published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study investigated the effect of a goal-based intervention package on future goal-setting for junior secondary school students on their future goal commitment, self-efficacy, and values related to academic learning. Participants were 85 newly admitted secondary one students in a local mainstream secondary school in Hong Kong. A self-report questionnaire was used to measure the strength of future goal commitment, perceived instrumentality of learning, self-efficacy, intrinsic value and extrinsic value of academic-related activities. Results indicated that the future goal-setting intervention package is effective in guiding students set their future goals, and in strengthening their future goal commitment, perceived instrumentality of learning, self-efficacy and intrinsic value of academic-related activities. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This thesis develops a discipline-based ceramic instruction using art history, art criticism, aesthetics and art production, which will be used to train Nigerian junior secondary school ceramic teachers. Concepts of discipline-based art education, materials, and techniques of ceramics production will be used to make a systematic, sequential, written curriculum of activities that will be used in the class.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a junior high school leadership program on the academic success and leadership development of its at-risk student participants. A secondary purpose, based on impact, was to evaluate the program as a potential school-based model for adolescent at-risk intervention. The leadership program investigated in this study is unique in three ways. First, the program is in a magnet school and the student population is heterogeneously mixed as to ethnicity and socio-economic status. Second, enrollment is open to all students. Third, its curriculum goals meet research-based criteria for effective intervention practices and leadership development. Academic success indicators associated with at-risk students included achievement, conduct, attendance, and school engagement. Leadership development indicators included leadership practices students had experienced and leadership positions students had held. The design of this post hoc study was the comparison of two groups of high school students who qualified as "at-risk" during their junior high years. Data collection included district or campus reports for cumulative attendance rates, grade point averages, and conduct demerits, as well as student survey responses for school activities, leadership practices experienced, and leadership positions held. Results of multivariate and univariate inferential analyses show the leadership program had a slight positive impact on the achievement and leadership experiences of at-risk student participants. Descriptive data analyses indicated a positive trend toward better conduct from program participants as well. The program did not have a significant impact on attendance, school engagement, and leadership positions students had held. While the program met criteria for effective at-risk intervention as well as exemplary leadership development, results were mixed, so evaluation of the leadership program as a model for at-risk student intervention is inconclusive. Further longitudinal research is recommended with a larger sample, using pretest and posttest measurements, group comparisons, and determination of short term and long term effects.

This study was conducted to identify certain effective practices currently being utilized in teaching multiple activity industrial arts classes. The study was concerned with those practices being used in middle school, junior high school, and intermediate school general shop classes where multiple activities were being taught.

The problem of this study was a comparison of two methods of teaching life career planning to junior high school students. In this study, the experimental group was taught by means of the Life Career game, and the control group was taught by a teacher-directed technique using more traditional methods and materials.

Students in an inner city junior high school in North Central Texas participated in a study whose purpose was to examine the effect of training in test item construction on their later test performance. The experimental group underwent twelve weeks of instruction using the Test Item Construction Method (TICM). In these sessions students learned to develop test items similar to those on which they were tested annually by the state via the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The TICM aligned with state mandated test specifications.

O objetivo deste trabalho é refletir sobre os modos como alunos do Ensino Fundamental II constroem seus objetos de discurso em textos escritos argumentativos. A referenciação, um dos principais temas de estudo da Linguística Textual (cf. MONDADA e DUBOIS, 2014[1995]; CAVALCANTE, 2003; CAVALCANTE e LIMA, 2015; KOCH, 2011b), debruça-se sobre os processos de construção dos referentes, entendendo que a língua é uma proposta de categorização do mundo, de tal modo que os sujeitos, em seus enunciados, de maneira estratégica e interativa, refletem e criam objetos e categorizações, razão pela qual estes objetos são chamados objetos de discurso. Em nosso trabalho, analisamos um conjunto de 103 redações de alunos de todos os anos do Ensino Fundamental II, estudantes de uma escola da rede municipal de ensino da cidade de São Paulo, observando de que modos eles introduzem e retomam seus objetos de discurso e como esses processos de construção e progressão referencial constituem as estratégias argumentativas que utilizam, dentre as quais se destacam: descrição dos fatos, argumentum ad consequentiam, argumentum ad misericordiam e reciprocidade (cf. FIORIN, 2015; PERELMAN e TYTECA 2014[1996]). Foi possível, também, pontuar as estratégias referenciais mais conhecidas por este público, bem como as menos dominadas, o que nos permitiu traçar um diagnóstico sobre a referenciação nos textos analisados. Preocupados com uma análise que observasse não somente as estratégias formais utilizadas pelos alunos, mas que também buscasse compreender os efeitos de sentido que elas produziam e que identificasse indícios de possíveis fatores que as motivassem, consideramos também alguns elementos contextuais sobre a produção de textos na escola. Diante disso, acreditamos que nosso trabalho possa contribuir para um maior conhecimento sobre a escrita de alunos em contexto escolar, evidenciando algumas especificidades do Ensino Fundamental II. / The objective of this research is to reflect on the ways in which Junior High School (Ensino Fundamental II) students construct their discourse objects in written argumentative texts. The referenciation, one of the main subjects of study of Textual Linguistics (cf. MONDADA e DUBOIS, 2014[1995]; CAVALCANTE, 2003; CAVALCANTE e LIMA, 2015; KOCH, 2011b), focuses on the processes of construction of referents, understanding that language is a proposal of categorization of the world, in such a way that the subjects, in their utterances, strategically and interactively, reflect and create objects and categorizations, reason by which these objects are called \"objects of discourse\". In this research, we analyzed a set of 103 essays of students of all the years of Junior High School, students of a school of the municipal education system of Sao Paulo City, observing in what ways they introduce and retake their discourse objects and how these processes of construction and referential progression constitute the argumentative strategies they use, among which the following stand out: description of the facts, argumentum ad consequentiam, argumentum ad misericordiam, and reciprocity (cf. FIORIN, 2015; PERELMAN e TYTECA 2014[1996]). It was also possible to punctuate the referential strategies better known by this public, as well as the less dominated ones, which allowed us to draw a diagnosis about the reference in the texts analyzed. Concerned with an analysis that not only observed the formal strategies used by the students, but also sought to understand the effects of meaning that they produced and identified indications of possible factors that motivate them, we also consider some contextual elements about the production of texts in the school. In view of this, we believe that our research can contribute to a greater knowledge about the writing of students in a school context, bringing the specificities of Junior High School.

Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries