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This dissertation describes an action research project undertaken in an urban primary school. This action research project aimed to improve partnership with parents in the school, including parents whose children may be at risk of educational disadvantage. Amongst the main findings of this dissertation are the following: Parental understandings of partnership fell under a number of broad headings of which the most important are: communication, co-operation, parental school involvement and home and school listening to each other with respect. The cyclical nature of the action research facilitated the development of parental action in this project. The action research process highlighted the fact that some parents need greater support than others and that parental involvement needs to be differentiated to include all parents.

The present study on school truancy was developed out of a concern about students who do not adapt to the demands of the school environment as they go through the process of transition from primary school to secondary school. It suggested that the school environment in which we expect to see behavioral manifestations of the internal conflicts which adolescents face. Specifically, it suggested that truancy is a behavior that indicates a student is not adapting to the rules and regulations of the school environment. It suggested that this behavior be explored in terms of psychological variables relevant to adolescent development. A theoretical framework derived from attribution theory and locus of control theory was utilized in an effort to explore these issues. The overall concern of the study was to understand more fully the patterns of locus of control and causal attributions of secondary school truants and non-truants in Hong Kong. The key research question was how truants and non-truants differ in these patterns in relation to family and school experiences and how these relations vary within each group. The research question was examined in a sample of 384 secondary school students of the junior forms. A structured questionnaire was administered to the students in class to obtain their responses to family and school experience measures, a slightly modified version of the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, and an adapted version of the Attributional Style Questionnaire. The results of ANOVA showed that the truants scored higher externality of locus of control than the non-truants although the difference was slightly short of statistical significance. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that the truants scored significantly higher on the composite measure as well as each of the three dimensional measures of bad outcomes than the non-truants. The result also showed that the truants scored significantly lower on the composite measure as well as each of the three dimension measures of good outcomes than the non-truants. This pattern of attribution indicates that the truants would attribute bad events as due to internal, stable and global causes and would attribute good events as due to external, unstable and specific causes. The findings further suggest that negative experiences in school provide the context for truancy to occur. Results show that, the truants reported poorer relations with teachers, a tendency of disbelieving in the value of schooling, and more frequent involvement in problem behaviour. Clearly, the relation among truancy, locus of control, attributions, and their family and school experiences is a complex one. In view of this, the present study is conceived as an attempt leading to an initial evidence for linkages among truancy status, locus of control, family and school experiences and children's attributions for school events. This further suggests that the approach of this study may have been sound and that more research should be conducted to find additional support for the observed relationships. It is hoped that continued testing of this approach to the study of school truancy may serve to explain why some students play truant from school but others do not, even though both groups are low academic achievers.

This study explores perceptions of the competencies of Saudi primary school teachers, and their training needs, to teach pupils with special educational needs in mainstream classes, in the light of the recent trend to inclusion. The research was carried out in the Madinah district in Western Saudi Arabia.A questionnaire was developed by the researcher, based on an extensive review of the competency literature, to survey teachers' perceptions. Of 180 copies distributed to teachers in six boys' primary schools, with different kinds of inclusion arrangement (resource room, special programme for learning difficulties, and no special provision), 175 (97%) were returned. The questionnaire data were complemented by qualitative information obtained through semi-structured interviews with 19 teachers, selected from among the questionnaire respondents; 11 teacher trainers from Riyadh University - the only one in the Kingdom that provides courses in special education - and 11 educational supervisors responsible for inspecting and advising teachers in the Madinah district. The findings revealed that only 10 teachers had received any pre-service training in relation to SEN, and only 3 had received in-service training. Moreover, most educational supervisors had little or no training and experience in regard to SEN. Teachers generally lacked confidence in their competencies across all the dimensions investigated, with the exception of personal skills. They expressed needs for training to recognise children with SEN, and support and advice in practical aspects of teaching them. Their perceptions did not, in general, vary with their personal characteristics, or with school inclusion arrangements. Based on the findings, it is recommended that preservice training programmes be modified to include knowledge and skills related to SEN; and that opportunities be made available for continuing professional development and on-going consultancy support, as necessary components of responsible inclusion.

