Department of Curriculum Studies
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Browsing Department of Curriculum Studies by Subject "Academic achievement -- University of KwaZulu-Natal"
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- ItemThe contribution of mentorship to personal and institutional development at the Westville Campus of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2006-04) Essack, Shaheeda; Kapp, C. A.; Szell, G.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum StudiesENGLISH ABSTRACT : The current study is based on the premise that higher education is essentially alienating for most first generation, first year and academically under-prepared university students in higher education. The study further maintains that the experience of alienation can be overcome by implementing a form of peer mentoring system that simultaneously seeks to address personal, social and academic needs. This thesis has five chapters. Chapter One outlined the problem statement in relation to the nature of student experience of higher education and the impact of peer facilitated mentoring on student development, with specific reference to the first year, first generation and academically under-prepared student. An overview of related literature in the area of student experience of higher education and the potential role of peer facilitated mentoring in higher education indicates that peer mentoring serves to give context, meaning, purpose and direction to students, especially to those that are marginalized. Chapter Two provided an extensive account of peer facilitated mentoring in higher education. The chapter began with a critical analysis of the national plan on the restructuring of higher education in South Africa with reference to socio-economic challenges, its impact on the restructuring of higher education and the subsequent effects of such change on student personal, social and academic development. Against this background, the subjective, lived and personal experience of the student as framed in the discourse of higher education a being an alienated experience was then presented. The concept of higher education as being an alienated experience for first year, first generation student in a developing ociety was explained within the theoretical framework espoused by Mann (2000). The theoretical framework on alienation places emphasis on the socio-cultural context, the primacy of discourse, the student as outsider (knowledge, power and insight), the teaching and learning process, the loss of ownership of the learning process and alienation as a strategy for self-preservation. A case is made that student experience of higher education can be one of alienation and that peer facilitated mentoring, as an intervening strategy, can serve to alleviate some of these negative experience. The process of peer facilitated mentoring is viewed as a democratic and collaborative response to challenges in teaching and learning in higher education. Mentoring is being widely used in higher education, globally, as a means to address student needs and institutional goals. Peer facilitated mentoring is being gradually introduced into South African higher education, especially at the first year level. The entire gamut of the first year experience of higher education was explored with a conclusion on some of the principles that must inform the first year experience. Inherent in these principles is the common element of co-operative and collaborative learning that must underpin the process of mentoring. In this regard the co-operative model was presented as the basis upon which mentoring must unfold. Upon this model, the macro and micro model of mentoring were viewed as providing both the conceptual and operational framework within which a peer-mentoring programme could be implemented. A detailed discussion is then presented on the following elements: the processes and phases of mentoring, the selection and recruitment of mentors, the selection and recruitment of mentees, the matching of mentors to mentees, benefits of the programmes and the possible weaknesses and drawbacks of the programme. The chapter concluded with a discμssion on the. significance of evaluating the programme and the manner in which such evaluations could occur. Chapter Three provided an in-depth account of the research design as regards the evaluation of the programme. Mentors, mentees and faculty co-ordinators formed part of the evaluation proces . Questionnaires were implemented to both mentees and faculty co-ordinator . Focus group interviews were conducted with mentors. The sampling frame, selection of question , analysis of feedback, interpretation of results, the validity and reliability of results were explained and motivated for in the discussion. Chapter Four pre-ented an in-depth analyses and interpretation of the feedback received from mentees, mentors and faculty co-ordinators. The analyses included both quantitative and qualitative analyses and thematic interpretations. The analyses generated a range of issue that shed light on the level to which the hypothesis could be validated and the conclusions that could be drawn. The conclusions drawn from the current study are that the first year experience of higher education is neither alienating nor engaging for the first year student and that student experience falls somewhere in the continuum between alienation and engagement. The level of alienating or engaging experiences depends on the nature and context operational at particular moments. At best the first year experience can be said to be a partially broken fragmented experience and that peer facilitated mentoring has the potential to play a mediating and powerful role in ensuring that the needs of both the student and the institution are met. Recommendations made include: ensuring that institutional policy reflects the out-of-class learning experiences, placing the programme within the main academic programme, continuously assessing the needs of first year students, continuously re-establishing the aims, objectives and goals of the programme, developing a specific curriculum for mentoring, taking care to select and train mentors and ensuring that there is supervision, monitoring and assessment of the programme.