Thesis (MPA.) --University of Limpopo / Parental involvement is a significant element that can have an impact or enhancement in the child’s education. Parental involvement implicates the active and significant involvement of the parent in all aspects, where a parent is interacting with the child for guidance and support. However, research in Okeke (2014:1) shows that poor parental involvement is the biggest challenge facing public schools in South Africa, especially schools situated in rural areas. This study aims at investigating factors that affect parental involvement in education of their children at primary school level, in Bahananwa circuit, Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province. In this study, the researcher employed mixed research approach and used purposive sampling to identify respondents who have adequate of parental involvement at schools. Accordingly, the researcher targeted all 28 School Governing Body (SGB) members which includes 3 principals, 15 parents and 10 educators in selected three primary schools within the circuit of Bahananwa. The researcher personally delivered the semi-structured questionnaires to the SGB members from the sampled schools and collected them after completion. Additionally, the researcher used observation sheet to collect more information on parental involvement. According to the findings, the primary schools are doing more through consultative meetings, among others, to ensure that parents are involved in the education of their children, both at school and at home. The schools use meetings as a major tool for parental involvement practice, but participation in the meetings was passive. The schools involve parents mostly on governance and administrative matters meaning that there is less parental involvement in curricular and extra-curricular activities. Another key finding in the study is that schools are performing inadequately with regard to learners’ performance. It is also found that the major challenges affecting parental involvement in the schools among others include parents who do not have time due to their working schedules and some due to illiteracy. The findings show that meeting areas are inconvenient for parental consultative meetings. While majority of parents have supportive attitude towards their children education, the significant proportion of parents still do not have supportive attitude. It is recommended that parental involvement in the decision making process needs to be enhanced through contact sessions to improve learners’ performance. It is also suggested that parental involvement needs to be improved in extracurricular and voluntary activities. It is further recommended that parents’ engagement at home needs to be enhanced to enhance learners’ performance.

Students with mild to moderate hearing losses, and some with severe hearing losses, are mainstreamed in a regular classroom for all or part of the day (Martin, Berstein, Daly & Cody, 1988). While these students may require special education services, the classroom teacher plays a vital role in the overall education and daily management of a child with a hearing impairment (Hass, 1987). Villa (1989) reported that many school employees have not received adequate training to educate these students. Therefore, it becomes the school's responsibility to educate teachers through a comprehensive inservice training program. One format for providing such a program is a self-directed inservice program. This approach can be utilized as a cost-effective means of meeting the professional needs of educators, although little is known regarding its' effectiveness to train teachers about the needs of students with hearing impairments. To address the effectiveness of a self-directed inservice approach, a comprehensive self-directed inservice program which provides information about hearing loss, behavior manifestations of children with hearing impairment, hearing aid maintenance, and mainstreaming was developed. This program was designed to educate teachers about the classroom needs of students with hearing impairment. A group of 20 teachers were randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which received the inservice program or control group, who read a brief article. A post test was administered to both groups, and the experimental group also answered a questionnaire regarding the inservice program. The results revealed a significant difference in the basic knowledge of regular education teachers about the classroom needs of students with hearing impairments for those receiving the program. This suggests that a self-directed inservice program is a viable method of educating teachers about the needs of students with hearing impairments.

Over the past two decades reported rates of autism have steadily risen. The current incidence is 1 in 68 children. While autism can be reliably diagnosed at 18 months in most children with the condition, specialized autism treatment rarely begins before a child's third or fourth birthday. As screening and diagnosis procedures improve so does the need for effective early interventions for autism. Researchers and professionals have expressed a growing concern over the need for effective early interventions for infants and toddlers with autism. At the same time, there is a dearth of qualitative research exploring the needs and experiences of parents with a very young child with autism. Employing a phenomenological framework, the purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experiences of parents of a young child with autism receiving early special education services. Unstructured interviews and photo elicitation were used to generate rich, detailed descriptions of the phenomenon. Data analysis from photographic images and narrative dialogues illuminated six essential themes across participants: (a) parents as pioneers: forging the way for future families; (b) making the journey as a family; (c) navigating uncharted service systems; (d) overcoming challenges and obstacles; (e) resilience, ingenuity and hope; and (f) reflecting on the first three years and looking forward. Participants expressed that they felt this study gave them a "voice" in the research literature. This study is one of the first to investigate the lived experiences of parents as they seek and secure autism services for their child under five with autism.

The purpose of this study was to investigate solution strategies that Thai second graders used to solve addition and subtraction word problems. Fifty-eight children participated in this study, 40 children took a written test, and 18 children participated in an interview. In addition, two classrooms were selected for observation, and six second-grade teachers completed a questionnaire regarding their understanding of mathematical problem solving. The results indicated that Thai children in this study were successful in solving addition and subtraction word problems. For addition word problems, the compare problem and the join problem were the easiest problems. The combine problem was moderately difficult. For subtraction word problems, the compare problem and the separate problem were easy while the combine problem was difficult. The join problem was the most difficult subtraction word problem. Since word problems used in this study contained mostly two-digit numbers, Thai children in this study used knowledge such as borrowing, carrying and regrouping to solve two-digit addition and subtraction word problems. Most Thai children in this study used counting strategies with fingers to solve both addition and subtraction word problems. Counting on strategies were most often used for addition word problems and counting up strategies were most often used for subtraction word problems. Counting all strategies were not used by Thai children in this study. Other strategies that were not based on counting strategies were also found. Those strategies were using tallies, using a known number fact, using an invented fingers model, and using a base-ten strategy. The strategies that Thai children used to solve word problems were not different from those used by children in United States and other countries such as Korea. Most children used three basic strategies to solve word problems: counting strategies; using a known number fact; and using a base-ten strategy. However, the base-ten strategy was not usually used by children in United States. The base-ten strategy was used by Thai children in this study and in Asia countries such as Korea. Moreover, the findings showed that Thai children in this study used mostly fingers to represent counting sequences while children in the United States used other physical objects such as cubes and counters. In observing Thai classroom instruction and having Thai teachers complete the questionnaire, the results suggested that Thai teachers in this study viewed problems as routine word problems and viewed problem solving as solving routine word problems. Teachers did not emphasize problem solving, reasoning, and thinking skills. As a result, children developed memorizing skills rather than thinking and reasoning skills. Children had never explored different types of word problems and non-routine problems, so when the children were faced with problems that differed from their school mathematics instruction, for the most part, children were unable to solve the problems. / Graduation date: 1999

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-171).

Thesis (M. Occ. Ther.(Faculty of Health Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references.

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 5, 2010). Vita. Thesis advisor: Dr. Judith C. Goodman. Includes bibliographical references

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