Venicia McGhie

University of the Western Cape, Academic Development, Faculty Member

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Bram Akkermans

Maastricht University

Jonathan Bach

The New School University

Paul Ashwin

Lancaster University

Prof Attiya Waris

University of Nairobi, Kenya

Shirley Bennett

University of Northampton

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Simon McIntyre

The University of New South Wales

Gerardo L Blanco

Boston College

Peter Hobson

Queen Mary, University of London

Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

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Papers by Venicia McGhie

Towards decoloniality of the education training and development third-year curriculum: Employing situated learning characteristics to facilitate authentic learning

Cogent Education

Higher Education Participation: Factors Inhibiting Access for Students from Low Socio-Economic Backgrounds in South Africa

Teaching for a New Generation of Students: Understanding the Needs and Challenges of First-Year Students in the Learning Process

The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 2009

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Ensuring First-Year Students’ Well-Being in a Time of Crisis: Towards a Pedagogy of Care

ICERI2021 Proceedings, 2021

Successful first-year learning: A social cognitive view of academic literacy

Journal for Language Teaching, 2013

The research data used in this article are drawn from a study conducted in a business faculty at... more The research data used in this article are drawn from a study conducted in a business faculty at a Historically Black South African University during 2009 and 2010. A comparison was made in the study between two groups of first-year students: a group that had passed all their modules and a group that had failed some of their modules at the end of their first year of study. The aim was to investigate factors that had an impact on the successful completion of the first year of study by problematising the perception that those students from disadvantaged backgrounds or under-resourced schools are necessarily disadvantaged and destined to fail. In this article the focus is on the successful group of students and their mastery of academic discourse situated in the complexity of social and academic interaction. The findings indicate that the inter-relatedness of personal, academic, social and institutional factors mirror the inter-related way in which the students had experienced them. These findings further underline the fact that successful learning is a complex and multi-layered process that is ongoing and that needs to be monitored, sustained and evaluated throughout students’ study careers. The students’ personal perspectives on academic study provided not only evidence that the development of academic literacy is socially situated and constructed but also showed how successful students manage their academic learning to mitigate under-preparedness and adverse personal circumstances. Key words : Students, successful learning, academic literacy, interrelated, socially situated.

Learning to Write Versus Writing to Learn: Teaching Students to become Critical Thinkers and Efficient Writers

The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 2006

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English as Language of Teaching and Learning: An Investigation into the Learning Challenges that First- year, Second Language Speaking Students of English face in the Economic and Management Sciences Faculty at the University of the Western Cape

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Effects of Value Beliefs, Academic Self-esteem, and Overgeneralization of Failure Experience on the Generation of Emotions and Attributions for Academic Performance

The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 2008

This study aimed to examine (a) the effects of students&amp;#x27; value beliefs, academic sel... more This study aimed to examine (a) the effects of students&amp;#x27; value beliefs, academic self-esteem and overgeneralization of failure experience (OG) on the generation of their attributions and emotions for unsuccessful and successful estimated mathematics performance in final school year exams, and on the generation of the impact of attributions on emotions for the same performance, and (b) the role of overgeneralization of failure experience in the formulation of the impact of academic self-esteem on attributions and emotions. The ...

A Situated Learning Approach to Build Relationships Between Universities and Industry to Develop a Competent Workforce

ICERI2021 Proceedings, 2021

Embedding academic literacy skills into the mainstream curriculum: the case of information systems 131/132

This paper reports on collaborative teaching between two academic literacy (AL) specialists and t... more This paper reports on collaborative teaching between two academic literacy (AL) specialists and two lecturers teaching first-year students Information Systems (IFS) 131/132 during the 2012 and 2013 academic years in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Western Cape. The aim of the collaborative teaching was to embed AL skills into the first-year IFS curriculum in order to ensure that the transfer of skills was taking place effectively. The objective was to determine whether the skills taught were enabling the students to pass their IFS modules well, thereby ensuring access for success. The theoretical framework used in this paper draws on Barton's 'ecology' approach to literacy and learning; the social learning theory of Wenger; and the views of Bransford, Brown and Cocking on how people learn and transfer knowledge.

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Are high school teachers and university academics on the same page? A case of the university readiness of business education learners at two schools and two universities

Journal of Education, 2019

Many studies nationally and internationally continue to find that schools are not preparing learn... more Many studies nationally and internationally continue to find that schools are not preparing learners adequately to cope with the demands of higher education, hence the high dropout rate particularly at the first-year level. We found that, in most cases, research studies conducted in South Africa focus solely on a particular stakeholder's perception to gain insights into students' readiness for university as opposed to corroborating perceptions of both teachers and academics. Thus, the aim of our paper is to explore the perceptions of both business education high school educators and lecturers in terms of how they view the readiness of learners for university, particularly for the bachelor of commerce degree programme. The findings highlight the lack of communication and collaboration between schools and universities. Recommendations are proposed to assist the staff of high schools and universities to work collaboratively in order to provide high school learners with adequate foundational knowledge and skills that will ensure that they are ready for higher education studies. We argue that exploring the perceptions of high school teachers and academics collectively could be a step in the right direction towards paving the way for successful learning at university for first-year students in bachelor of commerce degree programmes.

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The will to learn' : an essential element for successful student learning?

This article reports on one aspect of a larger study that investigated student learning. It exami... more This article reports on one aspect of a larger study that investigated student learning. It examines the responses and actions of a group of first-year students at an historically black higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa during the 2009/2010 academic years. The objective was to determine what the impact of having a will to learn had on the students and how that characteristic influenced their academic progress in their first year of study. A case study research design was used. Four qualitative and three quantitative research instruments were used in the data collection process. The findings revealed that a will to learn played a very important role in successful learning - the students who had a will to learn took responsibility for their own learning and adopted a strength-based approach to learning. They were successful despite the challenges to learning that they encountered. The findings also revealed what happened to those students whose will to learn was absen...

