Thesis (Ph. D. (Educational Psychology) -- University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Educational Psychology) -- University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brandeis University, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 29, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1997. / Title from title page screen, viewed June 7, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Toni McCarty, Lanny Morreau (co-chairs), Kenneth Strand, Ming-Gon John Lian. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-88) and abstract. Also available in print.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The problem of this study was to analyze special education costs relative to the total educational costs of a school district. Special education costs were examined from the perspective that specialized services for handicapped students constitute only a subset of a large variety of education offerings available to students. The purpose of this study was to identify the costs for special education and regular education in selected Arizona school districts, including costs for administration, instruction, instruction support, and operations. In addition, this study examined the cost relationships that existed among pupil-teacher ratios, teacher salary schedules, and teacher training and experience for special education programs. This type of information should allow for the development of finance formulas for special education that will provide the level of financing required to ensure that ample resources are available to provide appropriate educational services for the handicapped. This study examined the costs for 9 types of regular education programs and 10 categories of handicapped students. The school districts studied included 14 elementary districts, 4 high school districts, and 10 unified districts. This sample of school districts comprised over 50% of the total statewide special education enrollment for the 1977-78 school year. The results of this study indicated that extensive cost variations existed for both regular and special education programs. The highest cost for a regular education program was $7,532 for a high school program for industrial arts/home economics. The lowest cost for a regular education program was $818 for high school language arts. The highest cost for a special education program was $5,674 for a resource program for visually handicapped students. The lowest cost for a special education program was $235 for a resource program for speech handicapped students. The impacts of pupil-teacher ratio, teacher salary schedule, and teacher training and experience were established for resource programs for speech handicapped students and for self-contained programs for the trainable mentally handicapped. The impact of pupil-teacher ratio was the most extensive factor in causing cost variations in both of the programs studied. However, the impact of teacher salary schedule and teacher training and experience were major factors in individual cases.

A distinction between learning and performance has long been traditional in theoretical and experimental formulations of general learning theory. More recently a similar or parallel distinction has developed in the literature on children with academic difficulties. Here it has been referred to as a distinction between "assimilation and utilization" or between "disorders in the function of taking in knowledge" and "disorders in the use of learning." Other recent investigations have further hypothesized that a set of broad motivational variables characterized as "fear of success" or "need to fail" are crucial in the poor achievement of some children with academic difficulties. This study was designed as an experimental investigation of some consequences that seemed deducible from the inter-relationships among these distinctions and hypotheses. Three groups of children were defined within a normal school population by a statistical comparison of academic grades and achievement test scores in reading. All subjects had at least average I.Q. scores. In the first group, academic grades were significantly lower than might have been predicted from the achievement test scores. This was considered to reflect a difficulty in performance and the group was referred to as the non-performers. In the second group, academic grades and achievement test scores were both considerably below the average for the whole group. This was considered to reflect a difficulty in learning, and the group was referred to as the non-learners. In the third group, academic grades and achievement test scores were congruent and both were at an average level. This group was referred to as the normals. Subjects were examined individually under one of three conditions of evaluative feedback: (1) competitive success, (2) competitive failure, and (3) neutral. In the competitive success condition, the subject was convinced that he was performing more adequately than his peers. In the competitive failure condition, he was convinced that he was performing more poorly. In the neutral condition, the feedback was purely procedural. A modified version of the Digit-Symbol Test was the principal task. During the performance trials emphasis was on speed, and time in seconds was taken as a performance measure. After 10 trials, each subject was asked to complete the Digit-Symbol form without a key. The number of digit-symbol combinations remembered correctly was taken as a measure of learning. Thematic Apperception Test stories and Sarason Anxiety Scale scores were obtained from each subject. The major hypotheses may be stated informally. The non-performer group should show greater decrement in performance than in learning, and the largest performance decrement should occur under the competitive success condition. The non-learner group should show decrements in both performance and learning when compared to the other two groups. They should show no special decrement under success. The normal group should show best performance and learning under the success condition with only slight decrements under the other two conditions. There should be no difference between the non-performer and the normal group on the learning measure. None of these major hypotheses were unequivocally substantiated. There was, however, evidence to warrant several conclusions. The groups defined statistically were discriminable on some experimental tasks. This lends credence to the notion of two types of learning problems. The crucial role of competitive success in influencing the behavior of the non-performer group was demonstrated. However, such broad motivational patterns as “need to fail” or “renunciation of success” are not sufficiently explanatory. There was, in fact, evidence that consideration must also be given to the non-performers unduly intense "need to succeed". The experimental conditions were effectively created in that there were differences among conditions across all groups on the learning measure. Also, each group showed a pattern of differential response to each of the conditions. / This thesis was digitized as part of a project begun in 2014 to increase the number of Duke psychology theses available online. The digitization project was spearheaded by Ciara Healy.

by Cheng Paul. / Includes questionnaire in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-66). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iv / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vii / LIST OF APPENDICES --- p.viii / Chapter CHAPTER 1 - --- INTRODUCTION / Local studies on Down syndrome --- p.4 / Coping and psychological distress --- p.5 / Coping and psychological distress in Chinese families with mentally retarded children --- p.11 / Psychological correlates of coping --- p.13 / "Relationship between optimism, self-mastery, coping and psychological distress" --- p.16 / Purpose of the study --- p.18 / Chapter CHAPTER 2 - --- METHOD / Subjects --- p.22 / Measures --- p.25 / Procedures --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER 3 - --- RESULTS / Group differences on coping --- p.31 / Factor analysis of the coping --- p.34 / "Internal consistency of LOT, SMS, & GHQ-30" --- p.37 / Inter-correlations among major variables for the three groups --- p.37 / Differences between mothers and fathers on the major variables --- p.39 / Prediction of psychological distress --- p.40 / Group differences on the major variables --- p.41 / Differences between mothers and fathers within a single family --- p.42 / Group differences on the major variables with family as the unit of analysis --- p.43 / Chapter CHAPTER 4 - --- DISCUSSION --- p.45 / REFERENCES --- p.60 / TABLES --- p.67 / FOOTNOTE --- p.83 / APPENDICES --- p.84

by Lo Choi Ha. / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [1-15]). / Acknowledgement --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii -iv / Chapter / Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.9-82 / Chapter 3 --- Conceptual Framework --- p.83 -97 / Chapter 4 --- Research Methodology --- p.98-116 / Chapter 5 --- Results --- p.117-230 / Chapter 6 --- Discussion of the Findings --- p.231-267 / Chapter 7 --- Recommendations --- p.268 -281 / References / Appendix A: Tables of Reliability / Chapter B: --- Table of Mean and Standard Deviation / Chapter C: --- Questionnaire (English Version) / Chapter D: --- Questionnaire (Chinese Version)

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