This study explores the aims of psychological assessment and evaluation of learners by Free State child guidance clinics so as to realise the goals of Inclusive Education. A systematic and scientific study examined the psychological assessment practices used by the Free State child guidance clinics. The study agitates for the eco-systemic theory as its theoretical framework to psychological assessment and evaluation of learners as opposed to the medical positivistic approach. The advent of democracy in 1994 led to the transformation of the South African education system. Education changes included the review of the use of psychological assessment and evaluation of learners in schools. Such changes in psychological evaluation were necessitated by the fact that traditional psychological evaluation methods were used to perpetuate apartheid policies. Psychological tools and techniques used were biased towards certain learners. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used to complement each other as part of triangulation. Five child guidance clinics were targeted as the research population for this study. These were: Child Guidance Clinic1, Child Guidance Clinic 2, Child Guidance Clinic 3, Child Guidance Clinic 4 and Child Guidance Clinic 5. Participants for the study were selected from all these clinics as they had all the characteristics needed to be part of the study. Purposive sampling then became the appropriate sampling style for the study. Not all members of the child guidance clinics were reached to be participants in the research study. Ultimately, 33 members of the child guidance clinics formed the research sample. Data production techniques used were structured questionnaires, clinical interviews and file analysis. A total number of 12 interviews were conducted, 25 questionnaires administered and 50 files audited. The literature survey provided a theoretical base to look at previous studies conducted on this topic and to provide a theoretical lens through which this study was conducted. Data produced were presented and qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. It became evident in this study that psychological assessment and evaluation of learners was culturally biased against certain learners. Many psychological tests used to assess learners had a content bias and were not standardised for the culturally diverse South African society. The general picture that emerged from the study about the assessment of learners was that many learners who were referred to child guidance clinics for psychological intervention were eventually placed in the special education programme. A majority of the assessors were white and speak Afrikaans. This created problems as they assess black Southern Sotho or Xhosa speaking learners because they are not conversant with learners’ language. They then had to use interpreters to help them. Tools and techniques that they used were influenced by the medical model as its theoretical base. In this study, it is argued that the medical model needs to be revisited as it does not help learners to realise their full potential. Instead, the eco-systemic model is foregrounded as the assessment model which is compatible with the principles of inclusive education. It then became evident that the aims of psychological assessment and evaluation of learners especially in an inclusive education context must be revisited. On the basis of the findings of this study, it is concluded that; • The total number of specialists working at the Free State child guidance clinics is too limited; • Most of the therapists, especially psychologists, still maintain that psychometric tests can play a role in inclusive education; • The aims of psychological evaluation should aim at the learner’s needs and for support; • Placement of learners in special settings should be discouraged and those who need moderate to high levels of support should be assisted at the full service school or resource centre. It was not the intention of this study to discuss psychological assessment and evaluation in depth as this is a very wide concept. Time constraints could not allow that. Further research is required on other aspects of psychological evaluation. Recommendations relating to how assessment in an inclusive education setting should be conducted and suggestions for future relevant research on psychological assessment and evaluation of learners are made. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of school counselors or guidance educators and students about the need for Guidance and Counselling in schools. Changes in the political arena and the birth of the new dispensation brought about changes in education and service delivery. The doors of education were opened to allow even the poorest of the poor to access equal opportunities. Apartheid education had disempowered black people to the advantage of whites. For the first time in the history of our education everyone enjoyed equal access and opportunities. Our classrooms became places where young people, black and white, can now access the best education for them to succeed in life, and fulfill ambitions that not so long ago seemed so remote. The study focuses on the availability of psychological services in ten high schools in the greater Durban North region. Questionnaires were administered to School Counsellors, Guidance educators and students in schools where school Guidance and Counselling is offered and to those in schools where it is not offered. It was hypothesized that Guidance and Counselling was not effectively and adequately offered in high schools. The results of the study indicate that both educators and students feel that there is the need to either revive or improve guidance and counselling services. Statistical analysis indicated that the majority of African schools that participated in the study do not offer Guidance and Counselling, with the lack of resources as the main cause. Retrenchments and the granting of voluntary severance packages were cited as some of the factors affecting the delivery of quality guidance and counselling. Schools are unique and problems and challenges facing them differ from one area to another, yet there is a dire need to improve the Guidance and Counselling services that are generally inadequate. It is hoped that the study will, firstly, stimulate further research in education support services, specifically Guidance and Counselling as a school subject, and, secondly, the findings will evoke debates about guidance and counselling services in schools. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2003.

