Each new student arriving at the university or college brings an assortment of expectations, different types and levels of academic competency, different levels of psychological well-being, a variety of attitudes, values and divergent life experiences. Each adjusts at his or her own rate and experiences life as a student in unique ways. The focus of this study is on the problems that are encountered by the first year student on arrival at the institution and throughout the course of his or her first year studies. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods that include work-shopping many issues, a questionnaire and focus group interviews, this triangulation of data-collection techniques has helped to provide a rich and deep exploration of the perceived problem areas. The study examines various factors that are perceived as limiting the potential performance and achievement of the student, specifically academic aspects and those factors and circumstances that affect psychological well-being. The psycho-educational issues found to be perceived as problematic by both students and staff members are a lack of preparation and insufficient academic competencies that are necessary for successful tertiary education. Of critical concern with the resultant necessity of immediate intervention, are the lack of accountability and a fear of failure with concomitant anxiety. Issues other than psycho-educational problem areas are highlighted such as economic and social variables. Although not part of the study, issues such as lack of finance and the impact of HIV/AIDS cannot be ignored as they may have a possible detrimental effect on first year student achievement. As academic competency development and psychological well-being are but two areas of concern within the gestalt of student development, the study is conducted from a theoretical stance that embraces holistic student development. It is in this light of developing the student as a totality that an intervention programme is suggested, affording the new student many opportunities to develop all facets of his being. / Faculty of Education / D. Ed.

This study examined the neurocognitive skills, incidence of mild head injury, incidence of learning disabilities, and study habits among college students with grade point average of 2.00 or below (N = 25) as contrasted with college students with grade point average above 2.00 (N = 70). The intent of this research was to extend the work of Segalowitz and Brown (1991) and Segalowitz and Lawson (1993) who found significant associations between reported history of mild head injury and developmental disabilities among high school and college samples. MANOVAs conducted on measures of academic achievement, global cognitive skills, verbal and nonverbal memory, motor and tactile functioning, and study habits did not discriminate between probationary and non-probationary students. Probationary and non-probationary students also did not differ with regard to incidence of reported head injury, frequency of diagnosed learning disabilities, and study habits. Measures of neurocognitive functioning and study habits did not contribute to the prediction of grade point average over and above that predicted by Scholastic Aptitude Test composite score. Several exploratory analyses were performed examining the relationship between study habits and neurocognitive skills. Gender differences, implications for future research and development of study skills courses, and limitations of this study were discussed.

The point of this text is to refer to the child with specific learning and behaviour difficulties as a unique personality and as a human beings with its own value. Childrens' self-concept is formed in a family background, at school and by a person of the same age. Childrens' self-concept is mainly endangered at schools, however the school has got a lot of opportunities to prevent that danger of self-concept reducing, to form and to develop it. The theoretical part is concentrated on forming self-concept in a view of child's psychical development and of childrens' specific learning and behaviour difficulties, it is pointed to forming self-concept at school background and in some situation which can endanger childrens' self-concept. We have also outlined a few possibilities how to prevent the threated self-concept, how to form and develop it. In the empiric part we studied whether the self-concept of children with specific learning and behaviour difficulties differs from self-concept of the children who haven't got these difficulties. For that purpose we used a standard questionnaire.

