The primary aim of this research was to determine whether the home environment of secondary school children has an influence on their academic performance. A literature study was done where the major aspects of the home environment were identified: family lifestyle, parental involvement and attitude, physical living conditions. An analysis of academic performance and the factors affecting it was done. A measuring instrument was developed in order to measure the home environment in terms of being positive or negative. The results of the empirical research indicated that while home environment and age do play a significant role in the academic performance of secondary school children, gender, maternal employment, and whether the child lives permanently with both parents, did not. The educational implications of the findings and the teacher's role are discussed, and guidelines regarding the development of a home environment conducive to better academic performance are given. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Text in Afrikaans / Die invloed van die persoonskonstruk, lokus van kontrole, op die akademiese prestasie van leerlinge in die senior sekondere skoolfase is aangespreek. Literatuur bevestig 'n verband tussen lokus van kontrole en akademiese prestasie. Interne kontrole word met hoe akademiese prestasie en verantwoordelikheidsaanvaarding geassosieer. Persoonlikheidskenmerke van intern of ekstern georienteerde leerlinge, die invloed van lokus van kontrole op persoonlike perspektief, selfkonsep en akademiese prestasie toon dat internes hulself as bekwaam, effektief en suksesvol beskou terwyl eksternes meer negatiewe persoonskenmerke beklemtoon. Die CNS-IE en IAR vraelyste is gebruik om algemene- en akademiese lokus van kontrole onderskeidelik te meet. Leerlinge wat akademies volgens vermoe presteer, behaal hoer interne tellings as die wat onderpresteer. Geen een-tot-een verwantskap tussen lokus van kontrole en akademiese prestasie is tydens die empiriese ondersoek gevind nie. Daar is dus ander faktore wat saam met lokus van kontrole die akademiese prestasie van senior sekondere leerlinge beinvloed. / The influence of the personality construct, locus of control, on the academic achievement of pupils in the senior secondary school phase was investigated. Literature confirms a relation between locus of control and academic achievement. Internal control is associated with high academic achievement and acceptance of responsibility. Personality characteristics of internals and externals, the influence of locus of control on personal perspective, self-concept and academic achievement shows that internals view themselves as capable, ef cient and succesful while externals emphasise more negative personality characteristics. The CNS IE and IAR were used to measure general and academic locus of control. Academic achievers obtained higher internal scores than underachievers on both questionnaires. The results of the Empirical research indicate that locus of control is not the sole determinant of academic achievement. Therefore, other factors in conjunction with locus of control influence academic achievement. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics of Selective Mutism, its possible causes, the strong impact it creates in English learner students, and what teachers could do to help the students who suffer from Selective Mutism.

5 ABSTRACT The diploma thesis deals with the topic of digital education at primary school and its acceptance among pupils. The project is an inspiring attempt to link formal and informal education in the learning process. This study has become an inspiration for making digital teaching more effective and developing digital literacy for primary school pupils. The theoretical part is divided into three main chapters, which deal with the area of cognitive development of early school age children, digital education and digital technologies used in teaching. The knowledge from the professional literature in the theoretical part is the basis for the practical part, which through the creation of two educational geolocation games researches the development of individual digital competencies on a sample of two classes. The aim of this work is to find out how digital literacy and its individual competences can be developed in the primary school with respect to the age and cognitive development of pupils. On the basis of qualitative research in the form of observation, field notes and recording sheets, it was possible to analyze the basic level of development of individual digital competencies at elementary schools. The output is a description and evaluation of the possibility of development of digital literacy and...

