This study attempted to investigate the differences in the Head Start population of the Ogden City Schools and to determine if the differences had a significant influence on ability comparisons. An attempt was also made to evaluate the longitudinal benefits of Head Start training. The original data was collected in the 1966-67 evaluation of the Head Start program. Additional data was collected as this original group of Head Start children progressed through kindergarten, first, and second grades. Variables considered in this study were, residence, age, sex, socio-economic deprivation, family constellation, and ethnic group. In addition, a comparison was made of children in kindergarten, first, and second grades, who had Head Start, to peers who had no Head Start experience. The variables were tested by analysis of variance and chi-square. Results of the analyses of data revealed that significant differences existed in the following categories: residence, socio-economic deprivation, ethnic groups, kindergarten, and first grade. The difference in residence support the Ogden City Schools labeling the target area as a impoverished part of the district that needs additional services, The criteria of family income or socio-economic deprivation is a justifiable measure to use in determining who should be admitted to the Head Start program. It was also determined that the minority ethnic groups made the most gain s in the Head Start program with the order of gain being Negro, Spanish American and Caucasian. It was also concluded that the children who had received the Head Start experience were able to maintain their gains through the first grade. School apparently has a gradual ameliorating influence however as the differences between second graders who had Head Start and matched peers who did not have Head Start were no longer significant.

No description available.

No description available.

The occurrence of psychological late effects resulting from the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) been the subject of empirical investigations for approximately 25 years, with an emphasis on those patients treated with radiation therapy. In more recent years, however, research has shown that children and adolescents with ALL treated only with chemotherapy may also be at risk for treatment-related cognitive and academic deficits, although many specific treatment regimens remain to be investigated. Purpose: The present investigation was designed to examine 76 pediatric patients with ALL who were randomized to receive 1g/m² or 2g/m² of intravenous methotrexate (IVMTX) with regard to cognitive, academic, and social-emotional/behavioral functioning over a 3-year period beginning shortly after diagnosis. Method: Scores from a preexisting database were analyzed with particular interest in main effects for methotrexate dose level, time since diagnosis, age at diagnosis, ALL vs non-ALL status and interactions between group and time variables. Participants with ALL and group of non-ALL siblings had participated in cognitive evaluations measuring performance in the following domains: intelligence, language, visual-spatial/visual-motor skills, attention and working memory, processing speed, psychomotor speed and coordination, executive function, academic achievement, and social-emotional/behavioral functioning. Results: A main effect for methotrexate dose level was significant for a measure of adaptive skills. A main effect for age at diagnosis was noted on measures of visual-spatial attention and working memory, and spelling and written expression. No main effect for time was noted on any dependent measure. Additionally, no main effect for ALL versus non-ALL status was noted on any dependent measure. Conclusion: Overall the findings suggest that the treatment of ALL with 1g/m² or 2g/m² IVMTX does not significantly impact the incidence of late effects with regard to cognitive, academic, and social-emotional/behavioral functioning within the first 3 years post-diagnosis. Younger age at diagnosis may, however, contribute to differences in performance on measures of cognitive and academic functioning.

