Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of the North, 2001 / Refer to document

Past research has indicated a significant relationship between physical fitness and standardized test scores; however, the relationship between physical fitness and other aspects of school performance has yet to be empirically examined in a population specifically composed of middle school girls. This study examined several factors that contribute to school success, such as classroom behavior, attendance, and grades, in relation to physical fitness among a group of adolescent girls. It was specifically designed to examine the statistical relationship between physical fitness, as measured by the Fitnessgram, and quantitative data on school performance including grades, standardized test scores, school behavior, and attendance among 280 middle school girls. The biopsychosocial theory was used as the basis of this study, with the biological factors of fitness levels and BMI, psychological factors of grades and test scores, and social factors of attendance and behavior. A 1-way between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance demonstrated that the psychological and social factors of school performance were significantly affected by the biological factor of physical fitness. A significant correlation was also found between BMI, grades, and attendance. Positive social change implications include informing school administrators on the importance of increasing the emphasis on physical activity instead of replacing physical activity with additional time in core academic subjects. In addition, the results demonstrate the important relationship between school performance and physical fitness in middle school girls and underscore the importance of fostering physical fitness within this distinct group of middle school-aged girls.

School Performance Review and Development (SPRAD) was a major innovation in school evaluation in the Australian Capital Territory. One of its aims was to encourage teachers and parents to work together in evaluating and developing policy across all areas of school life: Administration and Management, Finances, Curriculum and Assessment, Staff and Student Welfare and overall School Climate. SPRAD is different from other forms of school review in that it is system-initiated but kept under the control of the participants. The ACT Department of Education and Training supplies the resourcing and consultative assistance. One of the hopes for SPRAD was that, in bringing teachers and parents closer together, it would create a greater understanding of where each group stood in relation to the other and strengthen parent/teacher relationships. The focus areas for this study were parent participation in classroom and related activities, the various channels of information employed within the school such as school newsletters, reports and interviews, specific notices and letters relaying matters peculiar to class groups and school sectors, parent/teacher information-sharing sessions, parent/teacher involvement in board and P & C activities, and other forms of formal and informal contact. The study highlights the differences and similarities between teachers and parents in relation to "professionalism" and "partnership", and areas of conflict highlighted by Beacham & Hoadley (1979) who discuss the Fortress Model of Schooling, and Darland (lanni et al: 1975) who writes of the "anyone can teach attitude" displayed by many members of the public, i.e. the attitude that because all people have had some experience of schooling, then their opinions on education carry as much weight as those of the professionals; the feeling that what was good for them is good for their children, because they have "been there, done that" and teachers do not really know very much more than they (the public) do. SPRAD was seen to be a helpful factor in developing some aspects of parent/teacher relationships. Satisfaction with parent participation in classroom activities had increased overall despite some drops in actual parent presence at the activities because of the movement of children into the Senior areas of the school. Another example was the lessening of the degree of dissatisfaction with teachers' professional development programmes, especially pupil-free school development days.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Η εξελικτική πορεία του μαθητικού πληθυσμού της χώρας όσον αφορά στην επαγγελματική του ανάπτυξη βρίσκεται σε ένα κομβικό σημείο στην ηλικία των 14 περίπου χρόνων καθώς το αμέσως επόμενο χρονικό διάστημα ο μαθητής καλείται να λάβει αποφάσεις για την εκπαιδευτική και επαγγελματική του πορεία. Η «επαγγελματική ωριμότητα» περιγράφει και προσδιορίζει το βαθμό της επαγγελματικής ανάπτυξης του ατόμου και έχουν διερευνηθεί, σε διεθνές κυρίως επίπεδο, παράγοντες οι οποίοι τη διαμορφώνουν. Η παρούσα ερευνητική εργασία έχει ως στόχο τη διερεύνηση της σχέσης της επαγγελματικής ωριμότητας με τη σχολική επίδοση μαθητών της Γ’ Γυμνασίου καθώς και με την κοινωνικοοικονομική κατάσταση των γονέων τους, δυο παράγοντες οι οποίοι αφενός δεν έχουν διερευνηθεί επαρκώς και αφετέρου τα ευρήματα προηγούμενων ερευνών είναι αντικρουόμενα. Το δείγμα αποτελείται από 189 μαθητές και μαθήτριες της Γ’ Γυμνασίου και τα δεδομένα της έρευνας συλλέχθηκαν με χρήση της Κλίμακας Επαγγελματικής Εξέλιξης (ΚΕΕ) σε συνδυασμό με κάποιες, δημογραφικού τύπου, ερωτήσεις. Με τη βοήθεια του συντελεστή συσχέτισης ρ-Spearman έγιναν οι αναλύσεις. Τα αποτελέσματα έδειξαν συνάφεια ορισμένων διαστάσεων της επαγγελματικής ωριμότητας κυρίως με τη σχολική επίδοση των μαθητών. Η εργασιακή κατάσταση των γονέων αφήνει ανεπηρέαστη την επαγγελματική ωριμότητα, ενώ το μορφωτικό επίπεδό τους φαίνεται να συσχετίζεται ελάχιστα, αλλά στατιστικώς σημαντικά, τόσο με την κλίμακα «πληροφόρηση» όσο και την κλίμακα «αναζήτηση πληροφοριών» της ΚΕΕ. / Vocational development of Greek pupil population is in a nodal point at the age of 14, after which the students have to make crucial decisions regarding their educational and vocational future. The term “Vocational maturity” is used to describe and determine the degree of vocational development of an individual, and its formative factors have been investigated, mostly in international level. This study investigates the relation between the vocational maturity of students at the 3rd class of secondary school in Greece (Gymnasio) and their school performance, as well as the socioeconomic level of their parents. This study focuses on those two formative factors of vocational maturity for two reasons: firstly because they have not been investigated adequately so far, and secondly because the existing findings from previous studies are conflicting. The sample used in this study consists of 189 students of the 3 rd class of “Gymnasio” and the data were collected using the Scale of Vocational Development in combination with some demographic questions. For the analysis, the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (Spearman’s ρ) was used. The results indicated that there is a moderate correlation between some dimensions of vocational maturity and the school performance of the questioned students. On the contrary, their vocational maturity appears unaffected by their parents’ professional status, while their parents’ educational level correlates slightly with the dimensions “pliroforisi” (the equivalent of dimension World of Work Information-WW of Supers’ CDI-s form) and “anazitisi plirophorion” (the equivalent of dimension Career Exploration-CE of Supers’ CDI-s form) of the Scale of Vocational Development.

