This study aimed at exploring the Life Orientation (LO) teachers’ knowledge and teaching of study skills in high schools, Ekudibeng cluster, Gauteng East. The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) is the most recent curriculum policy (Department of Basic Education [DBE], 2012) and serves as an action plan to 2030 for the South African education system in order to address some of the origins of underperformance in South African schools (Nicolson, 2013). Life Orientation (LO) can be described as a learning area within the educational context that promotes the holistic development of a child. The educational context refers to all processes at school level involved in training children’s minds and abilities so that they can acquire knowledge and develop skills to succeed in life. Life Orientation integrates subjects, such as life skills, career guidance, health education, physical education, human rights studies and religious education (Pillay, 2012). According to the Life Orientation 2011 CAPS document, Life Orientation teachers are expected to teach study skills to learners starting from grade 10 – 12 (Further Education and Training (FET) Phase (DBE, 2011). Learning or study skills carry over into other areas of life and beyond school. Study skills are therefore critical tools that ensure that learner achievement leads to success. Furthermore, effective study skills need effective interaction between teachers and learners (Gettinger, & Seibert, 2002). The teacher is a social agent and should make study skills accessible through the process of teaching in the classroom. This implies that the teacher is a central tool for equipping the learners with the necessary study skills which can aid in the unlocking of their future potential (Sasikala, 2012). As such, it was considered important to explore the knowledge and skills for teaching LO as well as the challenges faced and their needs for further development. Three schools in Ekudibeng cluster, Gauteng East were purposefully selected for this purpose on the basis of their results in the previous year’ matric exit examinations. Qualitative case studies of the Further Education and Training LO teachers’ experiences at each of these schools were undertaken utilising semi-structured interviews as a data collection tool. The data were analysed via qualitative content analysis techniques. The findings of this study emphasise the need for a focus on study skills teaching and teacher proficiency in the high school education system. The South African Education System role-players need to take LO seriously and have teachers qualified to teach LO, and to meet their needs through study skills training workshops. Comprehensive continuous improvement in learner performance requires a constant determination of trained LO teachers, qualified for the subject and properly equipped with relevant knowledge to cascade it to learners and cooperative community members, where parents are involved/hands on in shaping their children’s’ future. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Research project explored the learning experiences of two groups of first-year students in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, University of the Western Cape during the course of 2009/2010. The aim was to obtain insight into the learning challenges that these students encountered and the reasons why some of them were less successful in the learning process, while others were successful. The perspective of this study was therefore student centred. The project was undertaken against the backdrop of a higher education institution that caters mainly for so-called ‗disadvantaged‘ and ‗underprepared‘ students. Such students come predominantly from marginalised and poorly resourced education environments and socio-economic backgrounds, which suggests that they would find higher learning challenging and, as a result, would most likely experience failure in the learning process. The objective of the research project was two-fold: firstly, to identify and determine which factors have an impact on failure or successful completion of the first year of study in this faculty; and secondly, to derive from the data a socially situated, supportive and holistic learning approach that could assist more students to be successful in the learning process. The argument in the study was that learning is socially situated and constructed. To realise the objective, Vygotsky‘s social cultural theory and Bandura‘s social cognitive theory were used as theoretical orientation of the study. This qualitative, interpretive inquiry was characterised by multiple data collection methods. Qualitative data concerning the perceptions of the participants were generated via written reflective pieces, a questionnaire and individual interviews and content analysis. In addition, quantitative data were collected and this further contributed to the triangulation of rich, in-depth data. An ‗open coding‘ strategy for the content analysis was used, but the approach for the analysis was not purely inductive. A student-centred analytical framework based in part on theories and findings of five studies conducted on student learning, failures and dropouts, and the context of UWC as HBU served as a framework for the analysis but new sub-themes also emerged from the data collected. The results of these two Case studies revealed that some of the students experienced multiple learning challenges simultaneously which increased in severity during the course of the academic year, and that, in Case 1, these challenges became too overwhelming and severe for the students and that was why they were less successful; while in Case 2, the students managed to overcome and deal with these challenges successfully. The findings of this project, while specific to the context in which it was undertaken, contribute to the growing body of knowledge in the field of higher education and in the identification of enabling factors that could assist more students to be successful in their first year of study at a higher education institution. The findings provide guidelines for a socially situated, supportive and holistic learning approach that could help higher education institutions to mitigate the cumulative effects of learning on students‘ personal, academic and social lives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie navorsingsprojek ondersoek twee groepe eerstejaarstudente se leerervaring gedurende 2009/2010 in die Fakulteit Ekonomiese en Bestuurswetenskappe aan die UWK. Die doel was om insig te verkry in die leeruitdagings waarvoor hierdie studente te staan gekom het en die redes hoekom party van hulle min sukses in die leerproses behaal het, terwyl ander suksesvol was. Die perspektief in die projek was daarom gerig op die studente en hoe hulle the leerproses ondervind. Die projek is onderneem teen die agtergrond van ‘n instelling van hoër onderwys wat hoofsaaklik vir sogenaamd ‗benadeelde‘ en ‗swak voorbereide‘ studente voorsien. Sulke studente kom meestal uit ‘n gemarginaliseerde opvoedkundige en sosio-ekonomiese agtergrond met gebrekkige bronne, wat daarop dui dat hoër onderwys vir hulle ‘n uitdagings sal wees en dat hulle gevolglik heelwaarskynlik in die leerproses sal misluk. Die doelwit van die navorsingsprojek was tweevoudig: eerstens, om te bepaal watter faktore ‘n invloed het op die mislukking of geslaagde voltooiing van die eerste studiejaar aan hierdie fakulteit; tweedens, om uit die inligting ‘n sosiale gestruktureerde, ondersteunende en holistiese leerbenadering af te lei wat meer studente kan help om in die leerproses sukses te behaal. Die projek berus op die uitgangspunt dat die leerproses ‗n sosiaal gebaseerde en gestuktureerde proses is. Die teoritiese raamwerk was daarom gebaseer op Vygotsky se sosiale kulturele teorie en Bandura se sosiale kognitiewe teorie. Hierdie kwalitatiewe, vertolkende ondersoek word deur veelvoudige metodes van inligtinginsameling gekenmerk. Kwalitatiewe inligting oor die deelnemers se waarnemings is verkry deur middel van nadenkende skryfwerk, ‘n vraelys en individuele onderhoude, en die ontleding van die inhoud daarvan. Ook kwantitatiewe inligting is ingesamel, wat tot die triangulering van ryk, diepgaande inligting bygedra het. Daar is ‘n ‗oopkode‘-strategie vir die ontleding van die inhoud gebruik, maar die ontledingsbenadering was nie suiwer induktief nie. Ontleding het plaasgevind binne ‘n studente gebaseerde ontledingsraamwerk wat gegrond is op teorieë en bevindings uit vyf studies oor leer, mislukking en uitsakking onder studente asook die konteks van die UWK as historiese Swart inrigting. Unieke temas het ook uit die inligting in hierdie studie na vore gekom het. Die resultate van hierdie twee gevallestudies het getoon dat studente veelvoudige leeruitdagings tegelykertyd ervaar het wat al hoe meer geword het deur die loop van die jaar en dat hierdie uitdagings in die een geval te oorweldigend en straf vir die studente geraak het, sodat hulle min sukses behaal het. In die ander geval het die studente daarin geslaag om hierdie uitdagings te hanteer en dit suksesvol te oorkom. Hoewel die bevindings van hierdie projek gekoppel is aan die konteks waarin dit onderneem is, dra dit nietemin by tot die groeiende kennisbasis oor die terrein van hoër onderwys en oor die bepaling van bemagtigende faktore wat meer studente sou kon help om in hulle eerste studiejaar aan ‘n instelling van hoër onderwys sukses te behaal. Die bevindings bied riglyne vir ‘n sosiale ondersteunende holistiese leerbenadering vir akademiese steun wat instellings van hoër onderwys moontlik sal help om die kumulatiewe effek op die studente se persoonlike, akademiese en sosiale lewens in die leerproses te help verlig.

