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Academic achievement challenges in mainstream schools for learners with cochlear implants

  • Authors: Blumenthal, Lior
  • Date: 2021
  • Subjects: Academic achievement , Cochlear implants , Children with disabilities , Mainstreaming in education
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/486351 , uj:44237
  • Description: Abstract: This research sought to investigate the phenomenon of learners with cochlear implants and their academic challenges in mainstream schools. Despite the advanced technology, many learners with cochlear implants face academic and social challenges at school. Most existing studies in South Africa focus on hearing-impaired learners rather than learners who wear cochlear implants. The study was motivated by the desire to explore their experiences. Research was conducted using a qualitative approach and design, an interpretive paradigm and the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis as the theoretical framework to reflect the perspectives of the cochlear implant recipients. Purposive sampling was used to select the six former learners who were recipients of cochlear implants. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data, which were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. Five themes emerged from the analysis. The results of the study indicated that despite being able to hear and speak at a standard level generally, the participants encountered academic and social challenges in their mainstream schools. Various factors contribute to these challenges. The findings revealed that many educators in South Africa are unaware of most of these challenges. Specific training is required to raise awareness and skills of teachers to be able to accommodate these learners and to maximise their learning potential and achievements in the classroom. This study was successful in providing an in-depth description of the experiences of learners with cochlear implants in mainstream schools regarding their academic achievements. The results of this study cannot be generalised to the total population because the participants were limited in number and matriculated from mainstream schools eight years before. Further studies are required to explore the experiences of learners with cochlear implants who are currently learners in mainstream schools. , M.Ed. (Educational Psychology)
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Adolescent media use and its association to wellbeing in a Canadian national sample

Strategieë ter verbetering van skolastiese prestasiemotivering

Skooltoelatingsouderdom en milieufaktore by die skoolprestasie van 'n generasie Standerd X leerlinge

The effect of a self-efficacy enhancing programme on the academic achievement of cerebral palsied children

A reading intervention programme for adolescents

  • Authors: Di Terlizzi, Marisa Ann
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Reading - Remedial teaching , Reading (Middle school) , Academic achievement
  • Language: English
  • Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/245333 , uj:25409
  • Description: D.Ed. (Educational Psychology) , Abstract: The aim of this inquiry was to develop a reading intervention programme for adolescents in order to address reading difficulties and enhance reading proficiency. To this end, the research employed Geoffrey Mills’ Dialectical Action Research Spiral (2003), which consists of four phases. Phase one involves identifying an area of focus, which in this case was to understand the reading needs of adolescence in order to develop a relevant reading intervention programme. Phase two is collecting data. I identified two questions I wanted to address, the first of which was what are the reading needs of adolescents? Second, what should be included in a reading intervention programme for adolescents? To answer the first question, the learners were assessed using the WIAT-II (UK) scholastic assessment (reading subtests only), and to answer the second, focus group interviews were conducted with staff and two matric student committees. In order to analyse and interpret the data obtained, which is the third phase of Mills’ research spiral, the WIAT-II (UK) results were analysed using a Rasch model, while the focus group interviews were coded using constant comparison analysis. The findings of the study were as follows. First, the Rasch analysis of the WIAT-II (UK) suggests that there are three areas of reading that require attention: long vowel sounds, application of higher order thinking skills in reading comprehension activities, and exceptions to the rules of English. The findings further indicated that while the WIAT-II (UK) is an appropriate measure of reading ability of learners who experience difficulties in reading, it is not an appropriate general screening tool because of a lack of difficult test items. The qualitative data analysis of the focus group interviews yielded three themes. These were: Considering Different Levels of Reading Ability, Methodology, Skills and Techniques to be Addressed in a Reading Intervention Programme, and lastly, Psychological Aspects of Reading. All of these have a number of subthemes. These findings were then used to address Mills’ fourth phase, developing a reading intervention programme. This programme was designed to address two areas of need. First, Psychoeducation and Training for Teachers and Support Staff, and secondly, a Reading Intervention Programme for Adolescents, with both a general workshop...
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Profiling disadvantaged undergraduate students in higher education

