ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Use of Mobile Phones for Project Based Learning by Undergraduate Students of Nigerian Private Universities
Author: Utulu, Samuel C.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Undergraduate Students,Telecommunications,Handheld Devices,Student Projects,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Private Colleges,Questionnaires,Internet,Access to Information,Ownership,Likert Scales,Barriers

A university's objective is to educate its students using information and communication technologies (ICTs) and teaching techniques that would enable its graduates become flexible and life-long learners that can easily adapt to the changes eminent in the information society. Achieving this aim requires among other factors, the adoption of appropriate teaching model such as the project based learning (PBL) which supports the inculcation of collaborative and lifelong learning skills, technology use skills, knowledge sharing skills and social networking skills into students. Consequently, this study was carried out to evaluate the use of mobile phones by students involved in PBL in three randomly selected private universities in Nigeria. The questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection from 750 undergraduates students distributed across the three selected private universities in southwestern Nigerian states. This is to say that 250 students were sampled from each of the participating private universities whose population was estimated to be about 2000 students each. Also, the use of stratified sampling technique ensured that only those students that were in their second, third, fourth and fifth year in the sampled universities, who were presumed to have acquired required learning experiences, participated in the study. The result showed that a significant percentage of the students studied had mobile phones and that they used their mobile phones for communication, interactions, getting information, browsing the Internet, and sharing knowledge anytime they were involved in PBL. It was also revealed that mobiles phones can be used to strengthen PBL in higher institutions and can be used to implement information services provided for students in their university. Although private universities in southwestern Nigeria amounts to about 43.9% of private universities in Nigeria, a percentage that makes them a sizable representation of private universities in Nigeria, the fact that the study sampled population was drawn from only three southwestern Nigerian based private universities made generalizing the results of this study as the situation in Nigeria in appropriate. The study however, provides first hand information on the prospects, gains and challenges mobile phones offer as appropriate education technology for implementing PBL in Nigerian universities.
The Right to Basic Education for All: Addressing the Educational Needs and Barriers of Immigrant Learners in South Africa
Author: Marishane, Nylon
Date: 2013-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Quality,Qualitative Research,Educational Needs,Barriers,Immigrants,Semi Structured Interviews,Principals,Access to Education,Constitutional Law,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Educational Environment,Socioeconomic Background,Second Language Learning,Faculty Development,Interviews,Cultural Pluralism,Parent School Relationship

The South African Constitution guarantees the right to basic education for all learners, including children of immigrants from across the country's borders. In view of this constitutional imperative, the Department of Basic Education is mandated to provide quality education to all learners, irrespective of their socio-economic and other backgrounds. The delivery of such education requires a child-friendly school environment where the safety of vulnerable learners and their right to quality education are assured. Enablers for this type of environment include relevant legislative framework and policies that seek to address the educational needs of learners. School leadership is responsible for the implementation of these policies and ensuring compliance with legislation. Given the importance of a child-friendly school to quality education delivery, a qualitative research was conducted in Limpopo Province to determine the extent to which schools address educational needs and barriers of immigrant learners. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with three principals of selected schools in the Vhembe District of the province. The study points out challenges that immigrant learners experience and how school principals address them to ensure learner's right to basic quality education and comes out with recommendations for improvement in this area.
Effects of Electronic Information Resources Skills Training for Lecturers on Pedagogical Practices and Research Productivity
Author: Bhukuvhani, Crispen
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Electronic Learning,Information Literacy,Correlation,Electronic Libraries,Internet,Training,Faculty Development,Access to Information,Workshops,Research,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Questionnaires,Seminars,College Faculty,Foreign Countries

