To investigate the efficacy of a cognitive approach applied to problems of motivation, anxiety, and test-wiseness in a group test situation, programmed texts were used to Condition a repertoire of verbal responses relevant to each of these problems. Five sixth grade classes composed of 118 Students total were administered Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Tests in a pretest-posttest design. For the five groups, ANCOVA demonstrated a significant effect on raw scores, but not on IQ. Significant IQ and raw score gains were found for the combination group over the control group. Due to treatment lower IQ level students of the combination group made greater raw score gains than upper IQ level students.

This study of the relationship between dynamic balance and rhythm tests the hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between these two factors. One hundred fifty-two fifth- and sixth-graders were given the Nelson Balance Test and an adaptation of Ashton's Practical Rhythm Test. The Pearson product-moment coefficient of correlation was used in the analysis of the data. The reliability of the tests was very low. The relationship between dynamic balance and rhythm was . 08, an unreliable correlation from which no conclusions could be drawn. It was recommended that improved methods of measuring dynamic balance and rhythm be developed for elementary pupils.

The purpose of this study was to compare two types of teaching music, isolated and integrative, to determine their influence on achievements in music and academic subjects of pupils in two fourth-grade classes in a Fort Worth elementary school. Attention was directed to the values of music in the lives of individuals, to the two types of teaching music, and to the outcomes of instruction from both types of programs.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis examines the process of selecting the midshipmen leadership, or "stripers," at the United States Naval Academy. Using a qualitative approach, it gathers data from the current cohort of decision makers who select the stripers each semester regarding what they believe to be the desirable and undesirable qualities of striper candidates. Shifting to a quantitative approach, those qualities are then used to create variables using data from the Naval Academy classes of 1999 through 2002. A logistic regression is then estimated with the purpose of gauging if those qualities are, in fact, represented in the selectees. A model is presented which indicates that, by and large, the goals of the selection process are being met. Recommendations for minor policy adjustments and for further research are made based on the findings of both the qualitative and quantitative data. / http://hdl.handle.net/10945/985 / Lieutenant, United States Navy

D. Phil. / The unit of analysis in this study is the reading competence of a selection of grade three learners in linguistically diverse schools in Gauteng Province. In a socio-cultural perspective on their reading competence (and logically also their English language proficiency), the findings indicate that their reading performance is linked to a variety of factors in the context of school and family. The inquiry was motivated by the need to understand and interpret the reading performance of learners who do not appear to benefit from early schooling, specifically in the area of reading literacy. The main premise of the study was that the young learners' reading could not be viewed in psychological isolation and that a broader picture of the pedagogical, the social, the cultural and the personal components interfacing with the action of reading would capture data that could inform both theory and practice of reading pedagogy. In the context of South African educational policy this is pertinent, because the learners in this country have a choice of the language of instruction (Department of Education, 1997), and parents often decide on English as the medium of education for their children — probably because of the assumed status of English as language of opportunity. Thus young children who do not know English as a primary language access the world of reading literacy though this often-strange medium. In addition, the teachers have mostly not been educated to practice a pedagogy of bilingualism or one that is suited to a typical ESL classroom. The research question posed in the study addresses this complex world of reading in a second/additional language, including the interaction between teachers, learners and the broader socio-cultural context. The study draws on literature in studies of socio-cultural research and concomitant pedagogies, arguing that Vygotsky's notion of mediated action is a viable perspective from which to try to understand problems in reading and reading instruction in a multilingual setting, with teachers ostensibly ill-equipped to practice effectively. The theoretical argument pertaining to reading as socio-culturally situated activity was woven into a research design that would capture both psychological and social components of reading action. To capture data that would reveal details of this action as well as the interrelatedness of various components of the action, I used multiple methods of data gathering, data analysis and data presentation of processed data. Methods of data gathering included language and reading evaluation instruments, evaluation of pre-literacy skills instruments, interviews with learners and educators, classroom observations and questionnaires. Data obtained from these research methods were described and interpreted qualitatively and/or quantitatively. The findings show that that both the learners' language and reading competence are not sufficiently developed for successful progress in grade three. An important finding is also that there is a relationship between the socio-economic background of the learners and their proficiency in English and also their reading and pre-literacy skills development. The findings have furthermore shown that reading development is influenced by pre-literacy skills development. Findings derived from the educators' interviews and classroom observations show that some of them, for whom English is not a primary language, use a pedagogic discourse that is generally ambiguous and that could confuse the young learners who have few other examples of English language use. It is furthermore evident that the educators do not have knowledge of reading pedagogy for the ESL classroom and that their theoretical knowledge does not get proceduralised. These findings were substantiated by the content of the teacher survey questionnaires. The significance of the findings is that reading pedagogy would have to be adapted in order to facilitate improved teaching practice and improved reading literacy of the learners, including the enhancement of pre-literacy skills development. I therefore recommend, again from the domain of socio-cultural research, that a model for teacher professional development be applied in the context of the six research schools. This model, which is essentially organic, is aimed at sustainable and dynamic professional development at grassroots level. It was originally designed by Lave and Wenger (Wenger et al, 2002) and has become known as the "communities of practice" model of work, learning and development. I present an application that can be used in the schools and which can include myself as co-founder of the community.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Signed on 10 September 2016 in Austin, Texas, USA. / This dissertation investigated the possible connection between the two constructs of metacognition and the strands of mathematical proficiency. Using a small convenience sample of Grade 12 learners at a public all-girls high school in Johannesburg, South Africa, the teacher/researcher examined if training in metacognitive knowledge influenced the learners’ conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence and heuristic strategy use. Two instruments (pre-test and post-test) developed by the researcher and completed by the students were on-line assessments of metacognition utilising written self-reports of strategy use that occurred simultaneously with mathematical problem solving. Qualitative analyses were applied to the data and learners demonstrated declarative, procedural and conditional metacognitive knowledge in their explicit heuristic and content-specific strategies. The learners also demonstrated strategies which could be inferred from their working. The study showed evidence of mixed transferability of metacognitive training to mathematical proficiency. Questions for further research are provided. / LG2017

