TM Perceptions Research Articles

South African managers’ perceptions of black economic empowerment (BEE): A ‘sunset’ clause may be necessary to ensure future sustainable growth

Transformational policies in South Africa, such as black economic empowerment (BEE), have increasingly and inextricably become part of the everyday political, economic and social life of all South Africans since the founding of the new democracy in April 1994. In this regard, South African businesses are subject to a whole array of mandatory regulations which specifically influence their operational capabilities and competitiveness to compete effectively and efficiently in both national and global markets. In a survey among 500 individual managers in South African businesses ranging from small, medium to large multinationals companies, it was found that BEE is well integrated into most of these organisations. However, the mounting resistance to and rejection of BEE that exists at management level can also increasingly be seen at the intellectual level of the population through public discourse in the daily newspapers, in which BEE is essentially viewed as a perpetuation of past injustices. The African National Congress (ANC) government must take cognisance of the negative influence that BEE has had on South Africa over the last more or less ten years and accept that a ‘sunset’ or termination clause needs to be set before too much further damage is done to the economy of the country and its world competiveness ranking.

The influence of eleven Ps: An internal marketing and brand awareness perspective in a service environment

Service organisations, of which car rental companies are an example, play a vital role in South Africa’s economy, contributing 74% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) (Department of Trade and Industry 2009) . Car rental companies, like many other service organisations, operate in a complex and extremely competitive environment. The employees of car rental companies are their most important asset. They require special attention to ensure their loyalty and commitment to deliver service excellence to customers. The brand’s image depends on the role employees play in delivering the service (Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2012: 249). The aim of this research was to provide guidance to South African car rental companies to improve their respective brand awareness, enabling them to expand their customer bases whilst retaining existing customers. The influence of the 11 internal marketing mix elements (product, price, place, promotion, people, processes, physical evidence, personal relationships, packaging, positioning and performance) on South African car rental customers’ perception of brand awareness (brand recognition, trustworthiness, overall evaluation and loyalty) was investigated using structural equation modelling. Recommendations emanating from the findings include continual training of employees, communication with employees, rewarding employees and participation of employees in strategic discussions.

Students’ Perceptions of Reflective Practices (RP) Implementation to Learn Critical Thinking (CT) in Class Discussions (CD)

The present study delivers the twelfth grade students’ experiences who implement reflective practice as a technique to learn critical thinking skills when joining the class discussion. However, their perceptions on the above activity have to be a fundamental issue for the success of learning. This descriptive qualitative case study took place at SMA N 2 Masbagik of East Lombok. It aimed to describe and explain students’ reflective practice implementation, their critical thinking manifestations, and their perceptions of the reflective practice implementation to learn critical thinking skills in class discussions. Taken from field notes observation and video recordings revealed three stages of reflection process considered by the students when implementing the reflective practice. It consisted of stating positive behaviour, ideas, and feelings (first stage), returning to experience, attending to feelings, and reevaluating experiences/events/phenomena (second stage), and making conclusion or commitment (third stage). They also showed three ways in expressing critical thinking as proposed by Halpern (2003). It consists of verbal reasoning, arguments, and making decision. Furthermore, the data from open-ended questionnaire and interview revealed the domination of positive perceptions. Through this study, the writer opens the idea to give suggestion that this activity should based on clear instructions and theoretical background to meet the teaching and learning goal.

Perception of Electronic Examination among Undergraduate Students of University of Maiduguri

The study was conducted to measure the perception of electronic examination among undergraduate students of University of Maiduguri. It was orchestrated on three specific objectives; to find out the perception of the students regarding the introduction of e-exam; to examine the perception of the students regarding e-exam as means of assessment; to examine the negative and positive perception of the students regarding the appropriateness of facilities, timing and format of question. The study employed the propositions of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explain students’ knowledge, acceptance and perception. The research used quantitative research method and survey methodology, using Questionnaire as instruments for data collection. The study purposely selected 200 students and found that majority of the students believe e-examination is better than the pen-paper examination. Majority of the students perceive electronic examination as an easy process. The study also found that the electronic examination is not suitable for every course to majority of the students. Majority of the respondents are against the format of the questions being asked via electronic examination. The study concluded that the introduction of e-examination in University of Maiduguri was a success despite having few challenges. The students perceived the new system as better means of assessment than pen-paper, even though they expressed dissatisfaction with the format of questions, examination timing and its suitability for some courses. It was recommended that the University of Maiduguri need to review the implementation of the new examination system in order to examine its suitability to all courses. Technical failures and limitation should be checked to improve effectiveness of the conduct of the examinations.

