South Africa Research Chair

The National Research Foundation and the Department of Science and Technology awarded a Tier 1 South Africa Research Chair to Elizabeth Henning in September 2015. She had received a number of NRF grants previously, including one for a Research Niche Area (RNA) for Ecologies of Learning, which included three separate projects, headed by herself, Prof Jace Pillay and Prof Duan van der Westhuizen.

The fruits of the research in this chair is evident in the development of the various projects and making study bursaries available to eleven Ph.D. students and nine MEd students from 2016 onwards. The research has also produced a variety of journal articles, and book chapters, as well as conference papers and symposia in South Africa and elsewhere. The Cognition and Assessment lab includes the research rooms dedicated to student work and inquiry into child learning, using state of the art technology. Here we test children for their competence in early reading, their reading of STEM texts in the middle grades, and early numerical cognition. The lab also epitomizes the advancement in test development, video production and it serves as a resource center for researchers with its library and video collection.

The Henning Lab

The research by the director of the CEPR and her students and associates since the founding of the Centre formed the basis of the newly established Henning Lab for child learning research. Individual children and groups are studied to search for evidence of individual learning of children in the primary school years and how learning happens through language.

Collaborators are recent Ph.D. and MEd graduates as well as current master’s and doctoral students and fellow researchers in the SARChI Chair portfolio.

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Student Affairs

Current students
NRF Grant: Integrated Studies of Learning Language, Mathematics and Science in the Primary School

2018 – Current

Honors  Koketso Andile Nthimbane
Title: Qualitative research data collection
Honors Kelsi Jade Arends
Title: Comprehension of concepts of the natural world from text
Masters Emmanuel Azwidowi Libusha
Title: Mapping the process of student teachers’ conceptual change of geometrical shapes according to the ’Van Hiele levels’ of development
Masters Lerato Bernice Ndabezitha
Title: Grade R teachers’ knowledge about the development of children’s numerical cognition
Masters Frieda Nanewo Shingenge
Title: The role of home classroom environment in developing children’s language and literacy skills in Pre-Schools of Oshana Region in Namibia
Masters Dean van der Merwe
Title: The academic language proficiency of primary school teacher education students at a South African university
Masters Charis Fay Allison
Title: The academic language of learners at an urban South African school
Masters Ingrid Mostert
Title:Teachers’ awareness of Grade R children’s science processing skills
Masters Koketso Andile Nthimbane
Title:The earth is a sphere: transforming the mental models of Foundation Phase learners’ EMS models.
Masters Lufuno Belinda Tshidumo
Title:Learning to read in Afrikaans the progress of a Grade 1 Setswana speaking girl
Masters A Dlamini
Title:Addressing learners mathematical challenges
Masters Kelsi Jade Arends
Title: Learning to use the imager of functional near-infrared resonance spectroscopy (fNIRS)
Masters NC Nedambale
Title: Early number concepts development and robot making in Tshivenda language
Masters Koketso Andile Nthimbane
Title: The earth is a sphere: transforming the mental models of Foundation Phase learners’ EMS models.
Doctoral Hanrie Bezuidenhout
Title: Input for young children’s number concept development
Doctoral Poomoney Govender (Salosh)
Title: Integrated teachers’ formative assessment practices in mathematics in two urban schools in Gauteng
Doctoral Tionge Weddington Saka
Title: An Exploration of mathematics classroom culture in selected early grade mathematics classrooms in Malawi
Doctoral Hendrik Albertus Basson
Title: Integrated teacher education for intermediate phase STEM education: Cultivating design- and engineering thinking
Doctoral Shafika Isaacs
Title: The life worlds of under-performing township boys
Doctoral Ingrid Mostert
Title: Grade 3 learners’ use of narrative in mathematics: A classroom-based design experiment in two rural schools in the Dutywa District
Doctoral Ketso Maragelo
Title: The contribution of parental engagement in numeracy development skills of their preschool children
Doctoral Frieda Nanewo Shingenge
Title: Research to practice: Initiated teaching phonemic of Oshindonga in grade 1
Doctoral Delia Ruth Arends
Title: The literacy history of an adolescent female: Moving from phonemes to expansive knowledge
Doctoral Lydia-Anne Plaatjies
Title: The use of SMS-technology as an early childhood development parenting and family intervention program in South Africa
Doctoral Winnie Fikile Simelane
Title: Learning to read in IsiZulu: The trajectory of foundation phase learners in an urban public school
Doctoral Shafika Isaacs
Title: The life worlds of under-performing township boys
Doctoral Ingrid Mostert
Title: Grade 3 learners’ use of narrative in mathematics: A classroom-based design experiment in two rural schools in the Dutywa District
Doctoral Winnie Fikile Simelane
Title: Learning to read in IsiZulu: The trajectory of foundation phase learners in an urban public school
Doctoral Frieda Nanewo Shingenge
Title: Research to practice: Initiated teaching phonemic of Oshindonga in grade 1
Doctoral Ketso Maragelo
Title: The contribution of parental engagement in numeracy development skills of their preschool children
Doctoral Hendrik Albertus Basson
Title: Integrated teacher education for intermediate phase STEM education: Cultivating design- and engineering thinking
Doctoral Hildefonsia Haingura
Title: The Grade 1 teachers’ knowledge and practises of guided group reading during literacy teaching in Rukwangali.
Doctoral Delia Ruth Arends
Title: The literacy history of an adolescent female: Moving from phonemes to expansive knowledge
Post-doc Sonja Brink
Title: News for Kids Reading Assessment