  • Authors: Mpofu, Bhekimpilo
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Academic achievement , Disadvantaged students , Quintile system , Sustainable livelihoods
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: uj:5612 , ISSN 09766634 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/14406
  • Description: The focus of this paper is the academic progress of university students who come from disadvantaged schools. While research has been conducted on students' academic progress at higher education institutions, previous studies were generic in that they treated students as a homogenous group. This study differentiates different groups of students using the quintile system and links this to their academic progress. This study was conducted within the sustainable livelihoods approach and sought to explore three aspects of the population under study: namely, livelihood assets, context, and outcomes both before attending university and during their studies. It measured pre-university assets (such as school quintile) against pre-university outcomes (such as matric scores) and then applied these to university outcomes such as grade point average (GPA) and time to graduation. The results show that low quintile students have much lower average matric scores, achieve a much lower GPA of just 50% and lower, have a much higher dropout rate (of more than 51%) and take longer to achieve a degree (four to seven years for three-year degrees and five to seven years for four-year degrees) than high quintile students.
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The leadership strategies that the school management team employs to improve academic learner performance at two disadvantaged primary schools in Soweto

  • Authors: Davids, Ravilynn
  • Date: 2015
  • Subjects: Educational leadership - South Africa - Soweto , Academic achievement , Education - Parent participation , Motivation in education
  • Language: English
  • Type: Masters (Thesis)
  • Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/384446 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/214655 , uj:21308
  • Description: Abstract: Leadership development is a key activity in schools. It can focus on improving outcomes for students, developing leaders and supporting strategic change for the school. This mini-dissertation explores the leadership strategies that the school management team (SMT) practises to improve academic learner performance. It aims to gain insight into how the SMTs manage their schools in order to understand how other township schools consistently perform well, despite the socio-economic status that exists in the township. The mini-dissertation further explores how these school leaders manage to stay on top, what leadership practices they use to sustain academic learner performance and why they have made the choices they have. A qualitative, descriptive case study approach was employed with three members of the SMT, consisting of the principal, deputy-principal and the Intersen HoD. Two primary schools, which are located in disadvantaged communities in Soweto. Descriptive data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed to enable the researcher to code and arrange the data into themes. The thematic analyses of the data led to four main themes which emerged: (1) roles and responsibilities of the SMT; (2) leadership strategies of the SMT; (3) academic learner performance and (4) parental involvement in a disadvantaged school. The research findings reveal that principals of the case study schools play an indirect but powerful role towards the school’s success. Furthermore, in the case study schools, leadership was a shared entity. The findings also reveal that the schools succeeded by building and managing relationships with parents and other stakeholders inside and outside the schools. To research this topic further, the need for SMT development in secondary schools and in town schools were analysed along with the strategies employed at these schools to improve a sustainable academic learner performance. A number of leadership strategies were analysed and the issues and challenges of consistent learner performance were highlighted. The research findings highlight the assumptions, experiences and the issues and challenges that the interviewees face when involved in the implementation of leadership strategies. , M.Ed. (Educational Management)
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Die invloed van belangstelling op die studiesukses van eerstejaar onderwysstudente

Die invloed van studiegewoontes en -houdings op die studiesukses van eerstejaar onderwysstudente

Wiskundeprestasie : die effek van geslagsrolstereotipering

The relationship between adjustment and academic achievement of standard seven pupils

  • Authors: Dick, Margaret Leslie
  • Date: 2014-08-12
  • Subjects: Academic achievement , Adjustment (Psychology) in children - South Africa - Johannesburg
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:12018 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11769
  • Description: M. Ed. (Educational Psychology) , There is a growing concern for the number of children who drop out of school before completing their matriculation examination successfully. The increase in technological development and the creation of new and more demanding job opportunities requires a highly skilled workforce. Since underachievement retards the development of manpower, it implies that each pupil should be guided to reach his highest possible niveau. The factors affecting scholastic achievement are multidimensional, but one that has been minimally researched, is adjustment and the way in which inter- and intrapersonal relationships affect the scholastic achievement of pupils. This study was undertaken to determine the relationship between adjustment and different levels of academic achievement. The method of research is twofold. A literature study constitutes the first part in which definitions of adjustment and achievement are related to the development and learning of the adolescent in personal, home, social and formal relationships. This is followed by an empirical study on relational components of adjustment which are applied to achievers, overachievers and underachievers who are identified by means of a regression analysis.
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Aspirasiepeil en faalangs in skolastiese prestasiemotivering

  • Authors: Viljoen, Cornelia Fransina
  • Date: 2014-07-28
  • Subjects: Academic achievement , Achievement motivation in children , Level of aspiration , Fear of failure
  • Identifier: uj:11850 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11582
  • Description: D.Ed. (Educational Psychology) , Some of the problems regarding tests that are reliable and valid for the measurement of scholastic achievement motivation have been accentuated by research carried out in the first phase of Project Learning Motivation an interdisciplinary project that was undertaken at the Rand Afrikaans University with a grant from the Human Sciences Research Council. Results of the above-mentioned research also indicated that the fear of failure motive warrants further investigation with regard to its function in the academic motive structure of the secondary school pupil, on account of the fact that especially older pupils (i. e. those in standard ten) displayed disturbingly high levels of test anxiety (also known as fear of failure), the effects of which are decidedly negative, namely declining achievement motivation, a negative self concept and poor academic performance. Anxiety, especially achievement anxiety, is also associated with the "drop-out" phenomenon. As level of aspiration is reported to be related to achievement motivation, and is also subject to the influence of test anxiety, it was included in the present research in order to obtain a more complete picture of the academic motive structure of secondary school pupils. Theories on achievement motivation, level of aspiration, fear of failure and general anxiety were studied, which led to the conclusion that there is an inter dependency between these variables. The relative merits of questionnaire and protective measures of scholastic achievement motivation were also discussed.
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Die verband tussen groepsnorme en akademiese prestasie

