This study aims to investigate the attitudes to English homework held by teachers of primary school (Grades 4-6) in Mainland China, through an online survey. After obtaining 112 responses and analysing them by utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods, the results found that English teachers in China have a unified positive attitude towards homework and its effect. English homework is most commonly assigned once a day. Repetition or Exercise is the most popular type of assigned homework, and it is overwhelmingly preferred by the teachers, followed by Preparation and Reading. The respondents stress that homework has an indispensable connection with the scheduled school teaching. Through assigning the correct volume of homework, students can develop positive habits with regards to self-study, and therefore students can improve their academic performance in examinations. A combination of both oral and written feedback is utixlised the most. Follow-up of homework usually appears to be two-dimensional; material stimuli such as penalty copy and self-correction, and immaterial stimuli such as encouragement and criticism. All of the evidence shows that China’s particular education system reflects Skinner’s behaviourist theories of learning, meaning that students’ behaviour with regards to acquiring knowledge can be shaped by frequent and random reinforcement, and this behaviour will eventually persist in the long-term even in the absence of reinforcements.

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The importance of a collaborative engagement between parents and teachers in order to enhance learning in the classroom is so great that the two parties seem inseparable. In this study the teachers indicated that they need the assistance of the parents of the learners whom they teach for them to do well. On the other hand, the parents are also keen to lend a helping hand, since it is the future of their children which is at stake. The challenge that emerges from this situation is that, more often, there is a breakdown in communication. The teachers and parents blame each other, especially when the learners do not perform well at the end of a year. The teachers will say the parents did not do anything to help their children with their schoolwork, while the parents will insist that the teachers failed to do their work. It is of utmost importance to stop the blame-game, but rather to seek ways in which both groups can help the learners to do well in the classroom. The teachers need to inform the parents how they (the teachers) expect them to play their part in helping their learners with their schoolwork. Informing parents about their roles and how they may play them is very important, because then the parents will be able to meet the teachers’ expectations, whereby teaching and learning will be facilitated. The ultimate beneficiaries will be the learners, because they will receive education which is well-coordinated by both the teachers and the parents. The collaboration between teachers and the parents will be guided because the kind of parental involvement will be an informed one. The engagement between teachers and parents will yield good results, because in the process they will help each other to find strategies that will assist the learners in the classroom. This study intends to ascertain from the teachers how they expect the parents to help their children with their schoolwork. It seeks to establish what the teachers’ perceptions are regarding parental involvement, that is, what they think it is, and how they think it should be. Two teachers from two primary schools in the Mogalakwena District of Limpopo Province were used in order to collect the data. These teachers clearly indicated that, indeed, the parents can be of great help, because they can touch some aspects that the teachers cannot reach in the lives of the learners. x They, however, also suggested ways in which the parents are supposed to help their children with schoolwork. The study also explored ways how the roles that the parents must play are communicated to the parents. The researcher’s aim was to explore the teachers’ expectations of parental involvement, and also possible ways in which it can be communicated to the parents.Recommendations were made to the policymakers to refer to when they draw up policies for the governance of schools. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