Lecturers use various electronic resources at different frequencies. The university library's information literacy skills workshops and seminars are the main sources of knowledge of accessing electronic resources. The use of electronic resources can be said to have positively affected lecturers' pedagogical practices and their work in general. The aim of this study was to reference an investigation of 30 lecturers' use of electronic resources in an effort to uncover correlations between library information literacy training and increased use of web based resources (for example, library journal databases, web search engines, open access journals, and so on), increased use of web resources and improved pedagogy as well as increased use of web resources and higher publication rates. Results indicated lecturers attended the Electronic Information Resources Skills Training and that they (86.7%) used at least one or more electronic information resources to find information for use for their teaching and/or research. 13.3% lecturers indicated non-usage of electronic information sources. Most of the lecturers (53.3%) indicated that they learnt about electronic resources through the workshops and seminars. The majority of the lecturers were motivated (motivate = 86.7%; 66.7% = very motivated and 20% = somewhat motivated) to learn how to use electronic resources. Lecturers mostly got information for their research papers through the Internet (83.3%) and 10% through electronic resources. The use of electronic information resources by lecturers proved to have positively affected their work as evidenced by the results. However, there is need to mount more and frequent electronic information resources training workshops.
Access and Quality in Education in Resettlement Schools: The Case Study of Zvivingwi Secondary School in Gutu District, Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe
Author: Jenjekwa, Vincent
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Access to Education,Educational Quality,Secondary Schools,Land Settlement,Land Use,Educational Resources,Questionnaires,Interviews,Principals,Secondary School Teachers,Secondary School Students,Parents,Qualitative Research

In Zimbabwe, the discourse on access and quality in education has been a raging one since the colonial days of bottlenecks and outright discrimination against black Zimbabweans in education. The doors to education were declared open to all at independence in 1980 with the new Zimbabwe government's enunciated policy of education for all. It is an uncontested fact that strides were made soon after independence to address issues of quality and access in education. However, with the prosecution of the fast track land reform programme the dream for access and quality in education became a nightmare. Whilst trust schools, boarding schools, urban and some rural day schools have a comparative advantage in terms of resources like infrastructure and qualified and relatively motivated human resource, emerging resettlement schools bear the brunt of hastened and impromptu establishment. It is the contention of this paper that resettlement schools like Zvivingwi, established in the last decade, are a facade of the schools envisioned by many Zimbabweans at independence. These schools reel from abject shortage of everything except pupils. It would be recommended that government should show creativity in mobilising resources to intervene, failing which, most of the resettlement schools like Zvivingwi, risk closure as public confidence in them wanes. The researcher made use of a questionnaire and interviewed critical stakeholders at the school like headmaster, teachers, parents, pupils and education officers. School records and other critical documents were also made use of.
A Preliminary Study of School Administrators' Use of Information and Communication Technologies: Bruneian Perspective
Author: Seyal, Afzaal H.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Information Technology,Statistical Analysis,Computer Literacy,Foreign Countries,Elementary Schools,Principals,Administrator Attitudes,Administrator Surveys,Classification,Technology Integration,Needs Assessment,School Administration,Sampling,Questionnaires,Likert Scales,Faculty Development,Reliability,Validity,Correlation,Administrator Characteristics,Teaching Methods,Curriculum,Multivariate Analysis

The study surveyed 96 Bruneian primary schools administrators (principals) in using the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Out of the five subscales used to assess the ICT usage, only two: curriculum integration and need assessment were found to be significant towards the use of the ICT. The results further indicate that majority of the school administrators have intermediate level of computer expertise and possess an adequate computer literacy. The school administrators use ICT for administrative purposes; however, the use of technology across the curriculum is still at infancy stage. The study has found some major reasons for the lack of use of ICT across curriculum. The statistical significance t- tests, ANOVA and post-hoc comparison have found a difference in the mean of novice classification and of advanced level of computer expertise. Based upon the analysis some recommendations are made for the relevant authorities of the Ministry of Education, Brunei Darussalam.
Teachers' Innovative Use of Computer Technologies in Classroom: A Case of Selected Ghanaian Schools
Author: Buabeng-Andoh, Charles
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Technology Uses in Education,Computer Literacy,Teaching Methods,Correlation,Secondary School Teachers,Urban Schools,Rural Schools,Suburban Schools,Questionnaires,Teacher Attitudes,Multivariate Analysis,Multiple Regression Analysis,Gender Differences,Access to Computers,Instructional Innovation,Teaching Experience

