of mechatronic engineering, the paper aims to scrutinise this practice and identify progress and challenges faced by those with first-hand experience of these mechatronic courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, employability is increasingly becoming an issue of concern in higher education due to demands from the labour market requiring work-ready graduates. In the Global South, particularly South Africa, universities are on a quest to develop competence and improve student employability. This paper is set to investigate the impact of work-integrated learning on employability for mining engineering undergraduates in South Africa. The research data were collected using the mixed methods approach and a case study design. Experiential learning was used to examine the impact of work-integrated learning on the employability of mining engineering students. The findings provide a description of perspectives for mining engineers, lecturers, and workplace supervisors concerning the enhancement of employability for mining engineering students. The findings revealed that professional associations play a crucial role in the development of professional skills. This article argues for strong partnerships with industry partners to nurture the employability of mining engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to assess the role of tertiary institutions in impacting innovation competence among graduating students in the engineering discipline. To achieve this aim, two research questions were investigated: First, we examine if the graduating students possess some key innovative competence qualities innovative competence which include qualities such as creativity, leadership, self-efficacy, energy and risk propensity. Secondly, we investigate the key elements of tertiary institutions that impact innovative competence among the graduating students. A structured questionnaire was administered to graduating engineering students at the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria and University of Johannesburg, South Africa during the 2019/2020 academic session and their responses were compared. Results indicate that students generally had a high assessment of their innovation competence and attributed some of this competence to their institutions learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the effects of both free optional mathematics learning support and engagement on the mathematics performance in a foundation mathematics subject of a cohort of engineering students entering university with poor mathematical skills. New engineering students were directed to either a foundation or standard mathematics subject based on the results of a placement test. For students in the foundation subject, it was found that high levels of learning support were associated with greater improvement over the semester. Some form of learning support was used by 57.9% of the students, a reasonably high proportion of the cohort. Some factors for this high level of use of learning support are considered. One possible factor, the placement test, appears to have had a positive effect. Engagement in the subject activities as measured by tutorial attendance and learning management system use was found to have a positive association with final mark. Students who utilized a high level of learning support were more likely to be more engaged with the subject, making it impossible to draw conclusions about improvements being solely due to the use of learning support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the discourses that students draw on and propagate in a course on rural development in a first-year engineering foundation programme. It looks at the way 'rural' is often constructed as 'lack' and therefore 'other', the dangers of constructing development as linear, the ways nostalgia and utopianism feed into discourses of development and how 'propriety' serves to maintain boundaries between nature and people, society and individuals. Different modes and media, coupled with the degree of regulation in the classroom, may enable alternate discourses to emerge or to be suppressed. This paper argues that the curriculum needs to engage with students' views in order to understand, interrogate and critique the kinds of realities they feed into. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different views of society, nature and technology inform engineering activity and proposed developmental interventions. This paper examines the discourses that students both draw on and propagate in a course on rural development in a first year engineering foundation programme. Students' texts reflect and recycle different discourses, some of which may complement each other, and others may compete or represent conflicting interests. A range of modes and media, coupled with the degree of regulation in the classroom space, may enable different discourses to emerge or to be further suppressed. This paper looks at the way rural is often constructed as 'lack' and therefore 'other', as well as discourses of nostalgia and utopianism and how these feed into notions of development. The agenda underlying this investigation is about facilitating student access to the engineering curriculum and contributing to the theorizing of a pedagogy of diversity that utilizes rather than ignores or devalues diverse subjectivities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of risk awareness among undergraduate students studying mechanical engineering at a South African university. A questionnaire developed at the University of Liverpool was modified and used on students from the first, second and third year cohorts to assess their awareness in the areas of professional responsibility, risk assessment, techniques for reducing risk and potential exposure to hazards and risk in the workplace. Students performed best in hazard identification in the workplace. The student performance was similar in the first and second years, but a significant improvement was evident towards the end of the third year. This was attributed to the third year design curriculum, which formally covers certain aspects of risk awareness, including the ones showing improved performance. The results were compared to those obtained from the University of Liverpool - the UK students outperformed their South African counterparts. It is recommended that teaching interventions regarding health and safety be introduced earlier in the South African Mechanical Engineering curriculum to address this deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers how the growth and development of creativity within UoTs engineering undergraduate classrooms noted for conventional problem-solving can be stimulated. An attempt on such a journey takes one across the realm of creativity, which is a concept that embraces multiple meanings and variation in conceptions. Particular embedded assumptions about social reality frame creativity conceptions thus lending them to multiple conceptions. These assumptions, in turn, accentuate certain forms of creativity knowledge, how that knowledge can be understood, measured\characterized and taught. In short, each creativity conception represents a form of persuasion which attempts to consciously