published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

by Hon Hau-sut. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 106-118. / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.v / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.vi / ABSTRACT --- p.vii / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION / Chapter 1.1 --- The Problem and its Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Purposes of the Study --- p.2 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK / Chapter 2.1 --- Research on Teaching Educationally Disadvantaged Students --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Definition and Characteristics of the Educationally Disadvantaged / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Consequences of Inaction to Educational Disadvantage / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Measures Commonly Used to Help the Educationally Disadvantaged / Chapter 2.1.4 --- General Principles of Effective Programs / Chapter 2.2 --- The Theory and Strategy of Mastery Learning --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- The Carroll Model of School Learning / Chapter 2.2.2 --- The Theory of Mastery Learning / Chapter 2.2.3 --- The Instructional strategy of Mastery Learning / Chapter 2.2.4 --- The Bloom Model of School Learning / Chapter 2.3 --- Defining Features of Mastery Learning --- p.25 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Philosophy / Chapter 2.3.2 --- The Curriculum / Chapter 2.3.3 --- The Instruction / Chapter 2.3.4 --- The Assessments / Chapter 2.3.5 --- The Teaching / Chapter 2.4 --- Review of Research on Mastery Learning Programs --- p.36 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- General Achievement / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Specific Achievement / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Knowledge Retention / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Variability in Achievement / Chapter 2.4.5 --- Time-on-Task and Learning Rate / Chapter 2.4.6 --- Student Affects / Chapter 2.5 --- Effectiveness of Mastery Learning on the Education of Disadvantaged Students --- p.50 / Chapter 2.6 --- Mastery Learning Studies Conducted in Hong Kong --- p.53 / Chapter 2.7 --- Problems Requiring Further Research --- p.55 / Chapter 2.7.1 --- The Problems / Chapter 2.7.2 --- Summary / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- METHOD OF STUDY / Chapter 3.1 --- The Conceptual Framework --- p.62 / Chapter 3.2 --- Research Questions and Hypotheses --- p.64 / Chapter 3.3 --- Variables --- p.66 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Independent Variables / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Dependent Variables / Chapter 3.4 --- Design of the Study --- p.72 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Characteristics of Educationally Disadvantaged Students in Hong Kong and Selection of Subjects / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Assignment of Teachers / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Academic Content / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Experimental Procedure / Chapter 3.4.5 --- Experimental Design and Data Analysis / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION / Chapter 4.1 --- Reliability of the Instruments --- p.85 / Chapter 4.2 --- Initial Comparability of the Experimental and Control Groups --- p.87 / Chapter 4.3 --- Cognitive and Affective Outcomes --- p.89 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Cognitive Outcomes / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Affective Outcomes / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS / Chapter 5.1 --- Conclusions --- p.96 / Chapter 5.2 --- Discussion --- p.100 / Chapter 5.3 --- Limitations --- p.103 / Chapter 5.4 --- Implications --- p.104 / REFERENCES / APPENDIXES / Chapter 1 --- Mastery Orientation Sheet / Chapter 2 --- Science Mastery Chart / Chapter 3 --- Mastery Certificate / Chapter 4 --- Table of Specifications / Chapter 5 --- Formative Tests / Chapter 6 --- Summative Tests / Chapter 7 --- Long-Term Retention Test / Chapter 8 --- Corrective Exercises / Chapter 9 --- Attitudes Towards Science Inventory / Chapter 10 --- General Self-Concept Inventory / Chapter 11 --- Academic Self-Concept Inventory

It is hypothesized in this study that children reared with "concerned" mothers (N) will display significantly superior intellectual performance and less neurological impairment as compared with children reared with neglectful mothers (MN) and children diagnosed as failure to thrive (FTT, falling below the third percentile in height and weight). The FTT children will show significantly more deficits than both N and MN groups. The participants in this study were forty-five children rigidly matched on all possible variables. F-tests and Newman-Keuls' analyses reveal severe intellectual deficits in both MN and FTT groups. The FTT group displayed significantly more neurological deficits lending support for a nutritional basis of this syndrome as opposed to the traditional psychogenic explanation.

