BY

To my loving, tolerant and incredibly supportive husband Danny, my dearest children Kamesh and Mishka for your patience and understanding and my parents Krishna and Shoba Singh for your motivation and believing in me. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the following people who all made this work reach its fruition. Dr. Busi Alant, my mentor and supervisor, for her excellent guidance, tireless patience, constant encouragement, assistance and motivation from the inception of this research study to the final preparation of this thesis. My colleagues Mrs Syrie Matthew, Mr Ruben Govender and Mr Desmond Moodley for assisting with piloting the questionnaire The biology educators who formed part of the survey Reena Moodley and Chantal Kaulasar of Howick West Primary for assisting in typing of the research materia