D.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Particular prominence has been given worldwide since the 1920's to educational assistance for handicapped pupils. From the 1930's in South Africa attention has been given to the visually, hearing and ,intellectually handicapped by means of specialized teaching, but after the appearance of the Murray Report (1969) specific aid has been given to learning disabled pupils to a greater degree. This assistance has been aimed almost only at the primary school pupil and a good many pupils enter the secondary school with unsolved specific learning problems. Such pupils generally exhibit specific characteristics such as amongst others, a poor self-image, poor interpersonal relations, failure orientation, a high anxiety level and general lack of motivation.. They generally maintain unsound relationships with their parents because such parents often do not understand their child's problems and consequently become disappointed in their apparently normal child's inability to progress scholastically according to his ability. To assist the learning disabled pupil to realise his potential to the best of his ability, a motivation programme has been compiled and used to raise his learning and achievement motivation. This programme is devised with a clear image of the learning disabled pupil in mind and also by applying the essentials of motivation. The motivation programme is devised around the theme: "I am a winner" whereby an attempt is made to raise the self concept to the central variable. are applicable: Additional to this, strategies like the following Realistic setting of goals; A positive attitude to life; The experience and acceptance of success and failure; Correct study methods…

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Examines goal orientation, ethnicity, gender, and achievement variables of 149 elementary school children (grades 3-5) at a Southern California elementary school. Research was conducted using a 2 x 2 goal orientation matrix that included mastery-approach, mastery-avoid, performance approach, and performance-avoid constructs. California Standards Test (CST) were used to determine achievement. Results supported the hypothesis that there would be no differences based on ethnicity, gender, or grade level. Statistically significant differences were found in the mastery-avoid goal because of class subject. Also, mastery-avoid was found to have a negative correlation to high test scores as measured by CST.

This study was made to determine the relationship between n Achievement, the McClelland technique measure of achievement motivation obtained from picture-story protocols, and academic achievement in elementary school children. The California Achievement Tests Battery was used as the criterion for academic achievement.

This study was designed to investigate friend influence on academic achievement and task avoidance during middle childhood in a sample of 794 participants in 397 stable same-sex friendship dyads (205 girl dyads and 192 boy dyads) from four municipalities in Finland: two in Central Finland, one in Western Finland, and one in Eastern Finland. Longitudinal data were collected during the spring of 3rd grade and 4th grade and reports were available from both members of each friendship dyad. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006) was used with a single sample of participants to estimate friend influence on academic achievement and task avoidance between two types of friendship dyads: (1) dyads that were distinguishable as a function of relative math achievement and relative peer acceptance and (2) dyads that were indistinguishable as a function of relative math achievement and relative peer acceptance. The results demonstrate that when friends are distinguished by math achievement the high achiever influences the low achiever’s math achievement, but not the reverse. When friends are distinguishable by peer acceptance the high accepted partner influences the low accepted partner’s math achievement, but not the reverse. When friends are indistinguishable on the basis of math achievement and peer acceptance there is mutual influence on math achievement. There was no evidence of friend influence on task avoidance. There was no evidence of friend influence from an individual’s own task avoidance predicting changes in friend math achievement, except among dyads that could not be distinguished on the basis of math achievement. Math achievement predicted within-individual changes in task avoidance for all friendship dyads, except those that could not be distinguished by relative math achievement. The findings suggest that friends influence math achievement during middle childhood. Furthermore, when friends are distinguished, relative math achievement and peer acceptance determines who is influencing whom within a friendship dyad. The use of the APIM for distinguishable and indistinguishable dyads on a single sample of participants illustrates that it is not sufficient to ignore differentiating features between friends, or to discard friendships that are more similar. Implications for teaching strategies and classroom interventions are discussed. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

The primary purpose of this study was to test the attribution theory of motivation cross-culturally by comparing performance and attribution patterns on inductive rule learning in two different cultures (Canadian & Korean) within the framework of collectivism vs. individualism. Two hypotheses were formed: 1) Korean and Canadian students would show differences in attribution patterns following success or failure outcome due to different cultural emphasis. 2) Given the effort attribution of failure, Korean students would perform more accurately on the reasoning task than Canadian students, and given higher ability attribution of success, Canadian students may perform better or at least equally as well as Korean students. A Total of 120 grade seven students (60 Canadian and 60 Korean) from a middle-class community from Korea and Canada participated in the computerized experimental tasks. The research design involved two culture groups (Canadian and Korean) and three outcome feedback (control, failure, and success), as independent variables, and the number of instances, response rate and accuracy on the inductive reasoning tasks as dependent variables. Findings of this study indicate that Canadian culture may not be defined as more individualistic than Korean culture. The study results did not provide a clear cut distinction of collectivistic vs. individualistic cultures between Korean and Canadian cultures. In terms of attribution patterns, both culture groups showed similar patterns, but different from Weiner's theory of motivation, not only effort but also ability attribution influenced positively the accuracy of performance on the subsequent task upon receiving failure feedback. Given failure feedback, Korean grade seven students performed better, while Canadian counterparts' performance level on the subsequent task deteriorated with failure feedback. Further research on cross-cultural study of attribution theory has been suggested along with educational implications.