This qualitative research inquiry explores the perspectives of a diverse range of participants, namely head teachers, teachers and mothers, towards inclusion of "slow learners" in two primary mainstream schools in the State of Kuwait. The concept of inclusion, through a review of major issues and limitations in the current practice of inclusion is highlighted by this case study. A multi-method data collection approach, using semi-structured interviews and critical discourse analysis of the policy document for inclusion in Kuwait, has led to identifying what has been done, so far in practice, for inclusion, as well as identifying the potential changes that need to be made. Kuwait is a signatory to the UNESCO Salamanca Statement, set out in 1994, which requires states to move towards systems "enabling schools to serve all children". However, to date, "inclusion" in Kuwaiti mainstream schools is limited to two groups of children: those with Down's Syndrome and those referred to as "slow learners", a term used to describe certain children with low IQ. All other children with special educational needs are educated in segregated settings. This study examines policy and explores participants' perspectives towards the inclusion of children identified as "slow learners" in primary mainstream schools in Kuwait, in order to arrive at insights which might further the policy and practice of supporting inclusion of children with special educational needs. This study found that the dominant conceptual model underpinning policy and practice in Kuwait is the "medical model" of disability, as the current understanding and practice of inclusion, teachers' and mothers' perspectives towards inclusion and articulation of the inclusion policy in Kuwait is informed, conceptualized and affected by this model. This understanding lends itself to practices of integration rather than inclusion, However, "the term 'inclusion' replaced 'integration' and is often contrasted with 'exclusion' " (Topping & Maloney, 2005, p.42). Inclusion means equal access and increasing the participation of students with special needs in mainstream school as promoted by the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO,1994), while integration means limited access and less participation of students with special needs in mainstream school, thus integration is "largely a 'disability' or SEN issue" (Topping & Maloney, 2005, p.42). This study also found that perspectives of inclusion are influenced by the social, cultural and religious context of the country. Finally, this study concludes that in the context of Kuwait, there is a clear effect of the cultural understanding of disability on the way that the current policy of inclusive education is represented. Such cultural influence not only affects the policymakers of the region and the way inclusion is implemented, but also it effects "slow learners" in the light of how disability and inclusion are constructed by the head teachers, teachers and mothers in this study. Such cultural and social values and beliefs of Kuwaiti culture pose obstacles to the existence of inclusion in Kuwait, as promoted by the Salamanca Statement. As a signatory to the Salamanca Statement, this study suggests that in order to adequately accommodate "slow learners" and other students with disability in mainstream schools in Kuwait, policy needs to be reconceptualised.

The present study is concerned with selected factors that may strongly influence classroom teachers to refer young children for possible placement in special classes when the children are functioning near the borderline for placement on the basis of intelligence test scores. Particular attention was given to the contribution of student attributes (i.e., sex, ethnic background, socioeconomic status, and classroom behavior) and teacher attributes (i.e., age, sex, ethnic background and teaching experience) to the referral patterns of teachers. Also considered were the size of school enrollment, school locale, and interactions among student, teacher, and school variables. It was concluded that the teachers in the population studied responded to the case histories on the basis of certain selective biases. However, the relationship of these biases to referral decisions was less obvious and considerably more complex than has been suggested previously in the professional literature. At the same time, the presence of any bias in the referral process seemingly warrants careful consideration and points to the -need for greater emphasis in pre-service and in-service training programs upon the objective evaluation of students as an integral part of educational planning.

This study was part of the Portland Language Development Project, a longitudinal study of early expressive language delay. Its purpose was twofold. The first was to examine phonological and reading abilities in second grade children with a history of language delay. The second purpose was to examine the relationship between phonological processing abi1ities and reading skills in these children. Second grade children were assigned to one of three groups, based on their history and current Development Sentence Score (DSS) score: (a) normal language (NL), those with more than 50 words at 20-34 months and above the tenth percentile on the DSS; (b) history of delay, but currently normal expressive language (HX), those with fewer than 50 words at 20-34 months and above the tenth percentile on the DSS; and (c) history of delay with continued performance below normal (ELD), those with fewer than 50 words at 20-34 months and below the tenth percentile on the DSS. The children were evaluated by means of the Reading Recognition and Reading Comprehension subtests of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test (Dunn & Mackwardt, 1970), three complex phonological production tasks, and the Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test (LAC) (Lindamood & Lindamood, 1979), which assesses phonological awareness. This study compared the reading and phonologica1 scores of the three groups to determine if there are any significant differences. The results showed no significant differences in reading abilities. There were significant differences on the complex phonological task of naming pictures, between the NL and HX group, and there were significant differences on the LAC, between the NL group and the ELD group, and between the HX group and the ELD group. Reading and phonological scores of the children with a history of late talking were correlated, using a regression analysis to determine whether reading recognition and reading comprehension could be predicted from the phonological production and LAC tasks. The LAC was the only variable that correlated with the Reading Recognition or Reading Comprehension subtests. The LAC accounted for 39% of variance of the Reading Recognition score, and 27% of the variance of the Reading Comprehension score.