Grounded in self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the underlying motivational processes from social environments created by coaches, peers, and parents to motivational outcomes in high school athletes, with an emphasis on the relative influence of social agents in basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness). The quantitative part of this study tested a hierarchical model of high school sport motivation in a final sample of 311 student athletes (204 boys, 107 girls) using structural equation modeling: social factors (coach-, peer-, and parent-created motivational climates) -> psychological mediators (need satisfaction and frustration) -> types of motivation (autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation) -> consequences (subjective vitality, athlete burnout, and intention to drop out). Invariance across gender and across team type (varsity vs. non-varsity) was also tested. Adequate model fits were achieved in separate "brighter side" and "darker side" models across the overall sample, gender, and team type. The follow-up qualitative part of this study explored "how" beyond "what" coaches, peers, and parents contribute to the social environments, need frustration, and negative motivational outcomes in sport in a subsample of 37 student athletes (24 boys, 13 girls) who reported high amotivation/burnout and higher than average dropout intentions in the quantitative survey. Content analysis and observation were conducted to interpret the focus group interview data among athletes across gender and team type. The results of both quantitative and qualitative parts were integrated and compared to summarize the roles of coaches, peers, and parents in the "brighter and darker sides" of athletic experience in high school athletes.

The present study examined the factor structure and measurement invariance of the revised version of the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory (ACSI-28), following adjustment of the wording of items such that they were appropriate to assess Coping Skills in an educational setting. A sample of middle school students (n = 1,037) completed the revised inventory. An initial confirmatory factor analysis led to the hypothesis of a better fitting model with two items removed. Reliability of the subscales and the instrument as a whole was acceptable. Items were examined for sex invariance with differential item functioning (DIF) using item response theory, and five items were flagged for significant sex non-invariance. Following removal of these items, comparison of the mean differences between male and female coping scores revealed that there was no significant difference between the two groups. Further examination of the generalizability of the coping construct and the potential transfer of psychosocial skills between athletic and academic settings are warranted.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between seventh, tenth, and twelfth graders' participation in school choir and their perceived levels of self-concept and social support. The problems of the study were to determine (1) if there were significant differences in perceived self-concept and social support levels of choir members and non-music students, and (2) if there were significant changes in self-concept and social support of choir members from grades seven to ten to twelve. A secondary concern was school activity involvement, to guard against attributing significant differences of self-concept and social support to choir participation alone.

Afrikaans text / In this study, the reasons for the phenomenon of continuous loyalty towards and hero worship of incapable parents are investigated. Case studies with a qualitative and quantitative research paradigm were completed on two adolescents. Media that was used to collect data include: interviews, Kinetic Family Drawing, Sacks Incomplete Sentence Test and the High School Personality Questionnaire. The findings of this study indicate that there are certain factors that are typical traits of incapable parenthood. Adolescents deal with this child-parent relationship through rationalisation and defence. The result is a feeling of inferiority, poor self-image and behavioural patterns that are aimed at satisfying the parents and receiving in turn, positive feedback. This study supplies answers to parents and individuals in the educational-psychological field in understanding the adolescent in such situations. Further research is however necessary to gain information about this phenomenon in order to be able to substantiate the findings. / In hierdie studie is die redes vir die verskynsel van lojaliteit teenoor, en heldeverering vir ontoereikende ouers ondersoek. `n Gevallestudie, met `n kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe navorsingsbenadering is op twee adolessente gedoen. Die media waarmee die data ingesamel is sluit in: onderhoudvoering, Kinetiese Gesinstekening, Sacks Onvoltooide Sinnetoets en die Hoërskoolpersoonlikheidsvraelys. Die bevindings van hierdie studie toon aan dat daar sekere faktore is wat kenmerkend van ontoereikende ouerskap is. Adolessente spreek hierdie ouer-kind-verhouding aan deur rasionalisasie en verdediging. Die gevolg is `n gevoel van minderwaardigheid en `n swak selfbeeld, asook gedrag wat daarop gerig word om die ouers tevrede te stel en positiewe terugvoer van hulle af te kry. Hierdie studie bied antwoorde aan ouers en persone in die opvoedkundige-sielkunde praktyk oor hoe om adolessente in sulke situasies te verstaan. Verdere navorsing is egter nodig om inligting oor dié verskynsel te bekom en sodoende bevindings te kan veralgemeen. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)

