The Master's thesis entitled Progress of Roma students included in individual and group support lessons in the area of early literacy focuses on the research of several topics related to the Slovenian school system. It describes in more detail early literacy in the first grade of primary school, the importance of early literacy and the factors that diminish the success of early literacy. The theoretical part also presents a specific group of students, whom professional theory refers to as students with learning difficulties. The Slovenian school system has written guidelines on how to work with these students, and by following the guidelines the students should be included into education more easily and should reach better social integration. One of the ways of assisting them includes individual and group support lessons, to which Roma students are also entitled. The history, way of life and the factors that prevent Roma children from successfully integrating and being included in the school system are described in the theoretical part, while the empirical part focuses on whether the individual and group support lessons contribute to better proficiency in the field of early literacy.
The pedagogical research lasted for two and a half months and included three steps. First, the students took a pre-test, which tested the initial knowledge of three Roma students in the field of early literacy (auditory differentiation and parsing, vocabulary, reading ability). After the pre-test, 18 hours of individual and group support lessons were carried out with the students, where the focus was on the areas of early literacy. Namely, these were the areas in which individual students showed the greatest deficit. After the conducted 18 hours, the same test (post-test) was repeated with the students, which served to compare and determine their progress. The results of the research showed that progress in proficiency was detected in all three students, but not in the same way for all of them; we attribute this to their initial knowledge, work motivation and the well-being they felt during certain individual and group support lessons. Due to the positive results of the research, we can summarize that individual and group support lessons have an impact on improving students' knowledge. We conclude that individual and goal-oriented work with students who enter school with poor prior knowledge of the Slovenian language and have problems integrating into the school system is beneficial. We can suggest more individual lessons dedicated to the early literacy of Roma students.
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