Language delay and phonological delay have been shown to coexist. Because they so often co-occur, it is possible that they may interact, sharing a relationship during the child's development. A group of children who were "late talkers" as toddlers, achieved normal development in their syntactic ability by the preschool period. Because their language abilities are known to have increased rapidly, data on their phonological development could provide information on the relationship between phonological and syntactic development. The purpose of this study was to compare the percentage of phonological process usage of the eight most commonly used simplification processes in four-year-old expressive language delayed (ELD) children, children with a history of slow expressive language development (HX), and normally developing (ND) children. The questions this study sought to answer were: do ELD children exhibit a higher percentage of phonological process usage than ND children, and are HX children significantly different in their percentage of phonological process usage than ND and/or ELD children.

Proficiency in various higher level language skills is necessary to integrate and organize units of meaning beyond the sentence level. Examining narratives has become a useful tool for assessing these language abilities. Narrative skills are considered by many researchers to be a strong link between oral language and literacy, and related to academic performance (Westby, 1991; Roth & Spekman, 1991). The present study was part of the Portland Language Development Project, a longitudinal study of early language delay. The purpose of this study was to assess higher level language abilities by examining the stories of 6-year-olds with normal, impaired, and late developing oral language. The specific objective was to determine whether there were differences on 9 measures of narrative skill in first graders that could be related to their pattern of language acquisition. The original group size was 24 children with normal expressive vocabulary size at age 20-34 months, and 30 children whose expressive vocabulary size fell below the normal range at 20-34 months referred to as "late talkers." These two groups of children were re-evaluated when in first grade. Each child was audiotaped producing a narrative and a spontaneous language sample. The Bus Story (Renfrew, 1977), a story retelling procedure, was administered for the narrative measure. When the spontaneous, conversational language samples were scored for syntactic complexity with Lee's (1974) Developmental Sentence Score (DSS), 22 (73°/o) of the original L T had scores in the normal range and were reclassified as "History of Expressive Language Delay" (Hx). The remaining 8 (27°/o) who continued to fall below the normal range were now classified as "Expressive Language Delayed" (ELD). The narrations produced by all of the children were scored on nine measures: narration length in T-units, mean length perT-unit in morphemes, type-token ratio, average number of morphemes in the five longest sentences, information retold, lexical richness, cohesion, percentage of new propositions produced, and narrative stage assignment. No significant differences were found among the three diagnostic groups on the following seven measures: narration length in T-units, mean length perT-unit in morphemes, type-token ration, information retold, lexical richness, cohesion, or percentage of new propositions produced. Significant differences were found among groups on the average number of morphemes in the five longest sentences. Both the normal group and the Hx group scored significantly higher than the ELD group. Significant differences were found between the normal group and both the Hx group and the ELD group on the measure of narrative stage assignment. The present study suggested that children with early language delay appear to "catch up" with normal peers in most areas of narrative ability by age 6. Of the variables examined in this study, the production of an overall mature narrative was the primary deficit noted in children with a history of expressive language delay. Language intervention should focus not only on morphology and syntax, but also on basic story grammar knowledge. Children with an expressive language delay as well as children with a history of language delay may need additional teaching and training of narrative skills in order to succeed with literacy.