Den psykosociala arbetsmiljön har tydliga kopplingar till medarbetares psykiska hälsa och välbefinnande. Höga krav i arbetet i samband med låg kontroll som att kunna styra sitt arbete och otillräckligt med stöd är bland de främsta indikatorerna på en arbetsmiljö som föregår med stressrelaterade sjukdomar och missnöje bland medarbetare. I människovårdande yrken är stressrelaterade sjukdomar överrepresenterade bland samhällets övriga yrkesgrupper, därför är en studie om hur olika faktorer antingen bidrar till en bättre arbetsmiljö eller inte av relevans för området där medarbetare lider på grund av arbetsförhållandena idag. År 2020 utlöste Covid-19 en pandemi som fick en hel värld att ställa om i spåren av att begränsa virusets framfart. För mig blev pandemin tydlig i en nära kontext av socialtjänstens arbete då jag befann mig på min verksamhetsförlagda praktik i utbildningen. Som en del i ett större program som anordnades av kommunen där jag gjorde min praktik fick jag möjlighet att bekanta mig med flera delar av socialtjänstens verksamhet, såsom Barn- och ungdom, Försörjningsstöd, Missbruk, Funktionsnedsättning och Äldreomsorgen. Varje område hade sitt sätt att organisera arbetet på, men även olika strategier för att ställa om i verksamheterna för att begränsa en smittspridning av Coronaviruset bland både klienter och medarbetare. Denna studie tar avstamp i vad tidigare statistik och forskning visat om arbetsmiljön i människovårdande yrken och den omställning som socialtjänsten genomförde där arbetet till stor del förlades på distans. Min förhoppning är vidare att denna undersökning ska bidra med kunskap om hur distansarbetet har fungerat i relation till arbetsmiljön. Sammanfattningsvis har denna undersökning visat att distansarbetet är önskvärt om än i varierande grad. Majoriteten av socialtjänstens medarbetare vill alltså i viss mån arbeta på distans, vissa mer än andra, men dock inte för att arbetet görs mycket bättre hemifrån alla gånger. Därmed finns det anledning att fördjupa sig mer i orsakerna till att socialarbetare vill arbeta på distans. / The psychosocial work environment has clear links to employees' mental health and well-being. High demands at work in connection with low control to be able to manage their work and insufficient support are among the main indicators of a work environment that precedes stress-related illnesses and dissatisfaction among employees. Stress-related diseases is overrepresented in human service professions among, therefore is a study of how various factors either contribute to a better work environment or not is relevant to the area. In 2020, Covid-19 triggered a pandemic that caused an entire world, societies to change their ways of operating. Companies and institutions had to adapt and change its traditional way of conducting its work in order to best limit the spread of covid-19 infection. For me, the pandemic became clear in a close context of the Social services government work, when I had my internship in education. As part of a larger program organized by the municipality where I did my internship, I had the opportunity to gain insight in several parts of the Social services government work, such as helping Children and Youth, Financially support, Addiction support, Disability and Elderly Care. Each area had its own way of organizing the work, but also different strategies for reorganizing their ways of work to limit the spread of the dangerous virus among both clients and employees. Against the background of what previous statistics and research have shown about the work environment for human care professions and the adjustment that the social services carried out where the work was largely placed at distance from the traditional office work to employees' homes, this study will be an attempt to contribute with knowledge of how telework has worked. In summary, this study has shown that teleworking is desirable, albeit to varying degrees. The majority of social service employees thus want to work remotely to some extent, some more than others, but not because the work is done much better from home all the time. Thus, there is reason to delve more deeply into the reasons why social workers want to work remotely.

Denna studie undersöker högstadielärares erfarenheter av hemläxor i svenska som andra­­språk. Studiens syfte är att synliggöra hur lärare bedömer förhållandet mellan läxor och språklig progression. En sociokognitiv teori tillämpas för att förstå lärares motivation till att dela ut läxor och anledningen till läxans utformning. Fem högstadielärares erfaren­heter av hemläxor i svenska som andraspråk undersökts i semistrukturerade, enskilda interv­juer, där lärare beskriver hur de arbetar med läxor i sin under­visning. I resultatdelen an­vänds en tematisk innehållsanalys för att redovisa utfallet i material. Studiens resultat visar att lärarna anser att läxor gynnar den språkliga progres­sionen hos L2-elever genom att de repeterar språkliga moment så att de befästs i minnet. Vid utformningen av läxan krävs det anpassning efter språklig nivå och individ. Även hur läxan förankras, introduceras och följs upp är avgörande för dess effekt på språk­ut­vecklingen.

