In South African classrooms a strong emphasis is placed on assessing learners by means of portfolios. Through the utilisation of portfolios it is envisaged that learner growth and development should be enhanced in order for learners to become expert learners who are strategic, self-regulated and self-reflecting. This study aimed to determine how effective the implementation of portfolio assessment presently is, and if necessary, to develop a model that could improve the implementation of portfolio assessment in the Senior Phase, Grade 9 in particular. By means of explanatory mixed method research through the completion of questionnaires by 369 learners and 88 educators, and focus group interviews conducted with 36 of the 88 educators from the Sedibeng West District, disconcerting results were revealed. It appeared that educators are not equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to implement portfolio assessment in order to enhance learner growth and development. Based on the disturbing findings, a model was designed to highlight the processes and components involved in the successful implementation of portfolio assessment. As no evidence of any other model to improve the implementation of portfolio assessment at school level could be located, the contribution of this study lies in the development of a tool that could be utilized by the Department of Education to train educators to become effective implementers of portfolio assessment. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

The purposes of this study are illustrated as follows: to investigate the current situation of demography, internet pornography experience, sexual attitude and behavior among senior high school students, to exam the difference and correlation of those students¡¦demography which is represented on internet pornography experience and sexual attitude, and to try to find out the variables of pornography experience and population, which could be used to predict senior high school students¡¦ sexual attitude in such environment which internet pornography overloads. The data gathered from questionnaires are analyzed by statistical methods such as frequency distributions, mean deviation, reliability analysis, factor analysis, chi-square test, t-test of dependent sample, ANOVA of dependent sample, Pearson¡¦s correlation, and the multiple regression. Results and discussion are summarized as follows: 1. There are 63.7% senior high school students have touch the internet for 5 years, and the degree increase by the years that they touched. They usually talk and make friend on the internet(78.7%) . 2. There are 71.1% senior high school students have touch the internet pornography, and that is they main way to connect the pornography. They touched it for vagary, and they touched it for one hour a day, in nine in the night to twelve in the noon. They touched it at their home. 3. The senior high school students¡¦ sexual attitude is between agree and disagree. 4. There are 10.5% students have sexual behavior, which gather 15 to 17 years old. The contraception they usually took is condom. 5. Sex, school, talking about sexual issues with friend have significant different to internet pornography experience. 6. Sex, grade, school, the school location have significant different to sexual attitude. 7.Internet pornography has different to sexual attitude. Without connecting internet pornography, connecting less time, and taking disagree option, the sexual attitude are more guard. 8.Internet pornography experience and sexual attitude have lower negative correlation. 9.Internet pornography has different to sexual behavior. The more connecting, the more frequency, and the more time cost the students have, their sexual behavior are deeper. 10.Internet pornography experience and sexual behavior have lower correlation. 11.Population and internet pornography information to sexual attitude can validly predict 12% senior high school students¡¦ sexual attitude. Population and internet pornography information to sexual behavior can validly predict 12.6% senior high school students¡¦ sexual behavior.

The diagnosis and treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders has changed rapidly in the past century. Western medicine has produced diagnostic criteria, pharmaceuticals, and different therapies, increasing public awareness of these conditions. This research investigates the potential and perceived cultural, familial, and political influences on anxiety and depressive disorders in the current biomedical system; analyzes the effects of this system on the patients within it; and compares the causality, diagnosis, and treatment of these conditions cross-culturally. To accomplish these research goals, I conducted in-depth interviews with people affected by depression and anxiety in the Atlanta area. I will present my analysis of the interview data collected, focusing on the extent to which each participants' familial and cultural backgrounds and attitudes towards biomedicine affected their choices and experiences with treatment. I also explore the role of pharmaceutical advertising and marketing strategies in patients’ perceptions of their disorder and treatment options.

This thesis paper presents the research and character development process that I undertook to play the role of Eva, in the Pomona College Fall 2012 production of Diane Samuels’ award winning play, Kindertransport. In the ten-months prior to the 1938 outbreak of World War II, nearly 10,000 predominately Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland were evacuated to Great Britain to escape the looming Holocaust. The program was given the name, Kindertransport (children’s transports) by German railway officials because only unaccompanied children under the age of 17 were allowed to leave. Once the Kinder arrived in England, host families took them in for what was believed to be a temporary stay. At the time, no one could have foreseen the challenges and consequences for the children that had been separated from their families and heritage. Samuels' play examines the themes of separation, survival and denial of one’s past through the character Eva, who at the age of nine is sent to England on one of the transports. The first part of this thesis concerns the historical events leading to the disenfranchisement of the European Jews, as well as the people and politics that were a part of the Kindertransport rescue network. The second aspect of this paper addresses the staging of Samuels’ play, my character study, and the role preparation that I carried out to play a Jewish German girl from the age of 9 through 17.

