South Africa is a country with tremendous diversity. Previously, many learners who experienced barriers to learning and development were excluded from the education system, preventing them from meeting their educational needs. With the implementation of inclusive education, barriers to learning and development are no longer seen to reside primarily within the individual learner, but instead emphasis is placed on transforming the education system to accommodate a variety of learning needs. Many learners in South Africa display symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which frequently affects their learning and development. In some instances very little is being done to accommodate such learners to ensure that they are given the opportunity to develop to their full potential, as many educators continue to view these learners negatively, and fail to question the effect that they themselves may have upon the learners’ development. The implementation of inclusive education, however, ought to create a space in schools where educators can support learners with ADHD in a unique manner and assist them to develop to their full potential. It is on the basis of this acknowledgement and commitment of support by Education White Paper 6 that this research project was conceived, to explore how grade three learners with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder experience the support provided by their educators. A qualitative approach was employed in the study and participants were selected through purposive sampling. As the primary participants were young learners, the data was obtained through the use of arts-based (collage) focus group interviews. Individual interviews were also used to gather additional data from the learners’ educators. The data from both the learners with ADHD and their educators was then transcribed. After a thorough analysis, using an open-coding technique, the findings clearly indicated that attempts are being made to implement the policy of inclusive education within schools. Educators and staff are beginning to value the diversity of learners, and evidently are attempting to make adjustments to cater for the individual needs of learners and promote their successful learning and development. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

This study explored the barriers to education experienced by a group of learners in the context of HIV and AIDS. It also examined the extent to which HIV/AIDS is viewed as an exclusionary factor in the schooling experiences of primary school children. The research site was a co-educational school that is a service provider to mostly disadvantaged learners from a lower socio-economic background. There were twelve participants in the study: six girls and six boys. Four focus group interviews were conducted with the children to explore their experiences of potential barriers to education. Within the focus group sessions, various participatory research techniques were employed in data collection, including projective techniques, drawing exercises and ranking exercises. The study provides evidence of a complex, at times contradictory, and intricate web of barriers to education that learners experience in this schooling context. In general, various contextual factors have a profoundly negative impact on the children’s schooling experiences, in particular their access to quality education. Children are exposed to multiple, complex layers of risk and trauma from growing up in the context of HIV and AIDS. There is little evidence that the school has the resources to provide emotional and psychological support. The study has implications for the development of policy and intervention strategies that may meet these children’s needs. Finally, the study makes a contribution to research methodology in its use of participatory research techniques for data collection. The data exemplifies that children are active participants in and competent interpreters of their world – in this case their lives and schooling in the context of HIV and AIDS. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 2008.

In this investigation three groups of ten subjects each, ages seven to nine, were compared on common object picture span identification tasks to determine if the rehearsal strategies of oral labeling, signing, or total communication significantly effected their visual memory. Thethree groups consisted of a good learner/normal hearing (NH) group, a hearing impaired poor speechreader/learning disabled (LD) group, and a hearing impaired good learner/good speechreader total communication (TC) group.Subjects' picture span identification performances with and without rehearsal were compared by a one way ANOVA for difference scores. The F value of 62.026 was significant at the .01 level which demonstrated a significant difference among the groups' difference scores. Statistical results between groups indicated that the signing rehearsal strategy significantly improved the LD group's scores on the rehearsed picture span taskas compared to the oral labeling and total communication rehearsal strategies of the NH and IC groups whose rehearsal had little effect on their performance.In summary, this study showed that poor learners/poor speechreaders greatly benefitted from overt rehearsal strategies on a visual memory picture identification task.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between achievement motivation and academic achievement with externalizing (i.e., aggressive, acting-out) and Internalizing (i.e., Immature withdrawal) emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children. Furthermore, the mean difference in academic achievement of externalizers and Internalizers was examined. Analysis of variance, regression analysis, and t-test procedures were employed to analyze the data.Eighty-two subjects, in grades two through six, currently enrolled In special education programs for emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children, participated in this study. The Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher's Report Form (TRF), and the resultant Child Behavior Profile (CBP) were used to differentiate between externalizing and internalizing emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children. Furthermore, the TRF yielded information on school performance and adaptive functioning. The Thematic Apperception Test of Need for Achievement (TAT), and the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R) were administered by the researcher to gather data on achievement motivation and academic achievement, respectively.In general, the children in this study showed little or no motivation for achievement. An analysis of variance, comparing externalizers and internalizers in achievement motivation was not significant. A regression analysis, controlling for Intelligence, showed no difference in achievement motivation between externalizers and internalizers. Knowledge of group membership (i.e., externalizing or internalizing) added little to the explained variance of academic achievement. After controlling for intelligence and achievement motivation, externalizers and internalizers showed no difference in mean academic achievement.On the basis of teacher ratings of adaptive functioning skills considered necessary for success In the classroom, more than 75% of emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children were rated in the clinical range. More than two-thirds of the children were rated below average in school performance. T-tests revealed no difference between externalizers and internalizers in adaptive functioning skills or school performance.ConclusionsBased on the results of this study, the following conclusions were drawn:Emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children are generally lacking in motivation for achievement.Externalizing emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children, and Internalizing emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children do not differ in motivation for achievement.Achievement motivation and academic achievement are not significantly related with emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children.Externalizing emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children, and internalizing emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children show no difference in mean academic achievement.5. Emotionally and behaviorally handicapped children are generally deficient in the adaptive functioning skills judged necessary for school success. / Department of Educational Psychology