University Legal Learning Spaces Effectiveness in Developing Employability Skills of Future Law Graduates

Purpose – The objective of this study was to examine the role of legal learning space in a Malaysian university and how this space impacts on law students’ preparation for the employment market. This study comes in response to the issue of inexperienced graduates, who lack appropriate employability skills for the world of work, commonly referred to as the ‘graduate skills gap’. Methodology – This study used an online survey (accessed via a QR code) on 256 law students at a university in Malaysia. The sample size comprised 213 currently enrolled students and 43 alumni, with the former cohort representing 95% of the total law student population at the university and the latter representing 17% of the total alumni population. Findings – The study found that students, regardless of their year of study, did not consider that legal learning space at the university replicated real life legal practice but thought that the space prepared them for employment. The students felt that some legal learning space was better than others in developing their employability skills. Despite this they enjoyed interacting in the space collectively and felt that it helped them improve their teamwork, communication and soft skills. It also revealed that the perceptions of legal learning space could be improved with better management of staff and student expectations. Significance – This study was one of few studies, which investigated the role of learning space in developing law students’ employability skills set. The findings helped to consolidate existing research in the area of graduate skills gap, the development of graduate employability skills, and in advancing research on identifying students’ perception of learning space and the specific skills students felt they had developed while engaged in this space. This study will be of particular interest to both employers and universities as they seek to manage each other’s expectations and pursue a more practice-based learning curriculum.

Nurses’ perception of safety barriers in nursing: Content analysis

Background: Patient s safety is one of the important dimensions of care qualities.Care techniques, technology and humanities factors threaten patients’ safety. This study aimed to understand nurses’ perceptions of safety barriers in nursing profession. Methods: This qualitative study was carried out using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 nurses and two focused groups. Data were analyzed using Bernard s content analysis. Results: Having analyzed the extracted themes, three main themes including the individual features (the lack of specialized knowledge, the lack of awareness of law, responsibility, ability, job satisfaction and experience), management (work plan, educational program, salary and benefits, working conditions) and environment (inadequate equipment) were found. Conclusion: The results of the current study showed that personal characteristics, management plans and clinical environment have effects on safety. This study presents a plan for the classification of safety barriers that provides a framework for quantitative and qualitative research.

One of the dimensions of human rights and sensitivity to its acceptance

This paper addresses the perceptions of the law students on human rights education, with regard to the purpose of the sentences, discussing whether they had learned the values passed on to them in class and if they were sensitive to this dimension of the human rights. As there is a popular tendency that, contradicting the Portuguese constitutional principles, defends more severe punishments, the article explored the reasons why the students’ perception and acceptance of these issues were aligned with this opinion. To achieve these objectives, data were collected through surveys with 13 questions answered by the Portucalense University students. The results showed that the students were not sensitised to the human rights dimension with regard to the purposes of sentencing. It was concluded that the majority of them were more receptive to the public opinion, published in the media channels, than to the knowledge that was provided to them in the Academy about the legitimation of the criminal punishment.
 
 Keywords: Purposes of sentencing, punishment, severe criminal sanctions, education for human rights, educational research.

