In order to examine the change in self-esteem of adolescents enrolled in a child development/nursery laboratory program, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory - Form B was administered early in the nursery laboratory portion of the course. It was readministered five months later. Results were analyzed using paired t-tests. Gains in self-esteem were too slight to be significant. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future studies. / Master of Science

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The proposed study examined differences in self-concept between ADHD (n = 61) and non-ADHD boys and girls. Participants included 108 children between 6 and 11 years old. Children completed the Self Description Questionnaire-I, and teacher reports of child competence were obtained. Girls reported lower physical ability and mathematics self-concept than boys. The results also indicated that ADHD girls may be more susceptible to low physical ability and mathematics self-concept than control children or ADHD boys. Teachers also rated ADHD girls as having lower scholastic competence than the other three groups. Teachers reported significant differences in level of competence based on ADHD status. The implications of the current study and directions for future research will be presented.

The problem of this study was the relationship of the self-concept of fifth-grade Negro students with their knowledge of Negro leaders and events. Sub-problems of this study were (1) the relationship between the self-concept of fifth-grade students and their reading achievement and (2) the relationship of their knowledge of Negro leaders and events and their reading achievement.

The Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale for Children, the Florida Key: A Scale to Inter Learner Self-Concept, and the Walker Problem Behavior Identification Checklist were used to assess the self-concepts of 18 ambulatory physically handicapped children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Data were analysed via one-sample t-tests. The hypothesis that mainstreamed handicapped children would exhibit somewhat lower self-concept than their nonhandicapped peers was not supported. In fact, some mainstreamed physically handicapped children may indeed exhibit higher frequencies of relating to peers and teachers, less acting-out behavior (among males), and better overall self-concept than the nonhandicapped populations from which the normative data were obtained (p < .05). These results were discussed in terms of the children's experiences within the hospital environment from which they were selected.

This study examined differences in social self-concept, as measured by the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC), between boys and girls with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while controlling for internalizing symptoms. Ninety-six children between the ages of 8 and 13 participated in the study as part of a larger project. Teacher reports of social competence were collected using the Teacher Rating Scale (TRS). The results indicated ADHD children experienced more peer rejection than control children. ADHD girls appeared to be more susceptible to low social self-concept and competence than control children or ADHD boys. Inattentive symptoms were most predictive of teacher reports of competence. Positive illusory bias was not found to serve a protective function in children regardless of ADHD status. The implications of the current study and directions for future research are presented.

M.Ed. / This investigation is part of a group project that was conducted by a research team of the Department of Educational Sciences of the Rand Afrikaans University. The focus of this study is the self-concept development of pupils and the responsibility of teachers in this regard. Aspects of self-concept development are addressed as factors contributing towards the pupils gaining a positive self-concept. Teachers should be aware of the subtle, yet powerful, influence that a positive or a negative self-concept could have on a pupil's development and how this affects the pupil's intellectual, social and personal development. It is the view of the researcher that teachers need to make every effort to assist pupils in developing a positive and healthy self-concept. The methodology used in this study is two-fold: Firstly, it involves literature study on self-concept development. The researcher used this information to support the field of investigation and to make findings based on factual information. Secondly, it involves information derived from questionnaires completed by a number :of teachers in different schools. From the information obtained from the completed questionnaires the researcher was able to ascertain teachers' opinions of their efforts concerning the development of pupils' self-concept. The results of the empirical research indicate that teachers, by making a high input on the various aspects of the development of the pupils' self-concept, consider this as an important responsibility. The following specific findings were made: * The input made by teachers with regard to encouraging pupils to believe in their own abilities was given the highest rating, while their input concerning planning to meet individual needs of learners was on the lower average. There was a significant difference between the ratio male : input and the ratio female : input regarding the encouragment of pupils to believe in their own abilities. Teachers with more than eleven years of teaching experience provide more input in planning to meet the individual needs of the learners. Teachers whose mother tongue is neither English or Afrikaans provide more input in giving positive feedback to pupils. It was noted that teachers' qualifications also play a role in their input concerning positive feedback to pupils. There is a significant relationship between subjects taught and the proportion of input with regard to the various aspects of self-concept development. The study also revealed that teachers are of the opinion that the development of pupils' self-concept is an important aspect of their responsibilities. This is supported by the high proportion of teachers' input in this regard.