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.

Non-violent resistance group therapy is an innovative way of working with parents whose children are violent and out of control. The programme brings about change on a number of levels, some of which were beyond our expectations. This research aims to both look into the clinical practice and to develop a research method which can do it justice. My aim was to research into those areas which are ‘felt’: beyond the known and the written about. In order to do this I take aspects of the research method portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Hoffmann Davis, 1997) and bring them together with rich description, rich pictures and arts research practices, so as to create a new qualitative inquiry method which I call ‘rich portraiture’. I describe the development of rich portraiture as a research method and show how I applied it to my practice. At the heart of my dissertation is a complex and layered rich portrait which inquires into the particular experiences of the facilitators of and participants in this groupwork programme (Day and Heismann, 2010). Rich portraiture draws on the performative abilities of clinicians: music, poetry, film, quilt making, painting, dance, sculpture, writing. Detailed narrative portraits of participants and facilitators are located in their social and political context and combined with a juxtapositioning of performance and text which moves into that tacit dimension in which we know more than we can tell (Polanyi, 1966). This is ‘performance in use’ (Cho and Trent, 2009, p 1). My preferred performance method is painting. I made artworks which resonated with the lived experiences of the facilitators and parents who participated in the non-violent resistance therapy programme. As additional layers of performance the paintings were shown in venues where they were viewed by audiences at events during which I spoke and showed films of me working. In this thesis I show how participants and facilitators embody the principles of non-violent resistance and how they perform them in the group. This ‘living’ of non-violent resistance creates change in people’s lives on a number of levels, some of them profound. I argue that there is a gap in the research methods which we use to look at our systemic practice. We constantly seek to creatively enhance our clinical practice so we should also be exploring emerging embodied and performative research practices. This would reflect the shift, in our therapeutic work with clients, towards embodiment (Shotter, 2010), the corporeal (Sheets-Johnstone, 2009) affective or performance turn (Denzin, 2003, 2006). My thesis both describes clinical practice in detail and sets out a new research method.

