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he purpose of this study was to determine if age and/or gender differences in the performances of typically developing preschool children on a measure of primary literacy skills (phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge) were significant. A second purpose was to ascertain which primary literacy skills can be completed most successfully at specific age intervals. An additional purpose was to determine which predictor variables accounted for significant variance in performance on the primary literacy skills measure. Participants for this study were 91 typically developing preschool children ranging in age from 3 years 0 months to 5 years 11 months. Primary literacy skills, print concepts, and receptive vocabulary were assessed. Information about home literacy experiences were obtained by caregiver questionnaire. Differences in performance of primary literacy skills (measuring both phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge) were significant for age but not for gender, with older children performing better than younger children. Differences in performance on phonological awareness tasks were also significant for age but not for gender. Differences in performance on alphabetic knowledge tasks were significant for age and also for gender, with girls outperforming boys. Primary literacy tasks completed most successfully by children at each of six 6-month age intervals were identified, with rhyme detection the only task that was completed successfully at all age levels. Results of a stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that out of seven predictor variables (age, gender, receptive vocabulary, print concept skills, mother's education level, father's education level, and/or home literacy experiences), print concept skills accounted for the greatest amount of variance in children's performance on primary literacy tasks. Father's education level, receptive vocabulary, and age accounted for a small but significant additional variance. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders. / "December 2006." / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 61-78)

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Doctor Educationis / Background: The increasing use of technology and informatics in the provision of nursing care encourages the consideration of whether final year undergraduate nursing students are prepared for the use of informatics in clinical care and what the current state of knowledge, skills and attitudes on nursing informatics is. Purpose of the study: The overall aim was to investigate the perceived relevance, competencies in nursing informatics and attitudes towards nursing informatics of the final year undergraduate nursing students at a selected University in the Western Cape. Methodology: A quantitative research approach using a descriptive survey design was used in the study. Self-administered questionnaires were used to investigate final year undergraduate nursing student’s perceived relevance of informatics skills for nursing, the perceived level of nursing informatics competence, and attitudes towards nursing informatics. Nursing students currently enrolled in the fourth year in their undergraduate bachelor nursing degree programme were the target population for this study (n=198). Frequencies of the perceived relevance of computers literacy skills, informatics literacy and information management skills for nursing, and competencies in computers skills, informatics literacy and information management skills and attitudes towards informatics were calculated and presented. Results: The findings suggested that even though only 28% (n=28) and 4% (n=4) of nursing students has attended computer and informatics classes respectively, 99% (n=99) confirmed that they perceive nursing informatics as relevant in nursing education and nursing practice. Computer literacy skills (4.23 sd 0.8) were rated more relevant

Information literacy skills among university students have become a necessity rather than the norm. With the increase of information resources, the need for information skills among university students is important for their continued access to, and retrieval of, information. The purpose of this research was to investigate information literacy skills and competencies among incoming first-year undergraduate students in institutions of higher learning in Kenya, with special reference to the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. The objectives of the study were; to identify the types and formats of resources that incoming undergraduate students are aware of, to determine whether the incoming undergraduates are aware of search strategies for both print and electronic/online resources, to determine whether incoming undergraduate students possess basic information technology skills, to find out whether incoming undergraduate students know information retrieval tools and their use, and to determine whether incoming students are aware of intellectual property and copyrighted materials and their ethical use. The study adopted a quantitative approach and used the case study research method. The study targeted first year incoming undergraduate students at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa for the academic year 2013/2014. 137 incoming undergraduate students participated in the study. Data was collected by using self-administered questionnaires. Quantitative data was coded and analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Qualitative data generated form open-ended questions was presented in narrative form under respective subheadings. The finding of the study observed that: (a) Incoming first-year students have limited knowledge of strategies used to search for information. (b) The incoming first-year undergraduate students at the Catholic university of Eastern Africa do possess computer skills in applications such as the use of the internet and its applications (e.g. social networking sites and the World Wide Web) as well as the word-processing applications such as (Microsoft Office and Microsoft Word) and statistical applications such as SPSS. (c) Majority of incoming undergraduate university students are not familiar with the various retrieval tools and their applications. (d) The incoming first-year undergraduate students are familiar with both electronic and printed information resources. (e) A significant number of students were not aware what constitutes primary resources and secondary sources. (f) Incoming first-year undergraduate students exhibited little knowledge of issues relating to intellectual property rights and copyright. Several recommendations have been made based on the findings of the study. One of the recommendations is that the university library mandated with offering information literacy instruction to incoming students should adopt several incentives aimed at encouraging the students to attend library orientation. Another recommendation is to integrate the information literacy training with the normal university curriculum to become a credit-earning course for all incoming students. The university library should also carry out a needs assessment on information literacy training to help determine the existing gaps in the current information literacy programme. The programme should also be tailored to help in emerging issues such electronic plagiarism of information resources. The study further recommends a longitudinal study to determine whether students joining the university are able to gain information literacy skills over a period of time. / Information Science