Thesis (MPA) --University of Limpopo, 2010

Children may have difficulty with learning for a great variety of reasons. In determining these reasons, the diagnostician will need to consider among other intellectual functioning, environmental influences, biological and emotional disorders and cultural differences. What also needs to be included is how students view themselves as people and as students - that is, their feelings of self-worth or self-esteem. Very often the solution to a child's learning problems are looked for in the cognitive areas, when it is this affective aspect of learning that requires attention. There is ample research evidence to show, that children with poor opinions of thier self-worth, are less likely to be doing well at school than children who have a high opinion of themselves. Less clear however, is the actual cause and effect relationship. That is, is it more usual to find low self-esteem causing poor school performance or does poor school performance cause low self-esteem. This study assumes that low self-esteem is likely to be a major cause of poor performance and that any efforts to change a child's opinion of himself in a positive way, will result in improved performance - in this particular case - at reading. As self-esteem is largely learned from interaction with significant others, an attempt was made to influence the self opinions of a group of children by specific counselling of these 'others', here, their parents and teacher. The major thrust of the counselling was directed towards the parents, although it is understood that an equal amount of effort with the teachers of the children involved would have been justified. In a program extending over ten one and one half sessions, parents of an experimental group of children, were counselled in two groups. The aims of the program were to provide parents with an awareness of how their child's self concept is formed, how it affects their achievement in school and how they might influence its change. In the study, this experimental group did not show any significant gain in achievement or self-esteem over the control group. Nevertheless, there emerged a number of useful implications for better practice in the field of educational counselling.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1981.

Tertiary institutions, in striving towards achieving academic excellence, have realised the need for the professional development of human resources. Staff development thus now features in most institutions' strategic plans. In this study, which has as its context the M L Sultan Technikon, an attempt was made to develop and implement an evaluation programme for academic staff to determine relevant staff needs. Adopting a 'grass-roots' approach to staff evaluation, the evaluation programme was initiated and launched by the Staff Development Unit. Phase 1 of the programme was experimental and voluntary and consisted of student-feedback, a self-evaluation form and a head's evaluation form. Staff response to the programme and their input to a revised evaluation programme occurred as a result of meetings with staff, the administration of feedback questionnaires and a survey of all heads of department. One of the goals of the evaluation programme was to contribute to a relevant staff development programme based on academic staff needs, generated as a result of engaging in the self-evaluation, resulting in needs as indicated in staff's personal development plans. Although the evaluation programme was developed with formative intentions, it has been adapted by the Management for summative purposes, the outcomes of which are also focused upon in the study. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Durban-Westville, 1991.

La loi du 11 février 2005 « pour l’égalité des droits et des chances, la participation et la citoyenneté des personnes handicapées » a provoqué une profonde mutation du système éducatif et entrainé un nouveau partage entre le monde médico-social et l’Éducation nationale avec la mise en place d’un travail de partenariat. Un changement paradigmatique majeur s’est opéré avec l’émergence du concept d’inclusion. L’école devenue « inclusive » s’efforce désormais de répondre aux besoins éducatifs particuliers de chaque élève en adaptant la norme scolaire. Les dispositifs collectifs d’inclusion sont des leviers privilégiés de la scolarisation d’élèves en situation de handicap qu’ils accompagnent suite à une notification de la Maison Départementale des Personnes Handicapées.L’objectif central de cette thèse consiste à interroger, plus de 10 ans après la loi, les processus à l’œuvre lors de l’orientation d’élèves vers des ULIS école. Certains élèves sont orientés en ULIS école sans pour autant présenter de handicap avéré. Ils sont, pour la plupart, issus d’un environnement marqué par une précarité sociale assorti d’une problématique familiale. Ces orientations qui inscrivent l’enfant sur le registre du handicap se font sous couvert d’un étiquetage médico-psychologique, les difficultés scolaires étant assimilées à de la déficience légère. Elles sont rendues possibles par un élargissement de la catégorie du handicap, par des critères d’orientation de plus en plus larges et par l’accroissement actuel des réponses médico-psychologiques face à l’échec scolaire. Il semblerait que les dispositifs ULIS continuent à assurer une fonction de régulation sociale, le recours à l’enseignement spécialisé restant socialement différencié. Dans le contexte actuel de médicalisation des difficultés scolaires, sont orientés en ULIS école des élèves qui mettent le système ordinaire en difficulté et pour lesquels, il ne semble avoir d’autre réponse que l’inscription dans le champ du handicap. / The 11th of February 2005 law « for disabled persons rights and opportunities equality, participation and civic rights » brought about a deep educational system change and provoked a new sharing between the medico-social system and the Éducation Nationale with the positioning of a partnership. A main changing paradigm has occured with the inclusion concept emergence. Schooling today inclusive is trying to answer pupils’ special educational needs by adjusting school standards. Group inclusion systems are privileged levers to help disabled pupils at school following the Maison Départementale des Personnes Handicapées notifications.This thesis main goal, more than ten years after the law for the disabled persons, consists in examining the process at work when pupils are guided towards a primary school ULIS (Unité Localisée d’Inclusion Scolaire). A certain number of pupils have received educational counselling towards primary school ULIS without any proven disability. They have, mostly, originated from environments with social and family problems. These notifications labelling children as disabled have been done on a medico-psychological basis, the children’s schooling difficulties labelled as mild disability. Those have occured because of a widening of the disability category, wider and vaguer educational counselling criterions and today’s increasing medico-psychological solutions to school underperforming. ULIS systems would seem to carry on ensuring a social regulating function, the recourse to special needs education being socially differentiated. Today’s context of medicalizing school underperformance is leading to guide towards primary school ULIS pupils, putting the common system in a difficult position, and, for whom there seems to be no other solution than labelling them as disabled.

