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Particularly in recent years, prompted by the need to gain greater independent access to a wider range of information, many persons who are blind make extensive use of screen access technology, optical character recognition devices, refreshable Braille displays and electronic notetakers in a variety of contexts. These reading and writing media have proved to be so useful and effective, raising debates in the literature on whether there is a decline in the use of Braille, or whether Braille as a reading and writing medium would become obsolete. Following a discussion on the development of tactual reading and writing media as part of an historical background to blindness, as well as an evaluation of the various reading and writing media used in South Africa by persons who are blind, this study, using a quantitative approach with a survey design, aimed to determine the impact of the various reading and writing media on the education and employment of persons who are blind. Based on the findings of the study, what emerges forcefully with regard to the preference of a medium for reading or writing is that a greater number of persons who are blind prefer Braille and computers with speech output. Notwithstanding this, there is support for the need to provide instruction in the use of the various reading and writing media, highlighting the critical value and role of the various media. Additionally, while persons who are blind appear to be convinced that computers will not replace Braille, they were, however, divided on whether there is a decline in the use of Braille, and whether computers would replace audiotapes. Finally, conclusions, based mainly on the findings of the study are drawn, and recommendations, both for future research, and for an integrated reading and writing model, are made. / Educational Studies / D.Ed.(Special Needs Educstion)

For several years specialists in reading have debated on how pupils should learn to read. The debate has focused on two methods of teaching reading, that is, the phonic method and the whole language method. Some researchers have identified five elements of reading instruction that are critical to achievement in reading, namely; that reading instruction should include phonics, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. These are the components that make up what is termed a balanced literacy approach. Although there is some debate on what constitutes the balanced literacy approach, this study adopted the understanding of the approach described above. The study investigated whether the use of the balanced literacy approach could improve standard four pupils’ achievement in reading and writing in English. The targeted population consisted of twelve schools located in Zomba rural district. Pupils were tested before and after the intervention. Teachers in the experimental group were trained twice on balanced literacy approaches, first before the intervention and midway of the intervention. Observational measures revealed that teachers generally implemented the treatment. The post intervention data indicated that pupils responded very well to the activities that were presented to them. The reading and writing achievement of pupils that were present for the post-test increased more than those of the control group. The results obtained suggest that the balanced literacy approach improved the reading and writing achievement of standard four pupils in the experimental group. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

This research surveys the Swiss missionaries' management of social transformation in South Africa (1873-1976). It has as its major focus the management of schools, hospitals and churches as the primary institutions of social change in society. The researcher's realisation that more often than not, the changes brought to bear on proselytes by the change forces take time to manifest themselves vividly induced him to extend the scope to include the dawn of the new political dispensation in this country in 1994. This need not surprise the readership as the triadic approach, which is synonymous with historial analyses compels researchers to avail readers of what happened in the past, present as well as what is likely to occur in future. In other words, readers will encounter the ethnic nationalism engineered by different change agents in this country and the repercussions thereof, and the schism within the Swiss Mission in South Africa/Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa that started in 1989 and became reality by 1991. Finally, the thesis also appraises readers of what should be done in periods of rapid social change. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (History of Education)

The changing of the education system holistically in South Africa as a prerequisite has impacted negatively on the child‘s ability to read and write, which also degraded the country‘s standard as compared to other countries in Africa. This is confirmed by the annual national assessment results where South African children‘s performance is far below the expected level. This investigation aims to serve as a guideline to all interested stakeholders who are willing to improve and develop our poor performing education system. Firstly, to identify a child‘s social factors that interfere with their ability to read and write; to find out how reading influences writing in the child and to develop intervention strategies on solving children‘s problems with reading and writing. The study revealed through the participants that, unavailability of social factors that are a need or prerequisite to the child‘s excellent academic performance hampered their ability to read and write. Furthermore, educator participants indicated that the child‘s inability to read influenced their writing ability. Data collected is based on individual interviews and documents analysis. The researcher chose Kedibone Primary School (pseudonym) as the sample. The participants were ten (10) learners from grade 3 to grade 7 and their five (5) educators, one from each grade, in the above mentioned school. That is each grade provided two participants, one boy and one girl. The main aim of the interviews was to identify how social factors interfere with the child‘s ability to read and write. In conclusion, this research had been a success through the participation of the Department of Education and all its related structures and to provide strategies that were stated in the research as solutions that would address and overcome the child‘s inability to read and write. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

This dissertation deals with the issue of reading skills of pre-school aged children, their abilities to understand the text being read out to them and answer the questions related to the text meaningfully, but also to ask individual questions. It addresses a possible usage of some methods of critical thinking for this age group in the field of nursery schools. The dissertation is based on the fact that the role of the pre-school education is irreplaceable in this respect. The theoretical part concentrates on the problems related to answering the questions and asking them, on the development of cognitive processes and speech, growth of self- confidence and self-assurance as an important precondition for a pre-school child's expressing and the creation of a positive pedagogical communication in the class. It offers opportunities to use some methods of the programme called " By Reading and Writing to Critical Thinking " (RWCT) at nursery schools. The practical part of this dissertation introduces a programme based on working with the texts of different genres intended for the pre-school age. In individual lessons it is verified whether the chosen methods from the RWCT programme are suitable and if the questions asked, and the request for asking them, correspond to the abilities of pre-school aged...

5 Abstract The thesis is devoted to the development of before-reader's skills of preeschoolers, their ability to develop communication, listening and discussion with some methods of critical thinking. Theoretical part is focused on the development of reading and before-reader's literacy of preschoolers.It deals with a posibility to use some chosen methods of the program RWCT (Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking) at nursery school. It concentrates on the development of preschoolers in some areas important for their development of reader's literacy. In practical part there is presented the educational project of advent-calender full of stories, based on the work with texts. Based on stories it learns, if these chosen methods of the program RWCT can influence communication of preschoolers and their listening and discussion. The thesis presents results of the educational project took at the beginning and the end of my project. Key words: pre-school education, preschoolers, reader's literacy, program of reading and writing for critical thinking, methods, work with a text, communication research, listening and discussion

The thesis is focused on the programme Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) and its influence on the pupil's communication skills. The theoretical part provides factual information relating to the topic. It describes communication, communication skills, the status of communication in the Framework Education Programme for Primary Education and summarizes the information about the programme RWCT, its objectives, content and methods. The practical part deals with the influence of methods RWCT on improvment of pupil's communicative skills. It compares lessons at two elementary schools in terms of time, which is spended with pupil's communication, at which they have to express their own thoughts and opinions.

This thesis is focused on problems of teaching in school subject Czech Language in 1 - 3 grade of elementary schools for hearing impaired. The whole issue is put into the theoretical framework, which delimit specify of hearing impaired pupils education and the goals which this pupils should achieve in elementary education and primarily in language education too. Special attention is paid to problems of teaching reading and writing - ways to acquiring reading literacy in hearing impaired pupils. Presented are methods of teaching reading and writing and I am thinking about their applicability in hearing impaired pupils education. Is given an idea of teaching in school subject Czech Language in Elementary schools for hearing impaired in history (1948 - 1990), in detail I analyze teaching materials used in that time. Current situation of teaching in school subject Czech Language is describe on the grounds of research probe realized in school year 2011/2012 on four selected elementary schools for hearing impaired in the Czech Republic. Results of observation are related to stated hypothesis and from them are deduced conclusions. Part of thesis is detailed notations of during the teaching in the selected schools. Closing part is focused on brief reflection of possibilities to make use of innovation in...