Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / The purpose or this study is: 1. To discover and analyze the strengths in silent and oral reading in the intermediate grades. 2. To discover and analyze the needs that are apparent ia silent and oral reading in the intermediate grades. The writer has found during his experience that pupils in the intermediate grades have many reading difficulties. In numerous instances many teachers have had mixed opinions as to the cause for this situation. This has served as a challenge to the writer to make further investigation into the possible cause and solutions.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

No description available.

Various empirical investigations have focused on training children with autism as well as typically developing children to be compliant with oral assessments. But few studies have evaluated strategies on how to train the oral care providers to be able to work with children with autism for increased compliance. Using a multiple baseline design, the current investigation evaluated behavioral skills training procedures to teach three oral care providers basic behavior analytic skills, such as differential reinforcement, positive and negative reinforcement, and escape extinction, to implement while performing oral care procedures on children with autism. The procedures of the behavioral skills training included instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. This training resulted in an improvement from baseline performances for each participant in steps completed correctly, as well as various decreased levels of problem behavior displayed by the children. These results suggest that behavioral skills training is an effective way of teaching oral care providers basic behavior analytic techniques to use while working with children with autism.

The study in this thesis is a longitudinal case study of a group of overseas teachers involved in research as part of an in-service B.Ed. (Honours) degree in TEFL. It addresses the process of development as teacher-researchers of the group during the course. In terms of outcomes it seeks to investigate the contribution, as perceived by the participants, of involvement in research to their professional development, and the impact of this experienceo n their ways of conceiving of teacher-researcha nd of themselves as reflective, enquiring practitioners. The findings of the study suggest that the adoption of a multi-stranded approach to involvement in research with in-service teachers may be desirable to the extent that it may foster the development of teachers as reflective practitioners, while also providing for their development at an academic level. However, the study also suggests that the particular type of approach to involvement in research undertaken by this group can be problematic, given the difficulties in reconciling the on-going professional development perspective with the certification element. The efforts to include a teacher-researche lement in degreec oursesf or teachersi s not unique to this course, and the conflict between the two aims may be relatively common. The end result is that the approach may require from participants a lot of effort to create a balance between their pedagogical expectations from the course and the criteria of academic certification. The study also provides some empirically-based analytical frameworks which may be of value in attempting to understand what happens when teachers encounter research.

The aim of this study was to investigate possible relationships between psychological strengths, temperament and choice of coping strategy. The study was based on the assumption that a positive life orientation possibly has biological roots. Temperament was defined as a biological factor that influences a positive life orientation and psychological strength. Psychological strength was conceptualised as the presence of a sense of coherence and locus of control. Coping was defined as the choice of coping strategy. A secondary aim of this study was to determine if there are any gender differences between adolescents regarding psychological strengths, temperament and choice of coping strategy. Although there are telling indicators of the influence of temperament on negative life outcomes, the influence of temperament in positive life outcomes are not as clearly delineated. This is especially true regarding adolescents. Even though younger children and adults have been extensively studied regarding salutogenesis and temperament, few studies reported on adolescent salutogenesis and temperament. It was postulated that temperament would have a significant influence on a salutogenic view of life in adolescence and that this would in turn influence the typical ways in which adolescents cope or their choice of coping strategy. The research questions were concerned with the relationship between psychological strength measured as sense of coherence and locus of control, temperament and choice of coping strategy respectively, as well as the ways in which temperament could predict a salutogenic life orientation and ways of coping. A dearth was noted in the literature regarding salutogenesis, temperament and the developmental aspects related to salutogenesis in adolescence. Few studies include adolescents as participants and few concentrate on biologically based variables related to salutogenesis. Few studies report on positive outcomes specifically as it relates to temperament. Lastly a lack of integrative thought in psychology regarding divergent fields like biology and psychology and how it relates to salutogenic functioning, are in evidence. Research questions were explored in a sample of 141 pupils completing Grade 11 at two multi-racial schools in the east of Johannesburg. This sample was taken from a population of urban adolescents with average socio-economic status, completing public schooling in either English or Afrikaans. The average age of participants was 17 years. The sample consisted of 65.2% girls and 34.8% boys. The sample further consisted of 12.8% Black English speaking participants, 77.3% White Afrikaans speaking participants and 9.9% Coloured Afrikaans speaking participants. Four self-report measures were used to measure sense of coherence, temperament and choice of coping strategy. These were the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (Antonovsky, 1987), the Locus of Control Inventory (Schepers, 1999), the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (Zuckerman et al., 1993) and the Adolescent Coping Scale (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993). The Orientation to Life Questionnaire measures Comprehensibility, Manageability and Meaningfulness. The Locus of Control Inventory measures Internal locus of control, External locus of control and Autonomy. The Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire measures Impulsive sensation seeking, Neuroticism-anxiety, Aggression-hostility, Activity and Sociability. The Adolescent Coping Scale measures eighteen coping strategies. Four subscales were removed due to low levels of internal reliability. Choice of coping strategy was therefore only measured by fourteen of the original subscales which were Seek social support, Focus on solving the problem, Work hard and achieve, Worry, Invest in close friends, Wishful thinking, Tension reduction, Social action, Ignore the problem, Self-blame, Keep to self, Seek spiritual support, Seek professional help and Physical recreation. Data collected from the completed questionnaires were tested for normality of subscale distributions. T-tests for independent samples were used to determine whether adolescent boys and girls differed significantly on the mean test scores for sense of coherence, locus of control, choice of coping strategy and temperament. Pearson’s correlation analysis and canonical correlation analyses were conducted to ascertain whether there were any meaningful patterns of relationships between the two sets of variables, i.e. salutogenic functioning and temperament. Finally logistical regression analyses were used to predict salutogenic outcomes based on a set of independent temperament variables. Results indicated gender differences regarding psychological strengths, temperament and coping behaviour. Adolescent boys presented with higher levels of Comprehensibility and Manageability than girls. Adolescent girls generally displayed higher levels of Internal locus of control and Neuroticism-anxiety. They tended to make use of Social support, Worry, Tension reduction and Self-blame as coping strategies. There are strong relationships between the dimensions of psychological strength, temperament and choice of coping strategy. Certain temperament traits like Neuroticism-anxiety and Aggression-hostility contributed to low levels of coherence and external locus of control, as well as the use of dysfunctional coping strategies. Temperament traits like Activity and Sociability contributed to high coherence, Autonomy and a choice of adaptive coping strategies. These results indicate possible links between biological functioning and perception as well as coping behaviour. It may be concluded that there are links between psychological strengths like sense of coherence and locus of control, temperament and coping. The dynamics of the interaction between these variables are complex but becoming increasingly clear. Temperament traits contribute separately and in combination to perceptions of Comprehensibility, Manageability, Meaningfulness, control attributions and coping. It would therefore seem that constellations of traits exist that predict life orientation and behavioural outcomes. The ability to regulate emotion and attention, social adeptness and activity seem to be of particular importance in salutogenic perceptions and adaptive coping. The results of this study pertain to a particular sample of adolescents that cannot necessarily be generalised to other populations. It is recommended that this study should be replicated in more diverse samples especially from other cultures and communities. Care should be taken to develop and use measuring instruments applicable in a multi-cultural South African context and other indexes of biological functioning, salutogenesis and coping could be used. The findings of this study should be integrated to applicatory models when working with youths. / Professor Anita Stuart