This study examines whether self-esteem and anxiety are related to achievement and aptitude in 28 boys and 20 girls in grades 3 through 6. The influence of 48 mothers' and 42 fathers' self-esteem and anxiety on the child's achievement, aptitude, self-esteem, and anxiety is also assessed. / Main and interaction effects of achievement and aptitude on anxiety are obtained. High achievers have lower anxiety scores than low achievers. Gifted children have higher physiological anxiety than nongifted children. In most cases, gifted low achievers have the highest anxiety scores and gifted high achievers have the lowest. Aptitude and achievement groups do not differ in self-esteem. / Mothers of gifted children report higher total self-esteem than mothers of nongifted children. Fathers of high achievers report higher total self-esteem than fathers of low achievers. Parents do not differ in anxiety. Father total self-esteem is negatively related to anxiety and positively related to self-esteem in boys.

The aim of the study was to gain an understanding of the motivational styles that learners display when engaging in their schoolwork. The study was conducted with 132 grade seven learners at a primary school in KwaZulu-Natal. The five variables examined were extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, attributions, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. Learners had to respond to a self-report questionnaire adapted from The Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (Ryan and Connell; 1989), and Morgan and Jinks Self-Efficacy Scale (Morgan and Jinks; 1999). Items were related to learner's involvement in classwork, homework, and participation in lessons, and based on the five motivational variables mentioned previously. The Likert Scale with response options of Very True, Sort of True, Not very True, and Not at all True were used. In favourable statements Very True was scored four, Sort of True three, Not very True two, and Not at all True one. The scoring was reversed in the case of reversed coding. Emanating from the study, the findings reveal that learners reported doing their work for fear of punishment, and adherence to rules (extrinsic motivation), value their work (intrinsic motivation), have strong internal attributes (attribution), understand the work (self-efficacy beliefs), and can work on their own to achieve personal goals (self-regulation styles). The implications is that Curriculum 2005 may be having a positive effect in developing learners who are motivated to achieve academically. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2004.

This study examined the factors that impact on positive pupil performance in the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) in the Botha-Bothe district primary schools of Lesotho. Given the pupil performance in Lesotho districts the study aimed to find out what factors lead to high pupil performance in Botha-Bothe district, as well as why some schools in the same district perform better than others, and how low performing schools and school developers can learn from the high performing schools. This study used a descriptive survey research design to collect quantitative and qualitative data from the Ministry of Education District officials, primary school principals and primary school teachers. A descriptive survey design used involved questionnaires interviews, and document analysis to collect data for the study. The research findings in this study revealed that the Ministry of Education Officials, principals and teachers specifically identified the following factors to have positive impact on pupil performance: • A teacher with positive relationships • Effective teaching and learning processes • Purposeful leadership by the principal • The way in which the teacher and pupils interact with each other. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The main purpose of the study was to examine the achievement goal orientation of adolescent basketball players in order to better understand the influence achievement goal orientation had on these athletes, and to understand when the achievement goal orientation of adolescent athletes' may change from a higher task goal orientation to a higher ego goal orientation. Examining the achievement goal orientation of adolescent basketball players could have helped to identify the age at which most adolescents change the degree of their achievement goal orientation. The achievement goal of adolescent basketball players was examined, looking at differences based on the gender and ethnicity of the participants.The study included 250 adolescent basketball players ranging in age from 9 to 14 years old, and currently participating in basketball leagues and tournaments within Central Indiana and Western New York. All of the participants completed the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ), which consisted of four demographic questions examining the gender, age, ethnicity, and how long the adolescent had been participating in the sport of basketball on a team. The means of the two subscales, task and ego, were calculated for all of the completed questionnaires. The Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze the data according to the four research questions. All four research questions were not significant; there were no significant differences in the adolescent basketball players' achievement goal orientation based on age, gender, and ethnicity. The only significant result was found for competitiveness of the facility, and only for ego goal orientation. It was concluded the more competitive the league and/or tournament the higher the ego goal orientation would be for an adolescent basketball player. / School of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science