ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Women Education and Economic Development in Kenya: Implications for Curriculum Development and Implementation Processes
Author: Syomwene, Anne
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Womens Education,Economic Development,Sustainable Development,Curriculum Development,Curriculum Implementation,Developing Nations,Poverty,Empowerment,Infant Mortality,Health,Agricultural Production,Citizen Participation,Politics,Birth Rate,Employed Women

This paper is a discussion of the relationship between women education and sustainable economic development in Kenya and its implications for curriculum development and implementation processes. The argument advanced in this paper is that the solution to the development problems in Kenya and other developing nations lies on women education. Indeed, women education is one of the initiatives that can propel Kenya in the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. In addition, women education can facilitate the achievement of Kenya Vision 2030 which aims at making Kenya a newly industrializing, middle income country providing high quality life for all its citizens by the year 2030. The paper provides recommendations on the way forward for women education in Kenya as well as the implications for curriculum development and implementation processes.
Extending Student Discussions beyond Lecture Room Walls via Facebook
Author: Bahati, Bernard
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Social Networks,Computer Mediated Communication,Graduate Students,Masters Programs,Group Discussion,Student Surveys,Questionnaires,Learner Engagement,Computer Assisted Instruction,Web 2.0 Technologies,Technology Uses in Education,Student Motivation,Context Effect,Internet,Teacher Education,Social Media

When face-to-face lecture sessions and classroom seminars are conducted during hours and days that are not convenient to students, the level of student active engagement and participation is considerably reduced. In this situation, the use of Social Networking Sites can be an alternative to get students much more engaged by taking the course-related discussions beyond the confinements of lecture room walls. During the second semester of academic year 2013-2014, a &quot;secret&quot; Facebook group was created and forty-eight Master's students, from the University of Rwanda-College of Education, were invited to join this group and use it as an after-class discussion venue. Using data collected through a survey questionnaire that was sent to students at the end of a semester, we show that Facebook group may indeed serve as a tool that can promote student engagement, collaboration, and sharing of ideas well after face-to-face seminars and classroom lecture sessions. Nonetheless, the findings also show that getting students to use a Facebook group for academic purposes does not happen immediately as results of mere request or announcement. The process needs to be accompanied by further intrinsic and extrinsic measures to motivate students and get them actively engaged in course-related constructive and accurate discussions held via a Facebook.
Something for Everyone? The Different Approaches of Academic Disciplines to Open Educational Resources and the Effect on Widening Participation
Author: Coughlan, Tony
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Open Universities,Resource Units,Computer Uses in Education,Shared Resources and Services,Intellectual Disciplines,Classification,Workplace Learning,Open Education,Electronic Learning,Inclusion,Study Skills,Undergraduate Study,Fees,Statistical Analysis,Comparative Analysis,Professional Development

This article explores the relationship between academic disciplines' representation in the United Kingdom Open University's (OU) OpenLearn open educational resources (OER) repository and in the OU's fee-paying curriculum. Becher's (1989) typology was used to subdivide the OpenLearn and OU fee-paying curriculum content into four disciplinary categories: Hard Pure (e.g., Science), Hard Applied (e.g., Technology), Soft Pure (e.g., Arts) and Soft Applied (e.g., Education). It was found that while Hard Pure and Hard Applied disciplines enjoy an increased share of the OER curriculum, Soft Applied disciplines are under-represented as OER. Possible reasons for this disparity are proposed and Becher's typology is adapted to be more appropriate to 21st-century higher education.
Leadership Style Head of Polytechnic Department and Regard with to Work Culture
Author: Jamaludin, Nur Hasliza Binti
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Leadership Styles,Department Heads,Organizational Culture,Collegiality,Questionnaires,Teacher Attitudes,Vocational Education,Demography,Gender Differences,Administrator Behavior,Teacher Surveys,College Administration,Foreign Countries