This study was conducted to explore secondary school teachers' innovative use of computer technologies in classroom. Questionnaires were distributed to 273 teachers in fourteen schools comprising 5 urban schools, 5 semi-urban schools and 4 rural schools. 241 were returned, and 231 valid questionnaires were used for data analysis, representing 84.6% of total questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, multivariate analyzes of variances, independent samples t-tests and multiple regression were used to analyze data. Of the 231 teachers, 66% were males and 34% were females. The study found that male teachers (mean = 3.77, std = 1.36) have more access to computers than the female teachers (mean = 3.21, std = 1.28) but female teachers (mean = 1.85, std = 0.854) use ICT for evaluative purposes significantly more than male teachers (mean = 1.59, std = 0.798). Also a correlation analysis revealed high positive correlation between teachers' computer skills, computer experience and computer access (r = 0.59, p &lt; 0.001; r = 0.65, p &lt; 0.001). In addition, there was a high positive correlation between teachers' computer skills and computer access (r = 0.65, p &lt; 0.001). Finally, it was revealed that computer access (ß = 0.42) was the strongest determinant of teachers' computer skills.
Open Content for eLearning: Cross-Institutional Collaboration for Education and Training in a Digital Environment
Author: Marshall, Stewart
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Institutional Cooperation,Educational Quality,Foreign Countries,Workshops,Educational Resources,Copyrights,Pilot Projects,Distance Education,Graduate Study,Instructional Design,Course Descriptions,Program Descriptions,Open Universities,Online Courses,College Faculty,Specialists,Shared Resources and Services,Program Development

The University of the West Indies Open Campus and Athabasca University conducted a pilot workshop to see if open educational resources (OER) could be used to construct curricula. UWIOC was interested in increasing distance education offerings and Athabasca University was interested in expanding programming to offer an online graduate program in Instructional Design. A workshop brought a team together to: come to a consensus on the format of module specifications, select appropriate resources, and to report on the feasibility of the approach. The team produced course outlines and specifications for modules using OER. The following were noted: Use of OER sped the aggregation of content; OER are not available for every topic; OER differ from the desired scope and academic level; they vary in media and content quality; and OER that lack clarity of authorship and copyright are difficult to include in courses.
Leadership Maintenance: Filling the Gap for Leadership Competences
Author: Rajbhandari, Mani Man Singh
Date: 2015-11-10
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Leadership,Competence,Leadership Training,Interviews,Principals,Teachers,Students,Wellness,Qualitative Research,Psychology,Sociology,Physiology

In this study, leadership maintenance employs psychological, sociological and physiological paradigms in creating a conducive environment for both leaders' and followers' well-being in educational settings. Leadership maintenance is an ongoing process, which entails the understanding of leader's cognitive complexity, relational approaches towards motivating their followership for generating leadership competences. This is maintained by understanding leaders' and their followers' psychological, sociological, and physiological state of mind. Open ended interviews were conducted to collect data from 30 participants during a training session organise by the Educational Leadership Institute at the University of Johannesburg. The participants were educationalists comprising principals, teachers, and student representatives from different educational sectors in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Understanding the psychological, sociological and physiological paradigm for the wellness of leaders will inform leadership competences. This is achieved through understanding followership and the situational variables associated with it. Thus, wellness of followership is intimately related to the wellness of leadership and contributes to creating a harmonious organisational climate. The reciprocity of leadership actions towards followership leads to the reflectivity mirror effect. The actions of both leaders and followers that incorporate psychological, sociological and physiological state parameters results in reciprocity, which in turn determines leadership competences.
Students' Perceptions on Incorporating E-Learning into Teaching and Learning at the University of Ghana
Author: Tagoe, Michael
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Attitudes,Electronic Learning,Higher Education,Educational Quality,Foreign Countries,Universities,Access to Education,Costs,Teaching Methods,Student Surveys,Questionnaires,Computer Literacy,Gender Differences,Technological Literacy,Web Based Instruction,Blended Learning,Online Courses,Educational Attitudes,College Students,Educational Strategies