Student Number: 9109265Y A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Psychology) / The Academic Proficiency Assessment battery evaluates language and study skills. This study focused on the internal consistency reliability and predictive validity of this battery for Information Technology students. In terms of reliability, the Time management, Note-taking skills, and Debilitating stress scale on the achievement anxiety questionnaire were found to be internally consistent. However, the items in the English proficiency, Reading comprehension, Memorisation skills, concentration skills and motivating stress scale on the achievement anxiety questionnaire require modification or replacement. Intercorrelations across questionnaires necessitate further streamlining. In terms of predictive validity, a significant negative relationship was found between Note-taking Skills and academic performance (R2 adj = 8,3%). Matric results remain the best predictor accounting for 11% of the variance in CGPA. Cumulatively, Matric results and Note-taking skills accounted for 13,34% of the variance. None of the biographical variables significantly predicted CGPA. Despite the apparent lack of relationship between individual predictors and the criterion, a discriminant function analysis indicated that all the academic proficiencies, with the exception of English proficiency, correctly predicted pass or failure in 72% of the cases. The lack of relationship between English proficiency and pass/failure can be accounted for in terms of the type of courses studied as part of an Information Technology programme.Overall, the results would suggest that Matric results remain the best predictor of academic performance in Information Technology courses, but at a very low level. Given the lack of reliability in the majority of the subtests of the Academic Proficiency Battery, the use of the APA battery for selection for remedial intervention for Information Technology students is not yet justified.

High school biology classes traditionally follow a lecture format to disseminate content and new terminology. With the inclusive practices of No Child Left Behind, the Common Core State Standards, and end-of-course exam requirement for high school diplomas, classes include a large range of achievement levels and abilities. Teachers assume, often incorrectly, that students come to class prepared to listen and take notes. In a standard diploma, high school biology class in a separate school for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, five students participated in a single-subject, alternating treatment design study that compared the use of regular pens and digital pens to take notes during 21 lecture sessions. Behavior measures were threefold between the two interventions: (a) quantity of notes taken per minute during lectures, (b) quantity of notes or notations taken during review pauses, and (c) percent of correct responses on the daily comprehension quizzes. ... However, the differences were minor, and recommendations are made for specific training in note-taking, the pause strategy, and digital pen fluency which may produce different results for both note-taking and quiz scores. / by Carlotta A. Rody. / Vita. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

The target school used embedded study skills in Algebra I classes to improve attitudes toward mathematics. The purpose of this sequential, explanatory mixed-methods study was to examine the effect of embedded study-skills instruction on students' attitudes toward mathematics. Metacognitive theory was used for this study's framework. Participants were 28 Grade 9 and 10 students who repeated Algebra I. Quantitative data from the Attitudes Toward Mathematics Inventory assessed students' pre- and post-instruction attitudes toward mathematics in 4 domains. Data were analyzed using 4 independent samples t tests for students who did and did not receive embedded instruction. Qualitative data were collected through a semi structured group interview to explore 6 students' perceptions on how the intervention affected their attitudes toward mathematics. Open and axial coding strategies were used to develop themes. Quantitative results indicated no significant differences in students' attitudes toward mathematics, while qualitative findings supported the use of the intervention to develop students' positive attitudes in mathematics. A recommendation was that educators undergo professional learning opportunities to increase awareness of the impact of embedded study skills on student learning and how to use this instruction in lessons. Positive social change may occur if educators are provided with insight in embedded study skills that could improve students' attitudes toward mathematics, which ultimately may encourage students to study higher level mathematics and to pursue mathematics-based careers.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Self-paced study involves choosing items for (re)study and determining how much time will be allocated to those items so as to maximize later recall, making it a viable venue for examining whether there are age-related differences in metacognitive control. Two prominent models have been proposed to account for item selection and study time allocation behaviors during self-paced study. The Discrepancy Reduction Model (DRM; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998; Nelson & Leonesio, 1988) suggests individuals will always select and allocate the most time to items that have not yet been learned, whereas the Region of Proximal Learning model (RPL; Metcalfe, 2002) predicts individuals will select the easiest unknown items and will only later select and allocate time to the more difficult items if time constraints permit, thus making distinctions among unlearned items graded by difficulty. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether younger and older adults item selection and study time allocation behaviors would be more consistent with DRM or RPL model predictions. Across both experiments younger and older adults initially selected easier items for study, providing the first evidence to date that the RPL model would extend to older adults self-paced study of heterogeneously difficult Spanish-English vocabulary pairs. However, both younger and older adults allocated more time to difficult than easier items. The assignment of point values to items in Experiment 2 affected how likely participants were to pursue each of four experimenter-determined task goals that either stressed the number of words recalled, points earned, or both. Whether point values initially favored recall of easy or difficult items interacted with time constraints to influence the basis (objective versus subjective difficulty) and order of participants item selections (Experiment 2). However, younger adults were better able to effectively allocate their study time to achieve self-determined (Experiment 1) and experimenter-determined goals (Experiment 2), indicating age-related differences in metacognitive control despite younger and older adults having similar memory self-efficacy ratings and encoding strategy use behaviors.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1996. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Robert Pace. Dissertation Committee: Harold Abeles. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-110).