有關「正面正少年發展」的文獻中，對計劃的設計者、推行者及訓練導師的努力是肯定的。但學生的聲音卻往往不被重視，尤見於發展計劃的初期及計劃進行時的評估。本研究旨在發掘參與學生的聲音，以及探討在學習過程中所產生的「亮點」怎樣協助年青人茁壯成長，尤其是面對生命逆境的時候。 / 「共創成長路」的第一層培育計劃是本研究計劃的特選焦點。是次研究採用「焦點小組」為初步蒐集資料的方法，參與「焦點小組」共有二十人，參與者為中六及中七學生。另外，從「焦點小組」選出六位學生，以深入訪談中的「對談合作」模式探討其學習獨特之處。「對談合作」模式同時用於研究策略及蒐集資料兩方面。此模式尊重年輕人的聲音，切合本研究的主題。本研究通過特定的編碼過程將資料編整，學生將「過去」所學與「現在」連結，並演進其學習。當中的「亮點」以學習理論貫穿，是較新討論在「正面正少年發展」計劃所得的方法。 / 本研究具有理論及實際生活上的價值。本研究是首個對學生參與「共創成長路」計劃後的發展的質性研究。在研究過程中，嘗試整合「學習概念」與「正向青少年發展計劃」，提出「關係知識」及「完型學習」的概念，以凸顯師生關係之可教導、可學習及可持續的特點。從實際生活的層次而言，本研究的重要結果「關係知識」，能協助本地中學發展校本的正向青少年發展計劃，以及協助學者在培訓老師或青少年工作者時，可以加強「關係知識」部分，增強老師對「正向青少年發展計劃」的擁有權。 / In the existing literature of the positive youth development, tributes are often given to the "adults", who are the program designers, frontline implementers and program trainers. However, students’ voices are often excluded from the initial planning and ongoing program assessments of the positive youth development programs.The present study intends to articulate youth’s voice in their learning journeys in the local positive youth development program and investigates how their learning “sparks assist them to thrive along their life growth pathways, especially in times of life critical events. / Among the youth programs implemented in Hong Kong, the Tier 1 program of the Project P.A.T.H.S. (“Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programs)is the purposive choice as the platform for discussion of the present study. Two focus groups compiling 20 students from Secondary 6 and Secondary 7 were conducted as the preliminary data collection process. Six purposive participants from the focus groups were invitedfor the in-depth interviews. Conversational partnership in Responsive Interviewing is adopted as the key research strategy and method of data analysis in order to maintain the equal partnership between the adult interviewer and the adolescent participant. The data collected were analyzed according to descriptive coding and analytic coding in thematic analysis. As a result of the coding procedure, the adolescent participants evolved their learning by linking the “there-and-past learnt knowledge in their junior secondary school years to the here-and-now application when they encounter critical life events. The “sparks were discussed with learning concepts and theories, which is a novice attempt in discussing the learning happened in positive youth development programs. / This research study is significant in both the theoretical and practical sense. The present study is the first qualitative research focusing on students' post-program development.The integration of the learning conceptions with positive youth development program is advocated in the present study. Novice ideas of "relational knowledge" and "Gestalt view of learning" are introduced to indicate the teachable, learnable and sustainable features of student-teacher relationships. On the practical level, the findings--meaningful engagements with the adults in the learning process--of the present study can serve as the rationale to sustain school-based youth development curricula. With the ideation of "pedagogy of relationships", it is also hoped that the teacher educators would adopt this “pedagogy of relationships into their training elements to “challenge the deep-rooted “side-dish-belief of the pre-service and in-service teachers.This visionary “owned thought lets frontline youth workers, especially teachers, value every opportunity for our youth to explore their growth in an accepted environment. Implications for further studies are also recommended and discussed in the thesis to conclude the whole research. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Wu, Ka Yu Florence. / Thesis (Ed.D) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-188). / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Educational practices appear to have failed in preparing many individuals to build productive, fulfilling lives. This is evident in the increasing number of dropouts and individuals who qualify neither for a job nor college. Career education has been selected as a Priority program in attempting to remedy such failures. Theory implies that to successfully implement new educational programs, educators' attitudes and values need to be favorable toward such programs. At present, however, there is very little data available about attitude and the factors that affect attitude. An analysis of educators' attitudes appears to be a necessary first step in the design and implementation of career education programs. Previous research on educators' attitudes toward career education suggests several factors which may influence educators' attitudes, but the findings have been inconsistent. The present study was limited to five relevant and measurable factors which were assumed to be associated with attitude. The selected factors were (a) knowledge about career education, (b) the position of the educator (teacher, counselor, administrator), (c) the level of school employment (elementary, middle, or high school), (d) the number of years of work experience outside education, and (e) the method of program implementation in which the educator was involved. There were no instruments reported in the literature that measured all of the chosen factors. A questionnaire was developed for this specific study. A sample was selected from educators currently involved in two career education projects in the western section of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The questionnaires were completed and returned by 74 percent of the educators in the sample. This study investigated the following questions: Is there an association between the knowledge of career education and attitude toward career education? Is there an association between the position of the educator and attitude toward career education? Is there an association between the level of the educator and attitude toward career education? Is there an association between the years of work experience outside education and attitude toward career education? Is there an association between the method of implementation and attitude toward career education? Is there an association between the set of five chosen factors and attitude toward career education? Data were analyzed by means of a multiple classification analysis. The results of the data analysis indicated that knowledge and position had the greatest degree of association with attitude of the five factors studied. The eta correlation between knowledge and attitude was .243. The eta correlation between position and attitude was .235. The method of implementation and level of the educator had eta correlations of .191 and .116 respectively. Years of work outside education did not have a significant association with an educator's attitude toward career education. The combined effect of the set of factors had a correlation of .362, although all predictors together explained only slightly over 13 percent of the total variance in attitude. Discussion of the results of this study center around possible uses of the information obtained, strengths of the instrument, implications for further research, and a critical look at the theoretical assumptions of this study.

