ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Stress, Coping Strategies And Their Impact On Work Performance Of J. H.S Teachers

The purpose of the study is to investigate stress, coping strategies and their impact on the work performance of J. H. S. teachers in Upper Denkyira East Municipality, in the Central Region of Ghana. The descriptive survey design was utilised. A total of 154 JHS teachers were engaged in the study using purposive and census sampling techniques. A questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was ascertained in a pilot test before it was used for the actual data collection. Reliability coefficients were over the required 0.7. Research question one, two, and three were analysed using means and standard deviations. Regression analysis was used to test research hypothesis one. Research hypothesis two was analysed using Hayes moderation process. An independent t-test was used to test hypothesis three. JHS teachers experience high stress levels. This is mostly caused by inadequate salary, shortage of equipment and poor facilities, excessive workload and learners’ impolite behaviours. To manage stress, JHS teachers manage their time, focus on the problem and see how it can be solve it. Although stress had a negative effect on work performance, the coping strategies used by teachers can reduce this effect. Also, males and females do not differ in relation to stress levels. School authorities in conjunction with the Ghana Education Service should ensure the JHS teachers receive adequate salaries, and adequate and appropriate infrastructure or facilities that are well furnished with equipment and other relevant material for teaching and learning.

Source: UCC
Stress, Copingstrategies, And Help-Seeking Among Catholic Priests In Cape Coast

The purpose of this study was to identify the sources of stress, coping strategies, and help-seeking among Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Cape Coast. A descriptive research design and a census sampling technique were adopted. The targeted population for the study was 159 priests; however, 148 responses were obtained. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test, ANOVA, and Chisquare) were used to analyse the data. Results indicated that the predominant source of stress among the priests was “intrusion.” The study further revealed “religion” as the leading coping mechanism among the priests. A moderate level of stress was found among the priests. This was found to be higher among parish priests than among assistant parish priests and those in other apostolates. It was also found to be higher among the priests who worked in urban areas than among their colleagues in rural areas. Furthermore, the study found that, though levels of stress significantly influence help-seeking, most priests would not seek help for their personal and emotional problems. The study recommended that the Archdiocese of Cape Coast should educate the priests on the need to establish and uphold work boundaries and encourage them to seek psychological help in times of mental and emotional challenges.

Source: UCC
Striga management and the African farmer

Striga asiatica and S. hermonthica are widespread plant parasites of cereals in Sub-Saharan Africa. In maize cropland alone, Striga has infested about 2.4 million ha, resulting in yield loss of 1.6 million tons per year, valued at US$383 million. Because the parasite attacks below ground, conventional weeding is largely ineffective. Researchers have been slow to develop other Striga control practices useful to small-scale African farmers. Two recent technical breakthroughs, however, offer opportunities for better Striga management. First, herbicide-resistant maize lines provide several weeks’ chemical protection from infection, resulting in over one ton per ha yield improvement and reducing Striga expression by 80%. Second, many legumes induce Striga seed to germinate and die in the absence of susceptible host roots, a characteristic usefully employed in cereal–legume intercropping and rotation. The challenge is to translate these technical achievements into products and technologies available to and adopted by Africa’s poor farmers

Source: UCC
A structural decompositional analysis of eco-visitors’ motivations, satisfaction and post purchase behaviour

A series of studies have demonstrated the relevance of visitors’ motivation, satisfaction and post-consumption behaviour to sustainable management of attractions, but existing knowledge on the intricate causal relationships among these issues in the context of eco-tourism is limited. Using data from 342 visitors to the Kakum National Park in Ghana and a structural equation modelling approach, this study advances understanding of the intersecting relationships, both at aggregate and at disaggregate levels, among eco-visitors’ motivation, satisfaction and future behaviour. The ensued results not only confirm but also offer unique insights into the hypothesis that specific expectations, which are mirrored in travel motivations, matter to specific satisfaction evaluations with consumptions experiences and downstream effects on future behaviour. However, these causal relationships are not uniform after controlling for eco-visitors’ sex, educational attainment and marital status. Implications of the results to theory and sustainable practice in eco-tourism settings have been discussed

Source: UCC
Structural Elucidation and In Vivo Anti-arthritic Activity of β-Amyrin and Polpunonic Acid Isolated from the Root Bark of Ziziphus abyssinica HochstEx. A Rich (Rhamnaceae)

