A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies at the University of Zululand, 2019. / Writing is dominant in schools and continues to be important for effective communication. Therefore, learners need to be up- skilled in writing skills as their everyday activities. This study was conducted to investigate the in-service training needs of educators in teaching writing skills in primary schools at eSwatini. The study responded to the questions: (a) To what extent are educators teaching languages, trained in teaching writing skills to primary school learners? (b) What in-service training needs do educators have in teaching writing skills of primary school learners? (c) What competencies do educators possess for teaching writing skills? The mixed method design was adopted for this study which triangulated focus group semi structured interview, documentary analysis and lesson observation. Purposive sampling was used to sample N=56 educators in eight primary schools and N= 6 trainers from three teacher training colleges. The mixed-method approach was used to collect data. Quantitative data were analysed using the statistics, frequencies and percentages as well as cross tabulation. Qualitative data from focus group interviews were analysed by identifying patterns and themes. The study revealed the lack of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in the teaching of writing skills. The findings imply that there no methods of teaching employ in teaching writing skills. In addition, the study findings imply that among other things, there was lack of parental involvement and lack of support from school administrators and government. Recommendations made from this study were that: in-service training department should strengthen workshops with regard to writing skills, there should be preparation of lessons, setting of test, scheme of work and marking of learners’ work. Furthermore, the training colleges should have comprehensive writing skills programmes for all pre-service educators, and not only those who major in languages.

A behavioral approach to teaching in the public school system is difficult because of the inherent difficulty of finding positive reinforcers and administering them simultaneously to large groups of students. This study attempts to apply the same tangible reinforcers to two groups of students under different schedules of reinforcement. The students in the study were in special classes termed "learning adjustment" classes because of their failure to perform at grade level in regular classroom settings. One group was on a continuous schedule of reinforcement using tokens and gold strike stamps as reinforcers. The second group was also on a continuous schedule of reinforcement but with a punishment contingency added. Reinforcers were the same for this group as the first group. The third group was a comparison group. Performance rates were studied under the above schedules of reinforcement and were found to increase the number of arithmetic units completed for each group. Achievement level change in mathematics as measured by the mathematics section of the California Achievement Test was a second major aspect of this study. Although there was a very definite difference in the number of arithmetic units completed by the three groups there was not a corresponding difference in the amount of change in achievement level.

Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of bullying interventions targeted at bystanders; however, a fluency component has not been used in any studies to teach these skills. The present study investigated the inclusion of fluency training to teach and enhance skills that can be used when responding and defending the victim in fourth- and fifth-grade students (N=55 and N=53, respectively). All students participated in a modified version of the Bully Prevention in Positive Behavior Support for Elementary School program and filled out pre- and postrating scales to determine participant roles related to bullying. An experimental group also participated in fluency training sessions to teach bystander skills. Results showed that there was a significant interaction between group and time showing more growth on correct responses per minute (CRPM) for the experimental fluency group than the control group on bystander skills fluency task. Additionally, results showed that defender role scores significantly increased for the fluency group at post but not for the control group. There were no significant differences for the reinforcer or outsider role scores. Implications of these findings for school-based practice and research are discussed.

The field of marriage and family therapy (MFT) has prospered since its beginnings nearly 50 years ago. In order to keep the field current and competitive with other related professions, empirical research is necessary. Although there has been an upsurge of research on the effectiveness and specialty areas of MFT, one area has been overlooked: skills. THe empirical research that has been performed has focused its attention on beginning therapists. The current research took the next step in determining family therapy skills and investigated the skills needed by intermediate-level therapists--not beginners, yet also not advanced therapists. This research surveyed a panel of supervision experts in the MFT profession who work with intermediate-level therapists in order to determine the skills that intermediate-level therapists are the same skills thought to be important for beginning therapists, identified in previous research. Of the top 25 ranked items in the Basic Family Therapy Skills project that were rated in the current Intermediate Family Therapy Skills project, 22 of the items' means differed less than .25 in their ratings. Overall, most of the nominated items were rated between "very important" and "important". Implications for training and further research are discussed.