Tendense in skolastiese prestasiemotivering by leerlinge in die sekondere skoolfase

  • Authors: Viljoen, Cornelia Fransina
  • Date: 2014-03-13
  • Subjects: Achievement motivation , Academic achievement , Academic achievement - Evaluation
  • Type: Thesis
  • Identifier: uj:4325 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/9676
  • Description: M. Ed. (Educational Psychology) , The last few decades have brought a significant increase in the amount of research on the subject of motivation, notably in the field of psychology. In connection with education too, motivation in general and more specifically learning and achievement motivation are of the greatest importance. One reason for this is the fact that there are indications that the problems of under-achievement, early school leaving and the disquieting loss of manpower which is the result, may be ascribed to inadequate learning and achievement motivation. This study forms part of the project "Learning Motivation", an inter-disciplinary project undertaken with the aid of the HSRC and involving various researchers. It attemps to come to grips with the phenomenon of achievement motivation from a pedagogical point of view, and is aimed in particular at designing reliable and valid tests for the assessment of achievement motivation, and at establishing how tendencies in achievement motivation manifest themselves at the secondary school level because in this phase particularly gnostic demands are made on the pupil and achievement motivation therefore plays a vital role. Various theories on motivation and achievement motivation were studied, as well as a number of existing tests. In accordance with the results of these studies, a semi-projective test, the "Leistungsmotiv Gitter" (LM-GITTER),which was designed in West Germany and is used in the assessment of general achievement motivation in the senior primary phase, was adapted in an attempt to assess scholastic achievement motivation among pupils in std. 6, 8 and 10. A second test, the Achievement Motivation Questionnaire, was also designed. It consists mainly of 41 items related to achievement, all of which are concerned with the characteristics of the achievement motivated person, as described...
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Standerd sewe-leerlinge en hul ouers se verwagtinge ten opsigte van intelligensie en skoolprestasie

Teaching the students we have : two perspectives on first year students at the University of Johannesburg and the UJ first year experience initiative

  • Authors: Van Zyl, André
  • Date: 2013
  • Subjects: Student success , Academic achievement , First year students - South Africa - Johannesburg , University of Johannesburg. Students , University of Johannesburg’s First Year Experience initiative
  • Type: Article
  • Identifier: uj:5343 , ISBN 978-0-620-60939-5 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/12491
  • Description: Over the past decade it has become clear that the South African Higher Education sector is marked by low participation rates coupled with low levels of student success. Although a lot of money, time and effort have been spent in trying to improve student success rates, no real systemic improvement has taken place. This paper argues that key elements of any strategy aimed at improving student success should include that it should “reach the classroom” (Tinto, 2012); it should be systemic in nature and it should be based on a thorough knowledge of the student population the institution serves. The paper then reports back on the results of research undertaken at the University of Johannesburg as well as on the First Year Experience that has been implemented at the institution since 2010. Results reported in the paper includes data from the Student Profile Questionnaire (SPQ) (used since 2006 and containing more than 30 000 records) and the Initial Student Experience Survey (ISES) (used since 2010 and containing about 20 000 records). Some of the findings from these questionnaires confirmed previously held beliefs while others were completely surprising. The data were used to inform the planning and implementation of the University of Johannesburg’s First Year Experience initiative which is aimed at assisting the institution to more effectively “teach the students it has”.
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Attitudes and achievement in mathematics in Soweto senior secondary schools

Differential analysis on the perceptions of learners concerning classroom culture and their academic achievement

