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Education students present research at Faculty’s Annual Postgraduate Research Conference

23 October 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo Rosina Mothiba

“Exploring Grade 12 learners’ substance abuse and its influence on their academic performance”, “The role of the School Management Team in addressing Homophobic Bullying in Xhariep public schools” and “Exploring the use of YouTube videos in the teaching and learning of fractions in Grade 4.”

These were some of the interesting research titles that were presented at this year’s University of the Free State’s (UFS) Faculty of Education Annual Postgraduate Research Conference. The two-day conference, now in its fifth year, took place from 6-7 October with the theme “Changing the Educational Landscape in Africa through ongoing research”. The conference is one of the faculty’s main events supporting its postgraduate students and ensuring time for completion for each one of them.

A total of 145 postgraduate students and 55 staff members attended the conference where the faculty’s postgraduate students get exposure to present their research in front of an academic audience.

Prof Loyiso Jita, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, delivered the keynote address and spoke at length about the graduation rates of master’s and doctoral students in the faculty. He challenged the presenters to hold themselves and each other accountable for progression in their studies and to produce high-quality research that will position them and the university in good stead nationally and internationally.

New teaching approach

In the study “Exploring the use of YouTube videos in the teaching and learning of fractions in Grade 4”, MB Tsoaela (PhD student), explores the teaching and learning of fractions using YouTube videos in Grade 4. In trying to answer the main research question, “How do Grade 4 educators teach fractions utilising YouTube videos?” The researcher states that: “The use of YouTube videos is a very new way of learning in the South African context. This new teaching approach has proven to be exciting for young learners in Grade 4 because it has many options like animations, colourful videos, and pictures. Even though YouTube learning is exciting and fun, its implementation has challenges such as teachers wanting to use a chalkboard. Another challenge is the current load shedding.”

Psychosocial implications of school violence

Another PhD student, MDL Stack, investigated how to design an assessment for Higher Education that ChatGPT is unable to provide an answer that will pass without human intervention in his research paper titled “Investigating an assessment design that prevents students from using ChatGPT as the sole basis to pass assessment in Higher Education at undergraduate level”. He argued that “ChatGPT has presented significant challenges to lecturers when they set assessments at tertiary level.

“There is enormous potential for students to attempt to use ChatGPT to write and pass assessments designed at undergraduate level,” the researcher writes.

Another research paper looked at the psychosocial implications of school violence on teachers in Motheo District public schools in the Free State, arguing that school violence against teachers continues to be a phenomenon that is increasingly disturbing, while having serious implications on South African and global societies. Many teachers suffer social and psychological stress but not much has been done to understand learner-induced violence against teachers.

Exposure for students

Prof Matseliso Mokhele-Makgalwa, the acting Vice-Dean Research and Postgraduate Studies, says the purpose of the conference is to give exposure to master’s and PhD students to present their work in front of an academic audience (staff and students) as well as for them to get comments and feedback from experts and fellow students on their on-going research studies.

“The conference is about sharing the ongoing research being done by our master’s and doctoral students and/or reporting on their preliminary and final outcomes of the students who are about to graduate. By presenting their work, they disseminate key findings, build relations with other students and staff, and create inter- and multi-disciplinary networks for future collaborations,” says Mokhele-Makgalwa.

News Archive

UFS researchers receive awards from the NSTF

2008-06-04

The recipients of the two awards are, from the left: Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen, UFS Department of Chemistry, Dr Susan Bonnet, UFS Department of Chemistry, Prof. Thinus van der Merwe, FARMOVS-PAREXEL, Prof. Maryke Labuschagne, UFS Department of Plant Sciences, and Prof. Ken Swart, FARMOVS-PAREXEL.
Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS researchers receive awards from the NSTF

The University of the Free State (UFS) last week received two prestigious awards from the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) during its tenth gala-awards ceremony held in Kempton Park.

Prof. Maryke Labuschagne from the Department of Plant Sciences at the UFS was the female recipient of the research capacity-development award over the last ten years. She received the award for her successful mentoring of black researchers and students. The award, sponsored by Eskom, includes a prize of R100 000 which will be used for research purposes.

A team consisting of Prof. Jan van der Westhuizen and Dr Susan Bonnet from the Department of Chemistry at the UFS and Prof. Kenneth Swart and Prof. Thinus van der Merwe from FARMOVS–PAREXEL received the innovation award for an outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology from either an individual or a team over the last ten years.

Prof. Labuschagne, an expert in the field of plant breeding and food security in Africa, received the award for her contribution to the training and development of black students and researchers in this field. Various black students successfully completed their postgraduate studies under her guidance at the UFS during the past ten years, with positive results.

Research by her South African students has led to a firmly entrenched research relationship between the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and the UFS, while research by her local and international students has culminated in no less than 82 publications over the last decade.

It has also led to the establishment of collaboration agreements with universities and research institutes in Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – among others with the University of Malawi where Prof. Labuschagne and her students are involved in the International Programme in the Chemical Sciences (IPICS) of the Uppsala University in Sweden. The project focuses on the study of genetics and chemistry of tropical roots and tuber crops in Malawi. This has led to collaboration with international research organisations and has generated overseas funding.

The combined team from FARMOVS–PAREXEL and the UFS won an award for the synthesis of drug analogues used as reference products during the analysis of the drug concentration in blood, from existing and new drugs registered nationally and internationally.

The project resulted in capacity building in synthetic organic chemistry, mass spectrometry and chromatography: Five master’s degrees were completed, seven are in progress, and six postgraduate students commenced with Ph.D.’s.

The skills transferred during this project are already being applied to examine the properties of indigenous medicinal plants as part of the recently established UFS novel drugs and bioactive compound cluster.

Applied Biosystems, the Canadian manufacturer of mass spectrometers, donated equipment to the value of more than R10 million for this project. As a result the UFS is one of the few universities in the world that can offer postgraduate training in bioanalytical chemistry.

Prof. Hendrik Swart, head of the Department of Physics at the UFS, and Dr Martin Ntwaeaborwa, senior lecturer at the Department of Physics were finalist in the research- capacity developer and black-researcher categories respectively.
The NSTF awards gives recognition to the outstanding contributions of individuals and groups to science, engineering and technology. This includes all practising scientists, engineers and technologists across the system of innovation, including, for example, teachers and students in mathematics, science and technology. The NSTF represents government, science councils, professional bodies, higher education, business and civil society.

Altogether nine individuals and three organisations were presented with the NSTF Awards trophy by the Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
4 June 2008

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