[pt] Repetência refere-se à prática escolar de reter, em uma determinada série, estudantes que em geral não alcançaram o rendimento desejado ao final de um ano letivo. O objetivo desta prática seria corrigir possíveis falhas na aprendizagem ou adequar situações de imaturidade do aluno. No contexto do debate sobre as vantagens e desvantagens desta medida, a dissertação busca verificar os efeitos da repetência no desempenho dos estudantes nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental que participaram do Projeto Geres entre 2005 e 2008. Ao longo da pesquisa busca-se compreender: 1) se os alunos que passaram pela experiência de repetência, mesmo ao custo de um ano extra de escolarização, apresentaram ganhos reais de proficiência que justifiquem a utilização de tal medida; 2) no caso de ter havido ganhos reais em aprendizagem, se esses ganhos se mantém ao longo dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Para tentar responder a estas perguntas, foi desenvolvido um estudo observacional que compara dois grupos de alunos, repetentes e promovidos, pareados através de matching, e analisa o impacto da repetência nas medidas de proficiência em Língua Portuguesa e Matemática desses grupos de alunos em diferentes momentos da sua trajetória escolar. Corroborando com diversas pesquisas sobre os efeitos da repetência, os resultados mostram que os alunos repetentes progridem menos que os alunos promovidos ao longo do tempo. Quando comparados em uma mesma série, independente do ano letivo em que a cursaram, os repetentes se saem melhor, embora o efeito em Língua Portuguesa se perca ao longo das séries. / [en] Repetition refers to the school practice of holding back, in a given grade, students that generally did not achieve the desired performance at the end of a school year. This practice has the goal to correct possible flaws in learning or adjust to situations of immaturity of the student. In the context of the debate about the advantages and disadvantages of this practice, this dissertation intends to verify the effects of failure on the student’s performance during the initial years of Elementary School. Those students took part in the Longitudinal Study of School Generation 2005 (Geres Project) from 2005 to 2008. Throughout the research the study aims to comprehend: [1] If the students that experience failure, even at the cost of an extra year of schooling, presented real gains of proficiency that justify the use of such measure; [2] in the case of real gains in learning, do this gains maintain during the initial years of the Elementary School? To try to answer these questions, a observational study was developed that compare two pupils groups, the ones who failed and the ones who got promoted, paired up through matching, and analyze the failure impact on the proficiency level in Reading and Mathematics from these groups of students in different moments of their school trajectory. Corroborating with several researches on the failure effects, the results show that the students who failed improve less than the students who were promoted along the years. When comparated in the same grade, regardless from the school grade that they have attended, the students who failed have better results, although the effect in Reading gets lost along the school grades.

[pt] Esta pesquisa estudou o fenômeno da repetência em um contexto pouco pesquisado– colégios de prestígio e camadas médias e altas. Apoiada em Revel (1998), assumi como estratégia para o estudo o jogo de escalas. O trabalho se divide em quatro partes que, em escalas diferentes, buscam analisar o fenômeno: na sua magnitude e no processo concreto de reprovação. A primeira parte com os dados do PISA de 2006 realizei uma comparação do risco de atraso escolar no Brasil com outros três países: o México, a Argentina e a Colômbia, considerando o nível socioeconômico e a dependência administrativa da escola, controlando os resultados pelo desempenho dos estudantes em leitura. Vi que o risco de defasagem é muito maior no Brasil do que nos outros países mesmo entre os alunos das camadas mais altas. Na segunda parte construí um panorama do fluxo escolar em 15 escolas entre as de maior pontuação pelo ranqueamento feito pelo Enem. Constatei que todas as escolas reprovam seus alunos, mas que existem diferentes padrões de reprovação. Na terceira parte do trabalho analisei a entrada e a saída dos alunos ao longo dos 11 anos necessários para a formatura de uma geração em duas escolas de prestígio, fiz o que chamei de ciclo de série. Observei que os níveis de reprovação têm dois pontos altos: na sexta e na sétima série, e no primeiro ano do ensino médio, praticamente inexiste a reprovação no primeiro segmento do ensino fundamental. Para cada dez alunos que entram nessas escolas apenas três se formam sem reprovações. A última parte do trabalho foi a observação dos conselhos de classe de uma das escolas pesquisadas anteriormente. A enturmação das turmas e a manutenção das médias em zona de corte favoreceram a possibilidade de reprovar os alunos. No momento da avaliação final destaca-se a importância de um tipo específico de envolvimento familiar e a melhor adequação dos alunos das camadas médias no projeto de escolas de prestígio. / [en] This dissertation analyzed the phenomenon of school failure in the light of an under-studied context: that of prestigious schools and middle to upper and classes. Based upon Revel (1998), we adopted the game of scales as our analytical strategy. The dissertation is divided into four parts which, in different measures, endeavor to study this phenomenon both in its magnitude and in the concrete process of school failure, by means of a microanalysis. Beginning with the PISA 2006 data, we compared the risk of being held back on probation in school in Brazil with that of three other countries: Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, considering their socioeconomic status and the schools management dependencies, using the students reading performance as a control measure. We found that the risk of probation holdup is much higher in Brazil than in other countries, even among students from high income social classes. In the second part of this study we charted the school attendance flux in 15 schools amongst those of highest standing in the Enem ranking. We found that all schools fail their students, but that there are different failure standards. In the third part of this study we sought to understand the entry and exit of students throughout the 11 years required for one generation to graduate by examining two prestigious schools, and establishing what we named a Cycle series. We observed that school failure levels reach their three critical moments in the 6th and 7th grades, and that for the junior (1st) year of high school, they are practically nonexistent in the first segment of basic education. For every ten students entering these schools, only three graduate without ever failing a grade. The last part of this study was the observation of student evaluation board meetings in the previously surveyed schools. Class composition and maintenance in the cutoff section favored the possibility of failing students. Our final evaluation highlights the importance of a specific sort of family involvement and how middleincome students tend to fit in better with these prestigious schools projects.