Two natural products, compounds 1 and 2 were isolated from the root bark of Ziziphus abyssinica for the first time and were structurally elucidated as β-amyrin and polpunonic acid, respectively. Both compounds were further subjected to an in vivo study in rats to evaluate their anti-arthritic potency. Compared to the arthritic control group, rats treated with different doses of 1 or 2 (3, 10, and 30 mg/kg) exhibited significantly higher total change in body weight as well as lower arthritic scores and total change in paw edema and erythema. Histopathological examinations of the hind paws of the rats further demonstrated the beneficial effects of both compounds as they significantly reversed cartilage erosion, subchondral cyst, and Weichselbaum’s lacunae formation. Evidence of bone remodeling was also observed in all groups of rats treated with 1 or 2. Hematological and serum biochemical parameters were not significantly affected by treatment of 1 or 2. Taken together, the results from the present study suggest potential therapeutic benefit of β-amyrin and polpunonic acid in rheumatoid arthritis and related inflammatory disorders.

Source: UCC
Structural Elucidation and In Vivo Anti-arthritic Activity of β-Amyrin and Polpunonic Acid Isolated from the Root Bark of Ziziphus abyssinica HochstEx. A Rich (Rhamnaceae)

Two natural products, compounds 1 and 2 were isolated from the root bark of Ziziphus abyssinica for the first time and were structurally elucidated as β-amyrin and polpunonic acid, respectively. Both compounds were further subjected to an in vivo study in rats to evaluate their anti-arthritic potency. Compared to the arthritic control group, rats treated with different doses of 1 or 2 (3, 10, and 30 mg/kg) exhibited\ significantly higher total change in body weight as well as lower arthritic scores and total change in paw edema and erythema. Histopathological examinations of the hind paws of the rats further demonstrated the beneficial effects of both compounds as they significantly reversed cartilage erosion, subchondral cyst, and Weichselbaum’s lacunae formation. Evidence of bone remodeling was also observed in all groups of rats treated with 1 or 2. Hematological and serum biochemical parameters were not significantly affected by treatment of 1 or 2. Taken together, the results from the present study suggest potential therapeutic benefit of β-amyrin and polpunonic acid in rheumatoid arthritis and related inflammatory disorders

Source: UCC
Structural equation modeling of the impact of teacher variables on student academic performance in elective mathematics of selected senior high schools in Ghana

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of teacher variables such as teachers’ qualification, teaching experience, teachers’ knowledge of subject matter, and teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, on student performance in elective mathematics in Senior High Schools (SHS) in Ghana. The positivist philosophy and descriptive survey design were adopted for the study. A sample of 225 SHS elective mathematics teachers and 6,750 SHS elective mathematics students was selected from Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Western and Northern regions for the study through multi-stage sampling technique. Two questionnaires; one for teachers and the other for students were used for the data collection. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The study found a statistically significant predictive relationship among teacher prior education and training, teaching experience, teacher subject matter knowledge, teacher pedagogical content knowledge, and students’ performance in elective mathematics. Teaching experience was found to moderate the relationship between teachers’ subject matter knowledge and students’ performance in elective mathematics while it played an insignificant moderating role in the relationship between pedagogical content knowledge and performance in elective mathematics. It was concluded that teacher variables: prior education and training, teaching experience, subject matter knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge all play significant roles in the performance of students in elective mathematics. It was recommended that stakeholders in education should formulate policies that will ensure the hiring of professional and qualified elective mathematics teachers to facilitate effective teaching and learning in senior high schools. It was also recommended that all non-professional and unqualified elective mathematics teachers who are already engage, should be encouraged to persue post-graduate studies in mathematics education.

Source: UCC
Structural Equation Modelling: Testing for the Factorial Validity, Replication and Measurement Invariance of Students' Views on Mathematics

In this study, we provide a detailed account of processes involved in applying structural equation modelling to validate a survey instrument – the students' view of mathematics instrument – in a new cultural setting. First, we tested the factorial validity of the instruments in Ghana for 12th-grade students (N = 2034, M = 18.49, standard deviation = 1.25; 58.2% girls). Second, in the event of model misfit, we proposed and tested an alternate factorial structure. Third, we cross-validated the new structure with an independent sample from the Ghanaian data set. Fourth, we evaluated the factorial invariance across students' gender. Initial reliability estimates and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the data set does not fit the hypothesized model (seven-factors). Subsequent exploratory factor analysis indicated a four-factor structure for the data set. The study has important implications for studies using structural equation modelling to validate survey instruments and shows the methodological challenges associated with the importation of a Western survey instrument into a different cultural environment.