Medicare is vital to the health and well-being of many American seniors. However, due to its complexity, beneficiaries often need assistance navigating the federal health insurance system. GeorgiaCares, Georgia’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), provides free and unbiased Medicare information and counseling. The aims of this thesis were to evaluate GeorgiaCares outreach events to discern the social and demographic characteristics of participants and decipher how to best market the events. Participants of nine GeorgiaCares outreach events (n=81) completed anonymous surveys; mixed-methods data analysis revealed the typical participant to be a 71-year-old African American female. Findings suggest an effective way to assist beneficiaries in Medicare-related decisions is through the formation of community partnerships. Suggestions to market outreach events include partnering with churches and grocery stores to disseminate information and enlisting the support of community leaders to overcome barriers of distrust.

The aim of this thesis is to study and analyse how the manifestation of the British colonial era is presented and interpreted in Gambian secondary school history teaching. The sources used in this study are the history syllabus, history textbooks and a few teachers. The research questions are: To what extent is the colonial era projected in the history teaching, if so, why is so much emphasis focused on the colonial times? What attitudes do the people have regarding the colonial era and the British; what is positive and what is negative with the strong focus on the colonial times? The reason why I have chosen to study the colonial era and its magnitude and impact in the history teaching in the Gambia, is that this is an unexplored subject and I found it interesting to focus on this subject and put it in relation to such a small country as the Gambia. The reasons mentioned above is what it makes it interesting to study how the colonial era is viewed in the history teaching in the Gambia and how teachers handle this subject. How do they handle this period of history in a former colony? In this study I have used the qualitative method. My empirical material has been collected through history schoolbook analysis, interviews with three teachers and participated classroom observations in the history subject. My theoretical framework includes concepts like learning procedure, learning dilemmas and attitudes about colonialism, which are described and discussed. The colonial era is frequently emphasised in the history teaching in the Gambia, almost all the history teaching consist of this subject area. Furthermore, the attitude towards this era and the British colonisers varies among interviewed teachers. One conclusion is that it is important to convey both a positive and a negative view about this matter.

The purposes of this study was to investigate the junior high school students¡¦ perceptions of ¡uQuality Senior High School Program¡v and the factors of selecting senior high schools for further study. 1,112 8th and 9th graders of Pingtung County junior high schools were sampled to complete a 37 ¡V items questionnaire. Based on reliability and validity analyses, the 37 ¡V items were divided into 6 dimensions as follows: school and teachers¡¦ performances, recommendation from relatives or friends, school propaganda, personal selection factor, school activity, and the distance between home and school. The descriptive analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Logistic Regression were conducted to come to the following findings: 1. Most of the countries in the world adopt school district, in high school education and their students enroll nearby schools mostly. 2. The main purpose of promoting the Quality Senior High School Program is to make the students who have good achievements remain in local schools, and develop the school characterization. 3. The students in the north district of Pingtung County have highly approval towards Quality Senior High School Program. 4. The top three factors that influenced junior high students selecting which senior high to study are individual factors, the reputation of school and the faculties, and the transportation convenience. 5. The eighth grades and students from remote areas have higher recognition of the Quality Senior High School Program. 6. Students from different background are wide varied while making school choice. 7. Over 50% of junior high students are willing to enroll senior high schools nearby. 8. Individual factors, school activities, and distance between home and school will effectively predict the students¡¦ willingness to select neighboring senior high schools. According to the results stated above, the researcher offers several suggestions for the educational authorities, senior high schools and junior high schools in the north district of Pingtung County, hoping to be of referential value as far as related research and practice are concerned.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of senior high school students¡¦ perception of work value and occupational selection. A cluster sampling is conducted to collect 528 8th graders from 7 senior high school students in Kaohsiung city . The valid response rate is 92.47%. In addition, 4 of students from 4 different schools are individually interviewed by this investigator in order to determine whether their paper and pencile responses are consistent with their actual perceptions. Finally, the hypotheses are tested through SPSS 15.0 statistical analyses. The results of the t-test, ANOVA, and regression reveal 11 major following findings: 1. There is non-significant gender difference on the scores of ¡§work value¡¨ and ¡§occupational selection¡¨¡Fwhereas girls¡¦¡Ascores on ¡§occupation environment & promotion¡¨ and ¡§work ensure¡¨ are significantly higher than those boy counterparts¡¦. 2. There is non-significant difference on the scores of ¡§work value¡¨ and ¡§occupational selection¡¨, while students¡Awho having different birth born order. 3. There is significant difference on the score of ¡§work of reputation and status¡¨, while studentsto obtain education degree levels. 4. There is significant difference on the score of ¡§occupation environment & promotion¡¨ and ¡§work ensure¡¨, while their fathers having different educational degree. 5. There is non-significance on the score of ¡§work value¡¨and ¡§occupational selection¡¨, while their mothers having different educational degree. 6. There is significant difference on the scores of ¡§work of independently & recreation¡¨ and ¡§work ensure¡¨, while students¡¦ studying in different style schools. 7. There is significant difference on the score of ¡§work value¡¨ , whereas there is non-significant difference on the score of ¡§occupational selection¡¨. 8. There is non-significant on the scores of ¡§work value¡¨ and ¡§occupational selection¡¨, while students having different academic achievement; whereas there is significant difference on the score of ¡§work reputation and status¡¨. 9. There is non-significant difference on the scores of ¡§work value¡¨ and ¡§occupational selection¡¨, while students with different task experiences. 10. The variables of students¡¦birth born order and self expectation to obtain education level and the score of ¡§work value¡¨ are together explained 35.2¢H of the variance of students¡¦¡Ainternal personality factor. 11.The variables of students¡¦ background, school style, birth born order, self expectation to obtain education level, and work value are together explained 24.3¢H of the variance of students¡¦ external environmental factor.

