This master's thesis examines information literacy and students in secondary education. The study is framed within a sociocultural perspective of learning and the method used is questionnaires. The major question posed is how and where students seek information. Other questions are if the students critically evaluate and analyse in­formation sources and if teachers and school librarians cooperate with each other in order to help the students with their assignments. The findings indicate that most students regard information seeking as fact-finding or finding the right an­swers to the question. Only one third of students experienced information seeking as seeking and using informa­tion for understanding a topic. The first place the students look for information is the Internet. Half of the stu­dents think they have been trained in information seeking. More boys than girls believe they have been trained. Three quarters of the students do not think they need more training in information seeking. Two thirds of the students think they have been sufficiently trained in source evaluation and more boys than girls believe they have been sufficiently trained. Just over half of the students do not think they need more training in source evaluation. A good half of the students think the school library is quite important and almost half of the girls and one third of the boys visit the library once or twice per month. The cooperation between the teachers and the librari­ans does not work as well in the schools as the teachers and librarians wish but is improving. The majority of the teachers and librarians think their cooperation needs to be improved. The majority of the teachers think there is a correlation between information seeking and learning outcomes. All the librarians think the library is a resource that ought to be integrated in the students' education. My conclusion is that the majority of the students are not information literate. To be information literate, the students need to have the ability to locate and evaluate the required information. Information seeking as scruti­nizing and analysing is a pre-requisite for lifelong learning.

Mano darbe, pirmą kartą Lietuvoje, 3 testų – korektūrinių lentelių, Vestono ir Šultės skaičių suradimo pagalba , norėta patikrinti kaip kinta abiturientų darbingumas ir nuovargis savaitės bėgyje, semestro pradžioje ir pabaigoje. Tyrimo tikslas – įvertinti abiturientų protinį nuovargį ir susieti jį su mokslo krūviu ir sveikatos nusiskundimais. Tyrimo metodika. Anketinėje apklausoje dalyvavo 86 dvyliktokai : 66 besimokantys gimnazijoje ir 20 vidurinėje mokykloje. Testavimo metu buvo atrinkti 39 gimnazistai ir 15 vidurinės mokyklos abiturientai pagal lankomumo kriterijų. Anketų atsako dažnis 100 proc., testų - 94,45 proc. Anketa buvo sudaryta iš 13 klausimų, kuriuose buvo klausiama apie mokslo krūvį, sveikatą įtakojančius veiksnius bei sveikatos nusiskundimus. Testai buvo 3 : korektūrinės lentelės ��� dėmesio funkcijai, Vestono testas – informacijos perdirbimo kiekiui, Šultės skaičių suradimo testas – dėmesio apimčiai ir paskirstymui nustatyti. Statistinė empirinių duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant SPSS 11,0. Statistinei analizei panaudoti : Chi kvadrato testas, pasikliautinas intervalas, patikimumo lygmuo, kai p < 0,05, šansų santykis, laisvės laipsnių skaičius, vidurkis. Rezultatai. Atlikto tyrimo duomenys parodė, kad protinis darbingumas savaitės bėgyje kinta ( pirmadieniais ir trečiadieniais - aukščiausiais, antradieniais ir ketvirtadieniais - žemiausias ). Semestro pabaigoje padidėjus kontrolinių darbų, atsiskaitymų skaičiui , abiturientų protinis nuovargis žymiai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The first time in Lithuania, in my research, I used three tests-proof sheets, employed method of finding Weston and Schulte numbers. I wanted to find out, how working capacity and tiredness changes during the week, in the beginning and the end of term. Aim of the study- estimate graduates’ mental tiredness and relate it with the work load and health problems. Methods. 86 students took part in the questionnaire survey: 66 learning in a high school and 20 learning in a secondary school. 39 high school students and 15 secondary school students were chosen during the testing, according the attendance criteria. Questionnaire response rate -100 percent, tests -94,45 percent. There were 13 questions in the questionnaire, with the questions about study load, factors influencing health and health problems. We had 3 tests: proofing sheets-for attention function, Weston test-for processing the quantity of information, Schulte numbers’ finding test-to estimate attention volume and distribution. Statistical empirical data analysis was made using SPSS 11,0. We used Chi square test, relying upon interval, reliability level, when p<0, 05, relationship of chances, freedom degrees number, average. Results. Data from the research proved, that mental working capacity changes in the course of the week (it is highest on Mondays and Wednesdays, lowest on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Mental tiredness increases in the end of semester, when students have more tests. All tests showed that high school... [to full text]

