No description available.

Learning thrives in conducive and supportive environments, and where a culture of learning is cultivated. There are many factors that distract learners from devoting themselves wholeheartedly to learning. This study takes a critical look at such factors, and the involvement of high school learners in the infonnal sector of the economy is identified as the focus for an in-depth interrogation. More specifically, the focus is on the reasons for learners' involvement in infonnal work, the type of work they do, as well as the impact of such involvement on their academic perfonnance. I have chosen to use the case study method in order to understand this phenomenon in one township high school, with a focus on Grade 11 learners as the study participants. Data was collected through a multi-method approach. This entailed a survey questionnaire, letters written by learners, and group and individual interviews. The life histories of learners were developed drawing from the data, and my own autobiography. Five learners, two boys and three girls, were selected to represent the voices of working learners through life histories. The findings of this study reveal that the kind of work activity engaged by learners is gendered, poorly paid, and makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and that poverty, education needs, culture, family structure, and size are the main reasons for children's involvement in the economic activities of the infonnal sector. Noting the magnitude of the problem, the study concludes with some recommendations whilst conceding that there are no quick-fix solutions to challenges of this nature.

Early identification of high school students at-risk for antisocial behavior and school failure is critical to reducing the number punitive consequences they may experience, as well as for lowering referral rates to special education. The identification of characteristics that are common to students accumulating disciplinary referrals for chronic or acute behavior problems can be valuable for targeting the needs of these students and developing proactive intervention strategies. Typical approaches employ deficit-based measures which describe behaviors that are regarded as problems to be eliminated or reduced, but which seldom provide guidance to teachers on how to achieve that result. This study used the Behavioral Objective Sequence (BOS) (Braaten, 1998) a strength-based instrument, to examine the attributes of students in an urban high school who had been referred the Character Development Center (CDC), an out-of-classroom disciplinary intervention.The BOS provides a criterion referenced assessment of behavioral competencies which can subsequently be used by educators to develop instructional interventions that are directly related to skill deficiencies. A Likert type rating scale method was used to assess students' demonstration the BOS skills or behavioral/social competencies.Data were collected on 99 students who had been referred to CDC one or more times and 37 randomly selected peers who had never been referred. BOS scores were obtained from the classroom teachers who had made the student referrals to CDC and the nonreferred students. One-way ANOVAs and independent t-tests were computed to test for differences in the mean scores on the six BOS subscales. Students who were referred for disciplinary intervention scored significantly lower on all subscales. ANOVA tests for significant interactions between rater and student demographic attributes were all non significant indicating that the results were not influenced by characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, or social economic status.The results support the findings of previous studies that indicate use of skill-based BOS scores can identify students who are a high risk for disciplinary intervention. This approach offers educators an assessment instrument that can assist with early identification by proactively targeting skills that need to be taught and reinforced rather than reliance on consequences for misconduct. / Department of Special Education

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ. 153-162)

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

Thesis (M. Ed.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Research thesis. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1940.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 3313.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Also available in print.