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Research has shown positive correlations between global self-esteem and physical activity, as well as between global self-esteem and school performance. However, research is ambiguous and other variables have shown importance for global self-esteem. This study aims to investigate the correlations between global self-esteem and physical activities, school performance and social participations within high-school students in the northern part of Sweden. The study also investigates gender differences regarding correlations between the variables. The study was conducted using a questionnaire that included Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and self-rated physical activity, social participation and grades in Swedish, English and mathematics. Results showed a positive correlation between physical activities and global self-esteem for the group as a whole, which confirms previous research. Global self-esteem showed correlation with collective physical activities and total school performance, among teenage girls. For teenage boys global self-esteem showed correlation with individual physical activities and the grade in mathematics. / Forskning har kunnat visa positiva samband mellan global självkänsla och fysisk aktivitet, samt mellan global självkänsla och skolprestation. Men forskningen är tvetydig, och även andra variabler har visat sig ha betydelse för den globala självkänslan. Studien syftar till att undersöka den globala självkänslans samband med fysisk aktivitet, skolprestation och social delaktighet hos norrländska gymnasieungdomar. Studien undersökte även olikheter mellan könen gällande korrelationer mellan variablerna. Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av ett frågeformulär som inkluderade Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale samt självskattad fysisk aktivitet, social delaktighet samt betyg i grundämnena svenska, matematik och engelska. Resultatet visade på ett positivt samband mellan fysisk aktivitet och global självkänsla för gruppen som helhet, vilket är i linje med tidigare forskning för tonårstjejer korrelerade global självkänsla med kollektiva fysiska aktiviteter och skolprestation som helhet. För tonårskillar korrelerade global självkänsla med individuella fysiska aktiviteter samt betyg i matematik.