  • Authors: Meiring, Alta
  • Date: 2012-09-05
  • Subjects: Academic achievement , Classroom environment , Educational psychology
  • Type: Mini-Dissertation
  • Identifier: uj:3586 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/6968
  • Description: M.Ed. , This research project was conducted to investigate the construct of classroom culture. The fundamental aim of this study was a differential analysis on the perceptions of learners concerning classroom culture and their academic achievement. The biographical data that was investigated for this study included: gender, age, mother tongue, tuition medium, taking care of learners and course being studied. It seems necessary since the social and cultural factors are seen as important influences on the perception of learners, concerning their learning success and academic achievement, even before the enter the classroom (See paragraphs 2.7.1 and 2.7.2). Find different dimensions of classroom culture were identified for this study as to research the different perceptions of the learners. The dimensions that were utilised for this study include the following: Dimension A — Classroom Environment Dimension B — Social Relationships Dimension C — Academic Achievement Dimension D — The role of the educator or lecturer Dimension E — The role of the learner The results of the empirical research indicated that positive perceptions by learners, concerning classroom culture and their academic achievement, is a valuable attribution to the learning experiences of learners in a classroom. Some findings that may be of value to educators and education are the following: Concerning the biographical data, most learners indicated overall positive responses. The following findings are significant to this study: It is evident that older learners and female learners were more task oriented, responsible and consider time management as important (age; gender). Most learners prefer a tuition medium in which they can understand fully. They prefer to communicate well in this medium. Furthermore, they want to follow the tuition medium, especially when the lecturers explain difficult work. Learners in the Business Studies Department perceived themselves to enjoy attending their classes. It may be as a result of classrooms being fully equipped with modern technology such as computers and air-conditioning (See paragraph 5.2.1). It is furthermore indicated that, mother tongue and the "taking care of learners", have no statistical significant impact on the perception of learners concerning classroom culture and their academic achievement. It is significant to this study that all five dimensions concerning classroom culture indicated statistical significant differences among the groups of learners. The following findings may be of value: It is evident that a friendly, comfortable classroom environment (Dimension A) as well as co-operative classmates, who assists other learners with their learning experiences (Dimension B) contributes to positive classroom cultures. It is furthermore indicated that the role of the educator, being open, positive, approachable and supportive, enhance the academic achievement of learners (Dimension C and Dimension D). Learners perceive themselves as to be a fundamental part of classroom culture. Most learners perceive themselves as responsible learners whose academic achievement is in accordance with their potential and capabilities (Dimension C and Dimension E). Learners identify more easily with educators whose classes they enjoy. They often work hard, not to disappoint their educators. It is indicated, through this research that the perception and experiences of the life world of learners, initiate their reaction to classroom environment. It furthermore implies the intention of learners to actively assess their learning world, thus classroom culture.
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Gehaltebestuur as 'n benadering tot voortdurende verbetering in leerlingprestasie

  • Authors: Lottering, Felicia Dorothy
  • Date: 2012-09-04
  • Subjects: Quality control , Motivation in education , Academic achievement
  • Type: Mini-Dissertation
  • Identifier: uj:3507 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/6896
  • Description: M.Ed. , In this mini-dissertation the viability of total quality management as an approach to improvement in learner achievement is researched. Some elements of total quality management are used in the school/class in an effort to improve learner achievement. Continuous improvement is seen as vital for both the teacher and the client (learner). The teacher should try to continuously better himself in his subject field. Improvement in learner achievement is made possible especially in the classroom, and for this reason classroom management, as a component of educational management, has been discussed. Key aspects of total quality management as applied by the teacher in the classroom, to improve learner achievement are discussed. The core of the argument is the improvement of learner achievement. Most important is customer satisfaction. By the familiarisation of the customer's background and character, the teacher is able to satisfy (the customer's) academic needs. Evaluation and measurement are used to determine what the learner knows, and how well it is understood. Knowledge of, and skills in using the measuring instruments of total quality management is essential and for that reason the instruments that will be useful in teaching are discussed. The total quality management model of Murgatroyd and Morgan is discussed as a starting point where from total quality management should be initiated. The following are the most important conclusions drawn from the literature study. Total quality management views education as a system of interdependent organisational elements. It attempts to satisfy the external customers, who provide the learners and who pay the taxes that support the system. Evaluation is only meaningful if it can be linked to the educational goals of the school. In the teaching process objective (short questions, multiple choice questions) as well as subjective evaluation (observation of learner's contribution in self-activity modules) are used. Classroom assessment emphasises continuous improvement, and the elimination of learning problems when they are identified. The emphasis on continuous improvement shows that the teacher, as well as the customer, should not always be satisfied with performance only, but that the learner's marks should serve as a starting point to improve on. If the ideas of total quality management are used in the school positive results can be achieved. Changes in the environment in and around the school, should be taken into account as these play a role in the achievement of pupils. Knowledge and skills of the measuring instruments are essential for successful total quality management implementation. Successful total quality implementation, involves changing long-standing and often deeply entrenched organisational and managerial habits. This implies a shift in communication patterns and performance evaluation.
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