Thesis (MEdPsych (Educational Psychology)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The Eastern Cape Province of South Africa is predominantly rural in nature. Many schools within the province are under-resourced in terms of the minimum school equipment such as school furniture, telephones, photocopiers, learner resource material (textbooks), electricity, water ablution facilities, audiovisual equipment and, in many instances, even educators. In the light of the above, it was decided to gain a deeper understanding of the barriers that learners face in learning mathematics in grade 8 in schools in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape Province. A mixed methods research design using both quantitative and qualitative methods was employed, in order to generate data to shed light on the research question. Biographical information of the learners and educators was gained. Six schools were selected and their grade 8 mathematics learners were used in the research. The learners completed a numeracy and mathematical literacy test as well as questionnaires regarding their attitudes to mathematics and literacy. Focus group interviews were also conducted with the participants for the purposes of collaboration of information derived from the test and biographical questionnaire. From the analysis of the data collected, several possible barriers were identified. Among these are that learners exhibit attitudinal barriers towards learning mathematics, they do not make serious attempts to solve problems once they encounter difficulty. The educators seem to lack the mathematics competencies to handle their teaching. They still teach instrumentally in the way they were taught, which could constitute a barrier to the learning. The educators' interaction with the learners takes place only in the classroom time and is therefore limited. A lack of a reading culture among the learners were found. Learners therefore experience difficulties in comprehending mathematical texts because of inadequate vocabulary and reading skills. Learners experience lack of support in their home environments. Basic and prerequisite numeracy skills do not seem to have been acquired at the necessary levels in earlier grades. Various recommendations have been made for all stakeholders involved in the study – educators, caregivers, and the Department of Education in the Eastern Cape Province. The following recommendations were made for educators: they should make an effort to educate themselves on new trends in teaching methodologies. In this regard, educators should use a consistently open-ended teaching approach, accepting alternative views, leaving issues open, and encouraging independent enquiry and participation by means of learner-centred activities. Specifically, educators must refrain from teaching as an attempt to deposit knowledge in the learners through direct instructions but rather adopt the constructivist perspective. It was also recommended that to improve numeracy competency among learners, educators should not just teach mathematics or depend entirely on mathematics but be conscious of the fact that although numeracy may be taught in mathematics classes, to be learned effectively, learners must use it in a wide range of contexts at school and at home, including entertainment and sports. For caregivers, the following recommendations were made: Caregivers serve as a crucial link to their children's movement through the mathematics machinery and as such schools must find a vehicle to support and promote this partnership. Caregivers' involvement in learners' work will be a motivating factor for learners. Even if the caregivers themselves have no formal education, their mere concern and involvement in the learners' work will stimulate their interest and enhance performance. The study also recommends to the Eastern Cape Provincial Government that there is the need to provide adequate infrastructure in rural secondary schools. Furthermore, there is also the need to provide the necessary educator and learner support materials and ensure that there are enough qualified mathematics educators in the schools. It was also recommended that appropriate incentives be given to the educators of mathematics to motivate them to higher performances.

Adult memory for verbatim and gist information was tested immediately and after a 12-day delay in three experiments within the framework of fuzzy-trace theory, (e.g., Brainerd & Reyna, 1990; Reyna & Brainerd, 1991) using a crossed, within-subjects false recognition design which controlled for the amount of verbatim and gist in recognition stimuli and for the difficulties mentioned by Fletcher (1992). Instruction to recognize gist or verbatim information was a between-subjects factor. Experiment 1 investigated sentence recognition and misrecognition of inferences for spatial and linear sentences. Subjects exhibited both verbatim memory for the presented premises and gist intrusion for sentences that differed in surface form but shared the same gist. Relationships between presented premises and their inferences were independent when subjects interrogated verbatim traces to answer memory questions, and gist traces to answer reasoning (inference) questions. Subjects used gist to verify sentences in the meaning condition, and dependencies between premises and inferences were largely positively dependent. Overall, Experiment 1 replicated Reyna and Kiernan's (in press) findings with children, suggesting that adults do not qualitatively differ from children in the processing of verbatim and gist representations. Experiment 1's results rule out a constructivist account of memory (e.g., Bransford and Franks, 1971). Experiment 2 investigated recognition of inflected (e.g., past tense and plural) verb and noun word pairs, and misrecognition of analogous pairs. Results were similar to Experiment 1 as subjects used verbatim traces for verification in the memory condition. When processing for patterns, however, some subjects appeared to use a phonological rule, whereas others appeared to use a semantic rule. Experiment 3 investigated recognition of interpretations of novel Literal and Perceptual metaphors. Results were largely similar to those of Experiments 1 and 2. However, negative dependencies were found between presented metaphors and their interpretations in the memory condition, supporting the principle of discrepancy detection (e.g., Loftus, 1979). Evidence disconfirmed stage models of metaphor interpretation in which literal precedes figurative interpretation. Results were explained by two models of interpretation depending on metaphor type (Literal or Perceptual). Individual differences in gist versus verbatim processing were found in adults across the three experiments.

