published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The problem of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of certain recommended procedures in the improvement of reading skills in a sixth-grade class in the Lewisville Elementary School, Lewisville, Texas.

The present study had three purposes. The first was to determine which of seven variables were significantly correlated with improvement in reading in a representative sample of elementary school children who had received remedial reading instruction. The second was to ascertain whether these variables could be used in developing an equation for predicting improvement that would be simple and quick enough to be of practical value in the remedial clinic. The final purpose was to determine whether the relationship between intelligence and reading improvement was the same over three different intelligence ranges.

The subjects of this study are 575 teachers of After School Alternative Program in Tainan City. By doing survey, it aims at investigating those teachers¡¦ perspective of the causes of the underprivileged students¡¦ low achievement, the remedial teaching method and the outcomes of remedial teaching. The results will offer suggestions for the future study and the remedial teaching teachers¡¦ training held by the education administrative organization. According to the outcome of the study, the conclusions are as followings. 1.Most of the After School Alternative Program teachers attribute the causes of the underprivileged students¡¦ low achievement to students¡¦ personal factor. 2.The After School Alternative Program teachers agree with the remedial teaching method and consider ¡¥teaching strategy¡¦ as the most important. 3.Most of the After School Alternative Program teachers agree with the effect of the remedial teaching and think that ¡¥teaching development¡¦ affects the outcomes the most. 4.The teachers with different experiences, different education backgrounds and from different school scales have different opinions of the causes of the underprivileged students¡¦ low achievement, the remedial teaching method and the outcomes of remedial teaching. 5.The After School Alternative Program teachers think that the remedial teaching method positively affects its outcomes.

To understand School Educators¡¦ attitude toward the Implementation of ¡§The Study of After School Remedial Program¡¨ in Tainan is main purpose of this study. The potential problems and improvement suggestions have been discussed in the study in hopes of providing the local education administration authorities, schools, and educators¡¦ valuable consultation. The research applies questionnaire investigation as the major research method. The survey on its existing problems and suggestive solutions is developed by the researcher. Questionnaires are distributed to school administration educators in 30 Tainan municipal junior high schools and elementary schools. 621 copies of questionnaires were distributed, 518 copies were collected, 506 copies are valid finally. Data is statistically analyzed for frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation in order to interpret demographics of survey respondents. According to the research outcomes, the major conclusions as followings: 1. The overall performance of remedial instruction classes fostered by the program in Tainan is acceptable¡C 2. School educators in general have positive point of views toward the solutions of remedial instruction classes fostered by the program. 3. They who never execute on remedial instructions feel the existing problems are serious than those who ever execute the program. 4. Aggressiveness at elementary schools is higher than it at municipal junior high in which existing more serious problems. Besides, small scale schools own higher aggressiveness with fewer problems than it at mid & large scale schools. 5. Among educators with various backgrounds at different school districts exist various thoughts on solution of the program. 6. Five factors on remedial instructions¡Glow enthusiasm of teachers¡Black of actual individual difference class grouping¡Blimitation of progress on higher grades¡Blimited class hours and short of craft and activity courses etc., must be faced and solved. 7. The most acceptable ways of solution on remedial instructions are acceptable earning¡Bmore teachers¡Bindividual difference class grouping¡Bresearch and develop teaching materials for remedial instructions and creating systematic diagnosis evaluation tools etc. According above discussions, this study made the following suggestions on future policy creating: 1. The education authorities should envisage educators¡¦ needs, offer solution and praise plans. Administration operation needs to focus on different school districts and various class grades by offering multi-methods promotion strategies. They should create systematic remedial instructions functions for receiving higher efficiency, and take elementary schools as the key target to implement remedial instructions. 2. The schools should reduce educators¡¦ difference on realization of the program by communication reinforcement, organize individual difference class grouping significantly to implement remedial instructions effectively; and promote students¡¦ learning desire by adding art, craft and activities courses. 3. The teachers should possess strategies and knowledge for remedial instructions to create teachers¡¦ professional image and behavior.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the discourses that author basic writing in Texas and question how instructors of basic writing at a community college are constructed as well as constructive through discursive practices. Elements of Critical Discourse Analysis (Luke, 1995-1996; Faircloth, 2000) were employed to analyze primary source documents, publications, presentations, meeting minutes, public forum transcripts, professional literature and policies pertaining to the practice of developmental English since the adoption of the Texas Academic Skills Program and the Texas Success Initiative. The discourses of failure, economy and science were identified as authoritative systems of conventions and norms that operate through the practice of basic writing. A Foucaultian genealogical lens was then applied both to explore the power relations and categorizations processes that undergird the material consequences (Valle, 2005) of the discourses as well as to identify how the narratives of basic writing faculty intersect with the discourses. Findings suggest that the discourses of failure, economy, and science function in a reciprocal manner to promote distorted truth claims about students and basic coursework that effectively limit possibilities for and lend to increased governmental control over the future practice of developmental education. The instructors’ stories, however, provide critical disruptions to the discourses. Viewing their alternative understandings of basic writing alongside the recurrent statements that have constructed popular understandings of developmental English, this study foregrounds the urgent need for more research from practitioners within the field and better channels of communicating their scholarship and professional experiences in the public arena. / text