Safety and Health in the workplace has long been the priority work of the Hong Kong administration but the accidentstatistics in Hong Kong tell another story. No matter how sophisticated a safe system is designed, its ultimate success depends very much on the person who carries out the job. Safe behaviour has therefore become the contemporary study of safety and health at work.Since human behaviour is a multidimensional construct, its understanding requires a multiple theory approach. Inspired by this concept, this study explores a Multi-Dimensional Safe Behaviour Model in explaining Construction Workers' Safe Behaviour. The study examines its implication for management when safe behaviours are to be instilled. Nine psychological theories and models, identified under the perspective of the Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Community Level are examined. A short list of 9 variables of "Social Norm", "Management Commitment", "Safety Knowledge", "Perceived Risk", "Safety Experience", "Self Efficacy"; "Perceived Consequence", "Chance" and Intention to Behave" was constructed. Three hypothetical constructs of "Social Support", "Attitude" and "Expectance" composed of observable indicators from the nine identified variables are also formed. The variables are then put together into a hypothesised Multi-Dimensional Safe Behaviour Model with the casual relationships between variables identified. A Structural Equation Modelling procedure shows that the hypothesised Multi-Dimensional Safe Behaviour Model fits the data reflecting the necessity of adopting a holistic approach in addressing behavioural issues. "Safety Attitude" is found to impose a positive effect on the worker's "Intention to Behave Safely" indirectly via a mediating factor of "Chance Locus". The study conveys practical implications to safety management and researchers. Research limitations and areas for further study are also discussed. Safety behavioural initiatives based on the model testing results in promotion workers' safety behaviours are also addressed.

This study aimed to explore the reading comprehension learning needs of fourth grade pupils in Qatar; to identify and test assessment techniques that may be helpful in studying reading comprehension; and to investigate the effects on reading comprehension of a metacognitive teaching programme. Exploratory interviews with fourth grade teachers showed that they focus on pronunciation, word-recognition and grammar. Pupils are not taught the strategies of comprehension and thinking while they read. A need was identified for innovative assessment activities and interventions to enhance reading comprehension skills. A quasi-experimental research design was chosen to investigate the effect of a metacognitive teaching programme in which two groups of pupils were compared on various measures of comprehension performance, including reading self-awareness and strategy use before and after a three month teaching programme: the standard Qatar reading programme for the control group and the Reading and Thinking Strategy programme for the experimental group. Reading comprehension was measured by a comprehension test and cloze test developed by the researcher. Strategy use and reading awareness were assessed by think-aloud tasks, the Index of Reading Awareness (Paris, Cross and Lipson, 1984), a Self-perception scale (Henk and Melrick, 1998) and metacognitive interviews. The reliability and validity of all measures were tested with classes of 4th grade pupils from three randomly selected schools in Qatar. The reading strategy programme was applied in a single school selected from among the three that had been involved in piloting the instruments. Valid, usable data was collected from 64 pupils: 31 in the control and 33 in the experimental group. The experimental group made significantly greater gains over all measures than the control group in association with the intervention showing the effectiveness of the metacognitive approach. The significant gains in reading awareness experienced by the experimental group extended to individual strategies: evaluation, planning, regulation and conditional knowledge. The metacognitive interviews and think-aloud protocols supported these findings. Following the intervention, the experimental group made more use than the control group of evaluation, self-questioning, monitoring and planning, and unlike the control group, used strategies in combination. It is concluded that, by training pupils in metacognitive skills, teachers can improve reading comprehension and help them to become active learners in the reading process.

This study was conducted to examine the use of multisystemic treatment for treating juveniles with serious delinquency, as a new approach within the Saudi Arabian context.Multisystemic treatment addresses behaviour problems as multidetermined by interacting individual, family, school, peers, and community systems. This study attempted to determine the impact of the multisystemic therapy on the behaviour of young offenders with serious delinquency and in increasing their level of self-esteem and religious behaviour.The fieldwork was conducted in 2000-0 I in the Social Observation Home in Riyadh City. The project consisted of three parts: therapists training for one month, a treatment programme for three months and follow up, conducted in two periods of two months each, with a seven months interval. An experimental and control group, prepost test design was adopted. Twenty juveniles with serious delinquency (age 14-18) were assigned to each group. The experimental group received multisystemic treatment, and the control group received the Home's usual service (individual therapy).Outcomes were measured by, self-reports (Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and Level of Religious Measurement), official misconducts, family relations, peer relations, school attendance & grades and observed religious practice. Qualitative information was obtained from six case studies (three experimental, three control) and from interviews with young offenders, their relatives and the Home staff.The results indicated greater gain and long-term positive impact on the behaviour of young offenders in the experimental than in the control group, on all measures. The improvement in self-esteem and religious practice in association with multisystemic treatment are especially noteworthy, as these factors have been subject to little or no previous investigation, and are particularly important in relation to delinquency in the Saudi context.It is concluded, that provided appropriate resources are allocated to the application, multisystemic treatment can be adapted to meet the unique cultural concerns of the Saudi context.