This study aims to look at the leadership style of the heads of departments in technical education and its relationship to the work culture among lecturers Polytechnic Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah in Jitra, Kedah. This research is very important to the head of polytechnic and lecture to work in the good condition with the good leadership. This study specifically for identifying leadership style of department heads and identifying cultural favourite work by guest lecturers by lecturers own. In addition, this study also aims to identify whether there is a significant relationship between leadership style and work culture based on the view lecturers in polytechnics. This study used a survey method through questionnaires investigator. Measuring tool--LEADER Behaviour Description Questionnaire? (LBDQ) used to measure the leadership style of the heads of departments and task-oriented dimension oriented human relations. Measuring tools work culture lecturers used to measure the kind of work culture in polytechnics favoured by both the dimensions of leadership style. Respondents were lecturer's population a total of 290 people in four departments in polytechnic master. Data processing involves statistics a descriptive measurement frequency, mean, standard deviation and also percentage. Data processed using inferential statistics, including Pearson correlation coefficient, ANOVA and t-Test. The study found that leadership style department heads on evaluation lecturers are high on both dimensions of the oriented dimension task-oriented and dimension of human relationships. But leadership style human relations-oriented leadership style is the key department heads polytechnics. The study also found that corporate culture is a culture of bureaucratic work favoured by lecturers in polytechnics.
Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Educational Institutions: A Case Study of District Vehari-Pakistan
Author: Awan, Abdul Ghafoor
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Public Schools,Private Schools,Comparative Analysis,Case Studies,School Choice,Questionnaires,Surveys,Teachers,Parents,Least Squares Statistics,Regression (Statistics),Statistical Analysis,Socioeconomic Status,Access to Education,Student Costs,Parent Attitudes,Educational Quality,Employment Opportunities

Education is necessary for the personality grooming of individual. There are different types of institutions available like private and public institutions, technical institutions, and madrasas (religious institutions). These institutes are having the triangle of three main pillars; consisted of Teachers, Students, and Curriculum. There are two main types of schools in Pakistan and all over the world. One is public and other is private school system. Now a days private schools are becoming more favorite and attractive for majority of the students due to their better education systems, test criteria and knowledge creation vis-a-vis public schools, which comparatively very cheap but inefficient are losing their attraction. Parents prefer to send their children in private schools and avoid public schools. The main objective of this study is to investigate why people prefer high charging private schools over free public schools (That charge nothing)? We use primary data collected through constructed questionnaire and survey method was applied for collection of data from the target respondents of private and public schools located in District Vehari, Pakistan. The results show that five main factors emerge as important determinants of private school choice. These include the socioeconomic status of the household, the degree of a school's accessibility, the cost of schooling, parents' perceptions of school quality, and their perceptions of the available employment opportunities in the region.
Qualities of an Ideal English Language Teacher: A Gender-Based Investigation in a Saudi Context
Author: Al-Khairi, Muhammad
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Second Language Learning,Language Teachers,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Effectiveness,Undergraduate Study,Student Attitudes,Likert Scales,Questionnaires,Statistical Analysis,Gender Differences,Comparative Analysis,Statistical Significance,College Faculty,Personality Traits,Student Surveys

Identification of the attributes that are associated with an ideal English language teacher has been a major area of interest worldwide but there seems a scarcity of relevant studies in the Arab world. The present study is an attempt to fill this existing gap by identifying the qualities of an ideal English language teacher as perceived by Taif university undergraduates along gender lines. Two hundred and sixteen male and female undergraduates responded to a 32-item Likert scale questionnaire. Independent-samples t-test has been run to calculate descriptive analyses and identify any gender-based differences. It has been revealed that Saudi EFL learners have reported quite higher liking for personality and professional characteristics of ideal English language teachers. In both these categories female participants have exhibited slightly higher values. The comparative analyses have also disclosed that there do not exist major statistically significant differences in the perceptions of male and female participants of this survey. It is highly recommended that EFL faculty working in Saudi universities should try their level best to be available to help their students, be dedicated and committed, exhibit an exemplary attitudes, explain according to the level of their students, keep themselves abreast of the latest developments to ensure up-to-date knowledge of the subject, provide their students with clear instructions and accurate answers, exploit group/pair work effectively, use modern teaching aids and help their students to become independent learners. Finally, it may be said that those EFL English language teachers are liked who have the ability to motivate and inspire their students through their personality and professional qualities to exploit their optimum potential to maximize their language learning possibilities.
The Effect of Using Concept Maps on Student Achievement in Selected Topics in Chemistry at Tertiary Level
Author: Singh, Indra Sen
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Chemistry,College Science,Concept Mapping,Science Achievement,Science Instruction,Instructional Effectiveness,College Freshmen,Conventional Instruction,Pretests Posttests,Statistical Analysis,Comparative Analysis