A Situated Learning Approach to Build Relationships Between Universities and Industry to Develop a Competent Workforce

by Desiree Hamman-Fisher and Venicia McGhie

ICERI2021 Proceedings

Business Education Learners in the Further Education and Training Phase: Towards the Development of a South African Readiness Model to Strengthen Learnersâ€™ Academic Performance

Journal of Student Affairs in Africa

African and coloured students continue to perform poorly both at public schools and institutions ... more African and coloured students continue to perform poorly both at public schools and institutions of higher learning. There are two main reasons for their weak performance-a lack of literacy and numeracy skills, and being under-prepared. This article reports on two findings of a study that was conducted at two high schools in the Western Cape Province. The one high school was a quintile 1, and the other a quintile 4 school. The study aimed to implement intervention strategies over a threeyear period for Grade 10 to 12 learners in the business-related subjects, Accounting, Business Studies, and Economics. The objective was to develop a readiness model that public schools in South African could use to overcome the challenges so that learners could be equipped with a strong foundation in their primary schooling. The study was situated within a critical education science paradigm and used a critical participatory action research design. Two groups of 30 learners formed the main research participants. Interventions strategies were implemented with the learners when they were in Grade 10 in 2017, in Grade 11 in 2018, and in Grade 12 in 2019. The results show that both groups of learners did not have an adequate rating of 50% and more subject content knowledge and skills when they arrived in Grade 10 in 2017 in all three subjects, and they did not manage to obtain a 50% or more rating in the three subjects in their final examinations at the end of Grade 12 in 2019. Based on the four key principles of the readiness model, recommendations are proposed that would assist public schools to develop and support the learners during the early childhood and foundation phase so that a solid foundation in literacy and numeracy skills could be laid.

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Increasing Retention of Linguistically-Disadvantaged College Students in South Africa

by Denise Mussman and Venicia McGhie

Beyond Language Learning Instruction

This chapter discusses a two-week pre-semester course in English academic language skills to impr... more This chapter discusses a two-week pre-semester course in English academic language skills to improve learning outcomes of second and additional English language speaking students at a historically Black university in South Africa, a country that faces tremendous challenges with educational inequities. Prof. Venicia McGhie created and organized the program, and Dr. Denise C. Mussman taught the course content. This chapter reports on and discusses the challenges that cause many students to fail or dropout of higher education studies, the curriculum of the pilot course, assessment results, and written feedback from students on which lessons helped them most. The smaller class size, speaking activities, and explicit lessons on grammar and writing all contributed positively to the self-efficacy of the students.

Accessing Post-School Studies - A student's GPS to successful learning

Addressing the learning needs of at-risk students at a South African university

South African Journal of Higher Education

Understanding the needs and challenges of a Black community in South Africa

Development in Practice

This article reports on a study conducted with an unemployed group of community members residing ... more This article reports on a study conducted with an unemployed group of community members residing in the Gugulethu Township in South Africa. The study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of their needs and challenges, and what they thought could be done to assist and empower them so that they could improve their lives. Their basic human needs were violated during apartheid and as a consequence, they are still battling poverty today. We offer suggestions on how Black communities in South Africa could be supported and empowered in order to become employable and self-reliant.

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The Changing Landscape: Exploring the dichotomy between academia and first-year students' transition from school to university

Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung

Entering university studies: identifying enabling factors for a successful transition from school to university

Higher Education

The South African higher education sector is faced with high attrition and low retention rates. S... more The South African higher education sector is faced with high attrition and low retention rates. Studies conducted by the Council on Higher Education in South Africa have found that 50% of black students who access university study drop out, and the majority of dropouts occurred in the first year of study. While these studies revealed what the challenges were and why they occurred, not much has been done to overcome or prevent the challenges. Therefore, knowledge on how first-year students could be assisted and guided to adjust successful to the university environment is paramount. The goal of this article is to determine which factors enable new students' successful adjustment to the university environment. Identifying these factors was deemed important because they could be used to assist and guide new student cohorts. Thirty-two first-year students were the research participants, and data were collected from all of them through a questionnaire, two written reflective pieces, the students' results and individual interviews. Content analysis, using a three-stage open coding process, was used to categorize the findings into themes and sub-themes. The findings revealed that 20 of the 32 students had difficulty overcoming their transition challenges and failed some or all their subjects at the end of their first year of study. The remaining 12 students overcame their challenges and achieved study success. They identified three overall factors that enabled them to adjust and integrate successfully to the university environment.

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Towards decoloniality of the education training and development third-year curriculum: Employing situated learning characteristics to facilitate authentic learning

Cogent Education

Higher Education Participation: Factors Inhibiting Access for Students from Low Socio-Economic Backgrounds in South Africa

Teaching for a New Generation of Students: Understanding the Needs and Challenges of First-Year Students in the Learning Process

The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 2009

Shopping Cart Your Cart. Log in. Description All publishers. ...

Ensuring First-Year Students’ Well-Being in a Time of Crisis: Towards a Pedagogy of Care

ICERI2021 Proceedings, 2021

Successful first-year learning: A social cognitive view of academic literacy

Journal for Language Teaching, 2013

Learning to Write Versus Writing to Learn: Teaching Students to become Critical Thinkers and Efficient Writers

The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 2006

Shopping Cart Your Cart. Log in. Description All publishers. ...

Effects of Value Beliefs, Academic Self-esteem, and Overgeneralization of Failure Experience on the Generation of Emotions and Attributions for Academic Performance

The International Journal of Learning: Annual Review, 2008