The purpose of the study is to find out what a group of seven-year-old South African children understand of their internal anatomy. The research is based on the premise that young children obtain most of their science knowledge through personal experience. Drawings are used to determine the level of young children's knowledge of systems and organs. The study also investigates whether there are significant differences between boys and girls' understanding as well as between children from a range of schooling contexts. Teachers were instructed to ask children to draw what they think is inside their bodies, using the language that is most familiar to the children (English, isiZulu, or isiXhosa). The findings show that children are able to draw individual organs, but are unable to show relationships between them. There were significant differences between different schools, but these differences were not due to different contexts. At Grade 1 level, boys were better able to represent what they thought was inside their bodies than girls. The findings show that the informal knowledge children hold of what is inside their bodies appears to be acquired by informal means, outside the school.

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The population dynamics and agonistic behaviour of syntopic striped mice Rhabdomys pumilio (Sparrman 1784) and multimammate mice Mastomys natalensis (A. Smith 1834) were investigated monthly throughout a year in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to test the null hypothesis that levels of agonistic behaviour do not change with increasing population density. The second null hypothesis was that agonistic behaviour of adults does not cause mortality or dispersal of subadult mice. Levels of aggression in paired encounters of same sex, intraspecific individuals increased in each species from winter to summer, and declined in autumn; corresponding with the breeding season but not with population density. Adults of each species were significantly more aggressive towards adult conspecifics than towards subadult conspecifics. The social organizations and life histories of R. pumilio and M. natalensis are different and affect their population biology. The control of density in R. pumilio populations occurs through territorial behaviour, whereas that of M. natalensis is through a dominance hierarchy. The results obtained suggest that aggressive behaviour was generated by interference and exploitation competition among adults for resources including food, space (mainly by females) and mates (mainly by males); the survival and dispersal of young mice was not affected by the aggressive behaviour of adults.

This study investigated the relationship between readability of 73 text-only multiple-choice questions from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and performance of two groups of South African learners: those with limited English-language proficiency (learners attending African schools) and those with better English-language proficiency (learners attending non-African schools). Both groups were exposed to the same intended curriculum, but differed with respect to the quality of teaching they received, the availability of resources, and the level of functionality of their schools. Learners from non-African schools performed significantly better than learners from African schools. Three readability factors (sentence complexity, unfamiliar words, and long words) were analyzed. High sentence complexity resulted in random guessing in non-African schools, and favoring an incorrect answer in African schools. Some TIMSS items have complex wording, with numerous prepositional phrases and clauses, and unclear questions. Recommendations for maximum readability and comprehensibility were not met, and these items are therefore invalid for learners with limited English-language proficiency. Learners employ a range of strategies in attempting to answer questions that they do not understand. Overall, though, poor readability of TIMSS items does not fully account for South African learners' poor performance in TIMSS.

Gerhillurus paeba paeba, G. tytonis and Pelromyscus collinus inhabit arid areas of southern Africa. Several litters of each species were bred in the laboratory; aspects of maternal behaviour and development of neonates are reported. Pelromyscus collinus has a smaller litter size and the young are less altricial at birth than young of G. paeba or G. tytonis. Gerhillurus tytonis young have the slowest rate of physical and behavioural development, while P. collinus young develop most rapidly. Young of P. collinus nipple‐cling from birth, but those of G. paeba and G. tytonis do not. This dichotomy may be related to phylogeny, mode of locomotion, and/or nesting habits.