Source: UCC
Structure and causes of mortality in the Kassena-Nankana district of the Upper East region of Ghana 1995-1999

Since 1662 demographers have been interested in mortality with the discourse centered around how mortality movements had impacted on population characteristics such as growth. Later discussions have aimed at spotting variations within and between groups and corresponding social and biological distal and proximate determinants. This study contributes to the discussion on morbidity and mortality by analysing data from a rural district in the Upper East Region of Ghana in time, space, season and socio-- demographic characteristics. The study adopted Omran's (1971) epidemiological transition theory as a framework, and used longitudinal data between 1995 and 1999 from Navrongo Demographic surveillance System site. Analyses of structure and causes of death were done at the population level. Results showed gradual shift in causes of death from communicable, maternal, prenatal and nutritional related diseases to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease within the period. There was also a general decline in mortality, with the southern zone, the most rural reporting the highest in almost all the cause-5pecific and age-specific mortalities. The findings suggest that Omran's model cannot have a strict universal application, as this study area, though relatively homogeneous, some notable spatial variations in the number of deaths and the causes thereof were observed. It is Suggested that health needs must be assessed at more disaggregate levels since disease burdens differ substantially by time, space and socio-demographic characteristics.

Source: UCC
The Structure of the Noun Phrase in the Narrative Writing of Students of Ghanaian Colleges of Education

ABSTRACT While the past few decades have witnessed a proliferation of studies on students’ writing, texts written by students of colleges of education remain largely underexplored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of noun phrases (NPs) in texts written by students in colleges of education (CoEs) in Ghana. A total of 318 texts produced by Levels 100, 200 and 300 students from three colleges of education in Ghana were selected and analysed based on Krashen’s acquisition theory, Monitor Model Theory (1982), Kinneavy’s discourse theory (1971) and Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik’s (1985) analytical framework on NPs. The study found that both simple and complex noun phrases were utilised by students. Findings from the investigation indicated that even though Level 300 students used few complex noun phrases compared to Levels 100 and 200 students, the Level 300 students were more syntactically complex. The results from the one-way ANOVA and its post hoc analysis showed a significant difference between Levels 100 and 300 students as well as between Levels 200 and 300 students in their use of complex noun phrases. Overall, Level 300 students significantly used more complex NPs than students in the other levels. It is recommended that other syntactic complexity analyser tools on the same topic such as Biber Tagger (1999), Coh-Metrix (2014) other than Lu (2011) L2SCA could be employed to assess complexity in future studies to confirm or refute findings of this study. Additionally, I recommend that in further studies, lexico-grammatical features such as relative clauses, prepositional phrases, and nominal clauses, should be analysed to assess complexity since academic language is a multifaceted entity which may be researched in various fields like SLA, Applies Linguistics and Language Testing

Source: UCC
A Structured Approach to End-of-Life Decision Making Improves Quality of Care for Patients With Terminal Illness in a Teaching Hospital in Ghana

Purpose: To determine whether a structured approach to end-of-life decision-making directed by a compassionate interdisciplinary team would improve the quality of care for patients with terminal illness in a teaching hospital in Ghana. Findings: A retrospective analysis was done for 20 patients who consented to participate in the structured approach to end-of-life decision-making. Twenty patients whose care did not follow the structured approach were selected as controls. Outcome measures were nociceptive pain control, completing relationships, and emotional response towards dying. These measures were statistically superior in the study group compared to the control group. Conclusions: A structured approach to end-of-life decision-making significantly improves the quality of care for patients with terminal illness in the domains of pain control, completing relationships and emotional responses towards dying.

Source: UCC
Struggles and Coping Strategies of Student Mothers at the University of Cape Coast Distance Education, Ghana

We investigated into combining motherhood with academic life concentrating on the struggles of student-mothers. The study adopted the mixed method design affirming the qualitative data with quantitative data. The purposive and convenient sampling procedures were used to select the sample from the University of Cape Coast Distance Education, Oyoko Study Center. The study found that majority of respondents go through academic struggles such as inability to attend face-to-face lectures regularly because of tiredness, sickness of child, taking baby to child welfare clinic and lack of lactating rooms for breastfeeding of babies. To cope with the struggles respondents relied on paid house helps, keeping children at day care centers, raising loans and relying on husbands and friends for support. The study recommended for the provision of lactating rooms, day care centers and counselling services for student-mothers on all centers of the College of Distance Education.

