Journal of Educational Studies

The purpose of this article is to examine whether the taxonomy of integrating instructional, transformational and distributed leadership models of leadership roles of principals can enhance the performance of learners in the school context in South Africa. To meet the multiple challenges in the next decade, 21st century principals need to develop skills and strategies that are critical for providing a positive learning environment for the learners. Initiatives introduced in education systems the worldover to increase learner performance in schools have resulted in principals being accountable for the success and academic improvement of learners. Innovative principals integrate leadership models to enhance the culture of teaching and learning in their schools. Qualitative evidence was collected from six schools selected through purposive sampling covering schools in the same district. This study established that the integration of leadership models was a key ingredient for creating a culture of teaching and learning in schools, which led to improved learning outcomes. The findings of the study show that principals as instructional leaders are responsible for multiple functions, including creating a climate for effective teaching and learning. In order to promote their core responsibility of creating a culture of teaching and learning, principals needed to be strategic in integrating leadership roles. This study has shown that the essence of integrating leadership models is to transform schools into centres of academic excellence.

The purpose of this study is to unravel the nature of assessment biases in higher education institutions. Its main thesis is that despite the rhetorical claims expressed by many higher education practitioners, that their assessment processes and practices are impartial, assessment biases are almost always inevitable. The study followed a qualitative interpretative approach and utilised a case study as the design genre to unmask the sources of assessment bias in higher education institutions. The target population from which a sample size of 20 higher education practitioners was purposefully and conveniently selected. The data for this study was collected through focus group interviews and the analysis followed a thematic approach. Among the major findings of this study was that common higher education assessment biases are rooted in issues of gender, sex, race, ethnicity, religion and socio-economic backgrounds. The study also revealed that in spite of their rhetorical claims, many higher education practitioners, especially lecturers and administrators are guilty of biased assessment tendencies, which include offensive remarks based on their personal characteristics or specific demographic indices, unfair penalisation, unwitting denigration and inference distortion. The conclusion in this paper is that biased assessment practices have a disparate impact on the victims in that they foster substantial differences in the success rate of separate social groups. Seen in this light, the recommendation was that higher education practitioners need to be extraordinarily attentive to the possibilities of unwitting denigration and unfair penalisation during their assessment practices. They should thus be clearly expunged from higher education.

The low throughput and high drop-out rates at contact institutions are of concern as this leads to small percentages of qualified students available for the labour market. In order to address this problem, it is essential for higher education institutions to possess knowledge of factors that can potentially contribute to or improve academic success such as reading ability, motivational factors, learning strategies and learning approaches. These were investigated among a sample of 260 Economic and Management education students by using validated instruments in a quantitative study. The results revealed that students demonstrated an average reading speed comparable to that of a grade 8 learner and a comprehension level of only 60%. The motivational factor, namely expectancy for success, was rated highest and test anxiety lowest contributor while learning strategies such as critical thinking, organising, rehearsal and additional efforts as well as the deep learning approach correlated positively with academic achievement.