Text in Afrikaans, abstract in Afrikaans and English / Wanneer psigometriese toetsing op groepe uit verskillende sosio-ekonomiese agtergronde toegepas word, presteer individue uit agtergeblewe omgewings swakker as bulle ewekniee uit meer ontwikkelde omgewings. Hierdie individue se toegang tot hoofstroom loopbaangeleenthede word dikwels bemoeilik as gevolg van die beperking. Die leerpotensiaal benadering word aangebied as belowende alternatief om die probleem, wat 'n sosio-ekonomiese oorsprong het, te oorbrug. Die resultate van die studie bewys die stelling gedeeltelik waar, maar met buitengewone inspanning. In die finale ontleding van die resultate is dit duidelik dat die verbeterde voorspelling eerder toegeskryf kan word aan die optimale vlak van ontwikkeling wat die individu bereik net voor die toetsing, en nie soseer sy/haar leerpotensiaal nie. / Applying psychometric tests to groups from different socio-economical backgrounds, inevitably result in the individuals from deprived backgrounds performing noteably poorer than their counterparts from more developed backgrounds. These individuals also find enterance to the mainstream careers difficult because of this restriction. The learning potential approach to assessment is presented as a promising alternative to overcome the problem that is related to the socio-economic background of the individual. The results of this study partly confirm the value of the learning potential approach, but only with extra-ordinary effort. In the final analysis of the results it is clear that the improved predictive accuracy was rather due to the optimal level of development the individuals reached just before the testing, and not so much their learning potential. / Psychology / M. Sc. (Sielkunde)

The changing nature of work and its competitive characteristics are global phenomena and are mainly fuelled by ongoing technological advancement. This creates unique challenges for talent attraction and the retention of high performing individuals. In addition, the global workforce is becoming more diverse due to demographic, societal and cultural changes and companies are placing greater demands on employee competency and performance. Managing the human factor as a strategic asset in organisations remains a primary challenge in securing a competitive advantage. The road construction industry in South Africa is no different. There is growing competition between civil engineering contractors to secure tenders and to maximise profitability. This is only possible with a sufficient and sustainable labour force. Valid selection processes are therefore required to ensure that the most productive individuals are selected for the most suitable jobs. Reliable and valid performance predictors will assist employers in making appropriate selection decisions. Selecting high performing individuals will support and enhance overall organisational performance. ix In this study the investigation focused on whether psychomotor ability and learning potential are statistically significant predictors of work performance - with specific reference to drivers and machine operators in a road construction company. A quantitative approach was followed to investigate the relationships between variables, or then the prediction of one dependent variable (driver and machine operator performance) by means of two independent variables (psychomotor ability and learning potential). Results from the study did not indicate any statistically significant relationships between the variables. Only scientifically validated assessment instruments were used in the study - which means the findings led to a renewed focus on the importance of performance measurement and the psychometric quality (reliability and validity) of performance data. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Continuous change and competition in the working environment necessitate increased efficiency and productivity which require different and enhanced skills and abilities. It is therefore important that the right people with the right skills are selected and employees are developed to enable them to meet the organisational and national demands of the future. This dissertation investigates the relationship between learning potential, English language proficiency and work-related training test results to establish why some production employees perform better on work-related training test results than others. The results indicate that there is no significant relationship between the work-related training test results and either learning potential or English language proficiency. There is, however, a significant correlation between learning potential and English language proficiency. It might be worthwhile exploring the availability and adequacy of assessors as well as the motivational level of the production employees as factors that influence the progress made with work-related training test results. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / MCOM (Industrial Psychology)

