| dc.description.abstract | Under favourable conditions, the child in the senior primary phase (from Grade 5 to
Grade 7) should lead a happy and carefree life with few real problems for himlherself
or his parents. At this time the child is at his/her most receptive stage, therefore it is
very important that the child should acquire good study habits, study attitudes and
study methods.
Attitude plays a very important role in learning. If the child has a negative attitude
towards study, his academic achievement will not be as desired. The child who has a
negative attitude also has a negative or poor self esteem. It is important to lead the
child in the senior primary phase to develop and adopt a positive attitude and self
esteem.
The aim for this study is to determine whether the pupils (learners) in the senior
primary phase will develop a positive disposition towards learning if they are given
guidance.
The characteristics of the senior primary child in relation with his physical, social,
emotional, moral and personal development is closely scrutenised. The focus is on
study attitude and the factors that would influence it such as language, stress, self
esteem, hereditary, abilities and environment.
Thus the study guidance program for the child in the senior primary phase with a
negative study attitude has been set out comprehensively. The focus fell upon study
guidelines for study guidance in the form of group guidance and the ten sessions into
which the study guidance program was set out. The study guidance program
consisted of orientation of the group, aims or objectives, study attitude, self esteem,
study habits, study methods, facors which influence learning, facets of the memory,
attention and concentration, compiling a works program and study roster, motivation,
listening, effective reading, memory aids, memorising, summarising, underlining and
preparation and writing of the examination.
During the empirical investigation the following steps were followed: • The school guidance teacher selected fifteen pupils (learners) from the senior
primary phase (grade 6) who showed a negative study attitude.
• Questionnaires about study habits, study attitudes and study methods were
completed by the group before and after the study guidance program. The pupils
also had to write a General Science test before and after the study guidance. The
results of the General Science Tests before and after the study guidance, were
compared with each other.
The presentation and interpretation of the response of the questionnaire about study
methods, study attitudes and study habits regarding the General Science test marks
were recorded. The test marks before and after were compared.
Furthermore, from the examination it came to light that the questions in the
questionnaire showed a marked changed namely a great effect (0,8) except in
questions 41, 46 and 49 which showed a medium effect. This improvement or change
in the Science Test marks are thus educationally viable.
As a result of the positive change in the questionnaire's response and the General
Science test marks, it appears that the program was successful. It also shows that a
study guidance program can play an important role in cases where the Senior
Primary pupil (learner) has a negative study attitude. There is a definite yearning by
the child in the senor primary phase to be guided during learning and thus being
influenced positively. Guidance implies assistance, Le. during learning/study the child
must be assisted so that learning can be effective and the potential of the child be
optimally unfolded or developed. If the child's potential is optimally developed, the
child will become a happy adult who will be an asset to him/herself and to the
community. | en_US |