A major question asked is whether literacy skills from a first language are able to be transferred to a second language that does not share the same writing features, grammar, graphic conventions or even the same type of writing system. The purpose of this study was to analyse the role of first language literacy in second language acquisition where languages are quite different. Specifically, it was designed to investigate the relationships between first language(Persian) writing skills and second language(English) writing performance. That is, it investigated the extent to which Iranian primary school children who were already literate in their first language drew upon literacy skills and concept knowledge of literacy from their first language to use in their second language. It was hypothesised that second language learning might be affected by both learners' and parents' attitudes and motivations. Subjects for the study were 70 Iranian students in grades 3, 4, and 5 who attended NSW state primary schools plus Persian School on Saturday and Sunday. Results of the study indicated that the first language Farsi writing skills specifically linguistic and holistic skills were transferred to the English language. Parents' influence on children's English writing skills were not found to be an important determinate in linguistic and holistic writing measures, although there was a relationship between the active parental influence variable and students' English writing technical skills. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The primary purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate two instructional programs designed to enhance early literacy skills of pre-kindergarten 4-year-olds enrolled in Head Start. A second goal was to compare literacy task assessment measures of three instructional groups, (1) explicit literacy instruction (ELI; N= 26), (2) shared book reading (SBR; N = 25), and (c) no specialized treatment (NST; N = 29), prior to the onset of treatment and again 15 weeks later. Pre-treatment group differences on measures of early literacy and receptive vocabulary were not significant. Intervention for the ELI group focused on providing explicit, systematic, developmentally appropriate instruction to enhance phonological awareness skills and increase alphabet knowledge. The SBR intervention, which focused on enhancing oral language, involved scaffolding strategies. Children in the two intervention groups received instruction two times per week for 15 weeks. Post-treatment outcome measures obtained for these two groups were compared with each other and also with scores of children in the NST group who received Head Start standard curriculum instruction only. ANOVA results indicated that post-treatment scores for the ELI group were significantly better than those of the other two groups on overall primary literacy measures and for the phonological awareness component, but not for alphabet knowledge. Differences between the SBR and NST groups were not significant for any measures. These results indicate that explicit, systematic early literacy instruction can improve Head Start children's literacy scores. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders. / "December 2006." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-90)

HOW SCHOOL LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALISTS SUPPORT READING AND INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS INSTRUCTION FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS by Melinda Morin This study explored the school library media programs in four schools. The percentage of English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in each of these schools was among the highest on their respective levels in their school districts. Moreover, the percentage of ELLs in these schools who met and exceeded the standard for reading and English/language arts on the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) in the spring of 2010 was more than the Annual Measureable Objective (AMO) of 73.3% or slightly less. The participants were the school library media specialists who administered the school library media programs in these schools. This was a qualitative study. During an inductive thematic analysis, the data coalesced into four themes that corresponded with the research questions: instruction, collaboration, media/technology, and interpersonal communication. These findings were derived from the data. 1. The participants used both conventional and technology-based instructional strategies to support reading and information literacy skills instruction for all of their students, including the ELLs. 2. The school library media collections included first language, bilingual, and multicultural literatures, picture books, nonfiction books written on a lower reading level, graphic materials, Hi-Lo reading materials and other digital resources; however, the materials varied in age, suitability, and condition. 3. The school library media specialists collaborated informally with the other members of the instructional team. 4. The school library media specialists undertook other practices that support reading and information literacy skills instruction for ELLs on a discretionary basis.

In Life Sciences Education, the use of educational external representations (ERs) such as diagrams, models and animations are increasingly appearing in learning and teaching resources. However, their effectiveness is limited if learners experience learning difficulties due to lack of visual literacy and spatial ability skills to work with ERs. The study explored the level of visual literacy of 225 Grade 10 Life Sciences learners in cytology across six secondary schools in Pretoria, Gauteng. It was theorised that ERs need to be integrated in the Life Sciences curricula to develop learners’ visual literacy and spatial ability skills. With this theory, the study aimed to explore the visual literacy of Grade 10 Life Sciences learners and the influence of gender and school location on the visual literacy and spatial ability skills of the learners. Through a quantitative research method a Life Sciences visual literacy questionnaire and a spatial ability test were used to collect data. Collected data was analysed descriptively and inferentially through Statistical Package Social Sciences Version 23. The results showed that most Grade 10 Life Sciences learners lack average visual literacy skills. Furthermore, the results showed that gender doesn’t play a role on the learners’ performance in visual literacy skills as both genders performed equally in both tests, On the other hand, the results showed that the location of the school (urban, rural or township) has an effect on the learners’ performance in visual literacy skills. Teachers need to incorporate different ERs that would stimulate different senses and which will also enhance learners’ visual literacy and spatial ability skills in their lessons. A conclusion and some recommendations for future research are given. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted