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    An examination of Hellison's (2003) Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model, its validity and effectiveness for primary school aged children in New Zealand : a thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Smith, Michael Hayes
    The Hellison (2003) model was developed with a goal to enable any participant in its application to develop their personal and social responsibility. The literature demonstrates that the model has been typically made available for youth, as an after-school programme option, in which participation is voluntary. This thesis examined a longitudinal intervention over one scholastic year of an application of Hellison’s (2003) model as part of the curriculum in a New Zealand primary school. Within the model, the five levels of personal and social responsibility, 1) Respect, 2) Participation, 3) Self-direction, 4) Caring, and 5) Outside the training venue, are already translated into five operationalised goals; 1) Self-control and respect, 2) Self-motivation, 3) On-task independence, 4) Sensitivity and responsiveness, and 5) Trying these ideas in other areas of life. The intervention, a forty week training programme using a ten lesson plan format, repeated four times, utilised the goal structure of the model to formulate the individual lesson plans. The lesson plans, to convey the five social goals of the model in accordance with Hellison’s (2003) guidelines, included a karate skill set as the physical activity component of the training sessions. Two cohorts were recruited into the study, from two scholastically equivalent schools, one to receive the intervention (n = 36), and one to act as control (n = 49). The control group completed the measures only and did not receive the intervention. Each goal of the model was empirically assessed to determine change over time whilst participating in the current application of the model. A time series empirical approach was used and psychometrically reliable and valid instruments were administered at six equal-distant intervals. At each of the six intervals, four self-reporting measures were completed by the child participants. Rosenberg’s Self-Efficacy Scale (S-ES), Dishman’s Self-Motivation Inventory for Children (SMI-C9), Muris’s Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C), and Caprara and Pastorelli’s Prosocial Behavior Scale. A separate measure, Polit’s Positive Behavior Scale, was completed each by the participant’s parent, and the participant’s class teacher, at each of the six intervals. Statistical analysis using regression model fitting on the data obtained from the empirical measures demonstrated that scores increased for the intervention participants on each measure over the course of the current study. A linear model was evident from the analysis. Multivariate repeated analysis of the four child self-reporting measures demonstrated that the mean positive change, on goals 1 - 4, was greatest for the intervention group. Equality of means analysis also confirmed that the intervention group had the highest level of improvement in positive behaviour, as reported by the parents and teachers, on goal 5. Secondary analysis using Guttman (1947, 1950) scaling enabled a detailed examination of the model’s stage-like progression premise. The intention of the analysis was to determine if any participant could progress through the five stages, each in succession, as the model posits that they should. Scalograms were constructed at each of the six intervals to produce a Coefficient of Reproducibility, one each for the intervention and control groups. From the twelve coefficients, a mean Coefficient of Reproducibility ≥ .90 was acceptable evidence of temporal reliability of the scalograms in the current study. Guttman (1950) Scalogram Analysis demonstrated that a four-item scalogram, for the child self-reporting measures, and a five-item quasi-scalogram, combining the child self-reporting measures with a mean score of the parent and teacher measure, was found in the current study. In a research first, the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model was demonstrated to possess stage progression in its goal structure. Further, participants in the intervention group demonstrated that they progressed along a single continuum, one stage after another, as the Hellison (2003) model claimed. However, the goals in the current study developed in a differing order than those proposed by the Hellison (2003) model. Specifically, the stage sequence discovered was firstly goal 2) Self-motivation, followed by goal 3) On-task independence, before goal 1) Self-control and respect, which was third. Goal 4) Sensitivity and responsiveness, and 5) Trying these ideas in other areas of life, emerged in the sequence as the model predicted. A repeated, between groups, analysis demonstrated that a significant difference between the intervention group and control group existed from sixteen weeks and beyond. The findings from the current study make a significant contribution to the literature. A detailed, empirical protocol, a research first of its type, was demonstrated to be reliable for the assessment of participant development whilst engaged in an application of the model. A revised Hellison (2003) model was valid, and effective, for the intervention participants as the model posits. A wider application of the Hellison model is warranted and continued research is recommended. A replication of the current study, as well as research of a school-wide application, of the revised Hellison (2003) model is suggested.
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    The effects of book reading over the summer holidays on the reading skills of Year 3 students : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Albany campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Turner, Mary Louise
    The existence of an achievement gap between high- and low-performing students is neither unique nor new to New Zealand. Such differences have been documented since the 1930s, and despite decades of reforms and initiatives these disparities persist. Results from the most recent PIRLS study (Chamberlain & Caygill, 2012) showed no narrowing of the margin since the early 2000s, and patterns evident in previous PIRLS studies continue. A growing body of international research into achievement gaps has focused on summer learning loss and the different impact this has on students from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds. Some argue that even small differences in summer learning amass over the years, and by the end of elementary school the achievement gap is substantially larger than at the beginning (Kim & White, 2011). Further, this cumulative summer learning effect is the primary cause of the widening achievement gap between students from high and low socioeconomic levels (Terzian, Moore, & Hamilton, 2009). Various strategies have been implemented to try to counter this, including summer schools, reading programmes offered by public libraries, and reading books at home. Although summer learning loss and differential growth in learning when school is closed is well- documented in international studies, little is known about this effect on student achievement in New Zealand. This study addresses the gap in knowledge for the New Zealand context by examining whether encouraging young children to read books over the summer vacation helps stem the summer slide. Using a randomized control group experimental design, a sample of 583 year 3 children in ten schools, seven of them low SES and three of them high SES in South and East Auckland were randomly assigned to four different groups over the summer break: a books group, a books plus quizzes group, a treatment control group that received math books, and a no-treatment control group that received books only after the study was completed. All groups were pre and post tested with a range of reading measures. The results showed a significant effect of the summer books programme but only for one reading measure while a number of other measures showed no clear effect. The home literacy measures used in the study showed large differences in home literacy resources between high and low SES families such as number of books and access to the computer and to libraries. The study showed that a summer books programme is workable and was much enjoyed by children but that more research is needed to establish the benefits of summer books.
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    The effectiveness of a phonological awareness with decoding training programme for three struggling readers during their first year at school : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Randall, Susie Zoe
    The intention of this study was to add to the already substantial body of research regarding the instructional conditions that need to be in place to accelerate reading development in young children who are experiencing early reading failure in New Zealand schools. This study aimed to examine the efficiency of using an empirically validated approach to teach phonological awareness and decoding to struggling readers during their first year of schooling. The study was a single-subject, multiple-baseline across participants design involving three participants who were identified by their class teacher as falling significantly behind the Ministry of Education benchmark for reading acquisition after 6 months of schooling. The intervention programme was a moderated version of Phonological Awareness Training for Reading (Torgesen & Bryant, 1993) which included clearly structured games and activities focused on developing phonological awareness and knowledge of letter-sound patterns. Instructional sessions took place four times a week for 30 minutes over 6 weeks. Ongoing assessments demonstrated the existence of a functional relationship between the intervention and dependent variables of blending and segmenting accuracy, pseudo-word reading, and word recognition accuracy. The latency effect between the introduction of the intervention and the change in dependent variables was examined to determine the process of change. Improvements in these reading-related skills appeared to generalise to accuracy and fluency in reading connected text, assessed by their reading book level. The educational implications and limitations of the study are discussed.