This research report confirms the value of the Framework of Growth Points in a learner’s mathematical development in the area of functions in equation form. The study also shows that learners advance through the various growth points in a progressive, sequential fashion, which mirrors the results of Ronda’s study, on which a part of this study was based. The study was carried out in a high school in Johannesburg. Learners in Grades 9, 10 and 11 were required to do an assessment which tested for their achievement in different growth points. This study also explores the discourse of learners while they talked about the tasks in the assessment. A smaller sample of learners was interviewed so that the researcher could explore the nature of their discourse. This research report shows that there are patterns in the discourse of learners which can be related to the growth points that they achieve.

A research report submitted to the school of Education, Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Science Johannesburg 2017 / South African learners perform poorly in national and international mathematics assessments (Howie, 2004). A contributing factor to this poor performance is low mathematics knowledge of mathematics teachers in South Africa (Howie, 2003). One means of addressing this is professional development programs. The Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project runs such a program. A test is required by the project in order to assess whether learners are making learning gains after being taught by teachers who participated in this program. The focus of this study is the design of a test used to assess learners’ algebraic attainment. The aim is to design an informative and fair test using Rasch analysis. A sample of 235 learners’ responses to 47 questions was analysed using the Rasch model. In this study, the mean person measure was 2,87 (SD=1,38) logits, while the mean item measure was 0,41 (SD=2,25) logits, suggesting that overall, the test was too difficult. For the learners who wrote this test the person separation index is 1,78 and the person reliability 0,76. This implies that the test may not be not sensitive enough to distinguish between learners of high attainment from learners with low attainment. Various ways of improving the test are discussed. / MT 2018