Technological advancement has led to significant changes in the way university education is being provided in the developed countries. Whilst their universities have made great strides in addressing issues of access, cost of higher education and quality through e-learning, Africans are in the 21st century still grappling with these issues. Although the University of Ghana has as one of its strategic directions, the introduction of e-learning, very little information has been provided on its policy direction. This study which is based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), examines students' perceptions on incorporating e-learning into teaching and learning. Using survey research, a total of 534 responded to the survey which relied on the questionnaire. Results from the study show that students entered the university with computer skills which are critical to the introduction of e-learning; male students were more likely to use the internet than female students; there was a relationship between the length of time students have been using the internet and frequency of use of the internet; students preferred mixed mode and web supplemented courses in the immediate future than web dependent and fully online courses. To make e-learning a reality there should some further strategies to improve access to personal computers, improve the broadband width. Special efforts should be made to target female students to use the internet to improve their computer skills.
Shifting Pedagogical Space: Egyptian Educators Use of Moodle
Author: Richardson, Jayson
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Change,Management Systems,Technology Integration,Electronic Learning,Teaching Methods,Models,Innovation,Developing Nations,Outcomes of Education,Faculty Development,Online Systems,Teacher Attitudes,Negative Attitudes,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Language Teachers,Online Courses,Questionnaires

This article focuses on exploring the outcomes of an e-learning initiative in Egypt. Researchers conducted training with 17 Egyptian educators on how to build, maintain, and teach using Moodle, an online content management system. The researchers evaluated the outputs of the training using the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) in an effort to assess perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of this innovation in this particular context. Analysis revealed that trainees were neutral with regard to the ease of learning and using the new skills around Moodle, but perceived long-term usefulness of the training negatively. The lessons learned from this project and suggestions for e-learning in less developed countries are also explored.
Information and Communication Technology Integration into Teaching and Learning: Opportunities and Challenges for Commerce Educators in South Africa
Author: Assan, Thomas
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Information Technology,Technology Integration,Foreign Countries,Business Education,Computer Centers,Questionnaires,Observation,Teaching Methods,Barriers,Learning Activities,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Teacher Attitudes,High Schools,Secondary School Teachers,Educational Change,Classroom Techniques,Administrator Attitudes,Central Office Administrators,Budgets,Educational Resources,Capacity Building,Educational Facilities,School Security,Teacher Motivation,Semi Structured Interviews

The study examined the opportunities available and challenges experienced by Commerce subjects' educators using ICT. Quantitative and qualitative descriptive research was used. Six high schools were purposely selected for the study because they are all equipped with computer laboratories. A purposive sample consisted of 138 school-based commerce educators, 6 School governing Bodies (SGB) members, and 6 school managers from one particular Area Office (AO) in the North West Province, of South Africa were selected. Questionnaires, interviews and observations tools were used to collect the data. The findings of the study identified some major opportunities and challenges in integrating ICT into teaching and learning activities. The study recommends relevant and appropriate management and use of ICT by teachers and resource to empower schools with ICT infrastructure--physical and human resources, as well as ICT training which will empower commerce educators to transform their traditional modes of delivery towards new modes of delivery.
Perception of Teaching as a Profession and UB Teacher Trainees' Attitude towards Training Programme and Teaching
Author: Nenty, H. J.
Date: 2015-11-10
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teaching (Occupation),Student Attitudes,Preservice Teachers,Statistical Analysis,Likert Scales,Professionalism,Student Motivation,Teacher Education,Student Surveys,Questionnaires

Though the professionalism of teaching is still a debatable issue, teaching provides an indispensable service to every society and civilization. The service provided by teaching seems to be more indispensable to any society than services provided by any other profession. To those that teach, the way they perceive themselves and the value of their services tend to make a lot of difference. The study looked at the influence that such perception by teacher trainees in UB has on their attitude towards their training programme (TTP) as well as towards teaching generally. A statistical analysis of data from a quantitative survey of 73 UB teacher trainees with a 54 closed-ended validated Likert-type items showed that in the perception of UB teacher trainees, teaching is a profession and this view is significantly stronger among female than male teacher trainees. Their level of perception of teaching as a profession has significant influence on their motivation to do well in their teacher training programme (TTP); attitude towards their teacher training programme (AtTTP), the value they attached to the programme (VaTTP); and their perception of the effectiveness of the programme (ETTP). Similarly, the level to which they perceived teaching as a profession has a significantly positive influence on their willingness to teach (WtT); attitude toward teaching (AtT) and the level to which they perceive teaching as a stereotypes career (STC). Generally, the higher their perception of teaching as a profession, the higher is their attitude towards their TTP as well as towards teaching in general. The findings were discussed, implications drawn and recommendations made.