by Benjamin Kwok Wai Cheung. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 108-120.

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As increasing numbers of poor children enter child care programs due to changes in work requirements under the Welfare Reform Act, there is a critical need to examine factors that may affect the quality of care that these children receive. One factor that has received limited attention in the literature is how preservice teachers' perceptions of young children may vary according to characteristics of the child and the context in which the child exists. The current study employed an ecological person-process-context model to examine differences in preservice teachers' perceptions of children's social and cognitive competence. The sample for this study consisted of 68 children and 28 preservice teachers enrolled at a university-based preschool in Oregon. The preschool was the only site in the state featuring an integrated program in which Head Start children were enrolled with non-Head Start children under an Oregon Prekindergarten Program (OPP) grant. Hierarchical regression was used to determine if the contextual factor of enrollment in OPP would be a more significant contributor to preservice teachers' perceptions of children's social and cognitive competence than the person factors of child age, sex, race/ethnicity, temperament and actual child competence. Qualitative data was also collected through focus group discussions with preservice teachers. Sex was the most important contributor to preservice teachers' perceptions of children's social competence, followed by enrollment in OPP, actual social competence, and age. For preservice teachers' perceptions of children's cognitive competence, age was the most significant contributor, followed by actual cognitive competence, enrollment in OPP, and sex. While enrollment in OPP was not the most significant contributor to preservice teachers' perceptions of children's social and cognitive competence, it was still a significant contributor, beyond other person variables. For both social and cognitive competence, preservice teachers rated children enrolled in OPP lower than their non-OPP peers, girls higher than boys, and older children higher than younger children, even when the unique contribution of children's actual competence was included. Qualitative data generally supported these findings. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed. / Graduation date: 1999

Research reveals that policy intentions seldom define classroom practice. This research study uses continuous assessment as the 'case' to explore the policy-practice relationship. The research approach adopted involved a critical review of policy documents on continuous assessment; interviews with Department officials; a survey questionnaire on continuous assessment distributed to teachers in ten secondary schools; and a detailed exploration of continuous assessment practice in three institutional settings. The findings show that continuous assessment is rarely implemented as policy intended; teachers at the classroom level have transformed the aims of policy-makers to the extent that implementation proceeds at some distance from the original policy intentions; and teachers are experiencing numerous problems in attempting to implement continuous assessment. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1997.

The study compared competence satisfaction in a ball striking activity, as measured by risk taking and achievement, of individuals with ( N = 16) and without (N = 18) physical disabilities under mastery and performance orientation climates. The students ranged in age from 7-13 years. They were required to strike a ball into nets of three different size-distance combinations. Results supported the first hypothesis of no competence satisfaction differences between the groups under mastery and performance climates. The second hypothesis that the introduction of performance climate would increase risk taking and this would affect achievement accomplishments and competence satisfaction was also supported. Nonetheless, performance climate had a different effect on each ability group with regard to achievement accomplishments. Specifically, performance climate undermined achievement accomplishments for individuals with physical disabilities and encouraged achievement accomplishments for peers without disabilities. Hence, individuals with physical disabilities did not satisfy their need of competence in the same manner as peers without disabilities in the performance climate. For those with physical disabilities performance appears to be crucial, whereas for peers without disabilities risk taking is essential.

This study examines whether self-esteem and anxiety are related to achievement and aptitude in 28 boys and 20 girls in grades 3 through 6. The influence of 48 mothers' and 42 fathers' self-esteem and anxiety on the child's achievement, aptitude, self-esteem, and anxiety is also assessed. / Main and interaction effects of achievement and aptitude on anxiety are obtained. High achievers have lower anxiety scores than low achievers. Gifted children have higher physiological anxiety than nongifted children. In most cases, gifted low achievers have the highest anxiety scores and gifted high achievers have the lowest. Aptitude and achievement groups do not differ in self-esteem. / Mothers of gifted children report higher total self-esteem than mothers of nongifted children. Fathers of high achievers report higher total self-esteem than fathers of low achievers. Parents do not differ in anxiety. Father total self-esteem is negatively related to anxiety and positively related to self-esteem in boys.