Beginning at birth, a child's receptive and expressive language skills are developing in stages. Likewise, the child's socialization skills are progressing in stages. However, it does not seem that communication and socialization are developing independently of each other. Rather, it seems that their development is interrelated.Children learn to speak in a social context, and social situations are necessary for the development of a variety of language structure~ On the same note, in order for those language structures to develop normally, it is necessary for the child to participate in different social situations. Social interactionists have theorized for some time that human language develops out of the social-communicative functions that language serves in human relations. Vygotsky (1962) theorized that language development, social development, and cognitive development all overlap. He stated that a child's social means of thought is language and referred to this as "verbal thought." This verbal thought process serves a major social function. It is through this verbal thought process that children have the ability to be socialized by others and to socialize with others: If, in fact,Expressive language skills and socialization skills do develop together, it would then seem logical that the child who is late to begin talking would also experience initial deficits in the development of socialization Subsequently, it would seem that the late-talking child (L T) who has persistent deficits in language would, in turn, maintain chronic deficits in socialization. Results of a study which set out to investigate the differences between two and three-year old subjects with a history of LT and their normal language peers indicated that subjects with a history of LT are, in fact, at risk for persistent delays in both expressive language and socialization (Paul, Spangle Looney, and Dahm, 1991). The purpose of this study was to compare the language and socialization skills of a group of five-year olds with a history of LT to a group of normal subjects of the same age. If significant differences were found between the two groups in either area, the scores of the subjects with a history of LT at age two would be correlated with their scores at age five to investigate whether a significant relationship existed between their scores at both ages. It was hypothesized that the subjects with a history of LTwould be at risk for longterm delays in both language and socialization. More specifically, the group of subjects with a history of LT, as a whole, would show significant delays in the areas of expressive language and socialization as compared to the normal controls. It was further hypothesized that the subjects with a history of LTs' scores at the age of two would reliably predict their scores at five, given a significant deficit in either area. The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales VABS (Sparrow, Balla, & Cicchetti, 1984) was the test instrument used to gather the data at both age levels, five years and two years. Parents of 25 subjects with a history of L T and 25 normal subjects were interviewed by a trained graduate researcher on their child's communication, daily living and socialization skills using the VABS. Results of an ANOVA and Tukey multiple comparisons indicated that the subjects with a history of LT, as a whole, scored significantly lower than the normal subjects in the areas of expressive communication and socialization at age five. Since a proportion of the test items in the socialization domain of the VABS require the child to verbalize, an item analysis between the verbal and the nonverbal test items was performed to determine the influence of the verbal test items on the subjects with a history of LTs' socialization scores. Results of the item-analysis indicated that the subjects with a history of L T's poor performance on the socialization scale was due to their deficits in social skills not their deficits in expressive language. Lastly, a Pearson Product Moment Correlational Test was conducted to investigate the relationship between the subjects with a history of LTs' scores at age two on the communication and the socialization scales and their scores at age five on the same scales. Results indicated that the subjects with a history of LTs' scores on both the socialization scale and the communication scale at age two correlated significantly with their scores on the socialization scale at age five. Therefore, the subjects with a history of LTs' socialization and communication scores at age two are good predictors of their adaptive social skills at the age of five.

While there is general agreement among researchers in the field of language and learning disabilities upon the language hypothesis for reading failure, little research has been explored concerning the relationship between the phonological production skills of preschool children and the same children's prereading abilities in kindergarten. This study examined two aspects of phonological skill (a) the relationship of early phonological production errors and later success on phonological awareness and general prereading skill, and (b) determining if prereading deficits in a group of children with a history of lanquage delay reside specifically in the phonological awareness items or the prereading score in general. The subjects used for this study included 29 "normal" talkers and 30 "late talkers", as determined by the Language Development survey (Rescorla, 1989) when the subjects were between 20-34 months. When the subjects were three years old, a language sample was obtained and later phonemically transcribed from audio tape and entered into the PEPPER computer program to compute the percentage consonants correct (PCC) for each child. The subjects were later evaluated during their kindergarten year for reading readiness, using the Developmental Skills Checklist. This study found that Late Talkers have significantly lower PCCs than there normal talking peers at age three, but their PCCs do not predict their prereading or phonological awareness skills at kindergarten. Phonological awareness was further investigated in terms of supraseqmental and segmental levels of phonological awareness, there was no significant difference between the groups on either level of phonological awareness. However, there was a nonsignificant trend (p