ISSUES WITH EFFECTIVE DESIGN OF AN ESL TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN SABAH, MALAYSIA

Abstract
 This study investigates English as Second Language teachers’ perceptions and the impact of the Professional Up-skilling of English Language Teachers programme, which was designed and conducted by the British Council Malaysia. A review of previous studies revealed a paucity of research focusing on large-scale, standardised teacher professional development programmes that involved English language teachers from both heterogeneous teaching levels (i.e. primary and secondary schools) and heterogeneous districts (i.e. urban and rural). The limited published studies available have been critical of this mode of professional development for a number of reasons, and the purpose of this study was to investigate these issues in the Malaysian context. A mixed methods explanatory sequential design was adopted, which utilised a questionnaire survey, interviews and focus group with the teachers and District English Language Officers. However, this article will focus on the qualitative findings. The findings reveal four major limitations of the programme: in the coursebook materials; negative emotional impact on the teachers, which compromised the potential benefits of the programme; selection of participants; and the amount of follow-up support. The findings have implication on programme designers and providers in designing future teacher professional development programmes.
 Keywords: Teacher professional development, English language teachers, standardised program, developing country, Malaysia.

Development and Evaluation of a Web-based Speaking Resource for ESL Pupils: Teachers’ Responses

This paper presents the English teachers’ responses towards a web-based resource developed to improve ESL pupils’ speaking skills. The purpose of the study is to analyse the English teachers’ responses towards the web-based speaking skills resource named ‘Hey Let’s Speak’. This study included 10 English teachers from secondary schools in Malaysia who explored and utilised the web-based resource before it was implemented in schools. Their responses were used to determine whether the web-based resource is suitable and their suggestions were taken into consideration for further improvements. The instrument was divided into four components which included (1) design (2) interactivity (3) content and (4) usability, to measure the English teachers’ perception towards the resource. The findings showed positive results in terms of design, interactivity, content and usability. The strengths of the web-based resource include attractive design, suitable content and user-friendliness. However there are improvements needed in terms of the quantity of the topics included and resource layout. The use of this web-based resource could motivate the ESL pupils to be interactive and work collaboratively to improve their English speaking skills.

The Professional and Pedagogic Competences of English Teachers With Different UKG (Teaching Competence Test) Achievement Levels

Professional and pedagogic competences are the basic aspects for effective teaching and learning to take place in classrooms. They are dealing with the quality of teaching-learning process. However, the average score of UKG (Teacher Competence Test) in Indonesia did not achieve standard expected target. This mixed-methods study is aimed to reveal professional and pedagogic competences of English teachers with different UKG achievement levels. Quantitative method was employed in the first phase through student questionnaire to investigate students’ perception on their English teachers’ professional and pedagogic competences performed in classrooms. 14 classes students of six junior high schools in Bandung, West Java, were chosen as participants.The total number of students was 474 with 14 English teachers as subjects of the study. In the second phase, this study employed a descriptive qualitative method through classrooms observation and documentation to reveal how English teachers with different UKG chievement levels performed their competence in classrooms. Five teachers out of the 14 teachers under study were chosen as participants.The finding reveals that based on students’ perception, professional and pedagogic competences demonstrated by English teachers in classrooms do not fully reflect their UKG achievement levels. In some aspects, the teachers with lower UKG achievement are not perceived worse than those with higher UKG achievement. This finding is in line with the finding based on classrooms teaching performance of the five English teachers’ under study. In some parts of lessons, the lower achievers could even perform better than the highers.

English Teachers’ Perception on Strategies in Teaching Reading Comprehension to Motivate the Students

A teacher should have good perception of teaching and strategies to deal with some difficulties that can be aroused in the process of reading. However, the teachers’ background of State Senior High School of Pemalang Regency are various. This condition make different perception when they performed in their teaching English in their classroom. The present study sought to explore English teachers’ perception of learning second language. Motivation is one of the important factors which impacts greatly on language learning. One of the most important factors which receives the special focus in foreign language teaching is reading motivation. More recently, studies on reading motivation have also gained much interest. This review paper is going to consider the impact of reading motivation on reading comprehension. In this paper, the researcher explains the terms of strategies, motivation, reading comprehension, and different models of reading comprehension. The review of this study showed that teachers’ strategies on teaching reading comprehension had a considerably positive effect on reading comprehension activities.