The purpose of this study was to explore the learning strategies that are used by successful science students. In addressing this purpose, a mixed methods approach was adopted in which both quantitative and qualitative methods of data production were used. The participants were both successful and less successful high school science students from grades ten to twelve inclusive. Quantitative data was collected through questionnaires and analysed. The qualitative data was collected through individual semistructured interviews and focus group interviews. This was analysed using a qualitative thematic approach. The research questions were first about the learning strategies that successful science students seemed to use in order to do well academically, and secondly the question of the factors which influenced these successful students. The findings are that there are differences in the use of strategies between the successful students and their less successful counterparts. The successful students in general reported using more learning strategies more often than the less successful students. Successful students also reported that they engaged in strategies for regulating the effort they applied to work on difficult or boring tasks. They engaged more in cognitive strategies that involved deep processing of information, while the less successful students relied more on rehearsal and more superficial strategies like text underlining. Successful students also engaged more in self-regulatory activities that allowed them to monitor and regulate the way they learn. The findings also revealed that the successful students reported that they are influenced in their studies more by such factors as family support, the love of the subject and their goals or ambitions. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

The increasing levels and more frequent use of alcohol among females especially those in younger age groups has been noted with concern worldwide. However qualitative data on this problem is limited. This study therefore aimed to explore qualitatively factors contributing to female adolescents' alcohol use and abuse, their knowledge regarding risks associated with alcohol use and abuse and to understand the contextual and environmental factors that render female adolescents vulnerable to engage in drinking behaviours. This study was guided by the Prototype / Willingness model. The data was collected using two (2) focus groups and five (5) individual semi-structured interviews with Grade 9 female high school learners. Data analysis was done using thematic analysis. The findings of the study indicated that there are various individual, social as well as contextual factors contributing to alcohol use among female learners. These factors include age onset, low self-esteem, influence of significant others e.g. parents, peers, celebrities, media alcohol adverts especially through Television, easy availability and accessibility of alcohol as well as lack of law enforcement on selling of alcohol to minors. Protective factors emerged from the findings and these include parental monitoring, high self-esteem and good mother-daughter attachment. The study also indicated various positive perceptions why female adolescents use alcohol. These included perceiving alcohol use as fun, “cool” and glamorous, as a coping mechanism as well as a symbol of adult status and being “Western”. Although female adolescents have knowledge of most of the health and social consequences of alcohol most of them believe that they cannot be affected and they still continue to plan to use alcohol. Several recommendations are also presented. These could assist female learners, parents (and other caregivers), community members, policy makers, researchers, program developers especially those interested in adolescent health as well as other stakeholders e.g. South African Police Services (SAPS) and Department of Education etc. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

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This investigation explored scientific, religious, and otherwise nonscientific factors that may influence student acceptance of biological evolution and related concepts, how students perceived these factors to have influenced their levels of acceptance of evolution and changes therein, and what patterns arose among students' articulations of how their levels of acceptance of evolution may have changed. This exploration also measured the extent to which students' levels of acceptance changed following a treatment designed to address factors identified as potentially affecting student acceptance of evolution. Acceptance of evolution was measured using the MATE instrument (Rutledge and Warden, 1999; Rutledge and Sadler, 2007) among participants enrolled in a secondary-level academic program during the summer prior to their final year of high school and as they transitioned to the post-secondary level. Student acceptance of evolution was measured to be significantly higher than pre-treatment levels both immediately following and slightly over one year after treatment. Qualitative data from informal questionnaires, from formal course evaluations, and from semi-structured interviews of students engaged in secondary level education and former students at various stages of post-secondary education confirmed that the suspected factors were perceived by participants to have influenced their levels of acceptance of evolution. Furthermore, participant reports provided insight regarding the relative effects they perceived these factors to have had on their evolution acceptance levels. Additionally, many participants reported that their science teachers in public schools had avoided, omitted, or denigrated evolution during instruction, and several of these students expressed frustration regarding what they perceived to have been a lack of education of an important scientific principle. Finally, no students expressed feelings of being offended by having been taught about evolutionary science, and the overwhelming majority of the participants expressed enjoyment of the course and appreciation for having been taught about evolution.