Change is the central feature of our current age. The past two decades has not only witnessed the surge of emotion study in education, but also a return of large-scale change in the global educational filed. Given this context, the Senior Secondary School (SSS) curriculum reform in Mainland China, which has been put into practice since September 2004, can be regarded as a local response to this global trend. / There has been an emotional revolution in the field of social science since the beginning of the 1980s; emotion has gradually become a remarkable research topic in many subjects encompassing philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, and anthropology, etc. Accompanying this emotional revolution is an unceasing increase of research on emotion in the field of education since the middle of 1990s. However, compared with the emotional studies in the domains of teaching and educational leadership, there is far less than sophisticated understanding of teacher emotion during the process of curriculum implementation in the literature. / This research is informed by symbolic interactionism in interpreting the relationship between curriculum implementation and teachers' emotions. To be more specific, all research findings are integrated into a 3-level "Self-Interaction-Society" framework. On the level of self, emotion is the product of teachers' efforts to reframe their identities in curriculum implementation, and teachers' emotional labor reflects their presentation of self by the use of emotions. On the level of human interaction, teachers' emotions are influenced by the emotional geographies and emotional dilemmas, which respectively result from "teacher-others" interactions and "reform-situation" tensions in curriculum implementation. On the level of social structure, teachers are not only constrained by the particular emotional rules in curriculum implementation, but also employ many strategies to cope with the constraints of the situations, which effectively bridges the interactions between the curriculum implementation and teachers' emotions. / Through the exploration of teachers' emotions and changes in curriculum implementation, this research adds the once-neglected dimension of teacher emotion into curriculum implementation research. This research finds the adaptive functions that teachers play in curriculum implementation, confirms teacher's position as change agent in reform, and recognizes the value of cultural-individual perspective in understanding curriculum implementation and teachers' emotions. These findings remind us that if curriculum implementation wants to achieve the ideal effects, reformers need to take into consideration subjective meanings that individual teachers attach to the reform. Teachers' emotions are one integral part of the meanings. Furthermore, they also need to concern the reciprocal influences between the subjective meanings and curriculum implementation. When the pace of large-scale reform and individual teachers' emotional and behavioral changes are well accommodated, curriculum implementation is more likely to achieve its goals. These findings bring some implications for the implementation of SSS curriculum reform in Mainland China. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / 尹弘飈. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2006. / 參考文獻(p. 230-252). / Advisers: Chi Kin John Lee; Sin Pui Cheung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-03, Section: A, page: 0868. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006. / Can kao wen xian (p. 230-252). / Yin Hongbiao.

Afrikaans text / In this study, the reasons for the phenomenon of continuous loyalty towards and hero worship of incapable parents are investigated. Case studies with a qualitative and quantitative research paradigm were completed on two adolescents. Media that was used to collect data include: interviews, Kinetic Family Drawing, Sacks Incomplete Sentence Test and the High School Personality Questionnaire. The findings of this study indicate that there are certain factors that are typical traits of incapable parenthood. Adolescents deal with this child-parent relationship through rationalisation and defence. The result is a feeling of inferiority, poor self-image and behavioural patterns that are aimed at satisfying the parents and receiving in turn, positive feedback. This study supplies answers to parents and individuals in the educational-psychological field in understanding the adolescent in such situations. Further research is however necessary to gain information about this phenomenon in order to be able to substantiate the findings. / In hierdie studie is die redes vir die verskynsel van lojaliteit teenoor, en heldeverering vir ontoereikende ouers ondersoek. `n Gevallestudie, met `n kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe navorsingsbenadering is op twee adolessente gedoen. Die media waarmee die data ingesamel is sluit in: onderhoudvoering, Kinetiese Gesinstekening, Sacks Onvoltooide Sinnetoets en die Hoërskoolpersoonlikheidsvraelys. Die bevindings van hierdie studie toon aan dat daar sekere faktore is wat kenmerkend van ontoereikende ouerskap is. Adolessente spreek hierdie ouer-kind-verhouding aan deur rasionalisasie en verdediging. Die gevolg is `n gevoel van minderwaardigheid en `n swak selfbeeld, asook gedrag wat daarop gerig word om die ouers tevrede te stel en positiewe terugvoer van hulle af te kry. Hierdie studie bied antwoorde aan ouers en persone in die opvoedkundige-sielkunde praktyk oor hoe om adolessente in sulke situasies te verstaan. Verdere navorsing is egter nodig om inligting oor dié verskynsel te bekom en sodoende bevindings te kan veralgemeen. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Voorligting)