Lonaka Journal of Learning and Teaching

EDITORIAL

Boitumelo Tiny Ramoroka — 2025-07-10

THE EFFECTS OF SPIRITUALITY PRINCIPLES ON LEARNER MOTIVATION: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Gaone V Olesitse — 2025-07-10

This literature review explores the impact of spirituality principles on learner motivation, examining how values such as connectedness, purpose, and inner peace influence educational engagement and achievement. Spirituality, distinct from religiosity, focuses on personal meaning and the pursuit of a higher purpose, offering a holistic approach to education that nurtures both the intellectual and emotional well-being of students. The review synthesizes findings from various educational settings, highlighting the positive relationship between spiritual principles and intrinsic motivation. It also discusses challenges in integrating spirituality into secular education, emphasizing the need for culturally sensitive and inclusive approaches. The analysis suggests that fostering spiritual well-being can enhance learners’ motivation, resilience, and overall academic success, promoting a more balanced and fulfilling educational experience.

THE ROLE OF EXIT EXAMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Samson Worku Teshome — 2025-07-10

Higher education exit exams have become a pivotal tool for ensuring academic quality and. This systematic literature review examines the role of exit exams in quality assurance, addressing their benefits, challenges, and evolving practices. The study employs the PRISMA framework to analyze 31 peer-reviewed articles (1994–2024) from databases including Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and ProQuest. Key findings reveal that exit exams standardize assessments, align curricula with industry needs, and validate graduate competencies. However, challenges such as inequitable implementation, cultural biases, and high-stakes pressures undermine their effectiveness. Innovations like digital and competency-based exams offer potential solutions but require careful design to ensure fairness and accessibility. The study concludes that exit exams are most effective when integrated into a holistic quality assurance framework, combining rigorous assessment with faculty development and student support.

UNVEILING THE PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGES OF TEACHING MANDARIN IN ZIMBABWEAN SCHOOLS

Clemenciana Mukenge — 2025-07-10

The burgeoning economic ties between China and other nations have sparked a surge in demand for Mandarin language instruction, leading to its inclusion in foreign language curricula across Africa, including Zimbabwe. However, the pedagogical landscape of teaching Mandarin in Zimbabwean classrooms remains unexplored. This qualitative study bridges this knowledge gap by exploring the challenges faced by Zimbabwean secondary teachers of Mandarin. Twelve secondary school teachers from Harare were purposively selected for in-depth, semi-structured interviews, offering a rich tapestry of experiences in teaching Mandarin. Guided by the Communicative Approach to Language Teaching theory, thematic data was extracted and analyzed, revealing several major challenges including the dominance of English as the language of instruction, cultural disparities between Shona and Chinese, limited instruction time, linguistic incompetencies, learner attributes, restrictive teaching materials, and inadequate access to digital tools. To address these challenges, this study recommends recruiting native-speaker teachers, integrating intercultural competence into the curriculum, and providing digital technologies to support language learning. Furthermore, future research should investigate learner experiences to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complexities involved in teaching Mandarin in Zimbabwean classrooms, ultimately informing strategies to enhance language instruction and learner outcomes.

APPROPRIATE MOBILE DEVICES FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA'S FACULTY OF MEDICINE

Khutsafalo Kadimo — 2025-07-10

Background: The use of personal mobile devices for teaching and learning is gaining recognition in medical education and healthcare delivery. However, research on mobile device use and its implementation tends to focus on technical aspects, sometimes overlooking the sociotechnical aspects of mobile devices.

Objective: This study used the actor–network theory (ANT) as a lens to explore what constitutes ‘appropriate’ mobile devices and their roles in the teaching and learning of medicine and healthcare delivery.

Methods: This study adopted an interpretive approach and collected qualitative data from 27 purposively sampled key informants. Data were analysed using grounded theory techniques of open, axial and selective coding.

Results: The findings suggest that an appropriate mobile device should not only be portable, but also user-friendly, and that it should meet the national healthcare regulatory and communication technology infrastructure frameworks and support users to complete tasks related to the teaching and learning of medicine and healthcare delivery.

Conclusions: The ANT approach to exploring appropriate mobile devices for the teaching and learning of medicine and healthcare delivery broadens our conceptualisation of appropriate mobile devices to combine the desired technical features with users’ preferences and internal/external stakeholders’ requirements.