The primary aim of the study was to verify vocabulary on the Language Development Survey, for typically developing toddlers who attend ethnolinguistically diverse nursery schools. This was investigated through parent report. The need for exploration of the vocabulary of this population stems from the diverse linguistic context to which toddlers are exposed on a day-to-day basis in South Africa. Many parents prefer English as the language of learning for their child, irrespective of whether or not their first language is an alternative vernacular. Thus, toddlers interact with ethnolinguistically diverse peers from a young age, usually within their nursery school. An adapted version of the Language Development Survey was presented to forty middle-class parents within the Emalahleni area. Vocabulary commonly used by toddlers was determined and a comparison of parent responses between the present study and the original American-based survey were drawn. As expected, results revealed that nouns were used most often by toddlers, in keeping with research on vocabulary acquisition. Comparisons drawn between parent responses from the two studies showed highly similar results. Parents reported that nouns, verbs, adjectives and other vocabulary were used similarly by toddlers, despite differences in their linguistic exposure. These findings verify the Language Development Survey as a valuable clinical resource for speech and language therapists managing toddlers within the South African context. Suggestions for future research are provided. AFRIKAANS : Die primêre doel van die studie was om die woordeskat wat in die Language Development Survey gebruik word te bevestig vir tipies ontwikkelende twee-jaar oue kleuters wat etnolinguisties diverse kleuterskole bywoon. Dit is ondersoek deur middel van ouer terugvoer. Die behoefte vir ‘n woordeskat ondersoek van hierdie populasie spruit uit die diverse linguistiese konteks waaraan kleuters op ‘n dag-tot-dag basis in Suid-Afrika blootgestel word. Baie ouers verkies Engels as die taal van onderig vir hul kind, ongeag of hulle moedertaal daarvan verskil of nie. Dit het die gevolg dat kleuters van jongs af met etno-linguisties diverse ouderdomsgenote interaksie het, gewoonlik in die kleuterskool. ‘n Aangepaste weergawe van die Language Development Survey is aan veertig middel-klas ouers in die Emalahleni area voorgelê. Daar is vasgestel watter woordeskat oor die algemeen deur die kleuters gebruik word, en ‘n vergelyking tussen die ouers se terugvoer in die huidige en die oorspronklike Amerikaanse studie is getref. Soos verwag, het die resultate gewys dat selfstandige naamwoorde die mees algemeen deur kleuters gebruik word, wat ooreenstem met navorsing in verband met die aanleer van woordeskat. Vergelykings tussen ouer terugvoer van die twee studies het hoogs ooreenstemmende resultate gelewer. Uit ouer terugvoer kon dit ook afgelei word dat selfstandige naamwoorde, werkwoorde, byvoeglike naamwoorde en ander woordtipes ooreenstemmend deur kleuters gebruik word, afgesien van verskille in linguistiese blootstelling. Hierdie bevindinge bevestig die Language Development Survey as ‘n waardevolle kliniese hulpbron vir spraak- taalterapeute wat in die Suid- Afrikaanse konteks met kleuters werk. Voorstelle vir moontlike toekomstige navorsing word in die studie verskaf. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication / unrestricted

The purpose of the study was to investigate the physiological and psychological benefits provided by a self-selected health and wellness course on a racially and ethnically diverse student population. It was designed to determine if students from a 2-year Hispanic serving institution (HIS) from a large metropolitan area would enhance their capacity to perform physical activities, increase their knowledge of health topics and raise their exercise self-efficacy after completing a course that included educational and activity components for a period of 16 weeks. A total of 185 students voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. An experimental group was selected from six sections of a health and wellness course, and a comparison group from students in a student life skills course. All participants were given anthropometric tests of physical fitness, a knowledge test, and an exercise self-efficacy scale was given at the beginning and at the conclusion of the semester. An ANCOVA analyses with the pretest scores being the covariate and the dependent variable being the difference score, indicated a significant improvement of the experimental group in five of the seven anthropometric tests over the comparison group. In addition, the experimental group increased in two of the three sections of the exercise self-efficacy scale indicating greater confidence to participate in physical activities in spite of barriers over the comparison group. The experimental group also increased in knowledge of health related topics over the comparison group at the .05 significance level. Results indicated beneficial outcomes gained by students enrolled in a 16-week health and wellness course. The study has several implications for practitioners, faculty members, educational policy makers and researchers in terms of implementation of strategies to promote healthy behaviors in college students and, to encourage them to engage in regular physical activities throughout their college years.