Previous research has reported that the effectiveness of special education in remediating learning difficulties varies as a function of the type of classroom placement, the student's age, and their intellectual ability. More recent findings have also suggested that a learning disability is not a single diagnostic entity, but rather distinct subtypes of learning disabled students exist. The study sought to determine if cluster analysis of the present sample yielded subtypes which conformed to previously identified LD subtypes; and whether these different subtypes of learning disabled (LD) students respond differentially in terms of the students academic achievement.The sample was comprised of 136 LD subjects between the ages of 9 and 15 years old for whom Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) data was available for both initial assessment, and re-assessment three years later.Initial comparisons of the sample were conducted by examining differences in academic achievement for the three subtests of the PIAT for two different types of educational placement: full time versus part time; by racial groups; and between pre and post test results. Three main effects were found in the initial MANOVA on the PIAT subtests of math and reading recognition, however, none of the statistically significant results were determined to be of practical significance. These statistical results were consistent with previous research findings.The sample was subtyped using cluster analysis. A three cluster solution was determined using three variables: intelligence, achievement, and age of the subject. The three subtypes were described and determined to be consistent with subtypes previously identified. Cluster 1 was dropped from further analysis as not conforming to an LD profile and because of sample size.A 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 MANOVA was performed: cluster membership by placement by race by pre-post test results. Cluster 2 students significantly declined in their reading recognition achievement over the three years they were in special education, while Cluster 3 students gained significantly in reading recognition achievement over the same time period.The present results suggest that school psychologist should carefully consider not only whether a student is learning disabled, but the nature and severity of the disability when recommending placement. / Department of Educational Psychology

This study is a multi-level analysis of the pervasive phenomenon of what is termed here as low-fee private (LFP) schooling in India focusing on Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh. The significance of the study is its focus on a private sector uniquely characterised as one targeted to a clientele traditionally excluded from private education. The study follows a single-case embedded case study research design of the type explained by Yin (1994). Its guiding framework comprises theoretical levels of analysis which are the individual, organisational, and institutional, corresponding to the case sub-units of household, school, and state respectively. The research design is structured through a new institutional paradigm which is also used to analyse results at the institutional level. Data were collected through interviews, observations, documents, and field notes. Direct household data sources were 60 parents/close family members at two focus schools (one urban and one rural); school sources were owners/principals of 10 case study schools (five urban and five rural); and state sources were 10 government officials. Analysis of the 100 formal interviews, informal interviews, observation events, and field notes followed a qualitative approach through an inductively derived analytic framework. Structured portions of household and school interviews were analysed through descriptive statistics providing data on household and school background characteristics. Documents were analysed using a modified content analysis approach. Implications of individual-level results lie in highlighting the schooling choices and patterns of a group that is otherwise regarded as homogenous, i.e. children are not sent to school because parents are uninterested in schooling and fail to see its relevance. In fact, results indicate that disadvantaged groups accessing the LFP sector in the study are active choosers who made deeply considered and systematic choices about their children's education. A model to explain their school choice processes is empirically derived. Data suggest that households employed the strategies of staying, fee-bargaining, exit, and fee-jumping to engage with LFP case study schools. Organisational-level results focus on case study school profiles, their organisational structures, and the strategies they employed to operate in the new schooling market. Results also focus on a qualitative understanding of the challenges case study schools faced as LFP schools, both by the institutional context and household demands. Finally, data point to the mechanisms instituted within the schools to deal with household needs and demands and the changing household-school relationship. The implications of institutional-level analysis He in exposing inconsistencies in the application of the formal institutional framework (FIF) for schooling to case study and other LFP schools by institutional actors. Differences in the FIF in principle and in practice are linked to perverse incentives embedded within it. The results strongly indicate the existence of what is termed here as, the shadow institutional framework (SIF), employed by case study schools to mediate the FIF to their institutional advantage. The SIF comprises internal institutions common across the set of case study schools, allowing them to form linkages with other LFP schools and exchange institutional information; and external institutions or higher order institutions governing how case study schools interacted with the FIF for basic and/or secondary education and private schooling. The SIF tied together an otherwise independent set of LFP schools as a de-facto sub-sector of the greater private sector. The study's main contributions are its analysis of an emerging local model of formal private schooling for disadvantaged groups; extending new institutional theory's application to education; and the methodological contribution of mediating the researcher's positionality through currencies.

The recommendations of the Warnock Committee <1978) and the 1981 Education Act stated that the goals of education were the same for all pupils and they set the scene for all children, irrespective of handicap, to be educated in ordinary schools. The principle of equal opportunities for all pupils, whether or not they have statements of special educational needs, finally achieved statutory recognition in the 1988 Education Reform Act. All pupils now share the same right to a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum relevant to their needs. However, in spite of the fact that numerous HMI reports state that special schools offer narrow and restricted curricula which may hinder the prospect of reintegration into mainstream schools for their pupils, there is evidence indicating that teachers continue to refer 'maladjusted' or 'difficult to teach' children for assessment with a view to special school placement. This study provides a critical analysis of the processes associated with referral and integration for two groups of children. When the research began, the referred children in mainstream school were likely to be transferred to special school, and the children in special school were already integrating into mainstream.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jan 17, 2008). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.