One of the most interesting and challenging problems to confront those interested in the learning process in recent years is the entire area of the self-instructional device, or "teaching machine." The idea of the teaching machine is not new, for Pressey (49) in 1926 wrote concerning a device he had developed, and at the same time indicated that he had had such a device in mind for "a number of years." After this introduction by Pressey, the teaching machine movement lay dormant for several years with only an occasional article written that had any direct relationship to this area. This was not to last indefinitely, however, because during the past ten years the interest has gradually been growing to the point that at the present time this movement demands consideration. It is difficult to identify precisely why this has been the case, but a few reasons might be suggested. The demand on education is greater now than it has ever been before (47, 57): there are more people wanting education, there are more students receiving education, the percentage of school-age persons participating is increasing, and the teacher-pupil ratio is not remaining at a desirable level. To further intensify this problem, much more is being demanded. from education in the general areas of curriculum and desired levels of competence. Since this presents the educational system with the obvious task of keeping abreast of these demands, the educator has been forced to search for more effective and efficient methods of instruction. Glaser (28) in his review suggests that the trend is toward closer cooperation and coordination of effort between "educational psychology" and the "science of learning." The experimentalist and the learning theorist are working more closely together on training and learning problems than they ever have before. A final reason for this increased interest, according to Holland (31), is that in the past the interest has been largely on the device itself, but in recent years this has shifted to focus upon the fact that a person's behavior can be altered in situations outside of the laboratory by the application and utilization of certain psychological principles. These same principles can be incorporated in the teaching machine. Not only is this movement intriguing, but it presents a great challenge, for there are a great number of problems, first to be identified, and second to be solved. From all indications this interest will not dissipate, but rather will become more universal with widespread implications for the student, the teacher, the administrator, the psychologist, and the parent (4, 18, 47). The implications are not confined to t hose associated with a school setting, for as Skinner (57) indicates there is additional application in home study, industrial training, military training, and special education of the exceptional individual. No doubt there are others but this will serve to illustrate the potentially wide-spread effects.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have increased rates for sleep problems compared with typically developing children. Although physicians practicing in pediatric primary care settings have the potential to detect and address sleep problems at an early age, research investigating the sleep management practices of pediatricians in primary care is scant and does not particularly address children with ASD. This study investigated the frequency of sleep screening measures utilized by pediatric providers during well-child examinations, the most frequently recommended treatments, the barriers and facilitators to screening for sleep problems, and the perceived confidence of pediatricians with regard to screening for sleep problems in children ages 2-10 years with ASD. Survey data from members of the Hillsborough County Medical Association were collected and analyzed. Seventy-three percent of participants reported almost always screening for a sleep problem during well-child examinations. Findings indicate that pediatric healthcare providers acknowledge the importance of managing sleep problems in primary care settings. Barriers to screening for sleep problems during routine exams included lack of time, resources, and awareness of screening tools. Facilitators to screening for sleep problems during routine exams included shorter sleep screening tools and longer exams. Pediatric providers were moderately confident in their ability to manage sleep problems in primary care settings. A significant relationship was found between confidence level and a number of perceived barriers. Implications of the findings are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to explore possible interventions aimed at educating college students about the roles, services, settings, and job outlook for school psychologists as a means to increase interest in the field as a graduate school career option. More specifically, the proposed study aims to test what type of educational activity- didactic information presentation versus didactic information presentation coupled with an experiential learning task- interacts with which learning style to produce the greatest gains in interest in the field as a graduate school option. Further, the proposed study seeks to determine if a correlation exists between knowledge of school psychology and level of interest in the field. / text

This study looks at two methods of identification for a specific learning disability in reading – Response to Intervention and Discrepancy Testing – and examines their efficacy with English Language Learners (ELL). A McNemar chi square analysis will be used to compare the outcomes of the two methods. Additionally, a multiway contingency table will be constructed and the association between English as a First Language (EFL)students and ELL students will be determined by using a conditional odds ratio. It is expected that both methods of learning disability testing will have difficulty distinguishing between a learning disability in reading and a language acquisition problem. The results will help prevent the misplacement of ELLs into Special Education. / text