convince people of the supremacy of certain sets of assumptions about social reality over the others. Furthermore, various creativity conceptions embed particular typologies of creativity. It is argued that each creativity typology represents, in itself, a form of persuasion. Each form of persuasion emphasizes certain assumptions about social reality which influence how classroom practice should be structured to signify certain classroom interactions. It is suggested that, given the nascence of creativity in engineering undergraduate within UoTs in South Africa, invitational engagement method holds better prospects for creativity stimulation. Invitational engagement method allows for consideration of various options in relation to creativity where classroom actors are actively involved, have a sense of control and enjoy equal status. It is further suggested that significant adjustments in classroom practice are inevitable if creativity is to thrive within UoTs engineering undergraduate. This may call for the questioning of existing structural assumptions about classroom interaction. In other words, the latent epistemologies that drive classroom practice may have to be significantly transformed in ways that transfer huge responsibility for learning to the undergraduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics must be encouraged to reflect on their teaching, to apply new pedagogies to support student learning and to report on the results of these actions, which really forms part of programmes relating to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). However, there seems to be resistance among some academics to get involved in these programmes due to fear of change or discrimination. The purpose of this article is to highlight the perceptions of four academics from different engineering fields towards such a programme from a University of Technology in South Africa. A qualitative study is employed where a focus group interview was used to gather data which are correlated to the SoTL unicycle detailed in the article. A benefit of joining an SoTL programme includes ‘developing a teaching action plan’ while a key challenge relates to time concerns. An implication may be to stimulate awareness among non-participating academics about what an SoTL programme really engenders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a high a demand for effectively trained engineers who can apply their skills in the workplace to improve the country's economy. In South Africa, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges train engineering students to apply their theoretical knowledge in practice. The concern is that students need technology devices, machines and technology equipment, and lecturers who apply technology in their classes to equip them for their future career as engineers. A qualitative research approach was applied in this study where twenty-five engineering lecturers from TVET colleges were interviewed to establish how lecturers apply technology-assisted methods in their classes. The colleges were situated in Gauteng province in urban and township areas. The findings indicated that although all participants were qualified to teach the subject they were teaching, not all were technology literate, and few had attended training workshops on how to apply technology and use machinery in the work laboratories. Lecturers of only one TVET college applied technology tools effectively in class while the other three colleges indicated that they had not received sufficient training and lacked resources. It was also found that the college where technology was applied was professionally managed. It is recommended that managements should organize frequent technology training workshops to ensure that engineering lecturers stay abreast with the rapid changes of technology and proactively interact with nongovernment and government organizations in funding technology machines and tools needed for the practical training of engineers in TVET colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general conclusion arrived at in the literature is that the South African National Senior Certificate (NSC) is not a reliable predictor of academic success at traditional universities. By sharing research undertaken at a South African University of Technology (UoT) on the impact of individual cognitive factors and NSC results on study success, this paper shows that this conclusion is not necessarily true for South African UoT Engineering students. To assess this impact and determine the readiness of students for UoT Engineering curricula, the relationship between pre-university academic factors and the success of engineering students was investigated. An ex post facto study was carried out on a sample of 416 students drawn from first-time-entering National Diploma engineering student cohorts of 2009 and 2010 to determine a possible correlation between their NSC results, additional pre-admission test results and the number of subjects passed after one year and four years of study, respectively. The findings indicated that NSC Mathematics and Physical Science are statistically the most significant predictors of success in the first year. Despite the pre-admission tests used in this study not revealing significantly more about a student's potential than only the final NSC results, the conclusion reached by the researchers was that such tests might be useful when student application data is unreliable, i.e. when students apply with Grade 11 or interim Grade 12 results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attainment of competency is crucial for civil engineering students to solve socio-economic and environmental challenges and contribute to the development of a sustainable society by using engineering principles. Consequently, competency has become the measure of engineering graduates for which deep learning is essential. Constructive alignment has been argued to be vital for deep learning. The objective of the study was therefore to examine how constructive alignment could enforce deep learning among civil engineering students. The study was contextualised within an undergraduate civil engineering programme in a university of technology in South Africa. Mixed-methods research comprising student perceptions, focus group discussions and a case study was used for the study. Findings suggested that when the three components, namely, the intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment tasks, are appropriately aligned, students learn deeply compared with the conventional form of learning. Furthermore, clear criteria to measure student performance, as well as structured written and oral feedback together are vital for deep learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research focused on first-year university students' visuospatial cognition in terms of producing three-dimensional (3D) representations of objects from two-dimensional (2D) views. The research was important since students often had difficulty with 2D to 3D transition activities. A synthesis from the literature established a 2D to 3D conceptual framework for an effective 2D to 3D transition. In essence, the 2D to 3D conceptual framework encompassed encode, integrate