Alumni (2016-2018)

Masters Frieda Nanewo Shingenge
Title: The role of home classroom environment in developing children’s language and literacy skills in Pre-Schools of Oshana Region in Namibia
Masters Dean van der Merwe
Title: The academic language proficiency of primary school teacher education students at a South African university
Masters Lerato Bernice
Title: Grade R teachers’ knowledge about the development of children’s numerical cognition
Masters Emmanuel Azwidowi Libusha
Title: Mapping the process of student teachers’ conceptual change of geometrical shapes according to the ’Van Hiele levels’ of development
Masters Rolandi Minnaar
Title: Teachers’ awareness of Grade R children’s science processing skills
Doctoral Poomoney Govender (Salosh)
Title: Integrated teachers’ formative assessment practices in mathematics in two urban schools in Gauteng
Doctoral Tionge Weddington Saka
Title: An Exploration of mathematics classroom culture in selected early grade mathematics classrooms in Malawi
Doctoral Hanrie Bezuidenhout
Title: Input for young children’s number concept development
Post-doc Sarah Godsel
Project title: Language, learning, and identity in History teaching in students for the intermediate phase

NRF Grant: Learning Science in and for Primary School

Masters Refilwe Ntsoane
Title: How student teachers engage with the making of teaching tools for mathematics pedagogy
Masters Winnie Fikile Simelane
Title: Early grade teachers and children’s difficulties with mathematics learning
Masters Hayley van der Haar
Title: Mentoring in a teaching school: How do teachers contrive mentoring encounters with student-teachers
Doctoral Kathleen Fonseca
Title: Title: Learning to become a teacher of mathematics as problem solving
Doctoral Elsie Lyn Kok
Title: Foundation phase student teachers pedagogical content knowledge for teaching of science concepts ‘floating’ and ‘sinking’
Doctoral Francois Naude F
Title: Foundation phase learners’ concepts of the natural world

Support for learning Mathematics in Grade 1

Masters Roelien Herholdt
Title: The utility of the South African MARKO-D test with regards to identifying grade 1 English First Additional Language speakers with mathematics difficulties
Masters Ingrid Reyneke
Title: Pre-Grade R children’s mathematic ability
Masters Adele Van der Bergh
Title: Mathematical cognitive development in early childhood: Assessing the competence of Grade 1 children
Doctoral Gadija Petker
Title:  Student teachers learning in collaborative programme of a university and a teaching school

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

Post-doc DR Godsel
Post-doc DR Spaull
Post-doc DR Ogunyemi
Post-doc PROF Roberts
Post-doc DR Brink