Investors’ Behavior and Perceptions Towards Stock Market: Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Investors’ behavior and perception towards stock indices performances of the stock market was taken into account for this study. Relevant data was collected from 416 equity investors indulged in the stock market situated in diverse parts of southern Tamil Nadu, India. This research focuses on how the investors’ perceptions regarding stock indices movements of stock markets are affected by their irrational behavior, rational behavior and decision making behavior. In this study SEM approach was applied to analyze the data. The observations from the study disclosed that, the hypothesized model has a good fit and indicates that the anticipated model has the adequate fit, by way of satiating the suggested values. The finding indicates that investors are partly rational and partly irrational because they collect complete financial information and use this information for investment decision making and also use short cuts for decision making.Â

Local Undergraduates’ Perceptions on Curriculum Internationalization:

The study findings revealed that curriculum internationalization is generally well-perceived by local undergraduates in the Malaysian public university. Specifically, the respondents agreed on the importance of internationalization of curriculum by their university. In their view, the internationalization elements have been integrated into the curriculum through various approaches by their lecturers, such as by infusing a global perspective in the lessons. Despite the perceived importance of curriculum internationalization, this study also reported that there are several barriers hindering local undergraduates to actively participate in internationalization activities, which include financial constraints and lack of awareness among the students about such programs and activities in their university.

Parents’ Perceptions on Social Skills Functioning of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Preliminary Study

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined as a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects social communication, social interaction and sensory sensitivities. Social skills are one of the common deficits displayed by children with ASD. However, the level of impairment exerted by children with ASD relies on the disorder severity. Social skills are critical to successful social-emotional, communication and cognitive development. Specific social skills deficits include difficulties in initiating interactions, maintaining social reciprocity, sharing attention, taking another person’s perspective, and inferring the interests of others. In this study, social skills consist of social awareness, social cognition, social communication, social motivation and autism mannerism. This study aimed to uncover the conceptualization of social skills from the parents’ perspective, thus providing an indication of education on the topic of ASD.

Students’ Perception of Using an Android Smartphone Application as a Supplementary Learning Resource

A great number of students has a smartphone. They prefer to use it for supporting learning process and the out of classroom activities (Oz, 2014; Simonova & Poulova, 2016). As well, Android is the most widely used operating system especially in Indonesia (Statcounter, 2018). In supporting the idea of using smartphone as a learning resource in educational objectives, some researchers has stated some benefits of using it. The findings revealed that the students were activated to learn, fascinated, energized, and enhancing the students’ competence. It tends to be presumed that the students are normally inspired by mobile learning, specifically through smartphone (Cavus & Ibrahim, 2009, 2016; Cho, 2018; Hsu, Wang, & Comac, 2008).
 In connection with the ownership of smarthpone and its advantages in learning process, the reseacher designed an android application as a supplementary learning resources. To figure out the students’ perception of using this application, the study proposed a research question and the result indicated that the students positively reponded of using an android smartphone application as a suplementary learning resource.

Sustainable Tourism Development

As multi-stakeholders in tourism development help to create tourism experience, it is therefore vital to understand each stakeholder’s perception towards tourism development. In additon, local leaders and policy makers play a critical role in facilitating the mutual benefits of all tourism stakeholders in sustainable tourism development in the local community. Most research on Social Exchange Theory (SET) in tourism only focuses on resident’s and tourist’s perceptions toward tourism, and some studies indicate the ambiguous explanation and interpretation on SET in understanding community’s perceptions toward tourists and tourism. Therefore, it is a need to understand local leaders’ and policy makers’ perceptions toward sustainable tourism development, as they act as the initiators or facilitators in sustainable tourism development. In-depth interviews were conducted with ten local leaders and policy-makers in Thailand and the results were thematically analysed. The anticipated results explain positive and negative impacts toward economy, society and environment.

Perceptions of Nurse Managers regarding Clinical Relicensing Audits at Private Hospitals

The National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa aims to provide access to quality health services for all South Africans. The NHI will only accredit and contract eligible health facilities that meet nationally approved quality standards both in the public and private sector. Detailed tools for measuring compliance with the National Core Standards (NCS) and Batho Pele principles have been developed and implemented in the public sector. To date and since its implementation in the public sector, very little is known about the national audit tool and the method used to evaluate quality and patient safety standards in private hospitals in the eThekwini district, South Africa. The aim of the study was therefore to assess nurse managers’ perceptions regarding the clinical relicensing audits performed at selected private hospitals in the eThekwini district. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design using an interview guide was used to conduct the study. The group of hospitals (N = 4) studied has approximately 40 clinical managers who were sampled for the study. A total of 24 nurse managers were interviewed, guided by data saturation. The results of the study showed that the selected private hospitals in the eThekwini district have not fully implemented the approach to clinical practice standards and healthcare audits in relation to the three clinical domains of the NCS, namely patient rights, patient safety and clinical care, and clinical support services, and the Batho Pele principles. Recommendations are for the internal and external factors influencing the national audit process to be dealt with based on the results of the study.

