<p>With the advent of e-learning, advocates use the term interactivity instead of interaction among students, and between the teacher and the students. Many universities use Moodle for online teaching and learning. This paper explores the perceptions and experiences of students in three Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Mauritius. A mixed-methods approach was used, with an online survey questionnaire administered to 600 students and focus group discussions were conducted with 15 students from these institutions. It was found that 68.4% of respondents used WhatsApp compared to only 23.6% of them who used the e-learning platform, Moodle. There were no associations between the use or frequency of using WhatsApp or Facebook and the types of HEI to which the students belonged. Students preferred WhatsApp due to its facility for knowledge sharing and construction, its interactivity, its usability, respect for privacy and instant communication. From the findings, it is recommended that HEIs bring a shift in their approaches to teaching and learning from cognitivism to socio-constructivism, connectivism and heutagogy.</p>
The purpose of this study was to determine the leadership approaches that state secondary school principals adopt in Mauritius in order to manage student discipline. Semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation were done in this multisite case study. Purposive convenient sampling was used to gather information from 84 participants. It was found that principals use visionary leadership, distributed leadership, learner leadership, inclusive leadership and ethical leadership. This is the result of the political and legal framework, the unwillingness of the educators to assume their professional commitment to discipline students, the complicated protocol to be observed by principals to address indiscipline, and the feeling of disempowerment of the principal to manage student behaviour due to the centralisation of the education system. The study recommends for a mix of leadership approaches to ensure effective student discipline.
Motivation is a fundamental concept of professionalism and efficacy for teachers. The present study investigated the motivational factors that affect the performance of primary school teachers in Mauritius. Governments have in the past come up with major educational reforms, but many shortcomings of the education system have influenced teacher motivation. The empirical data was analysed by using mixed methods with a semi-structured questionnaire and interviews from practising teachers to allow the researcher to draw valid conclusions. The purposive and convenient sampling was used for the case study research design. The findings indicated that the motivation of teachers was influenced by several aspects of their job. Teachers were not motivated due to excessive parental involvement, a lack of discipline of pupils inside and outside the classroom, unwilling learners and poor working conditions. However, most of them were more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated. It was also found that the Ministry of Education had a significant influence on their motivation, especially in the context of the Nine Year Continuous Basic Education reform. The researcher recommended that teaching materials and further teacher training should be provided to teachers and the management staff should be trained in using effective leadership and management of schools.
This study focuses on the implementation of ICT as a teaching tool for language and literacy in primary schools in Mauritius. It examines perceptions of primary school teachers of Grades 5 and 6 classes about the benefits, drawbacks and challenges of using ICT tools to enhance the teaching and learning of languages and literacy. The survey research design based on the quantitative research method was used to collect data from 100 primary schools in the district of Moka. The random sampling technique was used. The study indicates that teachers have an average level of perceptions of the drawbacks and challenges that they face in implementing ICT tools in their teaching, but they have a quite high level of perceptions of the benefits of using such tools. The most important finding is that they consider it difficult to use ICT tools in overcrowded classes that are common in Mauritian primary schools and that they are not well trained to use ICT tools to teach effectively and efficiently. It is recommended that, in the context of the new education reform called the Nine Year Basic Continuous Education, the Ministry of Education should review the teacher-pupil ratio and employ teaching assistants or support teachers to facilitate the effective use and implementation of ICT tools to accelerate its strategy towards the digitalization of education in the country.
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