This thesis is primarily concerned with the experiences and opinions of education held by pupils in late secondary school and by university students. Over several years, a small group of highly able pupils were interviewed about their experiences of school and university. Their comments were supplemented by interviews with and questionnaire studies of other age-groups of pupils and students. The research has two central emphasises. Firstly, it represents an attempt to increase our understanding of intellectual development in adolescence. At present, there is no coherent theory of adolescent intellectual activity, and little research or evidence on which to build one. Pupil and student experiences of post-compulsory education have been central to this study and it is hoped that they will make a contribution to building up a body of knowledge on which understanding can be enhanced and a theory developed. The second, and related aspect of the research concerns educational practice and its influence on pupils and students. Educational changes are not made on the basis of solid evidence or theory, rather, they are based upon commonsense notions and our own experiences of education. In Scottish education, sixth year pupils face a radical change in the ways in which they are taught and expected to study - the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS). Through independent study and project work, CSYS aims to increase the 'educational maturity' of pupils. Pupils' responses to CSYS, and its effects on how and why they study at school and university form the central focus of this thesis. The thesis examines in detail how pupils and students react to changes in their academic environment, both within school and transferring to university. Finally, the implications of the research are discussed in terms of adolescent development, educational innovation, and on a more basic level, how pupils, students, teachers and lecturers can better understand and improve the experience and effectiveness of post-compulsory education.

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Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Parental practices play a vital role in children lives. The manner in which parents interact with their children, can promotes and support the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. It could be describe as the process, whereby children learn to be responsible, and the consequences of their actions with the assistance of their parents. The aim of the study was to assess the perceptions of parental practices, which could place children at risk for abuse and neglect. This study used the quantitative method with a cross-sectional comparative design to examine and compare parental practices of parents, whose children were victims of abuse or neglect across gender, marital status and socio economic status. A sample of 163 participants (87 mothers and 76 fathers), who were either single or married and their socio economic status varied from the lower to the higher income group participated in the study. The participants completed the questionnaire, which was based on the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the data was analyzed by means of the Statistical Package in the Science (SPSS version 20). The results suggest that there are no significant differences between parents based on socio-economic status and marital status. However, there were significant differences between mothers‟ and fathers‟ care and overprotection.Furthermore, mothers were identified as being affectionless controlling in their parenting practices (low care and high overprotection) and fathers as affectionately constraining in their parenting practices (high care and high protection). Recommendations are provided for this study.

The purpose of this study was to explore college students' intellectual development through their service-learning experience. This study also took into consideration the characteristics of student groups and the way in which they transformed intellectually through their service-learning experience. To examine these questions, twelve upper-division college students who had completed a service-learning course were interviewed, in order to capture the dynamics of their service-learning experiences, their perceptions of their intellectual development, and their values and priorities as college students in detail. From the interviews, five major themes related to college students' intellectual development emerged. Three of the themes focused on the interpersonal capacities and complexities of intellectual development, and two were related to the complexity and challenges of unstructured problems related to service-learning and college students' intellectual growth. In addition, by analyzing the themes and the characteristics of student groups together, I coined new terms to capture the intellectual transformation of modern-day college students who participate in service-learning. The findings of this study will add to the understanding of college students' intellectual development through service-learning, as well as how students transformed through the experience, and provide opportunities for future research to investigate specific groups of college students in this and other collegiate settings.

Individuals with an intellectual or developmental disability (ID/DD) may not have had the experiences to develop social skills for long term relationships. While society has denied the sexuality of these individuals, the individuals have identified their desire for intimate relationships. The purpose of this study was a qualitative inquiry to identify what individuals with ID/DD expect from a sex education program. A small sample size of three participants identified three themes. Data emerged for the future focus of sex education programs to include: friendship, relationships, and safe sex behaviors. The study also revealed methods of education to be used for the program setting. While the generalizability of the study is limited, due to the small number of participants, data from this study can be used for future inquires aimed at the identification of meaningful sex education programs for individuals with ID/DD.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between freshmen's use of microcomputers and their social and intellectual development in a university environment. A review of related literature describes the theoretical foundation of this research and identifies questionnaire items for measuring the critical variables of microcomputer use and student development. To conduct the study, data obtained from 400 freshman students prior to entering Utah State University (USU) in the fall of 1996 were compared to data collected from the same students during Spring Quarter of 1997. Correlational analysis was used to study changes in freshman students' use of microcomputers and variables known to predict students' social and academic integration into the institution. Regression analyses were used to identify variables and dimensions of microcomputer use that contributed to and detracted from students' intellectual and social development.

