Specialist degree in education, Eastern Illinois University, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (33-34).

University of British Columbia between high school achievement, as represented by grade twelve results, and university performance, as represented by first year standing. The aim of the work was to provide counsellors, both at the University of British Columbia and in the secondary schools of this province with predictive information for use in counselling. The high school variables used were letter grade average, percentage average, standing at first attempt, recommendation, number of Departmental examinations written, and major subjects taken. The criterion of university performance used was first year standing in April. A sample of 737 students was chosen from the Faculty of Arts and Science during the academic year of 1957-58. The students chosen had completed their final year in a public high school in British Columbia, were not repeating any first year university courses, and had had an uninterrupted secondary education. They had registered for at least fifteen units of course work, which included English 100-101, Mathematics 100 or 101, a foreign language, a science, and an elective. Results of this study can therefore be used adequately only with students of comparable high school background and with similar freshman programmes. Literature relevant to the areas investigated in this study was reviewed. By use of the Chi-Square technique and of a method of partitioning Chi-Square, it was determined whether the difference in freshman performance was significant among the students grouped according to the various high school variables, and where the difference lay. Contingency coefficients were calculated to show the degree of relationship between the variables and the criterion. Most of the results of the investigation were in agreement with those reported by other authors who had conducted similar studies. It was found that there is a high positive relationship between freshman standing and grade twelve average, whether letter grade or percentage, that students who complete University Entrance standing at first attempt perform at a higher level at university than students who are required to make more than one attempt, that recommended students are better academic risks than non-recommended students, and that students who are required to write three or more Departmental examinations are more likely to fail at university than students who write just one or two examinations. Contrary to most studies, and agreeing rather with the exceptions, it was found that there is some relationship between major subjects taken in high school and freshman standing. Students who have included in their high school programmes Mathematics, Science, English, and Social Studies as majors are less likely to fail at university than students who take Mathematics and Science majors but omit English and Social Studies majors. Students who have taken a high school foreigh language major are more successful in first year university than those who omit a foreign language major. A word of caution was included regarding the impossibility of perfect prediction for all students owing to the unreliability of marks, to individual differences, and to personal problems, adjustment and growth. Within the specified limitations of the results, the study indicated that high school achievement could be used effectively in prediction of performance at university. A number of suggestions for further study were mentioned, the most strongly recommended of which were a study of the possibility of using a prediction formula including both high school achievement records and aptitude test results, and an investigation of capable students who do not proceed to university. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The purposes of this study were (1) to investigate the relationships between academic aptitude and academic achievement in reading and arithmetic at the seventh and the eighth grade levels in the city schools of Modesto, California, (2) to discuss the discovered relationships in terms of policies developed by the school system to meet the particular needs of mentally superior children, and (3) to suggest some possible means of modification of the curriculum in view of the discovered relationships between academic aptitude and academic achievement in reading and arithmetic.

No description available.

This study describes my experience 111 the research 1 conducted in two Harare secondary schools in which the interpretive ethnographic qualitative research methodology was used. The objective of the research was to assess the infuence of ability grouping on learners, given that ability grouping is a common practice in Zimbabwean schools. In particular, this study sought to find out how this practice affected classroom instruction, learner performance and the social relationship among learners. This study was conducted over three months at each of the schools, during which time formal interviews with teachers, administrators and learners, were conducted. These were complemented with informal conversations, where relevant comments were noted. Observation and limited participation in the two schools were also employed as means of collecting data. Analysis of documents was also done to supply more data about the practice and how it was implemented. As customary with qualitative research, I, as the researcher, was the instrument for data collection. Data were analysed by identifying themes which emerged from the statements of the respondents, and interpretation was done using the mechanism of thick description of what the respondents said and did during the interviews and observation, and what the documents had to say about this practice. I, as researcher, concluded from this study that ability grouping had a negative effect on classroom instruction for the low ability groups, since teachers tended not to prepare thoroughly for them. There was also a tendency among high ability groups to look down upon the low ability groups and to stigmatise them as "those who do not want to learn." Naturally this created a counter reaction from the low ability groups, making social relationships between members of the groups sour. l, as researcher, recommend a re-examination of this practice by the schools, with a view to either discontinue it or to work out mechanisms to remove the negative factors. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Arts in Education

Thesis (M.I.T.)--The Evergreen State College, 2010. / Title from title screen (viewed 7/7/2010). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-161).