This was a two-part study, employing the self and informant, pre and post treatment, forms of the Personal Adjustment and Role Skills Scale, the PARS Scale. In this study seven of the PARS Scale factors were employed: Interpersonal Involvement, Agitation-Depression, Attention-Confusion, Alcohol-Drug, Outside Social, Household Management (females), and Anxiety (males). This study was conducted at Delaunay Institute for Mental Health, an outpatient community mental health clinic in a low socioeconomic catchment area. Part One of the study employed a random sample of seventy applicants, male and female, ages sixteen to sixty-four, who applied to Delaunay for treatment services between November of 1972 and July of 1973 and who completed, at least, the self-pretreatment PARS Scale. This sample was administered the self and informant pre PARS Scale at initial interview. In October of 1973, the number of treatment sessions in the three months following initial interview was secured from billing cards. At this same time, therapists at Delaunay were requested to assess the sample on their progress in therapy at that time or at termination. Four categories were possible: great, moderate, slight, and no progress. They were also requested to identify the certainty with which they made the assessment according to: great, moderate, or slight certainty. Following this, the self-pretreatment PARS Scale scores were correlated with number of treatment sessions. No relationship appeared for females between number of treatment sessions and self pre PARS Scale scores. For males, a non-significant trend was noted on most factors, indicating that a high self pre PARS score was indicative of fewer treatment sessions. A significant and inverse relationship between the self pre PARS Scale score on Alcohol-Drug and number of treatment sessions occurred for males, indicating that a high score on this factor was suggestive of fewer treatment sessions. The self-pretreatment PARS Scale scores were correlated with therapist assessment of progress in therapy. No relationship appeared for females. For males, no significant relationship appeared but a non-significant trend was indicated, suggesting that a high self pre PARS Scale score was indicative of a favorable therapist assessment on progress in therapy. Part Two of the study employed a non-random sample of fifteen females who had provided self and informant, pre and post treatment, PARS Scale scores. Post treatment, informant data was notably deficient in this part of the study and prevented the employment of males in the sample. Descriptive data on income, education, marital status, and presenting problem were provided for this sample. The sample was administered the self and informant, pretreatment, PARS Scale at initial interview. Three months after initial interview they were administered the self and informant, post treatment, PARS Scale if they remained in treatment for at least three months. As in Part One of this study, number of treatment sessions for the three months following initial interview were secured from the billing cards. In October of 1973, therapists were requested to provide a therapist behavioral assessment with four possible categories: improved, maintained, regressed (therapeutic), regressed (non-therapeutic). This assessment was to be made from recall and/or records at the time the self and informant, post treatment, PARS Scale was administered. Again, therapists were requested to indicate the degree of certainty involved in their assessment. The relationship between number of treatment sessions and the available self and informant, pre and post treatment, PARS Scale scores was explored. It was found that the self pre PARS score on Interpersonal Involvement, the self-post PARS score on Alcohol-Drug, and the informant post PARS score on Alcohol-Drug were significantly and inversely related to the number of treatment sessions. High scores on these factors indicated fewer treatment sessions. The relationship between therapist behavioral assessment and available self and informant, pre and post treatment, PARS Scale scores was explored. Results showed a significant and direct relationship between the self-post PARS score on Outside Social, the informant post PARS score on Alcohol-Drug and therapist behavioral assessment. High scores on these factors indicated a favorable therapist behavioral assessment. Evaluation of treatment services with the PARS Scale in Part Two of this study found the self, pre and post treatment, PARS Scale scores on Attention-Confusion to be the only PARS scores showing significant differences after three months of treatment. None of the remaining self-PARS scores and none of three informant PARS scores indicated any significant differences. It was recommended that the predictive capacity of the PARS Scale not be explored further. Further exploration of the use of the PARS Scale for evaluative purposes was suggested due to the limitations of the research design with regard to specificity and sampling. Finally, exploration of specific and individualized treatment evaluation, suggested by recent psychotherapy research, was encouraged.

The subject of the thesis is the use of musical activities in the development of graphomotor skills of preschool children. The theoretical part of the thesis is devoted to the problem of harmonization of music and movement at the level of gross and fine motor skills. It also deals with the issue of laterality and its distinctness. The practical part contains a detailed case study of a boy with a disadvantageous type of laterality and follows the development of his graphomotor skills during 15 lessons, the core of which are musical activities for the development of graphomotor skills of preschool children. I used multiple complementary research methods in the in-depth case study, which were participant observation, mother interview, open-ended questionnaire, family and personal history, and PPP report. The action research was conducted over a ten-month period, with the boys being 4 years and 3 months old at the start of the research. The practical part of the thesis analyses the action research data and evaluates the overall impact of specific musical activities in the development of preschool children's graphomotor skills.

Volunteer leaders are an underutilized resource in nonprofit organizations. However, as volunteer directors are stretched to their capacity, others in the organization must provide leadership to volunteers. One way for nonprofit organizations to increase their capacity is to develop the leadership skills of identified volunteer leaders. Because time and resources are limited in nonprofit organizations, the purpose of this study was to determine if identifying and training volunteer leaders is beneficial to the outreach of organizations they serve. This study was conducted in three parts. A Delphi study, was conducted with volunteer directors in the community to identify leadership competencies for volunteer leaders. At the conclusion of three rounds of iteration, 42 competencies were identified. A volunteer leader training and assessment instrument was developed based on those 42 competencies. Next, social network analysis was used to identify volunteer leaders in three groups at a nonprofit organization. ForceAtlas2 analysis was used to generate networks of nodes (volunteers) and edges (connections) to determine leaders within each group. The identified leaders were compared to leaders identified by the volunteer director of the organization. Overall, the volunteer leaders selected by the director matched those identified by the social network analysis with the exception of one outlier in one of the volunteer groups. Lastly, the identified volunteer leaders were invited to the volunteer leader training developed from the competencies identified by the Delphi. Participants were assessed prior-to, and following, the training by their peer volunteers based on their ability to demonstrate the identified competencies. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to determine if a there was a difference between the participants’ demonstration of the competencies after the training compared to before. The results of the analysis indicated there was no statistically significant increase in participant’s ability to demonstrate the leadership competencies and skills as a result of the workshop. However, there was an overall increase for participants’ ability to demonstrate 31 of the competencies covered in the training. The researcher suggests revising the workshop into a comprehensive series of shorter trainings and replicating the study to determine if additional competencies can be improved upon.