This study was undertaken to investigate the school and classroom factors that contribute / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among specific domains of self-concept and domains of academic achievement for learning disabled children. Subjects were 109 intermediate grade students attending public schools in Indiana. All subjects had been classified by their school districts as LD and were currently receiving resource room services. Additionally, the relationship between actual self-concept scores and inferred self-concept scores was explored by asking resource room teachers to complete the Self-Description Questionnaire-1 (SDQ-1) as they believed each of their students would respond.The SDQ-1 was administered to assess the domains of self-concept, while achievement in reading, mathematics, and written language was operationalized as scores on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Test of Achievement (WJPB). Ability scores from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and WJPB achievement scores were collected from students' school files.Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to investigate the relationship among individual variables. Only one significant correlation (p<.0l) was found between domains of self-concept and domains of academic achievement. This low correlation (-.27) existed between reading self-concept and achievement in written language. Interestingly, every intercorrelation among the SDQ-1 domains was significant calling into question the purported factor structure of the SDQ-1 with this LD population.A canonical correlation analysis was used to investigate the associations among multiple variables, such as ability, self-concept domains and achievement domains. Since the link between ability and achievement has been supported in the literature, the intent of this analysis was to investigate the extent that self-concept contributed to achievement. Results of this analysis also suggested a significant relationship between ability and achievement;however, above and beyond ability, knowledge of self-concept scores did not add to the relationship with achievement.In addition to exploring the association among domains of self-concept and domains of achievement, this study also examined the relationship between actual and inferred self-concept scores. Results of a canonical correlation analysis supported a significant relationship between actual self-concept and inferred self-concept scores. It appeared that resource room teachers were accurately able to infer the self-concepts of their LD students. This agreement between self-report and teacher report of self-concept is consistent with previous research.In conclusion, the present investigation did not provide support for a relationship between domains of self-concept and academic achievement with this LD sample. The implications for results are discussed along with suggestions for future research in this area. / Department of Educational Psychology

The interdisciplinary field of developmental psychopathology has brought considerable organization and clarity to the study of resilience, and it was from this theoretical perspective that the present study was conducted. One-hundred and forty-three preschool children, ages four to six, were recruited to answer two primary questions. First, do resilient (high threats, high competence) children differ from their maladapted (high threats, low competence) and competent (low threats, high competence) peers on measures of potential protective resources (i.e., intellectual ability and parent-child relationship)? Second, what are the mechanisms that underlie the effects of threats to development and protective resources on children's emotional and behavioral competence? To test the first question, differences across groups were examined using categorical, person-based analytic procedures (i.e., ANOVA, MANOVA). It was found that the quality of the parent-child relationship among resilient children was indeed more favorable than among maladaptive children, but resilient and competent children did not differ on this dimension. Resilient children produced significantly higher results on nonverbal intellectual reasoning tasks, but were no better than their maladapted counterparts on verbal intellectual abilities. To explore the second question, variable-based analyses (structural equation modeling) were used to test for hypothesized processes underlying the impact that threats and resources have on competence. The results supported the notion of an adversity process in which threats to development directly and unfavorably impacted children's functioning. Mixed support was found for the compensatory process in which resources directly influenced competence in a manner that compensated for the effects of threats. An indirect, compensatory-enhancing processwas supported whereby intellectual resources contributed to improved parent-child relationship which in turn had a positive influence on competence. The most important finding was the adversity-mediating process. This mechanism indicated that threats to development not only directly diminish competence, but also deleteriously impact resource variables. Likewise, this finding suggested that protective resources are essential in buffering children from the consequences of exposure to threats. Specifically, while the quality of the parent-child relationship did not have strong direct influences on competence, it mediated the effects of threats. Implications from these findings for future research and clinical practice are outlined. / Department of Secondary, Higher, and Foundations of Education

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.