本研究旨在探討國民中學校長的專業發展及其相關因素，主要的研究目的是了解國民中學校長專業發展影響因素、對專業發展重要性的看法和參與多樣化專業發展意願之間的關係，並提出我國國民中學校長專業發展改進與進一步研究的建議。 為達成研究的目的，本研究根據文獻探討結果，提出研究架構與假設，編製調查工具「國民中學校長專業發展情形調查問卷」進行預試，回收的有效問卷共134份，經由因素、信度分析刪題和文字潤飾後，問卷修正為「中學校長專業發展情形調查問卷」，隨後實施正式調查，共回收有效樣本問卷398份進行統計分析，開放填答的題項也加以歸類析述。 有效樣本經以描述統計、t考驗、單因子變異數分析、皮爾森積差相關、多 元迴歸分析等方法進行分析比較，獲得下列結論： 一、國中校長愈重視專業發展政策和目標，參與多樣化專業發展型態和主題的意願愈高。 二、適度的工作壓力對校長專業發展產生積極影響，但家庭壓力則有消極影響。 三、國中校長感受到的政府專業發展作為的積極性不足。 四、在專業認同度方面，年輕校長不如資深校長。在同儕之間的專業互動頻率方面，鄉鎮學校、資深、高齡和即將退休的校長，較城市學校、資淺、年輕和非近期退休的校長為低。 五、女性國中校長比男性國中校長具有較強的學習自信、較多的校長互動和較高的專業發展參與意願。 六、校長專業發展在不同年齡和年資上，呈現互有優勢的現象，即將退休的校長則有較多不利的情形。 七、心理問題的紓解和改善，是國中校長重視的專業發展目標。 八、校長對具有威脅性、會帶來強制措施的專業發展政策，會給予較低的重要性評比。 九、國中校長樂於參與多樣化的專業發展型態，非正式的參訪、研討、聽講，比體制化的調查、研究、發表，更受校長青睞。 十、國中校長樂於參與多樣化的專業發展主題，尤其是學校經營實務和當前教育改革有關的主題，但參與電腦科技、興趣培養和生活知能的意願較低。 根據研究結論，研究者對教育行政機關提出：設置專責單位或人員，規劃研擬積極的校長專業發展政策；透過法令、文件、方案或計劃，清楚而明確地表述國中校長專業發展目標等建議。對國中校長提出：廣泛成立校長同儕組織，積極轉化校長組織的功能，加強校長同儕互動學習；協力增進校長專業問題的發聲，求取校長與教師專業發展機會的平衡等建議。對未來的研究，提出：分析國中校長同儕組織的成立及其在專業發展的功能、問題和影響；進行各國國家層級或地方層級的校長專業發展制度比較等建議。 / Professional Development of Junior High School Principals and Its Factors The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between influential factors of professional development, views of professional development importance, and the will of participating in diverse professional development of junior high school principals, and to propose suggestions of improvement and further study. With the questionnaires and statistic analysis of 398 junior high school principals, the conclusions are as follows: 1. There is a positive relationship between the views of professional development importance and the will of professional development of junior high school principals. 2. Working pressure and family pressure cause respectively positive and negative influences on professional development of principals. 3. The government lacks the active policy to assist the professional development of junior high school principals. 4. The professional identity of young principals is lower than senior principals. Besides, the principals who are in town schools, senior, aged, and going to retire lack professional interaction with colleagues. 5. Female junior high school principals have the professional development advantages of confidence of learning ability, interaction with other principals, and higher participative will. 6. There are different advantages of professional development of principals for different ages and seniority, while the principals who are going to retire have more disadvantages. 7. The relief and improvement of the mental problems of principals are the professional development purpose which junior high school principals put emphasis on. 8. Principals have the view of lower importance of threatening professional development policy. 9. Junior high school principals are willing to participate in diverse professional development. Principals prefer the unofficial learning development models rather than the official ones. 10. Junior high school principals are willing to participate in diverse themes of professional development, especially the related themes of school management practice and current educational reform, while they are not so willing to participate in computer technology, interest cultivation, and living skills. According to the conclusions of this research, the researcher proposes some suggestions to education authorities, junior high school principals, and future research directions.

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Illinois Test of Psycholinuistic Abilities (ITPA) and to investigate whether High Verbal-Low Performance (HV-LP) scorers on the WISC score significantly higher on certain ITPA subtests than High Performance-Low Verbal (HP-LV) scorers, and whether HP-LV scorers on the WISC score significantly higher on certain other subtests of the ITPA. Two main hypotheses were investigated in an effort to accomplish these purposes.