South African government has since 1995, developed a considerable body of legislation that defines a holistic Human Resource Development Framework for the Private Security Sub-sector. Through this legislation development process, the Private Security Sub-sector has made considerable progress in implementing this body of legislation. However, in spite of this achievement, policy implementation success indicators are not commensurate to the policy development success indicators and several challenges are still impeding skills development of workers. In particular, the Private Security Industry has moved steadily beyond the systems development phase. It has made strong progress in implementing stipulations of the skill development legislation in the sector with the support of the skills levy fund as well as donor support. Considerable attention has been paid to the implementation of the different types of skills development related legislation including funding the skills development initiatives and employment equity. The cases examined in the study reflect varying and different degrees of success in achieving set targets as well as challenges that have emerged in the implementation process. There is an indication that the dire shortage of skills in the private security subsector persists and the efforts of the drivers of training and development in the sector, the Safety and Security Sector Education and Training (SASSETA), the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) and employers have made little impact on this need. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. The study revealed a range of critical National Skills Development Strategy targets that have not been met throughout the period under study. For instance employers have failed to meet obligatory targets of employing training employees to achieve at least ABET level 4. In addition, only 54% women have been trained and 4% people with disabilities. Furthermore, there are a number of other training obligations that compounds the challenge by infringing on the rights of the affected groups. This also retards the social and economic development of workers as well as that of the country. South Africa continues to lack effective, robust crime fighting groups of skilled crime fighters in spite of the training levy funds that have been spent on skilling the Private Security Sub-sector. The point of departure of this study is that the Skills Development initiative is a sector programme which must be led by the sector itself, especially the employers. The employers in the workplace constitute a valuable source of capacity to effectively implement the skills development legislation. SASSETA and PSIRA are the promoters and drivers of the participation of Private Security Service providers in skills development in pursuit of the 2014 vision. It is imperative that SASSETA and PSIRA, as proponents and catalysts of skills development, listen to the concerns raised by employers and continuously engage them as well as the intended beneficiaries, the workers. The research revealed that benefits of the skills development legislation will only be realised when critical elements such as prioritising the identified challenges and shortcomings are the focus. The study highlighted the need for industries to capacitate their employees to understand the intended benefits of training regulations and requirements. Developing management and leadership capacity, creating conditions that are conducive for skills development at the workplace, and building the capacity of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) through innovation and support were also identified as critical for successful implementation of policy in this regard. The need to train and capacitate leaders in corporate governance and financial management was also among the findings identified by the study. The findings will present an opportunity for scholars and researchers to debate and argue their merits and demerits which will in turn influence policy-making processes positively. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

This study focus on the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Education and Economic and Management Science learning area of curriculum 2005 constructs in order to determine whether EMS education can impact on the entrepreneurial orientation of learners. A brief overview is given to see how the EO construct has been described in academic literature at firm level as well as societal level. Entrepreneurship and education in schools are discussed with emphasis on what has been reported in the literature. Problems to make comparisons between countries are looked at and why it is important to have entrepreneurial education. A comparison is made between the enterprising skills, behaviour and attitudes mentioned by Gibb and the five dimensions of EO to determine common ground in teaching for EO. EO and education is also discussed. Education is seen as the independent variable to improve learners performance because it reaches the youth for many years and a tool to develop EO through a curriculum. The implicit role of culture is referred to and EO is seen as the mediator between the national culture and entrepreneurship. An attempt is made to develop an understanding of what should be included in EO learning mode to effectively convey the EO dimensions to the learner. Comparisons of the creative steps of Driver, knowledge skills of Fayolle and the business mode of Gibb were compared to teaching for the EO dimensions. Finally the results of an empirical study that was done to determine if the EO of learners that went through the EMS learning area of curriculum 2005 from grade 7-9 did change compared to a control group that did not go through the EMS learning area of curriculum 2005 from grade 7-9.The results reported that innovativeness and risk taking are affected by the EMS learning area of curriculum 2005. / Dissertation (MPhil (Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Business Management / unrestricted