Classés parmi les troubles mentaux de l’enfance et de l’adolescence, les troubles du comportement (TC) justifient fréquemment l’exclusion scolaire d’élèves vers des établissements du monde du handicap, les ITEP. En croisant les mondes vécus des jeunes et de leurs parents, l’histoire de la catégorie et sa mobilisation par différents acteurs, cette recherche se présente comme une tentative de compréhension du monde des TC et de ses fonctions. Plus qu’une simple catégorie médicale, les TC résultent d’une construction sociale et fonctionnent comme un outil d’exclusion et d’assignation sociale des enfants des classes défavorisées. Prolongeant les stratégies de l’école, ils favorisent le glissement de la responsabilité de l’échec scolaire de l’école vers les familles. A l’intérieur de cet univers normatif, la médecine joue un rôle central. Elle apporte une caution qui se veut scientifique à l’exclusion de la fraction économiquement et culturellement la plus pauvre de la population scolaire,ainsi qu’aux politiques les plus sécuritaires. La prévention de la délinquance passe par l’assujettissement dès leur plus jeune âge des élèves en échec scolaire et le contrôle des familles les plus démunies. Cette gestion par la médecine des désordres sociaux s’inscrit dans l’élargissement de ses missions tel que l’a décrit Foucault. Malgré les conflits qui la traversent, la médecine mentale se pose aujourd’hui en experte de la prévention de la délinquance à travers la gestion de l’échec scolaire et le dépistage précoce de troubles qu’elle se révèle incapable de définir. / Behaviour disorders of children and adolescents, classified among mental disorders justify the exclusion of pupils from schools to place them in institutions for disabled persons. By interfacing the study of the experience of young people and their parents, the history of that category and the part played in it by different actors, this research aims at understanding the world of behaviour problems and their functions. Behaviour disorders are more than a medical category, they are the the results of a social construction, they serve as a means to exclude and socially define children from the underprivileged classes. Following what happens in schools, they favour the shift of responsibility for underperforming from schools to families. The medical world plays a major part in this normative universe. It provides a would be scientific guarantee for the exclusion of the economically and culturally poorest section of the school population and for the more drastic security measures as well. The prevention of delinquency lies in controlling underperforming children from a very early age and socially deprived families. This implication of the medical world in the control of social disorders is a development of its missions as Foucault described it. In spite of inner conflicts, the world of mental medicine today wants to appear as experts in the prevention of deliquency through managing underperforming in schools and offering an early diagnosis of problems it fails to define.

