Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 73-84).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-84). Also available in print.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The research reported here was intended to consider in an exploratory fashion the impact of a community based treatment program, Services for Problem Drinker Drivers, (SPDD), for persons convicted of driving while under the influence of liquor on: (1) the self-concept, (2) consequences for public identity, and (3) the careers or changes over time in both self-concept and public identity of clients in the program.

This study of the readjustment of problem children was undertaken as an integral part of the physical education program of the city schools of Gladewater, Texas, to determine if physical education in itself is, or can become, a positive factor in reshaping the lives of such children.

Thesis (MScSportSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of participation in a sport development programme on the sport skills and self-concept of28 at-risk primary school children from a disadvantaged community. All 28 participants were pre-tested, then received a six-week (12 lesson) intervention programme, after which all children were post-tested. Data collection for the dependent variables was completed using the Latchaw Motor Achievement Test and the Catty Self-Concept Scale. Results of this study revealed that at-risk children realised the following outcomes of participation in a sport skill development programme: • Four of six components of motor achievement improved significantly. • The self-concept of the children did not show a significant improvement. • Three of six components of motor achievement showed a significant correlation with self-concept. Based on the results, it was concluded that participation in a sport skill development programme could not make a significant contribution to the motor development of at-risk primary school children. However more research is needed in this specific area in order to determine how skill development can be implemented to enhance the self-concept of at-risk children. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om die invloed van deelname aan 'n sport ontwikkelings program op die sportvaardighede en self-konsep van 28 hoë-risiko laerskool kinders vanuit 'n minderbevoorregte gemeenskap te ondersoek. Al 28 deelnemers was gepretoets en daarna 'n intervensie program van ses weke (12 lesse) gevolg, waarna die kinders weer almal gepost-toets is. Dataversameling vir al die afhanklike veranderlikes is voltooi deur die gebruik van die Latchaw Motoriese toets vir die toetsing van motoriese vaardighdede en die Cratty Selfkonsep toets. Resultate van hierdie studie het aangetoon dat die hoê-risiko kinders die volgende uitkomste met betrekking tot deelname aán die sport ontwikkelings program, behaal het: • Vier van die ses motoriese prestasie komponente het beduidend verbeter • Die selfkonsep van die kinders het nie 'n betekenisvolle verbetering getoon nie. • Drie van die ses motoriese prestasie komponente het 'n betekenisvolle korrelasie getoon met selfkonsep. Gebaseer op hierdie resultate, is daar tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat deelname aan 'n sport vaardigheid ontwikkelings program geen defnitiewe bydrae gelewer het tot die motoriese ontwikkeling van hoë-risiko laerskool kinders nie. Verdere navorsing word benodig in hierdie spesifieke area om vas te stel hoe 'n vaardigheids ontwikkeling program geimplimenteer kan word om selfkonsep van hoë-risiko kinders te verbeter.

Schools are facing an increasing pressure to deal effectively with students' problem behaviors in the school environment. Research suggests that Behavior Monitoring Programs (BMPs) are effective and efficient secondary interventions to use in remedying problem behavior in the classroom and are acceptable to teachers, parents, and students. Most of the research on BMPs has been conducted at the elementary school level. The current study investigated the effectiveness of a BMP within a school-wide system of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) with three suburban high school students. Problem behaviors for each student were targeted based upon previous office discipline referral data (ODR) and teacher comments, and three behavioral goals were made for students based upon these findings, along with teacher input. Effectiveness of the intervention was measured by the increase in teacher's behavioral ratings on the Daily Behavior Report Card (DBRC). Furthermore, teachers, parents and students rated the intervention's effectiveness via a five-item intervention acceptability questionnaire. Results of the study suggest that the BMP intervention is both effective and acceptable for use with secondary students. All students experienced an increase in behavioral ratings on the DBRC during intervention. Across all students and all behaviors, the intervention resulted in an overall mean improvement of 63% in problem behaviors in the classroom. Average effect sizes were large while probability levels were low. Furthermore, all teachers, parents, and students rated the intervention as being acceptable. The average rating that all parents gave for all five items (on a 6 point scale with higher numbers indicating greater acceptability) was 5.2, while the average for students was 4.3. The student's teachers together rated all five items as 4.8.

Cette thèse aborde la problématique de l’acquisition des connaissances dans le cadre de la conception des Environnements Informatiques pour l’Apprentissage Humain (EIAH). Dans le contexte spécifique de ce travail, nous nous intéressons à des EIAH destinés à enseigner des méthodes de résolution de problèmes. De telles méthodes permettent, dans un domaine donné, de reconnaître la classe d’un problème et d’être capable de savoir quelle technique de résolution appliquer pour le résoudre. Le coût de conception de ces EIAH est cependant très élevé, en particulier du fait de l’élicitation des connaissances, qui nécessite non seulement une expertise dans le domaine concerné mais également en programmation.Afin de réduire le coût de conception de ces EIAH, et permettre à des auteurs (enseignants ou pédagogues plus experts) de pouvoir éliciter sans programmer les connaissances nécessaires à l’EIAH, nous proposons un processus d’acquisition interactive de ces connaissances. Ce processus est mis en œuvre à travers la conception d’un outil auteur : AMBRE-KB. Pour ce faire, nous avons d’abord proposé des méta-modèles qui permettent de décrire la forme des connaissances à acquérir. Ces connaissances ne sont pas celles d’un expert dans un domaine, mais les connaissances telles qu’on voudrait qu’elles fonctionnent chez l’apprenant à l’issue de l’apprentissage. En s’appuyant sur ces méta-modèles, nous avons ensuite proposé un processus d’acquisition de ces connaissances qui permet d’assister l’auteur lors de l’élicitation des connaissances nécessaires, en lui permettant de construire un modèle de connaissances spécifique à un domaine.Nous avons mené deux expérimentations pour évaluer le processus d’acquisition des connaissances et sa mise en œuvre dans l’outil AMBRE-KB. La première porte sur la complétude. Il s’agit de vérifier, pour un domaine donné, si les modèles de connaissances générés par AMBRE-KB permettent à l’EIAH de résoudre des problèmes. L’objectif de la deuxième expérimentation est de mesurer l’utilité et l’utilisabilité de AMBRE-KB. Les résultats des deux expérimentations sont satisfaisants. / The general issue we addressed in this thesis is the challenge of knowledge elicitation in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). In the context of this work, we are interested in ITS teaching problem solving methods. Teaching methods for solving problems consists in teaching students how to think about the problem before starting its resolution. In a given field, such a method is based on a categorization of problems. Knowing to recognize the class of a problem enables students to choose the resolution technique associated with this class. However, designing such ITS is tedious and costly, and specially require expertise in the application domain and in programming.In order to reduce the design cost of these ITS and to enable an author (for example a teacher) to be able to elicit knowledge needed without programming, we propose an interactive knowledge elicitation process. This process is implemented through the design of an authoring tool: AMBRE-KB. For that, we first propose meta-models for the knowledge to be acquired. This knowledge is not an expert knowledge, but knowledge such as we would want that they work at the end of the learning. Next, we propose a knowledge acquisition process based on these meta-models, which enable the author to be assisted in the elicitation process enabling him/her to build specific knowledge models for a given domain.We conducted two experiments to evaluate the knowledge acquisition process and its implementation in the AMBRE-KB tool. The first relates to completeness. The aim is to verify, for a given domain, whether the knowledge models generated by AMBRE-KB enable the solver to solve problems. The aim of the second experiment is to measure the utility and usability of AMBRE-KB. The results of both experiments are satisfactory.