This study focuses on the impact that relinquishing a child for adoption has on adolescent birthmothers. The study seeks to understand factors leading up to the adoption, the adoption process and factors impacting negatively on the birthmother following adoption, which influence school performance negatively. The factors impacting negatively on school performance are delineated by an empirical study founded on relevant literature. Five others who relinquished their babies for adoption were interviewed. Correlations were drawn between the factors identified within the literature study and new factors emerging h m the interviews. The study aims to provide Life Orientation educators with information regarding adoption, the adoption process and the impact adoption has on the birthmothers. Furthermore the study seeks to provide guidelines for the Life Orientation educators to help other work through factors that impact negatively on their school performance. The results of the study delineate seven definite factors impacting negatively on the birthmothers and their school performance. The school performance of the others to whom these Factors can be attributed, deteriorated drastically, while birthmothers who felt content with their decision showed almost no deterioration in their school performance. Further study with a greater number of birthmothers is needed to confirm the results obtained within this study. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

The thesis is concerned to explore whether and how ‘value added’ data analyses can contribute to school improvement, and to identify some of the conditions under which this might be so. In the course of conducting the study, the author experienced a tension between the ‘research’ and the ‘development’ dimensions of her work, and this is used to inform the outcomes of the thesis. The thesis is underpinned by three related aims: first, to provide a historical and evaluative overview of how the idea of ‘value added’ came to enter and influence the debate on educational quality in England. The study of the literature demonstrates that the main principles of ‘value added’ were already well developed before the term was in common use; it also reveals that the ambiguities in the term are not merely reflective of disagreements about how best to calculate value added but actually central to how the idea has been made to function within a particular political agenda for education having to do with ‘raising standards’. Because of the relentlessness of that agenda, ‘value added’ measures of attainment have undergone considerable methodological development over the past ten years, to the point where sophisticated statistical data on pupils’ and schools’ performance is being generated and used by government agencies, LEAs and schools themselves to an extent virtually unknown elsewhere. However, this thesis indicates that the technical and conceptual issues involved in putting such data to practical use in schools are likely to test the interpretative and organisational skills of users. The literature search confirms that not much investigation has been done into how data is actually used, but that what there is suggests some important lines of inquiry. The second aim of the thesis is accordingly to explore, through a small-scale empirical study, the use by secondary school staff of value-added data as exemplified by the NFER’s value added service QUASE. The study was conducted in nine schools, with staff at senior and middle management levels, and focused on mathematics, English and science departments. The third aim of the thesis is to assess how far the case-study findings might shed further light on the issues entailed in using such data for school improvement. The evidence suggested that value added data are seen as complex and often ‘high stakes’ and that – at the time of this study – the uses of value added data were rather more limited than expected; furthermore, the meanings of value added would seem to be socially constructed by the political and institutional environment, and to be closely related to individual teachers’ values and attitudes. This in turn suggests that better insights into, and management of, ‘the psychology and sociology’ of how value added data are perceived and used are necessary. Nonetheless, the study concludes that there is potential for value added analyses to contribute to school improvement under certain conditions; crucially, the study indicated that these included a culture which emphasised self-evaluation – rather than external accountability – within the school or subject department, combined with input from a ‘champion’ or facilitator who understood the technicalities and significance of the data. Value added analyses seemed to be used most actively by,staff who were able to use them ‘heuristically’, that is, to pose informed questions about teaching and learning (rather than as literal truths or statistical fictions). The study argues that ‘value added’ measures of performance are accordingly better understood as a technology than a science – that is, a practical application of knowledge which interacts dynamically with its social and cultural environment.

The purpose of this study was to describe the school situation of adolescents who were subject to multisystemic therapy in Sweden, and also if a change could be measured after treatment. Factors that preceded the need for treament were also investigated. The sample consisted of 83 adolescents, boys (65 %) and girls (35 %), with an average age of 14 years. The method used was a secondary data analysis using pre-treatment- and post-treatment data collected from a 7-month follow-up conducted by Lunds Universitet. Results showed that the adolescents were low in school performance and high in truancy at pre-treatment. Truancy was the main reason for the need of treatment (50 %). The follow-up data showed tendencies of positive outcomes in the adolescent's school performance. Further research is needed to better detect weakness in adolescent's school performance and focus interventions to improve that area.