The purposes of this study were to explore the love values reflected in Mandarin popular songs in Taiwan and related values among Taiwanese senior high students. The researcher adopted content analysis and questionnaire survey as the major research methods for the research. A total of 1081 pieces of lyric of popular songs which have been voted as the top 10 of each week in the CASHBOX Magazine from May, 1998 to May, 2003 were located to conduct the content analysis. The questionnaire, based upon the literature review and the results of the lyric content analyses, were filled out by 854 senior high schools students in Kaohsiung city and Kaohsiung county. The statistic measures of descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-squre test and cross tabulation analysis were used for the data analyses. The study concluded in the following findings: 1. Love values of Mandarin popular songs from May, 1998 to May, 2003: (1)Love is still the most important topic in popular songs. (2)Most popular songs usually present a situation of frustration or crisis during the love. (3)Most lyrics often reflect the negative side of love. 2. Love values of Taiwanese senior high school students (1)Most senior high students still hold more positive attitudes toward love. (2)The experiences of being boyfriend or girlfriend, whether to be in love presently and being crazy about popular songs or not, all three did make difference among the various aspects of love values of senior students. (3)Gender, school location and regularly listening to popular songs or not make no difference in students¡¦ love values. 3. The difference between the love vlues of lyrics and those of senior high school students. The results were that there existed a lot of differences between lyrics and senior high school students. Most lyrics offen reflect negative love values, but most senior high school students have opposite views toward love. According to the research results mentioned above, the researcher found that the love values of lyrics of popular songs were different from those of senior high school students. At the same time, the lyrics did not completely reflect the love world held by the adolescent. Therefore, due to the fact that the content analysis of lyrics was not the only measure adopted to project the love values of the adolescent, it would not be the sufficient instrument in exploring fully the loves values of senior high students in Taiwan.

Examinations have long been adopting for the selection of the public officials and become an essential tradition in our country. For centuries, the examination system, incorporated with fairness, has served as the recruitment mechanism and its functions and value still remain. The Senior Civil Service Examination traces its roots to the traditional examination systems and has become the most important examination. In order to recommend the brightest and ablest for the notion¡¦s recruitment and service, it is necessary to look into the background and the implementation status of the Senior Civil Service Examination system after seven decades since its establishment, while reviewing its capacity in response to the changes of the external environment. In addition, the reengineering of the examination system from the western countries to meet the challenges of new century is also the subject of the concern. This paper has three purposes. First, investigate the establishment and the current development of the Senior Civil Examination and explore its implementation and the potential problems. Second, research the recruiting system from other counties such as United Kingdom, United States, Germany, French, and Japan, etc. and take their experience as the reference. Last but not least, provide a feasible proposal to improve the effectiveness of our existing Senior Civil Examination for the public officials. Three different methodologies are used in this paper, the Document Analysis method, the Comparative method, and the In-depth interviewing method. The objective of this paper is to propose a suggestion of innovation and development for our existing Senior Civil Examination system for the public officials in regard to aspects such as the implementation status of our current examination systems and the experience learned from other countries. Keywords: the public officials, examination, the examination system, the Senior Civil Service Examination, background¡C