The impact of co-operative learning on the academic success of educationally disadvantaged first year engineering students at the University of Cape Town

The aim of this research report was an attempt to measure the impact of co-operative learning workshops on the academic achievement of 1st year Physics 110w [ASPECT] students from the ex- Department of Education and Training [DET] and Transkei [TK] schools in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Cape Town in 1995. At the time of doing the research for the investigation there were two concerns amongst the ASPECT staff at UCT. Firstly, how to address the issues of high failure rates and low retention of disadvantaged 1st year Engineering students, and low graduation rates. Secondly, what was the impact of the many innovative initiatives undertaken on the human resources that South Africa is thought to need in Engineering. The Engineering Faculty at UCT established the Academic Support Programme in Engineering at Cape Town [ASPECT] with the aim of addressing the needs of the increased number of black students from disadvantaged education and social backgrounds. The Physics 11Ow course was introduced into the ASPECT programme in 1995 and the academic support was given in the form of co-operative learning workshops.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• Taft, Trevor

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Muller, Johan

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9716

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9716