The performance in chemistry at tertiary level in Zambia has not been as expected. It has therefore been a matter of concern. There has been a continuous focus on exploring new teaching strategies to improve the understanding of this difficult subject. This study investigated the effectiveness of composite use of concept maps and traditional method on student achievement in selected topics in chemistry. The study was conducted in view of determining the method which is more effective in enhancing student understanding in chemistry. There were three groups involved in the study i.e., Control, experimental group 1 and experimental group 2. The pre-test, post-test true experimental research design was used for the study. The sample of the study consisted of thirty nine (39) first year students at Mufulira College of education. Each of the three groups was randomly assigned 13 students. The treatment took four weeks using the topics &quot;atomic structure&quot; and &quot;chemical bonding&quot;. The control group was treated using the traditional method, the experimental group 1 was treated using the concept map method while experimental group 2 used composite of both the traditional and concept map methods. One way ANOVA at an alpha (a) = 0.05 was conducted to analyze the results of the pre-test and post test scores. The means of the pre-test scores were; control group = 6.46, Experimental group 1 = 7.07 and experimental group 2 = 6.61. These results show that there was no significant difference in the performance of the students in all groups. This result implied that the entry level performance for all the groups was not significantly different. The means of the post-test results (control group = 4.53, experimental group 1 = 5.46, experimental group 2 = 6.61) showed that there was a significant effect on the use of both traditional teaching method and concept map teaching method at p &lt; 0.05 level for the three groups at F(2,36) = 17.156, p = 0.00. The experimental group 2 performed better than both control group and experimental group 1 in the post test scores. Post hoc comparisons using the Turkey HSD test indicated that the mean scores were significantly different. The results strongly support that when students are taught using both the concept map teaching strategy and traditional teaching strategy, they achieve the best scores. This study therefore offers an encouraging solution towards improvement of student performance in Chemistry at tertiary level.
Provision of Vocational Skills Education to Orphans: Lessons from Orphanage Centres in Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania
Author: Meli, Benjamin Mbeba
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Vocational Education,Job Skills,Interviews,Observation,Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS),Individual Characteristics,Demography,Program Effectiveness,Surveys,Adolescents

This paper utilises data from a study that investigated the efficacy of vocational skills training provided to orphans from three orphanages in Temeke District, Dar es Salaam. The three orphanage centres that were studied are Kurasini National Children Home, Saudia and Don Bosco Vocational Centre. The sample comprised of 45 orphans, an official from the Department of Social Welfare in Temeke District, and two officials from the orphanage centres. Data were collected through interviews, documentary reviews and observations. The type of actors involved in providing vocational skills training to orphans, type of vocational skills training provided and the effectiveness of vocational skills training were explored. Vocational skills training that are offered at the orphanages centres are tailoring, carpentry, masonry, driving, welding and fine and performing arts. However, despite the fact that many orphans in the selected orphanages had attended the vocational skills training, it was revealed that the knowledge acquired was of no immediate use. Most of the orphans could not use the acquired skills to assess jobs or to self employ themselves. The major bottlenecks that tend to affect the quality of vocational skills offered are: limited capacities of the orphanage centres in terms of qualified personnel, inadequate equipment and funds. The little funds available seem to compete with other day to day priorities of managing the centres for example, providing food, medicals and the like.
Using Online Assessment to Replace Invigilated Assessment in Times of Natural Disaster: Are Some Online Assessment Conditions Better than Others?
Author: Agnew, Steve
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Natural Disasters,College Students,Computer Assisted Testing,Correlation,Tests,Grades (Scholastic),Foreign Countries,Economics Education,Technology Uses in Education,Grading,Evaluation Methods,Student Evaluation