This in-depth study investigates the acquisition of the passive construction by Setswana-speaking pre-schoolers. My original contribution to knowledge is that Setswana-speaking preschoolers acquire the passive early on some tasks but not others. This shows that acquisition is a multifacted task that needs to be fine-tuned. These are important facts that need to be considered by Speech-Language Therapists in order to accurately identify language-impaired children. Setswana is the fourth most commonly spoken language in South Africa. However, only four linguistic studies have been conducted on Setswana since 2000 and none of these investigated acquisition of Setswana processes in children. Setswana is a language that belongs to the South-eastern Bantu Zone of languages. Languages in this group are structurally closely related to one another and mutually intelligible. Studies of the acquisition of the passive in Sesotho and Zulu have shown that the passive develops much earlier (3 years) than in Indo-European languages (5 years). More tools are needed to explore language acquisition and language impairment in South Africa. It is essential that these tools focus on issues of poverty and diversity. The research methods used should be suitable for the communities being explored and should inform the delivery of appropriate services. Endeavors should be made to provide information that improves scientific research in terms of language acquisition and access to speech-language therapy services. The passive voice is considered to be one of the most well researched yet controversial linguistic structures. In Setswana the construction of the passive occurs when the subject of the active clause is expressed in the passive in the form of an agentive adverb with the prefixal formative ké- which forms an optional by-phrase. The verb is marked as passive using a passive extension by suffixing –w or –iw. How this is acquired is the focus of this study. A total of 114 children divided into 3 age groups 2.6 – 3.5 years, 3.6 – 4.5 years and 4.6 – 5.5 years were the participants in this study. Their performance was compared to that of a group of 11 adult verifiers. The aim of this study was to investigate Setswana-speaking children’s comprehension and production of the passive in terms of age, passive categories and length variables. Tasks used to examine these variables were Comprehension 2 and 3 Character tasks and Elicited Production and Imitation tasks. The participants were divided into two different participant groups. There were 52 participants on the Elicited Imitation tasks and 62 on the Comprehension and Elicited Production tasks. Participants were tested at 3 crèches in the peri-urban area of Pankop, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. On the Comprehension 2 character tasks significant differences between age groups (age group 1, 34% and 3, 49%) were noted. However, no significant developmental trends were found on Comprehension 3 character or Elicited Production tasks amongst the children. On Elicited Imitation tasks there was a significant difference between the youngest group (69%) compared to the middle (83%) and oldest age group (81%). . The results showed much variability among tasks. The results for Comprehension 2 and 3 Character tasks were at above chance level. The Elicited Production task was unsuccessful as children found great difficulty with this task with 2.6 to 3.6 year old children scoring 7% and the oldest group 14%. However, the Elicited Imitation task was extremely successful and confirmed the diagnostic value of such a measure. The type of passive did influence performance but this was task dependent. The participants’ knowledge of the passive categories, for Comprehension 2 character and Elicited Imitation tasks followed the same order, with best performance on inanimate categories followed by negatives, reversible and then non-actional passives. On Elicited Production tasks children also scored the best on inanimate tasks. A weakness of this study is that Elicited Imitation tasks were not administered at the same time as the other tasks and therefore a different group of participants was used even though subject selection criteria was the same. The impact of sentence length on performance also showed much variability. For the non-actional negative category on Set A Comprehension 2 Character tasks participants’ scored significantly better for short sentences than long sentences and vice versa for Comprehension 3 Character tasks. On Elicited Production tasks children scored better on long passive sentences. On Elicited Imitation tasks short sentences were easier than long passives. The results of this study confirms the important effect of task-type in assessing passive comprehension and production. Also, the results of this study suggest that the passive is not an early acquired structure in Setswana with the exception of the Elicited Imitation task. The results therefore support the A-chain Deficit Hypothesis, i.e., that the passive is a late acquired structure with difficulties with non-actional categories except when an Elicited Imitation task was used. Explanations may link to the complex sociolinguistic context of developing children in South Africa. This study confirms the important effect of task when testing child language, and the potential value of Elicited Imitation as a viable and relevant measure of assessing language in the South African context.

The accountability measures implemented by the states as a result of federal government mandates required by the No Child Left Behind Act (2001 [NCLB]) have created the need for states to develop standardized benchmark assessments as part of the compliance requirements set by the federally mandated act. State and local standardized tests have become an everyday part of public school life. A quantitative study was conducted to assess the correlation of students' scores on the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and students' reading percent scale-scores on one Florida county's benchmark reading assessment (CBAT) with students' teacher-assigned grades (TAG) for 10th-grade, English Language Arts courses. The study also assessed the predictive values of the 3 criterion variables and the moderating effects of 6 categorical variables: Race (White, Black, and Hispanic), Socioeconomic status (SES), English Language Learner status (ELL), and Students with Disabilities status (SWD), which contribute to Florida's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) ranking of school grading policy. The study found that there was a moderate and positive correlation among the 3 criterion variables and that the combination of students' scores on the reading portions of both the CBAT and the FCAT showed a significant predictive value in predicting students' TAG. The study showed an even higher predictive value of the combination of students' scores on the CBAT and students' TAG in predicting students' scores on the FCAT. The study showed there was a moderating effect of the categorical variable Race on the correlation between students' CBAT reading scores and students' TAG; however, Race did not moderate the correlation between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG. / The study found a moderating effect of the categorical variable SES on the correlation between students' scores on CBAT and students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG. The study showed a moderating effect of the categorical variable ELL between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG and between students' scores on CBAT and students' TAG. The categorical variable SWD did not show any moderating effect between students' scores on CBAT and students' TAG, or between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG. / by Christopher A. Beaulieu. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.