Orientador: Tânia Gracy Martins do Valle / Banca: Maria de Lourdes Merighi Tabaquim / Banca: José Gualberto Tuga Martins Angerami / Resumo: A intoxicação por chumbo é prejudicial ao desenvolvimento das crianças, sendo potencializada por outras variáveis ambientais e sociais como: alimentação inadequada, pobreza, baixa renda e qualidade da estimulação e interação fornecidas pelos pais e escola. Isso posto, o presente estudo tem por objetivo geral comparar o desempenho intelectual de crianças com alta e baixa plumbemia com os estilos parentais nas respectivas interações com os filhos. Para isso, foi utilizada a Escala Wechsler de Inteligência - WISC-III; Roteiro de Anammese e o IEP (Inventário de Estilos Parentais). Este estudo foi realizado com 80 participantes - 40 crianças, de ambos os sexos, com idades entre 7 e 13 anos; e 40 pais (pai e mãe), todos moradores da área de risco próximo ao local de contaminação. As crianças foram divididas em dois grupos: G1 - 20 crianças com alta plumbemia (superior a 10μg/dl); e G2 - 20 crianças com baixa plumbemia (inferior a 10μ/dl). Com as informações coletadas, procedeu-se a análise estatística com Teste do Mann Whitney, com 5% de significância. Os resultados foram apresentados de forma a contemplar cinco conjuntos de dados: I) Caracterização das crianças com alta plumbemia; II) Dados anamnésicos; III) WISC-III; IV) IEP - Inventário de Estilos Parentais e V) Comparação entre o WISC-III com o IEP. A análise dos dados apontou redução da plumbemia nas crianças entre os anos de 2002 e 2005. Para as crianças com alta plumbemia os pais relataram maior número de queixa escolar, problemas de saúde, socialização e motor, embora sem significância estatística entre os grupos. Nos itens avaliados pelo WISC-III, o desempenho do Grupo I foi menor que o do Grupo 2. Na Escala de Execução o desempenho dos dois grupos foi menor que para a escala Verbal, com diferença estatística entre os grupos em: QIE (0,001) e QIOP (0,04)... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The lead poisoning cause impairment to the children's development, being strenghten by other environmental and social variables, as inadequate feeding, poverty, low income and quality of the stimulation and interaction supplied by the parents and school. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the children's intellectual development with high and low blood lead level with the parenting styles in the respective interactions with these children. In order to accomplish this study were used - WISC-III; Anamnese's Script and IEP (Parenting Styles's Inventory), in which all of the 80 participants - 40 children, of both sexes, with ages among 7 to 13 years old, and 40 parents (father or mother), lived in the risk's area, next to the contamination place. The children were divided into two groups: G1-20 children with blood lead level above 10μg/dl; and G2 - 20 children with blood lead level lower than 10μg/dl. With the collected information, the statistical analysis was preceded with Mann Whitney's test, with 5%. The results were presented in way to contemplate five groups of data: I) the children's Characterization with plumbemia; II) Anamnese's Script Date; III) WISC-III; IV) IEP - Parenting Styles's Inventory I and V) Comparison between WISC-III IEP. The analyzed data's showed a reduction of the bllod lead level in children between 2002 and 2005. For the children blood lead level the parents related a larger number of school complaints, health problems, socialization and less motor development, although without statistical difference between the groups. In the items evaluated by WISC-III, the development of Group 1 was smaller than Group 2. In the Scale of Execution the development for both groups were lower than the Verbal Scale, with statistical difference between the groups in: QIE (0,001) and QIOP (0,04). In the Parenting Styles... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This study investigated approaches to studying, intellectual developments, and metacognitive skills of general chemistry students enrolled for the spring 2011 semester at a single campus of a multi-campus community college. the three instruments used were the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST), the Learning Environment Preferences (LEP), and the Executive Process Questionnaire (EPQ). the subjects were 138 students enrolled in either general chemistry 1 or 2. the results revealed that the preferred approach to study was the strategic approach. the intellectual development of the students was predominantly Perry’s position 2 (dualist) in transition to position 3 (multiplicity). Correlation statistics revealed that deep approach to studying is related to effective employment of metacognitive skills. Students with a deep approach to studying were likely to utilize effective metacognitive skills. Students with a surface approach to studying used no metacognitive skills or ineffective metacognitive skills. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to ascertain which of the three variables, namely approaches to studying, ability to metacognate, or level of intellectual development, was the most salient in predicting the success of general chemistry students. No single variable was found to predict students’ success in general chemistry classes; however, a surface approach to studying predisposes general chemistry students to fail. the implication of this study is that students’ study approaches, intellectual developments, and metacognitive skills are requisite information to enable instructional remediation early in the semester.