Functional implant prosthodontic score of a one-year prospective study on three different connections for single-implant restorations

Aim The aim of this prospective clinical trial was to analyze, using the Functional Implant Prosthodontic Score (FIPS), the clinical resultsof three different abutment-implant connections (1 hexagon vs 2 conical types) single-unit restorations after one year of clinical service. Material and methods Thirty patients were restored with cement-retained crowns on soft tissue level implants (10 TTc Windmix, 10 TTk Windmix and 10 Aadva GC) in posterior sites and followed-up for 1 year. FIPS was applied for objective outcome assessment beside clinical and radiographic examinations. Five variables were defined for evaluation, resulting in a maximum score of 10 per implant restoration. The patients’ level of satisfaction was recorded and correlated with FIPS. Results All implants and connected crowns revealed survival rates of 100% without any biological or technical complications after three years of loading. The total FIPS recorded for group 1 was 44, 43 in group 2 and 42 in group 3. The mean total FIPS score was 8.6±1.1, ranging from 6 to 10. The variable “bone” revealed the highest scores (2.0; range: 2–2), as well “occlusion” (2.0; range: 2–2). Mean scores for “design” (1.7 ±0.4; range: 1–2), “mucosa” (1.6±0.5; range: 1–2), and “interproximal” (1.5±0.6; range: 1–2) were more challenging to satisfy. The patients expressed a high level of functional satisfaction (80.5±2.5; range: 65–100). No type of connection showed to be superior to the other two. No statistically significant differences were found among the three tested groups. A significant correlation was found between FIPS and the subjective patients’ perception with a coefficient of 0.80 (P < 0.0001). Conclusions The findings of the clinical trial indicated the great potential of both conical and hexagon connections and their good performance after 1 year of clinical service. FIPS showed to be an objective and reliable instrument to assess implant success.

Religion, Family, and Justice: A Narrative Study of Adults Learning to Teach for Social Justice in the Deep South

The Deep South is a distinctive, complex sociogeographic region of the U.S. whose history and politics have been marred by societal inequities and injustices. This research considered theories of social justice education and transformative learning to understand the processes by which adults learn to teach for social justice in the Deep Southern context. The study included from adult students enrolled in a doctoral-level class in education at a large, urban university in the Deep South. Narrative inquiry and Voice-Centered Relational Method were used in the process of data collection and analysis. Among the participants, familial and cultural religious narratives pervaded, deeply affecting a continual process of negotiation among the participants’ understanding of teaching for social justice and their own socially constructed identities. The religious backgrounds and family ethos fostered new notions of social justice and contributed to the participants’ perceptions of confidence to teach for social justice.

Students’ Perceptions of Student Support Services at a Nursing Campus

The main purpose of this study was to describe students’ perceptions of student support services at a selected nursing campus in the eThekwini District of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The content analysis of Elo and Kyngäs guided the research process. Non-probability purposive sampling was used to recruit fourth-year nursing students undertaking the diploma in nursing (general psychiatry, community) and midwifery (R425), and eight students were individually interviewed. The students’ perceptions of student support services revealed four categories, namely diversity of student support, relevance of feedback, peer mentoring, and applicability of non-academic support. The researcher recommends that a broader study on student support services at the campuses of the KwaZulu-Natal College of Nursing be undertaken. Standardisation of student support services is needed as well as making the services known to students, possibly in the form of a booklet or online information. Another recommendation is the improvement of library services in the form of better access and equity related to information technology and internet usage, the extension of library hours, and the hiring of an assistant librarian. Lastly, the development and formalisation of a peer mentoring policy involving the clinical department are recommended.