This study was conducted to investigate what the perceptions of Career Guidance Counselors were toward young girls and High Status Subjects. The study was underpinned by the work done by a number of researchers in other countries. These researchers all proved that the subjects Mathematics and Physical Science were not gender biased and girls could do as well as boys. The subject packages girls chose at the end of their grade 9 year would have an impact on possible career choices they could make after the completion of grade 12. The study also seeks to explore reasons why girls were not choosing these subjects and if the Career Guidance Counselors were actively encouraging the girls to take these subjects. The study was a qualitative one using interviews based on questionnaires. The answers were carefully recorded and decoded. The Career Guidance Counselors were interviewed at their schools in the central Durban area. The schools selected were those fortunate enough to have counselors on their staff. Many schools do not have Career Guidance Counselors as they are unable to accommodate them with their limited resources. The study found that at many schools there was little if any encouragement from the Guidance Counselors to enter these subjects in grade 10. The two schools that did encourage their female learners to select these subjects found that their learners achieved very well. This study will show that urgent intervention needs to be made if our young girls are to take their rightful place in our society in a number of high status occupations. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

The aim of this study is to critically analyse government policy on appropriate rural vocational education and training in the light of perceptions of youth in Mavalani Village, Limpopo. The stance that I take in this study is that rural youth need to participate in education and training policy-making because they are the ones affected by these policies. I argue that meaningful policies are ones that are developed by people they are meant to serve. The literature review and theoretical framework indicate that neo-liberalism has negative impacts on VET internationally and in South Africa. Although there are social, political and cultural aspects in the education and training of South Africa, the economic aspects are more dominant. I use the theory of Food Sovereignty to counter neoliberalism which promotes the rights of business at the expense of people’s livelihoods and lives. Food Sovereignty is for the right of natural persons to own and control their own destinations, although it takes food production and distribution as the point of departure. This qualitative study is framed within a critical paradigm where I look at power relations in society and how people can strive to change their circumstances. I used purposive sampling where I selected participants based on my knowledge of the population in question. The findings of the study indicate that VET in South Africa needs to be improved to better serve the interests of young people. The findings suggest that there are a lot of changes that need to be made in VET in the country, and that Community Learning Centres need to offer VET that is community-based and relevant to local development and context. The findings are in line with the theory of Food Sovereignty in that they encourage community participation, collective action and communal ownership, as opposed to neo-liberal capitalism where private ownership is ‘the order of the day’. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The study assessed the role of guidance and counselling in promoting learner discipline in secondary schools in the Oshikoto region of Namibia. The study used the mixed methods approach, which resulted in providing qualitative and quantitative data to provide an understanding of the problem. The instruments for data collection were questionnaires for principals, teachers, teacher counsellors and learners, as well as one-on-one interviews with learners. Thirty-one (31) principals, ninety-eight (98) teachers, thirty-seven (37) teacher counsellors and four hundred and eighty-nine (489) learners participated in the study. Results from the questionnaires were analysed by using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages. Data presentation took the form of tables and bar graphs. Qualitative data collected from interviews were transcribed and put into themes and categories. The study revealed that schools experienced a wide range of disciplinary problems. It was further revealed that learners are affected by issues emanating from the environment, namely, schools and societies which influence their behaviour negatively. The principals and teachers believe that exclusionary and punitive methods are effective in managing learner indiscipline, while teacher counsellors and learners were against the use of such methods. In addition, principals, teachers and teacher counsellors all have a major role to play in maintaining discipline in schools through guidance and counselling. Suggestions were thus made to strengthen the use of guidance and counselling in promoting learner discipline in secondary schools by: improving training for teacher counsellors/Life Skills teachers in guidance and counselling, sensitisation of school managers about the roles and responsibilities of teacher counsellors, including the role played by teacher counsellors in learner discipline, improved leadership from school principals, strengthening the co-ordination and communication among the school personnel, and by strengthening the referral system from teachers to teacher counsellors and from teacher counsellors to outside agencies. It was recommended that the use of guidance and counselling in promoting learner discipline would be strengthened if teacher counsellors’ training is improved, school principals are sensitised on the roles of teacher counsellors, including their role in learner discipline as well as improved co-ordination and communication among school personnel regarding learner discipline. The study further recommended that the referral system of learners experiencing problems from teachers to teacher counsellors and from teacher counsellors to outside agencies should be strengthened.