The aim of the present study was to explore the role of teacher preference and peer acceptance in determining children's self-concept. In particular, it was proposed that teacher preference and peer acceptance would mediate the effect of children's academic performance and social behaviours on self-concepts. One thousand, one hundred and twelve elementary school students (Grade 1 to Grade 6) and their class teachers participated in this study. Teacher preference was indicated by the class teacher's personal liking towards each student in their classes on a five-point scale, while peer acceptance was indexed by unlimited within class nomination of friends. Students' self-concepts were captured by Harter's (1982) Perceived Competence Scale for Children. Both teacher ratings and peer nominations were used to measure children's social behaviours (i.e., prosocial leadership, aggression and social withdrawal). Results showed that peer acceptance mediated the relation between children's social behaviours and self-concepts. In order to further understand teachers and peers' influence on children, children were divided into four groups with regard to teachers and peers' preferences. The four status groups were 'popular stars', 'teachers' pets', 'students' heroes', and 'rejected'. Since this premise has not been empirically tested, the four status groups were profiled in terms of self-concept, academic performance, and social behaviours. Potential differences among the four status groups were also examined and discussed in this study. / Fung, Yau Fong. / Adviser: Chang Lei. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-160). / 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 Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese; appendix in Chinese.

Research has demonstrated that academic engagement is an important resource for students, promoting their learning and achievement. Less well documented is the possibility that students' classroom engagement may also be a valuable resource for their teachers, capable of influencing how teachers treat their students over time. The current study sought to examine the relationship between student motivation and teacher behavior to better understand how teachers perceive and respond to their students' classroom motivation and whether these motivational states contain diagnostic information about the types of supports students may need in order to be engaged, enthusiastic learners. The observable manifestations of motivation, engagement and disaffection, may contain valuable information about students' inner experiences that educators can use to optimize their teaching. Thus, the goal of the current study was to examine the reciprocal effects of student motivation on teachers' provision of support by using a longitudinal design, a more comprehensive assessment of behavioral and emotional engagement and disaffection, and a person-centered approach to investigate whether potential factors influencing the quality of students' classroom engagement can help inform more targeted intervention efforts. Data from 1018 3rd through 6th grade students and their teachers were used to create two sets of teacher-reported student motivation profiles, namely, a theory-driven and an empirically-derived set of profiles. Using both sets of profiles, the current study failed to provide evidence that student engagement and disaffection profiles influenced changes in the quality of support students' received from their teachers over the school year. The current study also examined whether knowledge of the motivation profile into which a student falls can tell us something meaningful about their unobservable, inner experiences or self-system processes (SSP's) such that we can use their profile to "diagnose" motivational issues stemming from these student inner experiences. Results indicated that, with one exception, students in different profiles did not report differential levels of the three SSP's; rather, if students in a given profile had low levels of one self-system process, they had low levels of all three. Finally, for two of the ten student motivation profiles, (At Risk and Checked-out) students in the high teacher support subgroup and the low teacher support subgroup experienced differential changes in their self-reported engagement from fall to spring such that the students who received the "treatment" (high levels of teacher support) started and ended higher than those who received low levels of teacher support, but also showed steeper declines over the year, because students with low teacher support started low and remained low (but did not lose any more ground) across the year. Discussion focuses on the utility and potential drawbacks of using person-centered approaches to examining student motivation and potential causes for the lack of supported hypotheses. Implications discuss the need for further research and how we can help teachers gain a more nuanced and differential view of their students' motivated actions and emotions in the classroom.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-concept and verbal skills in mildly mentally handicapped (MMH) children.The subjects for this study were sixty children who had been identified as MMH, and who attended classes at the intermediate level. The sample consisted of twenty-six girls and thirty-four boys, with ages ranging from nine years, two months to twelve years, seven months. The children who served as subjects had attended the program for at least one and one-half school years. They were "mainstreamed" only into non-academic classes for approximately one-fourth of the school day.The data were collected through the administration of the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale and the verbal scale of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Each student responded to items on each of the two instruments which were administered individually in two separate sessions on subsequent days.One null hypothesis was tested. The null hypothesis stated that there is no relationship between global self-concept and verbal skills among intermediate level MMN children. The null hypothesis was tested using the Pearson product-moment correlation index and a one-tailed test significance. The .05 level of significance was designated as the standard criterion value. Data analysis indicated that the relationship between the two variables was substancially significant at the .05 level. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.The results of this study support the theory that there is a direct correlation between an MMH child's perception of himself and his level of development in verbal skills.The data also suggests that if either verbal skills or self-concept of MMH children increase, a gain could be anticipated in the other.