This is a qualitative, mixed-methods study that focuses on the dispositions that preservice teachers bring into teacher education programs in regard to homelessness. Teacher education programs play an important role in providing preservice teachers experiences teaching that prepare them for working with diverse populations of students. Students enrolled in an elementary art methods course and participated in a civic engagement experience, teaching children after school who were living in a transitional housing program. The results of this study showed evidence that working in community settings with diverse students can alter preservice teachers' notions and awareness of impoverished and homeless children. As a researcher, it is my hope that this alteration will significantly impact the way that pre-service teachers interact with all of their future students.

No description available.

Master’s thesis deals with the analysis of personnel management in selected high-tech company. The theoretical part of thesis describes the basic concepts of personnel management, diverse teams and characteristics of the high-tech sector. In the practical part is analyzed the current state using questionnaires and subsequently proposed recommendations, including their economic evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate preliminary psychometric normative data of an English dynamic assessment of narrative language for a group of diverse school-age students with and without language disorder. This study included 364 diverse students with and without language disorder ranging from kindergarten through 6th grade. Students were confirmed as having a language disorder if they had an existing active IEP for language, and scores below a certain cutoff point on a nonword repetition (NWR) task and the narrative language measure (NLM). English language proficiency was investigated, and students were classified as being a dual language learner (DLL) based on student, teacher, or parent report of diverse home language, and poor performance on an English narrative language assessment. Participants were administered a nonword repetition task (NWR), the Narrative Language Measure (NLM), and the Dynamic Assessment of Oral Narrative Discourse (the DYMOND). Data were analyzed within groups of typically developing students and students with a language disorder to identify statistically different mean modifiability and posttest scores given various demographic factors. Results of this study indicate that modifiability and posttest scores for typically developing students were not found to be statistically different given gender or school location, however, significant differences were noted given grade and level of English proficiency or DLL status. The group of students with a disorder demonstrated no statistically different mean modifiability scores given any demographic factor. Students with a language disorder demonstrated significantly different mean posttest scores given school location and English proficiency and DLL status. Results from this study are consistent with previous dynamic assessment research in demonstrating excellent classification accuracy in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) populations. Students may benefit from a norm-referenced dynamic assessment of narrative language in order to provide less-biased standardized forms of assessment for CLD populations.

Despite considerable interest among South African scholars in learner behaviour management in South African schools, there is little literature on learner behaviour management in the context of cultural diversity. The present study investigates this essentially neglected space by focusing on learner behaviour management practices of teachers in culturally diverse classrooms of a high school in the Tshwane South District within the Gauteng Department of Education, South Africa. Cultural diversity is used as a lens to explore the practices of teachers. The theoretical underpinnings of culturally responsive classroom management are used to describe and to interpret learner behaviour management practices of teachers to determine whether the approaches and the resultant strategies that they use are culturally responsive. A qualitative case study approach was used, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews that included critical incident narratives obtained from teachers, analysis of pertinent documents and observations of 10 culturally diverse teachers who teach the same class consisting of culturally diverse learners, as well as of the Discipline Officer and two additional teachers that were identified through snowball sampling. The findings revealed that learner behaviour management practices of most teachers are not culturally responsive. This is a result of factors such as lack of recognition of their own ethnocentrism and biases, as demonstrated mainly by their unrealistic expectations, pessimistic attitudes and stereotyping perceptions; ignorance of learners‟ cultural backgrounds, as demonstrated mainly by teachers‟ denial and minimisation of the importance of understanding learners‟ cultural backgrounds (leading to misinterpretation of the behaviours of culturally different learners); lack of commitment to building a caring classroom community; lack of consciousness of the broader social, economic and political context of the South African education system; and lack of ability to apply culturally responsive classroom management strategies, which is exacerbated by lack of teacher education and development in this regard. The implication of these findings is that teachers need to possess an ethnorelative mindset, and to be interculturally competent. A key recommendation is that teachers should endeavour to move away from ethnocentrism towards being ethnorelative by developing an inclusive outlook, accepting cultural differences and adapting their perspective to take the cultural differences that influence learner behaviour into account. The study also recommends that teacher education programmes should prioritise teacher development on intercultural issues and the acquisition of intercultural competencies, as these aspects are crucial for teachers to appropriately manage the behaviours of learners whose cultural backgrounds are different from their own. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