Introduction: This thesis hypothesized that synchronous feedback which is supportive in nature would have a positive impact on the learning and transfer of the skills of visual and auditory cue identification in osteopathic diagnostic procedures. It was believed that the positive impact of supportive feedback would be evident through accurate identification of both visual and auditory cues. The categories of cues were visually identifiable asymmetrical motion, visual or auditory expressions of pain, and visually identifiable cues of a possible soft tissue tear or motor nerve issue. Methods: All participants received the same video-based learning resource which was optimized for content (what/how) and cognition (why) followed by the same instructions for the practice phase. During the practice phase all participants were shown a video of a previously learned diagnostic procedure which contained visual and auditory cues. Between videos, participants were all asked the same questions in the same order. In the Supportive Feedback with Specific Content (SC) group participants would receive supportive comments regardless of accuracy of answers and, if they had identified an appropriate physical phenomenon but ascribed it to an incorrect category, they would receive feedback to correct the categorization error. The Supportive Feedback (S) group would receive supportive comments regardless of accuracy of answers but no feedback in relation to categorization errors. The No Feedback (NF) group would receive no supportive comments or feedback in relation to categorization errors. Responses were coded as accurate detection of cues, or categorization errors (detection of cues that were not there, or incorrect categorization of cues). Results: All groups performed similarly with respect to accurate identification of auditory and visual cues such that there was no identifiable impact in relation to group condition during both the practice and transfer phases. The SC group did commit less categorization errors (11.43%) when compared to the S (28.21%) and NF (31.43%) groups. Conclusion: The experimental findings supported the hypothesis that supportive feedback enhanced learning outcomes. While not demonstrated through accuracy of cue identification, this was demonstrated through a reduction in cue categorization errors. An additional hypothesis generated from the results of this thesis is that educational designs that allow for the commission of errors by learners followed by correction in the form of direct feedback or group lecture may predict faster attainment of expertise as noted in the reduction of errors. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Synchronous feedback has the ability to aid learning. It was hypothesized in this thesis that synchronous feedback that was supportive in nature would improve learning and transfer for learning the skill of visual and auditory cue identification in osteopathic diagnostic procedures. All participants received the same initial learning material, the same instructions for the practice phase of the experiment, and the same videos of a previously learned diagnostic procedure that they identified visual and diagnostic cues from. During the practice phase the three groups were the Supportive Feedback with Specific Content (SC), Supportive Feedback (S), and No Feedback (NF). The differences between groups were evident between diagnostic videos subsequent to the collection of answers for identified cues. The material differences were the delivery of supportive comments regardless of accuracy of answers (SC and S groups), the delivery of specific feedback when accurate cues were identified but placed in the wrong category (SC group only), or the absence of any commentary (NF group). All groups identified cues at similar levels such that the supportiveness of feedback showed no impact on performance. There was a notable difference between groups in relation to the commission of categorization errors where the SC group made less categorization errors with the S group and NF group committing errors at similar rates. The primary benefit of synchronous feedback in this experiment is that the instructor is able to identify errors and provide insight for correction.

No description available.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / This study was conducted for the purpose of determining the effectiveness of a home-based motor activity program on children with Down syndrome 6 to 10 years of age. Twenty-six children with Down syndrome and their respective families participated in this twelve-week study. The Circles Of Learning instructional program was created, and fieldtested. The Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) provided base-line data for measures of progress in fundamental motor skills. Parents were instructed in how to teach locomotor skills and object control skills as measured by the TGMD. The methods required seven distinct activities: the creation of an instructional manual; recruitment and instruction of project assistants; identification and recruitment of the subjects and their families; pretest and posttest assessment of subjects; instructional training of parents; and the twelve week intervention. The comparison (C) group received the Handwriting Without Tears program during the 12 week intervention period. When compared with the (C) group, all subjects in the experimental (E) group showed statistically significant improvement in the acquisition of fundamental motor skills as measured by the TGMD. Four (E) group subjects improved to the "average" range for typically developing children. Ten of the 11 (E) group subjects continued to improved their demonstrated fundamental motor skill performance two weeks after the intervention, while one subject maintained his gains. Weekly parent comments during the intervention gave testimony to the effectiveness of the intervention supporting primary and secondary gains for the subjects. Parents reported that interactions between family members and the subjects increased and fundamental motor skills improved during spontaneous unstructured play and during organized activities at home and at school. This study challenges the previous research suggesting children with Down syndrome need specialized motor development programs. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the acquisition of fundamental motor skills for children with Down syndrome can be accelerated.