The WISC-III, Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) and Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Revised (CELF-R) were administered to groups of volunteer and referred Native American students who attended the Page Unified School District. The volunteer sample was randomly selected from all Native Americans attending first grade. The referred group included students ranging in age from six to eleven years who had previously been identified for a speech/language and/or comprehensive evaluation. The purpose of the study was to determine if the development of local norms was necessary to accurately identify students who may be eligible for special education services. A comparison of the groups' score means and standard deviations for each of the tests is provided. In addition, correlations between the measures provide tentative evidence of how intelligence, achievement, and language skill correspond to one another for a discrete sample of Native Americans. The results substantiated research with other Native American groups with regard to the Wechsler intelligence scales. Both groups obtained Verbal IQ scores significantly below the normative mean. The Performance IQ scores earned by the volunteer subjects were slightly higher and their Full Scale IQ scores were just below the normative average. In contrast, the referred group obtained Performance IQ scores below and Full Scale IQ scores significantly below the normative mean. On the WIAT, the volunteer group obtained scores comparable to the normative group, whereas, the referred group indicated significant areas of need in math and reading. Both groups obtained scores significantly below the mean on the CELF-R. The volunteer group's scores on the CELF-R indicated better receptive as compared to expressive language skills but the referred group's scores were depressed on both areas. These findings suggested that the volunteer sample's score profile reflected the normal developmental trend for language acquisition more closely than the score profile of the referred group.

The relationship of immune disease, headaches, and handedness to learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder (ADD) was investigated. Questionnaires were completed by the parents of learning disabled (LD) and regular education students attending public middle school. A measure of ADD was included to separate the sample of LD students into two categories: those with academic and behavior disorders and those with only academic disorders. Discriminant analyses failed to indicate a significant difference between the LD and regular education students on measures of immune disease, headaches, handedness, or attention deficit disorder. Chi-square analyses of the data indicated that the only significant difference between LD and regular education students was on a measure of allergies to food and drink where the LD students reported a higher incidence as compared to regular education students. Implications of these findings are discussed.

No description available.

No description available.

<p> Therapist self-disclosure is a controversial topic in that it has been historically and widely debated in past research and literature across theoretical orientations. Much of the existing self-disclosure research focuses on the effects that therapist self-disclosure has on the therapeutic relationship, using varied methodology in its definition and measurement of how, when, and in what context therapist self-disclosure is utilized. There are also very few studies that investigate frequency rates of therapist self-disclosure; of those that do exist, results are mixed. Additionally, there is little to no research on how self-disclosure is used by student therapists, in actual psychotherapy sessions, particularly in the context of sessions in which difficult or traumatic subject matter is discussed. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to qualitatively explore verbalizations of student therapist self-disclosure in psychotherapy sessions with trauma survivors. A sample of 5 therapist-participants from university-based community counseling centers were selected, and transcribed videotaped sessions in which client- and therapist-participants discussed trauma were analyzed. A qualitative and deductive content analysis was employed, using a coding system that was created based on the extant literature on therapist self-disclosure, to examine verbal expressions of therapist self-disclosure in psychotherapy sessions with trauma survivors. The results indicated that the therapist-participants used many different forms of self-disclosure (self-involving disclosures, disclosures that are not otherwise specified, personal self-disclosure, and demographic self-disclosures, in order of frequency) both within and out of trauma discussions. More specifically, self-involving disclosures (SINV-PERS) tended to occur more frequently within trauma discussions while personal and demographic disclosures (SDIS-PERS and SDIS-DEMO) tended to occur more frequently in non-trauma discussions. Therapist self-disclosures comprised 6 of the 9 proposed coding categories over all 5 psychotherapy sessions. It is hoped that this study will raise awareness around the issue of the use of therapist self-disclosure in psychotherapy, both in general and with clients who have experienced traumatic events during the course of their lives. The findings have implications for both future studies examining therapist self-disclosure as well as clinical training practices in graduate programs for student therapists, an area of study that is currently under-researched.</p>

No description available.

