With little or no effort to test underlying assumptions in the South African context, South African career counsellors have traditionally depended on ‘proven’ assessment methods. Career counselling needs to move away from the almost sole use of psychometric tests to an approach that recognises an individual's social and historical background. Our research in Limpopo demonstrates the need for multiple approaches to the collection of comprehensive data in assisting students to make appropriate career choices. Whether traditionally advantaged or disadvantaged, all students need comprehensive information, both objective and subjective, to allow for appropriate career decision making. Therefore, the focus in career counselling in South Africa should be on the collection and utilisation of comprehensive information to assist all students to make successful career choices.

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This research reports on the findings regarding the perceptions of teachers towards creating space for the use of code switching as a teaching strategy in Afrikaans learning and teaching in the isiXhosa-speaking environments of the Transkei region. The aim of this investigation was to establish whether or not code switching can be used as a teaching strategy. A sample of 13 teachers from 12 schools was purposefully selected. A qualitative approach was used. Interviews and semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection. The teachers admitted that they code switch during Afrikaans classes. It also transpired that teachers perceived code switching as the best way to facilitate understanding. The recommendations postulate a gradual move from a high tolerance of code switching in the lower classes to a low tolerance thereof in higher classes.

The purpose of this research was to explore South African Grade 11 learners' conceptual understanding of 'image formation by lenses'. The participants for this study were 70 Grade 11 learners from a selected senior secondary school in Mthatha, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The qualitative approach employed in the study made use of a two-tier open-ended questionnaire as the data collection instrument. The study explored several alternative conceptions the learners had held in terms of the roles that the lens and the screen play in the image formation and the characteristics of the image formed when a lens with a larger diameter is used and when a portion of the lens is covered. Most of the participants could not respond correctly in the situations presented in the questionnaire. However, almost all of them were found to have adequate conceptual understanding about the role of a lens in the image formation.

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