O propósito deste trabalho é analisar um projeto de intervenção psicopedagógico com crianças com queixa escolar, denominado Projeto Prisma o desafio de um novo olhar. Nosso objetivo pautou-se no estudo das dificuldades de aprendizagem de um grupo de nove crianças de camadas populares. O material coletado foi objeto de análise qualitativa, aonde se buscou identificar as concepções sobre as causas das queixas escolares presentes nos instrumentais do projeto analisado: nas entrevistas, nas avaliações e na proposta de trabalho desenvolvida com as crianças e suas famílias. O suporte teórico-metodológico foi trazido pelas contribuições dos trabalhos de Heller (2000) e, Patto e colaboradores (1990). As análises do material mostraram a convivência entre diferentes concepções sobre as causas dos problemas escolares das crianças. De um lado, constatou-se que, os preconceitos contra as crianças pobres e suas famílias que atribuem as causas das queixas às supostas deficiências, não só estavam no discurso da escola, como eram reforçados pelo próprio modelo diagnóstico usado no Prisma. Por outro lado, as novas contribuições teórico-metodológicas trazidas por um novo referencial permitiram identificar na pesquisa alguns paradoxos: apesar do Prisma atribuir deficiências e dirigir seu trabalho buscando saná-las, o que na verdade produziu, foi situações de aprendizagem e ensino que permitiram às crianças usarem todo seu potencial e aprenderem. Além do mais, o Prisma, sem se dar conta, ensinou aquilo que a escola não havia ensinado, permitindo, por exemplo, que elas escrevessem e solucionassem problemas de matemática e revelando que não têm problemas de aprendizagem, mas de escolarização. A partir disto, tornou-se possível discutir e analisar especificamente a função do trabalho psicopedagógico desenvolvido, na tentativa de compreender e intervir nos problemas escolares. / The aim of this paper is to analyze a psycho pedagogical intervention Project about children with school complaint named Prisma Project: the challenge of a new viewing. Our objective was supported by a study of the learning difficulties within a group of nine lower-class children. The research material was analyzed in a qualitative manner, aiming identify the concepts of school problems causes which were present in the instruments of the analyzed project: interviews, evaluations and a work proposal developed with the children and their families. Contribution of Patto and others (1990) and Hellers (2000) papers brought the theoretical-methodological support. The analysis showed the co-existence of different conceptions about the causes of childrens school problems. It was observed the repetition of the prejudiced views that point the origins of school complaints to the children and their families. On the other hand, the new theoretical-methodological contributions allowed identifying some paradoxes: though Prisma attributed some deficiencies and worked in order to resolve them, children could use their all potential to learn in the situations that have been proposed. Besides, Prisma, with no conscious, learnt what the school did not do and this allowed children, for example, to write and to solution mathematics problems. This situation has disclosed children do not have learning difficulties, but the school has teaching difficulties. As from this conclusion, it became possible to discuss and analyze specifically the function of the psycho pedagogical work that has been developed, in order to comprehend and interfere in school problems.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender como as práticas escolares de uma escola da periferia da cidade de São Paulo têm se havido com a proposta de integração escola-cidade presente no Programa Mais Educação e suas diretrizes para o combate à exclusão social e escolar, a construção de uma cidade educadora, e a consolidação de uma escola comprometida com valores cidadãos. Para isso, realizamos um trabalho de investigação a partir de uma dupla trajetória. A primeira trajetória parte de uma leitura histórica para problematizar a tendência naturalizante e dualista das interpretações sobre o problema da exclusão social, por meio de uma interpretação da escola e da cidade modernas e sua crise nos dias de hoje, e de uma análise dos programas Mais Educação e Cidade Educadora. A segunda é baseada em um estudo de caso, que contou com o acompanhamento cotidiano de uma escola, dos trabalhos pedagógicos realizados em seu interior, de entrevistas com o diretor, os coordenadores, os professores e estudantes, e das análises dos Trabalhos Colaborativos Autorais (T.C.A.). Como resultado, o processo de pesquisa apontou dimensões contraditórias nas apropriações do Programa na escola que sinalizam para as formas de resistência dos estudantes quando se veem em meio a um processo de elaboração particular acerca dos temas de suas vidas cotidianas na cidade e na escola, tais como: a exclusão social, a violência contra mulher, a violência policial, o tráfico de drogas, a segregação espacial, os problemas ambientais, entre outros. / This research aims to understand how the school practices of a school in the suburb of the city of São Paulo make use of the proposal of school-city integration present in the Mais Educação Program and its guidelines for combating social and school exclusion, for the construction of an educating city and for the consolidation of a school committed to the values of the citizen. For this, we carry out a research work based on a double trajectory. The first trajectory starts from a historical reading to problematize the naturalizing and dualistic tendency of the interpretations on the problem of social exclusion, through an interpretation of the modern school and city and its crisis in the present day, and of an analysis of the programs Mais Educação and Cidade Educadora. The second is based on a case study, which included the daily follow-up of a school, the pedagogical works carried out in its interior, interviews with the director, coordinators, teachers and students, and analyzes of Trabalhos Colaborativos Autorais (T.C.A.). As a result, the research process pointed to contradictory dimensions in the appropriations of the Program in the school that signal to the forms of resistance of the students when they see themselves in the process of elaborating on the subjects of their daily lives in the city and in the school, such as: social exclusion, violence against women, police violence, drug trafficking, spatial segregation, environmental problems, among others.