This study describes my experience 111 the research 1 conducted in two Harare secondary schools in which the interpretive ethnographic qualitative research methodology was used. The objective of the research was to assess the infuence of ability grouping on learners, given that ability grouping is a common practice in Zimbabwean schools. In particular, this study sought to find out how this practice affected classroom instruction, learner performance and the social relationship among learners. This study was conducted over three months at each of the schools, during which time formal interviews with teachers, administrators and learners, were conducted. These were complemented with informal conversations, where relevant comments were noted. Observation and limited participation in the two schools were also employed as means of collecting data. Analysis of documents was also done to supply more data about the practice and how it was implemented. As customary with qualitative research, I, as the researcher, was the instrument for data collection. Data were analysed by identifying themes which emerged from the statements of the respondents, and interpretation was done using the mechanism of thick description of what the respondents said and did during the interviews and observation, and what the documents had to say about this practice. I, as researcher, concluded from this study that ability grouping had a negative effect on classroom instruction for the low ability groups, since teachers tended not to prepare thoroughly for them. There was also a tendency among high ability groups to look down upon the low ability groups and to stigmatise them as "those who do not want to learn." Naturally this created a counter reaction from the low ability groups, making social relationships between members of the groups sour. l, as researcher, recommend a re-examination of this practice by the schools, with a view to either discontinue it or to work out mechanisms to remove the negative factors. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that students of unequal writing ability are frequently placed in the same beginning media writing classes in college journalism. It is difficult for a teacher to be effective when the ability of the students ranges from those who cannot write clear complete sentences to others whose work already appears in newspapers and magazines. The purpose of this study is to determine whether students who are ability grouped into slow—average and advanced groups do the same, better, or worse than heterogeneously grouped students. In the spring semester of 1987, students in Journalism 1345, Media Writing laboratory, at the University of Texas at Arlington, were given a pretest to determine how well they wrote a simple news story and a simple feature story. On the basis of that test, which was graded by three raters, the students were placed in two separate ability groups in three classes. The fourth class contained students with heterogeneous abilities who were not placed in groups. At the end of the semester a posttest was given in news and feature writing. A two-way analysis of variance was used to analyze the posttest scores of sixty-seven students. There was no significant difference in the posttest scores of students who were grouped homogeneously and those who were grouped heterogeneously. The difference in the scores of heterogeneously grouped advanced students and homogeneously grouped advanced students was not significantly different from the difference between the posttest scores of heterogeneously grouped slow-average students and homogeneously grouped slow-average students.

The debate on how students of different abilities should be organised and taught is probably as old as the introduction of formal schooling. It has generated a lot of debate in the past and continues to do so in the present millennium. This debate has invariably divided the world of educational research into two distinct camps. On one hand are proponents of ability grouping who claim that this grouping approach creates homogeneity which make it possible to tailor teaching to individual needs and thus raise achievement. On the other hand, are the exponents of mixed-ability grouping, who argue that ability grouping denies equality of educational opportunities to many young people, limiting their life chances and increasing social segregation. However, there is an emerging trend which posits that teachers should view students' mixed-abilities as an asset, which if properly exploited can result in effective instruction for the benefit of all students regardless of their many individual differences. This emanates from the realisation that there are different types of intelligences, and that it is not always possible for an individual student to posses all the types of intelligences. Therefore, students from diverse backgrounds, endowed with multiple intelligences, can help one another understand the content better as they will perceive the content from their diverse experiential backgrounds. This qualitative study concerned itself with investigating how mixed-ability grouping can be optimised for effective instruction at the junior secondary school level in Botswana. The study made use of literature study, focus groups, follow-up interviews and lesson observations. Major findings were that teachers are not optimising mixed-ability grouping for effective instruction. Instead, teachers have problems in teaching mixed-ability classes, with most of their teaching being teacher-centred. However, teachers can optimise mixed-ability grouping through the use of student-centred instructional strategies such as cooperative learning, small-group instruction, peer teaching and student research. Gifted students could be catered for through curriculum compaction, enrichment and extension work, while mentally challenged students could be offered remedial work. These cited teaching strategies are differential and they make use of the diverse abilities found in mixed-ability classes. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Didactics)