As a result of the Canterbury earthquake on 4 September 2010, and associated aftershocks on 22 February 2011 and 13 June 2011, final examinations in the two first-year Economics papers at Canterbury University were cancelled at short notice in Semester 1, 2011. The final examination weightings were spread over the remaining assessments to obtain a final grade for students. This paper attempts to establish how different online assessment conditions affected final grade distributions when online assessments were substituted for an invigilated final examination. Pearson correlation coefficients and Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients were used to show that there was a greater correlation between online quizzes and invigilated assessments when those quizzes were only available for a restricted period of time compared with the whole semester. We found that online quizzes were more closely correlated with invigilated assessments when the first attempt at a quiz was recorded, as opposed to the higher of two attempts. We also found that using the first attempt leads to less grade disruption when compared with a &quot;normal&quot; semester that includes a final examination. Finally, the actual effect on student grades when online quizzes are substituted for a final examination is discussed.
The Correlation of Cognation Relationships with Livelihoods and Self-Improvement with an Emphasis on News and Sayings from Imam Reza (AS)
Author: Jazi, Maryam Saeedyan
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Islam,Islamic Culture,Ethics,Improvement,Family Relationship,Income

Visiting relationships is one of the religious customs of a Muslim in Islamic culture. It is one of the most ethical-legal strategies of Islam to self-improvement and strengthens social bonds. With emphasis on the tradition of Imam Reza this article tries to study the relationship of the above mentioned issue with livelihood and self-improvement. According to this, we can say &quot;there is an instant correlation between visiting relationships and self-improvement and livelihoods&quot;. The research methodology is descriptive-analysis and attributive that have been conducted using Islamic texts.
Educational Resilience as a Quadripartite Responsibility: Indigenous Peoples Participating in Higher Education via Distance Education
Author: Willems, Julie
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Indigenous Populations,Resilience (Psychology),Distance Education,Higher Education,Academic Persistence,School Holding Power,Student Participation,Outcomes of Education,Student Attrition,Holistic Approach,Electronic Learning,Equal Education

Considerations of educational resilience are often linked to student participation, retention, and outcomes in distance higher education, in spite of adversity, equity issues, or &quot;invisible fences&quot; that students may face. This paper further develops the quadripartite model of educational resilience (Willems, 2010; Willems &amp; Reupert, forthcoming); that is, educational resilience as the shared responsibility of students, educators, institutions, and communities--as a means to help assess and promote educational resilience and minimise student attrition in a specific cohort of distance learners, namely indigenous peoples. Through this lens the experiences of an online indigenous distance learner are explored.
Reinventing Professional Learning and Development: Ensuring Relevance and Building Resilience
Author: Owen, Hazel
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Professional Development,Electronic Learning,Vignettes,Models,Metacognition,Thinking Skills,Student Improvement,Academic Achievement,Outcomes of Education,Communities of Practice,Program Descriptions,Program Design,Program Effectiveness,Teacher Effectiveness,Self Efficacy,Data Collection,Online Surveys

Innovation may best be considered as reinvention rather than invention. This observation is supported by a gradually accelerating change in &quot;how&quot; professional learning and development (PLD) for education practitioners and leaders is being offered, designed, facilitated, and evaluated. The reinvention of PLD includes shifts towards contextualised, personalised, self-paced learning that build resilience because they are underpinned by the development of a professional social identity within an online community of practice--shifts that arguably challenge notions of what actually comprises PLD provision. However, what might such reinvented PLD &quot;look like&quot;? And what are the implications for professional practice and student learning in terms of building resilience, ensuring relevance, and driving reform? This paper provides an insight into the features of, and findings from, the Virtual Professional Learning and Development (VPLD) programme initiated by the New Zealand Ministry of Education in 2010. The providers have worked mainly with primary and secondary school leaders and teachers, although one tertiary teacher has participated. The VPLD has been designed to exploit a range of affordances that in turn provide flexibility of choice, time, and approach for participants, enabling them to build and shape their knowledge and skills, all within the framework of mentoring and an online community of practice (CoP). This paper illustrates some of the dynamics and possible results of the VPLD programme by presenting two vignettes (in part drawn from the associated research study), along with other illustrative data. The vignettes and following discussion clearly indicate the value of the VPLD model by demonstrating changes in the practitioners' roles which have resulted in, for example, increases in the development of students' metacognitive skills. There is also anecdotal evidence of improvements in student achievement of learning outcomes.