The present thesis reports an empirical study of how ten remedial teachers or special remedial teachers, all women, encountered reality as supervisors or tutors in schools during the 1990s. The study sought to define the conditions for supervision and tutoring in the remedial-teaching function. Data was collected in two steps. The preparatory step consisted of a scrutiny of Report DsU 1986:13 on the modified remedial-teacher function, and perusal of the referees’ comments thereon. The second step consisted ofinterviews with all ten participants three years after their training as supervisors/tutors at the Stockholm Institute of Education. Neither in the above Report nor in the referees’ comments was supervision defined or discussed. Despite this resistance, supervision is required by the macro level for the modified remedial-teacher function. Regarding the micro-level situation for supervising in school, two themes were distinguished: an organisational theme and a legitimacy theme. The informants saw school management, the organisation’s pre-understanding of supervision and the profession’s continual adaptation to areas of knowledge not possessed by teachers as important aspects. The legitimacy theme expresses how differentiation of the supervisory task and the design of teaching posts influence the implementation. The supervision/tutoring examined here is described through six experiential themes: the dialogical here-and-now-theme, the relational theme, the didactic ”technical” theme, the reflective and self-fostering theme, the change theme and the leadership theme. Remedial-educational supervision as described in the study appears as vertical but does not extend to the depth of therapeutic intervention. It is seen as an ethical act where consideration or recognition, rather than care, is a distinctive feature. Care may represent ”tacit” gender-loaded knowledge and needs to be discussed in educational contexts where supervision or tutoring is included in the special-remedial-teacher function.

This study seeks to throw light on the language background of fifty-nine primary school children in schools for Indian South Africans in the Durban area of Natal. The schools were all under the control of the Department of Internal Affairs. At some time before February 1982, each child had been referred to the remedial teacher employed at his school, and had subsequently received help in language, specifically reading, for at least the period from February 1982 - November 1983. Even after that time, the children were not considered able to achieve satisfactorily in the "normal" class without further help. Data were initially collected by remedial teachers who interviewed the adult considered most significant in the child's life, using scheduled interviews. In addition they collected information from the child and the school and filled in personal questionnaires. After the first school term of 1984, Diploma in Specialise Education (Remedial Education) students at the University of Durban-Westville visited the homes of twenty children in the study and tape-recorded unstructured interviews with the adults. Three of these tapes are used in this text. The data collected is used to show that despite the poverty many families experience, the reason for the child's language difficulties is caused less by lack of material possessions than by parental ignorance of how best they can encourage language development and help close the gap between the spoken language of home and both the spoken and written language the children meet in school. The inefficiency of questionnaires as research tools became increasingly apparent as the project progressed, and that there is a real need for a thorough qualitative investigation into the language background of pupils-in-need is clear. / Thesis (M.Ed) - University of Durban-Westville, 1984.

The major purpose of this descriptive study was to identify the reasoning strategies used by seventh- and eighth grade severely disabled remedial reading students when attempting to comprehend expository and narrative prose. Additional research questions dealt with the most frequently used strategies; correct responses to questions through the use of strategies; strategies used when responding to narrative and expository prose; strategies used when answering literal and inferential questions; and the strategies used by individual students.

M.Ed. / The African National Congress' (ANC) victory of the 1994 elections in South Africa, and the consequent establishment of the Government of National Unity, led to far reaching changes in many facets of South African lifestyles. The changing political climate resulted in many policy documents, both of a political and professional nature, coming to light. It seems from these documents that all resources (including educational-, health-, and other professional resources) should be redistributed. The changes that may originate from this redistribution, have implications at both meso- and macro-level of society. In the context of Education, training and practical implementation are directly effected. Suggestions in favour of progressive mainstreaming have already been put forward, and it is clearly stated that mainstreaming together with inclusion are seen as specific medium- to longterm goals. The new South African government sees education as a basic human right and the government aims to make education accessible to all learners. Consequently a need for a system which is more effective and accessible, complying with the needs of a post-apartheid South Africa has developed. Inclusive education is seen as a way of complying with educational needs, also with regards to learners with special educational needs. This implies that all schools will eventually be able to accommodate all learners, including those learners who to date received education in schools for special education. Teachers are seen as the key figures in the change to inclusive education policy. Should the teacher have a negative conception with regards to the new policy, the successful implementation thereof may be threatened. When personal negative conception does not change, motivation is lacking and there is no correlation between what happens in practice and the theory of the policy makers. To investigate and gain insight into the conception of teachers and other remedial personnel with regards to the new education policy is indispensable research for the implementation of the new policy. In the light thereof, the over-all aim of this study is to describe the conceptualization of a group of remedial practitioners, which may serve as a point of departure in developing a new approach to training, and test and expand existing literature.