<p> The purpose of this longitudinal qualitative study was to investigate youth experiences of trust and mentor experiences supporting youth trust in longer-term formal youth mentoring relationships. Trust was defined as youth relying on and confiding in their mentors based on experiences of mentor reliability, honesty, and emotional sensitivity and protection from emotional harm. Thematic analysis was conducted on interview data from a longitudinal dataset, involving analysis of narratives from interviews (n=147) with youth, mentors, and parents for mentoring matches that lasted at least two years. Overall, participants in this study identified multiple ways trust was experienced by youth and supported by mentors. Additionally, various experiences seemed more or less critical depending on the timepoint in the relationship. Mutuality in confiding--involving mentor intentionality around making such confiding developmentally appropriate, appropriate to the nature of the mentoring relationship, and done in the service of the mentee and not the mentor--was a central way youth experienced trust and mentors supported youth trust. Youth demonstrated considerable strengths in wanting to rely on and confide in their mentors, in valuing such experiences for the emotional support and meaningful well-being they conferred, and in being self-protective around engaging in these experiences depending on various aspects of mentor attunement, time, and level of trust developed in the relationship. Youth experiences of trust became, over time, more multifaceted, and as such, some events that may have seemed negative or that perhaps carried greater potential for rupture in the beginning of the relationship seemed understood and experienced by youth as weighing less heavily as time went on and trust was known in many ways. While these experiences seemed to play out somewhat uniquely in each match, the themes found in this study captured common elements shared across these longer-term matches. Sociopolitical context and social ecology were found to be important for the development of youth trust. Two main contextual themes highlighted in this study, talking about race and racism, and family involvement, were especially important for supporting meaningful and beneficial experiences of youth trust in this context and setting. Implications for research and practice are discussed.</p><p>

<p> Process-based approaches to writing tend to overlook the self-regulatory skills and motivational beliefs required for proficient writing (Harris, Santangelo, &amp; Graham, 2008) and do not provide the support many students need to develop into effective writers (Graham, Harris, &amp; Mason, 2005; Harris, Graham, &amp; Mason, 2006). Additionally, restricted writing opportunities preclude the sustained deliberate practice students need to develop expertise in writing (Kellogg &amp; Whiteford, 2009). This study examined an intervention that incorporated the self-regulated strategy development model (SRSD, Graham &amp; Harris, 1993) with the automated writing evaluation (AWE) program NC Write. An embedded quasi-experimental mixed methods design was used to determine the impact of the intervention on students&rsquo; argumentative writing performance, knowledge, and self-efficacy. Middle school students (<i>N</i>=829) participated in one of three conditions: NC Write + traditional writing instruction, NC Write + SRSD instruction, or a comparison condition.</p><p> Results of multi-level models that controlled for pretest performance and predicted posttest performance averaging across students and within teachers showed that students in the NC Write + SRSD instruction condition produced posttest essays that were of a higher quality, longer, and included more basic elements of argumentative essays than students in the other two conditions. Students in the NC Write + traditional writing instruction condition produced higher-quality essays than students in the comparison condition at posttest. Students in the NC Write + SRSD instruction condition identified more essay elements at posttest, though there were no between-condition differences in writing knowledge of substantive processes or in students&rsquo; writing self-efficacy at posttest. </p><p> Additional multi-level models were specified to include all essays written by treatment condition students and examine the shape of growth in writing performance. Results showed that students&rsquo; growth in writing quality, essay length, and essay elements was best represented by a quadratic growth model. On average, students&rsquo; growth in writing performance reached a plateau following the fourth essay written during the intervention. Differences in rates of change and deceleration in writing quality, essay length, and essay elements were not significantly different between the two treatment conditions.</p><p> Survey results showed students and teachers held generally favorable opinions of NC Write. Interview results determined that NC Write as well as the overall writing intervention had acceptable social validity. Qualitative data analysis revealed that NC Write provided a framework for deliberate writing practice. In this framework students&rsquo; growth in writing performance is supported by a cycle of learning, practice, and feedback. NC Write enabled deliberate practice by affording writing quality feedback, efficiency, and evidence of growth, and supporting teachers&rsquo; writing instruction and students&rsquo; intrinsic motivation. Limitations of the framework included some aspects of feedback, limited lesson data, and lack of a plagiarism scanner in NC Write. Implications from these findings support integrating SRSD instruction with an AWE program to support teacher implementation of the SRSD model and more efficiently provide students with the strategy instruction, practice opportunities, and feedback needed to develop proficiency in writing. Recommendations are provided for AWE programs to better support students&rsquo; maintenance of writing quality growth.</p>