This research sought to add to a body of knowledge that is severely underrepresented in the scientific literature, reading comprehension in secondary students. Chapter 1 examines the current state of literacy in the nation’s public schools and the consequences that arise if students leave high school with inadequate reading skills. It discusses the neurological processes involved with reading and posits that independent silent reading (ISR) combined with scaffolding techniques may prove to be an effective method for addressing reading comprehension. The review also analyzes the components believed to be essential to reading, including vocabulary development, prior knowledge and background information, inferencing and prediction, and cognitive and metacognitive strategies. It argues that technological tools may have the potential to address these components within the framework of ISR. Chapter 2 details the experiment that tested these hypotheses. The study implemented an ISR program across a 5-month semester in a public high school and included 145 participants from nine 10th grade literature classes. The control group took part in no ISR, one treatment group participated in weekly ISR read from a textbook, and another treatment group participated in weekly ISR read from a computer module designed to address the components of reading comprehension. Students were measured on multiple achievement and motivational assessments. Results indicated that students from the ISR groups made greater gains than the control group in total reading ability, reading comprehension, end-of-course reading scores, and success/ability attribution, but no differences emerged on the vocabulary assessment. The computer module ISR group performed similarly in most respects to the textbook ISR group, but students in the computer module ISR group increased in their reading motivation and scored better on the individual reading assignments, suggesting the cognitive tools assisted them in understanding specific material at hand. This research offers much needed data on secondary students’ reading achievement and motivation, and provides evidence for one method, ISR, that has the potential to address development in these areas.

Visos žmonių visuomenės negali normaliai ir efektyviai gyvuoti, vystytis, tobulėti, jei jose nepaisomos galiojančios elgesio normos ir taisyklės. Vien todėl, kad gyvename valstybės forma organizuotoje ir teisės normų reguliuojamoje valstybėje, būtina užtikrinti sistemingą ir nuoseklų, kokybišką, visą visuomenę apimantį teisinį švietimą, kurio metu suteikiamos teisinės žinios, ugdomi gebėjimai ir vertybinės nuostatos, plėtojama teisinė sąmonė, sistemingai teikiama teisinė informacija ir konsultacijos. / All human societies cannot normally and efficiently exist, develop and improve, if in those societies are ignored the existing standards of conduct and rules. Just because we live in state form organized and by the rules of law regulated state, it is necessary to ensure a systematic and consistent, high quality, all society including legal education, which would provide the legal knowledge, develop skills and values, legal consciousness and systematically provide legal information and consultation.

Research has demonstrated that school climate has a significant impact on several student outcomes. Positive school climate is associated with the development of positive self-concept in students, increased feelings of attachment and commitment to the school, and overall satisfaction with the school experience. This study described the school climate of four urban junior high schools, with specific attention to climate factors related to the affective development of students. The sample consisted of 506 Grade 9 students. Students' perceptions of their school's climate were measured with a standard climate questionnaire, the Effective School Battery. In addition, the principals of each school were interviewed in order to provide additional insight into the school's philosophy of education, school policies, and other aspects related to affective school climate. The data collected was used to determine if junior high schools exhibited school climates which addressed the affective needs of their students. The student responses indicated generally positive feelings about their schools. The fours schools rated high to average in the areas of Safety, Planning and Action, Clarity of Rules, Extra-curricular Program, and Student Influence. Areas in which the majority of schools rated below average or low included Respect for Students, and School Rewards. Interviews with principals revealed that affective development was considered to be an important component of junior high education. In addition, principals tended to support the findings from the student surveys. The findings illustrate that these schools have generally positive school climates as perceived by the students. Students feel comfortable and secure in the school environment, are aware of the rules guiding their behavior and tend to be involved in a variety of school activities. The areas which schools need to improve include increasing positive reinforcement and rewards for students, and ensuring that students feel they are treated with respect and dignity in their interactions with school personnel. / xi, 113 leaves ; 28 cm.

This study examined the perceptions and needs of junior high school students considering the question, What makes school a positive experience for 12 junior high school students? Previous research indicates that many students view school negatively (Bibby & Posterski, 1992). This conclusion is an alarming statement considering the significant number of years students spend in school. Using student written responses and interviews, this study explored the peceptions of junior high school students in relation to school. Qualitative research method was used as it allowed the researcher to collect and document rich data that helped to shed light on students' views of junior high school. Twelve students, 2 males and 2 females, from each of the three junior high grades (7,8, and 9) participated in the study. The students were asked to respond, in writing, to five prompts: 1) Junior high school is...2) What do you think can make junior high a positvie place to be? 3) What do you think can make junior high a negative place to be? 4) The best thing about my school is...5) The worst thing about my school is... . Those same students then met in grade level groups for an interview used to clarify and expand upon the themes that emerged in their written responses. The final data-gathering technique was for the students to reflect upon what the ideal school might look like. Overall, the results of this study indicate that students value relationships with both teachers and peers and wish to belong to the safe and student-centered community of school. The insights of junior high school students about their schooling experience will assist in the organization of programs designed to meet the needs of adolescents within an educational setting. / vii, 154 leaves ; 28 cm.