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

This thesis assesses the speed of adaptation and adoption of computing systems from an adult first-time user perspective in South Africa, with the aim of determining if it could ultimately lead to the reduction of the existing digital gap. As is evident from the social, educational, and economical gap for some observers, the reality of the existence of the digital gap in South Africa is undeniable. Constant non-targeted progress is made toward addressing imbalances, which seem to be more visible as the number of constant and permanent users is visibly increasing. These observed phenomena are mostly noticed amongst urban, educated, younger, middle-class citizens. The forgotten “missing middle” are left to fend for themselves. These are people who are still outside the digital drive the world is experiencing based on their schooling grade, geographical location, income level, and age. They were not in school when computer literacy was introduced, and they were too poor to teach themselves how to use a computer, too remote to observe the digital drive, and too old to learn from their peers. As citizens, their welfare matters, and when assessing the penetration of ICT in the country, their numbers also matter. One cannot ignore their presence and the difficulties and frustration that they experience when coming into contact with a computing system for the first time. The researcher is of the view that the presence of a computing system may not simply translate to the closure of the digital gap. In other words, people may gain access to a computer, but without computing usability skills or Internet connectivity it may not add value to their daily activities. Closing the digital gap in South Africa can be seen as political propaganda, but the reality is, how do we measure and assess it? It comes down to users, and in this particular case, attention is turned to the “missing middle”, here referred to as the adult first-time user. This is simply someone who is over the age of 18 years, lives in a rural community in South Africa, never completed school, and is using a computer for the first time. The researcher used a handheld tablet system as a tool to assess the participants’ adequacy in terms of the rate at which they complete tasks by developing mathematical equations which were placed together within an assessment metric that was later used to determine user proficiency, as well as their adaptation and user experience in order to determine if the participant can later adopt the device and take advantage of it. By so doing, the metric will comprise variables such as the user movement time, task completion success rate, task completion speed, user satisfaction, user reaction time, user completion rate per activity, time-based efficiency, and the assessment of the level of frustration any adult first-time user may experience while interacting with the system for the first time. The term “digital gap” may not be new to the ICT sphere, but no one has taken the step towards assessing it. The digital gap is no longer the absence of computing systems in many communities but rather the presence of inadequate user experience, which has not been properly measured and documented. The user experience metric (UXM) that was developed in this study provided the researcher with the opportunity to reassess the issue of systems adaptation, adoption, and usability by adult first-time users. This research is particularly driven by sound interaction design principles, user adaptation, and usability and user experience / Ph. D. (Information Systems) / School of Computing

Continuous change and competition in the working environment necessitate increased efficiency and productivity which require different and enhanced skills and abilities. It is therefore important that the right people with the right skills are selected and employees are developed to enable them to meet the organisational and national demands of the future. This dissertation investigates the relationship between learning potential, English language proficiency and work-related training test results to establish why some production employees perform better on work-related training test results than others. The results indicate that there is no significant relationship between the work-related training test results and either learning potential or English language proficiency. There is, however, a significant correlation between learning potential and English language proficiency. It might be worthwhile exploring the availability and adequacy of assessors as well as the motivational level of the production employees as factors that influence the progress made with work-related training test results. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / MCOM (Industrial Psychology)

The purpose of the present study was to determine the concurrent validity of learning potential and psychomotor ability measures for the prediction of haul truck operator (N=128) performance in an open-pit mine. Specific aims were to determine the nature of the relationship between learning potential and psychomotor ability; whether there are higher order cognitive or psychomotor factors present in the combined use of the TRAM 1 and Vienna Test System measures; and the relative contribution of learning potential and psychomotor ability in the prediction of haul truck operator performance. The validity of learning potential and psychomotor ability measures was partially supported. A positive correlation between general (cognitive) ability (g) and psychomotor ability was reported. Factor analysis provided relatively consistent evidence for a general (cognitive) ability factor (g) underlying performance on all measures. The relative contribution of learning potential and psychomotor ability in the prediction of performance could not be established. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Recent political and social changes in South Africa have created the need for culture-fair tests for cross-cultural measurement of cognitive ability. This need has been highlighted by the professional, legal and research communities. For cognitive assessment, dynamic assessment is more equitable because it involves a test-train-retest procedure, which shows what performance levels individuals are able to attain when relevant training is provided. Following Binet’s thinking, dynamic assessment aims to identify those individuals who are likely to benefit from additional training. The theoretical basis for learning potential assessment is Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development. This thesis describes the development, standardisation and evaluation of the Learning Potential Computerised Adaptive Test (LPCAT), for measuring learning potential in the culturally diverse South African population by means of nonverbal figural items. In accordance with Vygotsky’s view, learning potential is defined as a combination of present performance and the extent to which performance is increased after relevant training. This definition allows for comparison of individuals at different levels of initial performance and with different measures of improvement. Computerised adaptive testing based on item response theory, as used in the LPCAT, is uniquely suitable for increasing both measurement accuracy and testing efficiency of dynamic testing, two aspects that have been identified as problematic. The LPCAT pretest and the post-test are two separate adaptive tests, hence eliminating the role of memory in post-test performance. Several multicultural groups were used for item analysis and test validation. The results support the LPCAT as a culture-fair measure of learning potential in the nonverbal general reasoning domain. For examinees with a wide range of ability levels, LPCAT scores correlate strongly with academic performance. For African examinees, poor proficiency in English (the language of teaching) hampers academic performance. The LPCAT ensures the equitable measurement of learning potential, independent of language proficiency and prior scholastic learning and can be used to help select candidates for further training or developmental opportunities. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)