M.A. (Psychology) / The goal of the present study was to determine whether there exist any differences in cognitive skills between left-handed dyslexic boys and righthanded dyslexic boys with left hemisphere speech representation. The comparison was made in terms of their verbal and visuo-spatial skills. The motivation for this study resulted from a hypothesis that was formulated by Geschwind and Behan (1982). The hypothesis states that there exists a difference in functional hemispheric asymmetry between left-handed and righthanded dyslexic boys with left hemispheric language representation. By virtue of their explanation of dyslexia in terms of a prenatal hyper secretion of the hormone called testosterone, Geschwind and Behan state that left-handed dyslexic boys will perform better than right-handed dyslexic boys on visuospatial tasks. An empirical study was performed in order to compare the verbal and visuospatial skills of left-handed and right-handed dyslexic boys. Twenty-six lefthanded and 26 right-handed dyslexic boys served as the experimental subjects. All the subjects had left hemispheric language representation. The selection of the experimental subjects was done by means of the dichotic listening technique as well as with the Harris test of lateral dominance. The nine subtests of the Senior South African Individual Scale-Revised served as measuring-instrument. The first five subscales represented the verbal cognitive skills. The visuo-spatial skills were measured with subtests six to nine. The data were statistically analysed by means of Hotelling's T2-test and Student's t-tests. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between left-handed and right-handed dyslexic boys with left hemispheric language representation in terms of any of the verbal and visuo-spatial subtests. The relationship between hand preference, functional hemispheric asymmetry and dyslexia is elucidated by the present study which rejects the GeschwindBehan hypothesis that there exists a difference in functional hemispheric asymmetry between left-handed and right-handed dyslexic boys. A previous study (Hugdahl et aI., 1989) accepted this hypothesis. Further research is thus necessary in order to determine the validity of the Geschwind-Behan hypothesis.

M.A. / Jean Piaget (1896-1980) played a major role in laying the groundwork for many of our current beliefs about cognitive development. By examining children's answers to particular questions and how they reached those answers, Piaget concluded that children's thinking was qualitatively different from adults and that it had its own special logic. Piaget was concerned with explaining the universal aspects of cognitive development rather than individual differences between people. While specific beliefs and ideas of different cultures may vary, Piaget posited that the stages of cognitive development, namely, sensori-motor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational, unfold in the same sequence at roughly the same ages, irrespective of cultural and educational background. The new political changes in South Africa have transformed the education policies from the content-orientated, rote-learning based curriculum of the past, to a skills-based, interactive learning approach called OutcomesBased Education (OBE). OBE aims to move away from the old 'tabula rasa' education policy towards a dynamic learning system that involves learners at a critical level of intelligence. OBE presents itself as compatible with developments in cognitive psychology, particularly Piaget's theory of intellectual development. The aim of this study was to explore, on a theoretical level, whether OBE is a marked improvement on the old system, particularly with regard to cognitive development, or whether the old system is equivalent to or better than OBE as a facilitator of the development of the concrete operational and formal operational stages. As this was a literature survey, an extensive theoretical analysis on Piaget's theory as well as on the premises of OBE was done, in order to determine whether there are theoretical links between OBE and Piaget's theory. Theoretical links were found between OBE and Piaget's theory, hence the pertinent and salient aspects of both Piaget's theory and the premises of OBE were reformulated in terms of the following hypotheses for the next stage of the research: • Children exposed to OBE will show an accelerated cognitive development when compared to children who have not been exposed to OBE. • There is a relationship between OBE and cognitive development. These hypotheses will have to be followed up by an empirical study where the cognitive development of learners from an OBE system will have to be compared with the cognitive development of learners from a non-OBE system. The research design of such a study will have to be such that the proposed hypotheses could be tested.

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