Source: UCC
Struggles over family land? Tree crops, land and labour in Ghana's Brong­Ahafo Region

Agricultural land use in much of Brong-Ahafo region, Ghana has been shifting from the production of food crops towards increased cashew nut cultivation in recent years. This article explores everyday, less visible, gendered and generational struggles over family farms in West Africa, based on qualitative, participatory research in a rural community that is becoming increasingly integrated into the global capitalist system. As a tree crop, cashew was regarded as an individual man's property to be passed on to his wife and children rather than to extended family members, which differed from the communal land tenure arrangements governing food crop cultivation. The tendency for land, cash crops and income to be controlled by men, despite women's and young people's significant labour contributions to family farms, and for women to rely on food crop production for their main source of income and for household food security, means that women and girls are more likely to lose out when cashew plantations are expanded to the detriment of land for food crops. Intergenerational tensions emerged when young people felt that their parents and elders were neglecting their views and concerns. The research provides important insights into gendered and generational power relations regarding land access, property rights and intra-household decision-making processes. Greater dialogue between genders and generations may help to tackle unequal power relations and lead to shared decision-making processes that build the resilience of rural communities

Source: UCC
Student evaluation of modules: does the timing Matter?

The common practice in many higher education institutions in Ghana and Africa is for module evaluation to be carried out at the end of teaching and learning activities. It is usually done before the final semester examination. This timing is believed to be more of a conventional wisdom than a systematic research informed practice. This study sought to find out students’ most preferred timing for module evaluation. The study used a mixed methods design with a simple random technique to select four hundred and fifty (450) students from a public university and a private university college. The findings revealed mixed views among participants with regards to the timing of module evaluation even though majority (57%) prefer module evaluation to occur after the last class meeting with the teaching staff, or after the final assessment of the module. The findings also established that there is no significant difference between the views of students from a public university and those from a private university college with regards to the most preferred timing of module evaluation. This implies that the timing of module evaluation matters to students, which requires their involvement in the decision-making process of when to evaluate a module. However, this study recommends that further research with larger sample size will be required in order to establish a more conclusive outcome on students’ most preferred timing of module evaluation.

Source: UCC
Student Group Projects: Perspectives of Higher Education Students

Group projects form a component of the work undertaken to assess undergraduate students for the award of degrees. This study sheds light on students’ experiences on group projects. Based on a self-reported survey of a convenience sample of 350 undergraduate students drawn from 926 final year students of the college of education of one public university in Ghana, this paper explores students’ engagement practices during group projects. The findings suggest that although students work collaboratively on their projects and are able to handle conflicts and communication problems that arise during group work processes ‘free riding’ is not non-existent, albeit minimal. Students noted the scheduling of group meetings and assessment of group work as challenges encountered in group projects. The study recommends that students need support on group dynamics, and the assessment of group project needs to be reconsidered to reward individual members in groups at the formative stages of the task in order to optimise students’ experience of this form of assessment.

Source: UCC
Student participation in decision - making process at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

Academic democracy as a tenet of University governance in African universities has generated a lot of concern and debates in recent years. The issue of student involvement in decision-making has manifested in these concerns and debates especially in sub-Saharan African countries. The study was undertaken to find out the level of student involvement in decision-making in tertiary institutions and the benefits it has for both students and university authority. The study was to determine those factors that prevent students from participating fully in decision-making at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). The target population was 21,000 persons and 150 formed the sample size. A descriptive survey was employed in the study. A written questionnaire was used to gather relevant data for the study. The data were analysed by using SPSS Software and summarised into percentages and frequency tables. Students have very little or no involvement in university decision-making except in the areas of hall administration, student welfare and student discipline. For example, fear of victimisation was found to be a factor that prevents students from participating in the decision-making processes in the university. Student participation in university governance has positive linkages to effective university management in areas where student participation takes place. It is therefore recommended that students and administrators should critically examine the existing governance structures at KNUST in a bid to identifying core places where student participation in decision-making would be very beneficial to the institution. The SRC needs to re-examine its functions and roles in the light of current global trends. Where necessary, changes should be instituted to improve student contribution to university decision-making.

Source: UCC