and construct as the principle facets in 2D to 3D visuospatial cognition. Students in this study were pre-service teachers enrolled for an engineering graphics module at a university in KwaZulu–Natal province of South Africa. The study was grounded on the generally accepted understanding that the ability to produce 3D images of an object from its 2D views is related to visuospatial skills. In the context of this study, visuospatial skills were viewed from the perspective of mentally visualising 3D objects from their underlying 2D views. The study followed a qualitative design via think-aloud protocol tasks and document analysis. A sample of five students was purposively selected from a population of 100 engineering graphics students. Findings revealed that students with superior spatial imagery ability achieved better success than those who relied on an object imagery process. Furthermore, findings disclosed that students who did well in 2D to 3D activities did not necessarily have greater procedural knowledge and understanding than their counterparts. These findings support the necessity of the inclusion of visuospatial-type activities in engineering graphics instructional material over and above the largely procedural nature of activities that permeates this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates continue about assessment methods and tasks in higher engineering education that would enable assessment of cognitive learning attributes and attainment of graduate attributes. This study explored the students' perceptions of the conventional and alternative assessment methods that are relevant and could be used to assess cognitive learning and graduate attributes in undergraduate civil engineering education. The study focused on an undergraduate civil engineering programme at a university of technology in South Africa. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed, in which a survey questionnaire was administered, followed by focus group interviews from a sample of 230 and 46 students, respectively. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted. The findings show that students perceived both conventional and alternative assessment instruments as appropriate to varying degrees; they saw different assessment instruments as effectively assessing the cognitive learnings and attainment of graduate attributes. The central finding is that an apposite mix of different conventional and alternative assessment instruments might assist in attaining effective assessment in undergraduate civil engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The use of algorithms was not accompanied by the analytical knowledge of functions to be integrated. • There were omissions in the notation for integration, restrictions on the domain of the logarithmic function and constants of integration. • Most students were at the action stage but some students exhibited signs of the process conceptualization since they could readily detect the correct technique of integration to employ. • The application of APOS theory and ACE cycle assisted students to reflect and reconstruct manoeuvres important to integration. This paper reports on a study which explored engineering students' understanding of the techniques of integration in calculus. There were 30 first year engineering students who participated in the project. The concepts were covered as part of a mathematics course at a university of technology in South Africa. Activity sheets, constructed with tasks based on integration were administered to the participants. Their written responses, which were used to identify the mental constructions of these concepts, were analysed using APOS (Action-Process-Object-Schema) theory and interviews were carried out to clarify the written responses. The discussions and written work indicated that students exhibit procedural tendencies in integration and that students could not define both definite and indefinite integrals. These findings raised some didactical implications for higher education and also provided applications of genetic decomposition design and modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student learning inventories are used by both researchers and educators as tools to identify ‘at risk’ students. This article critically interrogates the results of one of these inventories, the 18-item Approaches to Learning and Studying Inventory. In-depth interviews were held with a purposive sample of 10 first-year engineering students who had completed the inventory. During interviews, students were asked to elaborate on their responses for those items where they gave inconsistent or contradictory responses. The analysis of these data pointed to a range of underlying reasons for apparently contradictory responses to the inventory items. In some instances students were confused by the statement, in some they picked on a particular word instead of the meaning of the statements, and sometimes they gave responses which referred to a particular context. These findings highlight the difficulties in interpreting inventory responses, particularly when used in a culturally diverse classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the long-term retention of basic mathematical techniques in a first-year calculus course, involving a sample group of engineering students at the University of Pretoria. The study investigates which and how much of the basic mathematical knowledge and rote skills acquired in the first year of study is retained after a further two years of study. A quantitative and qualitative investigations show that, in general, there is a significant decline in performance over a two-year period. There are, however, areas in which students still performed reasonably well after the elapsed period or even showed improvement. The research is of diagnostic value in that it assists course designers in determining what basic mathematical skills and knowledge are retained after a period of two years in their teaching approach to and emphasis of different topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on students' knowledge of principles related to energy, so as to assess the impact of science education. The change in the student population composition in South African Universities after the end of apartheid has created a demand for university science departments to reform science curriculum and instruction to meet students' needs. One approach to such a reform is to study students' pre-instructional conceptions and conceptual change during science teaching. Because energy is one of most fundamental concepts in chemical engineering, it became the initial focus of study for curriculum and instructional reform in a chemical engineering department. In 1997, 21 first-year chemical engineering students in a large South African university voluntarily participated in an interview study on their conceptions of energy in solution processes of ionic compounds. At the time of interviews, students had not been formally taught energy change in solution processes. Three chemical systems involving a combination of chemical and physical processes were used in the interview, all of which had to do with solubility of ionic compounds and associated energy changes.