"In this study we sought to compare eating disorder attitudes and behaviors, and proneness to an eating disorder ("ED proneness"), between gay men, lesbian women, and transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) adults. A further aim was to identify and compare risk and protective factors, and examine a mediational model based on the interpersonal theory of eating disorders (IPT-ED), whereby the association between interpersonal factors and ED proneness would be mediated by psychological constructs pertaining to the self and negative affect. Data was obtained from a larger national study of health risk and protective factors among sexual minority and gender diverse populations. The sample included 97 gay men, 82 lesbian women, and 138 TGNC adults. Participants completed the National College Health Assessment, Eating Disorders Screen for Primary Care, Patient Health Questionnaire Depression scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 scale, Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form, Negative Social Exchange subscale of the Multidimensional Health Profile, Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire, and Perceived Stigma Scale. There was a significant difference between groups in ED proneness, with lesbian women (66.7%) having a significantly higher percentage than gay men (47.6%). There was also a significant difference between groups in weight-based self-worth, with the lowest percentage in gay men (63%) and the highest percentage in lesbian women (82%), as well as dissatisfaction with eating patterns, with the highest percentage in TGNC adults (69.8%) and the lowest percentage in gay men (47.7%). There was a low percentage of inappropriate compensatory behaviors, with no significant difference between groups. Logistic regression analyses showed that the predictor variables of ED proneness were depression, perceived stigma, and self-compassion in gay men; depression in lesbian women; and self-compassion in the TGNC adults. Mediation analyses showed that thwarted belongingness (i.e., an unmet to belong) and perceived stigma had an indirect association with ED proneness that was mediated by self-compassion and depression (for perceived stigma alone) in gay men, depression in lesbian women, and self-compassion in TGNC adults. The interpersonal theory of eating disorders therefore extends to sexual minority and gender diverse populations; however, the results suggest a broadening of theoretical models and intervention programs to include the role of stigma and self-compassion."

Many investigators have documented the impact of high attrition rates on an organization's ability to deliver its expected results. However, limited information is available regarding the efficacy of a specific bundle of variables, which would support a leader's ability to influence voluntary employee turnover. This quantitative study investigated the effectiveness of a 60-day treatment implemented to address the problem of voluntary employee turnover in a diverse retail environment. The research questions examined the effectiveness of an increase in communication, answering, recognition, and training on voluntary employee turnover and job satisfaction in a diverse retail environment. The theoretical foundation of the study was the job embeddedness theory, advocating closer community ties, organizational fit, and sacrifice to support retention. A pretest-posttest control group design, in which a self-designed survey instrument, along with the short form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, were used to gather data from a diverse group of retail employees (N = 279). Pearson product-moment correlational analysis was used for both pretest and posttest measurements, which showed evidence of a moderate association between the independent and dependent variables, and lead to a rejection of the null hypothesis. Based on the observed increase in retention rates, the intervention of the 60-day treatment was deemed moderately successful. Positive social change will be evident not only within diverse organizations, but also within those which are increasingly becoming more diverse, as they seek to design platforms which would afford their influential leaders the ability to increase their current levels of communication, answering, recognition, and training.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Many Americans espouse “post-racial” conceptions of race and its role in children’s access to equitable learning opportunities; however, recent studies have illuminated the need to examine the ways in which “new” forms of institutionalized and interpersonal racism continue to hinder the schooling experiences of students in urban schools. Despite that students in urban schools are predominantly African American (27%) and Latinx (41%), the teaching force remains predominantly white (71%). Within these schools, white teachers’ lack of cultural competence and racial literacy marginalize students’ opportunities for social, emotional, and academic development and, thereby, foster racially hostile learning environments. However, cases of teachers in urban schools who create and sustain learning environments in which their students thrive socially, emotionally, and academically exist and need to be studied. This case study investigated the pedagogical beliefs and practices enacted by two highly regarded African American educators who created racially safe learning environments in two racially hostile urban elementary students. Ethnographic data was collected over a five-month period. Using constant comparative analysis within and across both cases, several significant findings emerged. Findings revealed how “new racism” manifested in the discourses, policies, and practices at both schools and, thus, illuminated the ways in which race marginalized not only the schooling experiences of African American and Latinx students, but their African American educators as well. Findings examined how each teachers’ pedagogical enactments aligned with the ideologies, beliefs, and practices associated with African American pedagogy and revealed how they fostered cultures of community, love, and achievement within their classrooms. Findings suggest that their culturally specific pedagogical beliefs and practices have the potential to create racially safe learning environments within, otherwise, racially hostile schools. Although African American pedagogical excellence is often relegated to discussions of practices needed to reach African American students, this study expands the knowledge base needed to center AAPE in discussions of best practices for teachers in urban schools. This study adds critical insights to discussions of race and its role in the schooling experiences and opportunities to learn in racially hostile urban schools.