Learners experiencing barriers to learning often require intervention and support from multiple professionals with different areas of expertise. Collaboration between professionals is important in avoiding fragmented and incoherent service delivery. Transdisciplinary service delivery allows for maximum integration among the various role players. Disciplinary boundaries are transcended through a process of skills transference and sharing of roles and provide child-centred, coordinated and collaborative support. This study investigates professionals in the Western Cape’s perceptions of a transdisciplinary service delivery approach for supporting learners experiencing barriers to learning. A sequential mixed method approach was utilized to gain an in depth understanding of professionals’ perceptions. Data were collected in two phases. During the first phase, a quantitative questionnaire was sent to various professional categories in the Western Cape who are expected to provide services to learners experiencing barriers to learning. The aim of the quantitative study was to provide background information for the second phase in which professionals’ perceptions of a transdisciplinary approach for supporting learners experiencing barriers to learning were obtained through eight focus group discussions. Four focus groups consisted of professionals who had not previously been exposed to a transdisciplinary approach. These professionals attended a two hour informative workshop on a transdisciplinary service delivery approach prior to the focus group. The remaining four focus groups consisted of professionals who had previously been exposed to transdisciplinary service delivery. Data were systematically analysed through a hybrid process of inductive and deductive analysis. Findings indicate that professionals providing services to learners experiencing barriers to learning perceive a transdisciplinary approach as useful and much needed for services provided both in schools and in private practice. Certain aspects of the transdisciplinary approach are perceived as more or less valuable, depending on the context and specific category of learning barrier. Although professionals acknowledge all aspects of the approach as valuable, multiskilling and role release are viewed as most needed. The transference of skills among therapists, teachers, parents and caregivers is perceived to contribute to effective and feasible service delivery. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate how dyslexia is currently being defined and debated by both the academic and scientific communities. Additionally, this thesis analyzes how dyslexia is presently being dealt with in the classroom and how this disability is represented in children's literature.

Learners experiencing barriers to learning often require intervention and support from multiple professionals with different areas of expertise. Collaboration between professionals is important in avoiding fragmented and incoherent service delivery. Transdisciplinary service delivery allows for maximum integration among the various role players. Disciplinary boundaries are transcended through a process of skills transference and sharing of roles and provide child-centred, coordinated and collaborative support. This study investigates professionals in the Western Cape’s perceptions of a transdisciplinary service delivery approach for supporting learners experiencing barriers to learning. A sequential mixed method approach was utilized to gain an in depth understanding of professionals’ perceptions. Data were collected in two phases. During the first phase, a quantitative questionnaire was sent to various professional categories in the Western Cape who are expected to provide services to learners experiencing barriers to learning. The aim of the quantitative study was to provide background information for the second phase in which professionals’ perceptions of a transdisciplinary approach for supporting learners experiencing barriers to learning were obtained through eight focus group discussions. Four focus groups consisted of professionals who had not previously been exposed to a transdisciplinary approach. These professionals attended a two hour informative workshop on a transdisciplinary service delivery approach prior to the focus group. The remaining four focus groups consisted of professionals who had previously been exposed to transdisciplinary service delivery. Data were systematically analysed through a hybrid process of inductive and deductive analysis. Findings indicate that professionals providing services to learners experiencing barriers to learning perceive a transdisciplinary approach as useful and much needed for services provided both in schools and in private practice. Certain aspects of the transdisciplinary approach are perceived as more or less valuable, depending on the context and specific category of learning barrier. Although professionals acknowledge all aspects of the approach as valuable, multiskilling and role release are viewed as most needed. The transference of skills among therapists, teachers, parents and caregivers is perceived to contribute to effective and feasible service delivery. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

La “Scuola per la preparazione del personale insegnante ed assistente degli anormali”, avviata da padre Agostino Gemelli nel 1926 presso l’Università Cattolica di Milano, fu uno dei primi tentativi italiani di formazione degli insegnanti dei fanciulli deficienti. La Scuola, oltre a rappresentare il percorso italiano verso l’inclusione scolastica dei fanciulli disabili, testimonia il lavoro di Gemelli nel campo dell’educazione speciale. L’attenzione al tema della disabilità da parte del frate francescano riflette l’interesse del mondo cattolico a lui contemporaneo per la formulazione di interventi guidati non solo da sentimenti caritatevoli, ma basati su solide fondamenta scientifiche. Inoltre, il lavoro evidenzia come la formazione dei docenti degli anormali sia cambiata dagli anni Venti agli anni Settanta del Secolo scorso, parallelamente al processo di progressivo abbandono delle scuole speciali in favore dell’inclusione scolastica dei disabili. La ricerca, che contribuisce a incrementare gli ancora scarsi studi italiani di storia della pedagogia speciale, è stata condotta attraverso un’approfondita indagine archivistica, con lo scopo di far luce su docenti, studenti, materiali e libri di testo della Scuola, dalle sue origini fino agli anni Settanta. / The “School for the special aids and assistants for disabled children”, opened in 1926 at the Catholic University of Milan by father Agostino Gemelli, was one of the very first in Italy to set up about disabled children teacher training. This School gives evidence of Gemelli’s work in the special education area and also represents the Italian path toward scholastic inclusion for disabled persons. The interest of Gemelli, one of the most famous psychologists in the XX Century Italian framework, towards disability reflects how the contemporary Catholic world cared about interventions for the weakest not only driven by a charity feeling but based on scientific studies. Moreover, the study highlights how teacher training has changed from the Twenties to the Seventies of the last Century, following the different way of looking at disabled children, from isolation in special schools to inclusion in common classes. The thesis contributes to improve Italian studies in the field of the history of special education, a subject that has, for the most part, to be written. The research is carried out through archival investigations with the purpose of shedding light on teachers, users, materials and textbooks of the School, since its origin until the Seventies.

Thesis (doctoral)--Gothenburg University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)-Gothenburg University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

The purposes of the present study were to investigate the relationship between short-term memory and reading in learning disabled and average learners, and to determine whether this relationship is different between ages 8 to 10 and ages 11 to 13 in these two populations. Studies have shown that children with learning disabilities tend to perform poorer on short-term memory tasks compared to children with no disabilities. The present study was conducted because the short-term memory component in the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale is new and it was felt that information regarding this test's usefulness with learning disabled students would be beneficial for individuals in the field of educational assessment. A total of 80 children, 39 average and 41 learning disabled were selected from the five public elementary schools that have learning disabilities classes in the Langley School District. For each group of learning disabled children selected from the learning disabilities class, an equal number of average learners was chosen from the same school. The children were divided into two age groups: 8- to 10-year-olds and 11- to 13-year-olds and then further divided into their two learning categories. Four short-term memory subtests of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition: Bead Memory, Memory for Sentences, Memory for Digits and Memory for Objects and three reading comprehension subtests, from B.C. QUick Individual Educational Test, Peabody Individual Achievement Test and Test of Reading Comprehension respectively, were administered to all groups to measure short-term memory and reading. The Multivariate Analysis of Variance and the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation were used to analyse the data. Results showed that the average learners scored significantly higher than the learning disabled group in both short-term memory and reading. There was no interaction effect of learning group and age on reading or short-term memory. Significant relationships were found between short-term mmeory and reading for the average learning group but none was found for the learning disabled group. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

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