There is compelling evidence that parental involvement positively influences children’s academic achievement. Its benefits occur across all socio-economic classes. In spite of its significance, parental involvement has received scant attention in Zimbabwe. This qualitative study sought to establish how parents in a materially poor rural district of Zimbabwe were involved in their children’s education. Barriers to their involvement were investigated with the view to overcoming or mitigating them for the benefit of the affected primary school pupils. The attribution theory was used not only to substantially explain the status of parental involvement in Zaka District, but also to generate strategies to promote parents’ participation in their children’s school education. Observation, semi-structured interviews (for school heads), focus group interviews (for parents) and the open-ended questionnaire (for teachers) were used in this qualitative study covering ten primary schools. Respondents were selected through the use of chain reference sampling and sampling by case. A total of one hundred and forty (140) participants were selected. It emerged from the research that parents, teachers and school heads/principals had very limited understanding of parental involvement. They generally thought that it was confined to activities done at school such as payment of school fees and levies, providing labour for the construction or renovation of school buildings and providing teaching/learning resources. Most teachers, school heads/principals and parents believed that parents were too poor and too lowly educated to meaningfully be involved in their children’s education. However, there were a few parents who believed that their socio-economic status did not prevent them from participating in their children’s education. They actually indicated useful ways in which they could be involved. The research also revealed that parents, school teachers and school heads/principals made wrong attributions about themselves and each other in connection with limited parental involvement in their schools. Both school staff and parents, after identifying barriers to involvement, were willing to learn about how they could overcome or mitigate the barriers. They believed that the challenges they were facing regarding parental involvement were capable of resolution. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

There is compelling evidence that parental involvement positively influences children’s academic achievement. Its benefits occur across all socio-economic classes. In spite of its significance, parental involvement has received scant attention in Zimbabwe. This qualitative study sought to establish how parents in a materially poor rural district of Zimbabwe were involved in their children’s education. Barriers to their involvement were investigated with the view to overcoming or mitigating them for the benefit of the affected primary school pupils. The attribution theory was used not only to substantially explain the status of parental involvement in Zaka District, but also to generate strategies to promote parents’ participation in their children’s school education. Observation, semi-structured interviews (for school heads), focus group interviews (for parents) and the open-ended questionnaire (for teachers) were used in this qualitative study covering ten primary schools. Respondents were selected through the use of chain reference sampling and sampling by case. A total of one hundred and forty (140) participants were selected. It emerged from the research that parents, teachers and school heads/principals had very limited understanding of parental involvement. They generally thought that it was confined to activities done at school such as payment of school fees and levies, providing labour for the construction or renovation of school buildings and providing teaching/learning resources. Most teachers, school heads/principals and parents believed that parents were too poor and too lowly educated to meaningfully be involved in their children’s education. However, there were a few parents who believed that their socio-economic status did not prevent them from participating in their children’s education. They actually indicated useful ways in which they could be involved. The research also revealed that parents, school teachers and school heads/principals made wrong attributions about themselves and each other in connection with limited parental involvement in their schools. Both school staff and parents, after identifying barriers to involvement, were willing to learn about how they could overcome or mitigate the barriers. They believed that the challenges they were facing regarding parental involvement were capable of resolution. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Education Management)

This study investigated the effects of self-monitoring on the homework completion and accuracy rates of four, fourth-grade students with disabilities in an inclusive general education classroom. A multiple baseline across subjects design was utilized to examine four dependent variables: completion of spelling homework, accuracy of spelling homework, completion of math homework, accuracy of math homework. Data were collected and analyzed during baseline, three phases of intervention, and maintenance. Throughout baseline and all phases, participants followed typical classroom procedures, brought their homework to school each day and gave it to the general education teacher. During Phase I of the intervention, participants self-monitored with a daily sheet at home and on the computer at school in the morning using KidTools (Fitzgerald & Koury, 2003); a student friendly, self-monitoring program. They also participated in brief daily conferences to review their self-monitoring sheets with the investigator, their special education teacher. Phase II followed the same steps except conferencing was reduced to two days a week, which were randomly selected by the researcher and Phase III conferencing was one random day a week. Maintenance data were taken over a two-to-three week period subsequent to the end of the intervention. Results of this study demonstrated self-monitoring substantially improved spelling and math homework completion and accuracy rates of students with disabilities in an inclusive, general education classroom. On average, completion and accuracy rates were highest over baseline in Phase III. Self-monitoring led to higher percentages of completion and accuracy during each phase of the intervention compared to baseline, group percentages also rose slightly during maintenance. Therefore, results suggest self-monitoring leads to short-term maintenance in spelling and math homework completion and accuracy. This study adds to the existing literature by investigating the effects of self-monitoring of homework for students with disabilities included in general education classrooms. Future research should consider selecting participants with other demographic characteristics, using peers for conferencing instead of the teacher, and the use of self-monitoring with other academic subjects (e.g., science, history). Additionally, future research could investigate the effects of each of the two self-monitoring components used alone, with or without the conferencing.

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