The primary purpose of the study was to explore the potential impact of voluntary remediation on success in ENC1101 and MAT1033 (gateway courses) and on minority or low-income students in Florida. The study was prompted in 2013 when the Florida Senate exempted most students entering the Florida College System from placement testing or developmental education regardless of their skill level. A quantitative design compared the gateway course success of 10,703 exempt students in 2014 and 2015 to the success of 8,644 students who would have been exempt had the law been in effect when they completed their gateway courses in 2012 and 2013. Data were collected from three FCS institutions. Using Astin and Astin's 1992 Input-Environment-Outcome model (Astin & Astin, 1992), independent variables included demographics, such as race and Pell grant eligibility, and prior academic performance, as well as enrollment status and remedial course decisions and perf ormance. The study found the policy to have a statistically significant (α = .05) negative effect on student success in the gateway courses. The voluntary remediation policy that was in part enacted to improve college completion rates threatens to have the opposite effect. The results show that fewer proportions of students were successful (grade of C or higher) in both courses once remediation became voluntary (12.8% decrease for English; 19.3% decrease in math). The study revealed a need for further research to investigate the degree of this impact on minority and low-income students. The results also suggested a need for more research to learn which students are likely to benefit, or not, by taking a remedial course. Of the students in the study who voluntarily took a placement test and scored below credit level, 11.3% chose remediation before taking ENC1101 and 24.5% chose remediation before taking MAT1033. Of those students, most who earned an A or B in the remedial course were successful in the credit courses; most who did not earn at least a B in the remedial course were unsuccessful at the credit level. Results were significant (α = .05), and effect sizes were moderate (.344 for English; .430 for math). / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:38:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Golghetto Fantinato.pdf: 672564 bytes, checksum: 8d8e4f4491434a72c064cd03c0126ca9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Complains originating from school counselors have been studied by Psychology for many years. Initially it was thought that the student was to blame being the only one responsible for his/her difficulty and that the problem was biological and psychological in origin. After that, theories were developed which blamed the families and the problem was social and economic in origin. The school system itself was the last link to be theorized upon as responsible for the difficulties presented by the students. Despite the fact that the relationship between the school and the family is an important factor in the genesis of learning difficulties there has been no actual productive communication between these two institutions. This way of theorizing upon school complaints makes families seek psychological counseling for their sons and daughters. Considering the families and the school of a country city in the state of São Paulo, in an interconnected manner and having a global outlook about school complaints, this research tried to understand the relation between the school and the family and look for a different manner of perceiving the child´s difficulty, in a way that won´t seek a guilty party. To achieve such goal semi-structured interviews were conducted with the families and the school, qualitatively analyzed interpreting the contents of the participants. We found stereotyped views, which make a clear dialogue difficult between school and family and are detrimental to the student and cause feelings of helplessness in the families who start believing they are incapable of helping their child at school. A clearer dialogue would be necessary for the setting of a more productive development environment for the child and his/her learning process / A queixa escolar vem sendo estudada na psicologia há muitos anos. Inicialmente, pensava-se que a falha era do aluno, sendo o mesmo o único responsável pelas suas dificuldades e essa falha de origem biopsicológica. Após isso, criaram teorias que culpabilizavam suas famílias e a explicação era de origem socioeconômica. O sistema escolar foi o último a ser pensado como responsável pelas dificuldades apresentadas pelos alunos. Apesar da relação família escola ser fator importante no surgimento de dificuldades escolares, ainda não existe uma comunicação produtiva entre as mesmas. Essa forma de pensar a queixa escolar leva as famílias a buscarem atendimento em clínicas psicológicas para as dificuldades de seus filhos. Considerando as famílias e a escola de uma cidade do interior do estado de São Paulo, de maneira interconectada e lançando um olhar global sobre as queixas escolares, essa pesquisa buscou compreender a relação família escola e buscar uma maneira diferente de olhar para a dificuldade da criança, que não seja procurando culpados. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com família e escola, analisadas qualitativamente, interpretando as narrativas dos participantes. Com isso, encontramos visões estereotipadas que dificultam um diálogo que possa trazer benefícios para o aluno e o desamparo por parte das famílias que não se acreditam capazes e não conseguem ajudar seu filho na escola. Seria necessário um diálogo mais claro entre as partes para a criação de um ambiente mais produtivo para o desenvolvimento da criança e seu processo de aprendizagem