Enhancing Students’ Attitude towards Biology through the Integration of Traditional Medicine and 5E’s Learning Cycle

The study investigated the effect of integrating traditional medicine (TM) concepts with grade 9th microorganism and disease topics on students’ attitude towards biology. The study used a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest non-equivalent group design. two intact classes were selected in Chiro district of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. The first class belonged to the treatment group where TM contents are integrated through 5E’s learning cycle with the topic Microorganism and Disease and the second was assigned as comparison group learning the same biology unit on Microorganisms and Disease using the usual approach. Biological Attitude Questionnaires (BAQ) was administered for both groups as pre- and post-tests. The findings showed that the integration of TM with the school biology enhanced students’ attitude towards biology as compared with teaching the topics without integration.

Analysis of Item Writing Flaws in a Communications Skills Test in a Ghanaian University

Adhering to the rules governing the writing of multiple-choice test items will ensure quality and validity. However, realizing this ideal could be challenging for non-native English language teachers and students. This is especially so for non-native English language teachers because developing test items in a language that neither they nor their students use as their mother tongue raises a multitude of issues related to quality and validity. A descriptive study on this problem was conducted at a Technical University in Ghana which focused on item writing flaws in a communication skills test. The use of multiple-choice test in Ghanaian universities has increased over the last decade due to increasing student intake. A 20-item multiple-choice test in communication skills was administered to 110 students. The test items were analyzed using a framework informed by standard item writing principles based on the revised taxonomy of multiple-choice item-writing guides by Haladyna, Downing and Rodriguez (2002). The facility and discrimination index (DI) was calculated for all the items. In total, 60% of the items were flawed based on standard items writing principles. The most violated guideline was wording stems negatively. Pearson correlation analysis indicated a weak relationship between the difficulty and discrimination indices. Using the discrimination indices of the flawed items showed that 84.6 % of them had discrimination indices below the optimal level of 0.40 and above. The lowest DI was recorded by an item with which was worded negatively. The mean facility of the test was 45%. It was observed that the flawed items were more difficult than the non-flawed items. The study suggested that test items must be properly reviewed before they are used to assess students’ knowledge.

Emotional Intelligence, Social Networking Skills and Online Counselling Communication Effectiveness Among Students of OAU, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

With a view to providing empirical information on the factors that influence online counselling communication among Nigerian university students, this study investigated the influence of emotional intelligence and social networking skills on the effectiveness of online counselling communication among students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). Through a descriptive survey research design, the study sampled 100 students purposively from users of the University online counselling platform, on the basis of being able to have established complete counselling interaction with any of the counsellors online during the harmattan and rain semesters of 2017/2018 session (or over a period of 12 months.). The results showed that 78.0%, 19.0% and 3.0% of the students demonstrated high, moderate and low levels of online counselling communication effectiveness respectively and that emotional intelligence has significant influence on online communication effectiveness (β = 0.790, p < 0.05). The results further showed that social networking skills has no significant influence on online communication effectiveness (F = 3.457, p > 0.05) and no significant interaction effect of emotional intelligence and social networking skill was found on online counselling communication effectiveness (F = 0.546, p > 0.05). The study concluded that the only factor that influenced online counselling communication effectiveness among the students under study is emotional intelligence

Integrating Indigenous Knowledge and Culturally based Activities in South African Mathematics Classrooms

Culturally based activities embedded within indigenous knowledge, in general, may be used to support the teaching of mathematics in multicultural classes. The article reflects on research that has been conducted with twenty-five post-graduate students studying Mathematics Education at one university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. These post-graduate students were also practicing mathematics teachers at schools. The study explored the use of indigenous knowledge and culturally based activities by post-graduate students in schools while teaching mathematical concepts. The theory of Realistic Mathematics Education framed this qualitative, interpretive study which used a questionnaire, lesson observations and semi-structured interviews to generate data. Qualitative data were analysed inductively and thematically. The findings reveal that the participants needed to understand indigenous knowledge to integrate culturally based activities in mathematics lessons. Secondly, culturally based activities established on indigenous knowledge scaffolded mathematics lessons and promoted the understanding of mathematical concepts to make learning more meaningful and relevant. Thirdly, this study provides examples of good practice to support teachers in integrating classroom activities and activities outside the classroom, ensuring that mathematical concepts learned in classrooms are not done in isolation but take into account learners’ authentic experiences in various settings. Finally, by integrating indigenous knowledge and culturally based activities in the mathematics curriculum, learners interacted and engaged more freely within the educational context. Similar studies could be conducted at universities internationally. Implications for mathematics teachers, mathematics teacher educators and mathematics curriculum developers globally are discussed.

Barriers and Enablers to Inclusive Education in Mauritius: Perceptions of Secondary School Educational Practitioners

Advocated as an educational philosophy to tackle exclusion, inclusive education (IE) is now a worldwide trend. Despite the well-acknowledged benefits of inclusion, educational practitioners have several difficulties which act as significant setbacks in operationalising inclusion in practice. Given its novelty in Mauritius, IE implementation is not fully understood. The purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions of secondary school educational practitioners on certain aspects of inclusive education, namely the academic profile of students with special education needs encountered by secondary school educators and rectors, the difficulties faced when dealing with them, and the barriers and enablers to inclusive education. It involved a quantitative descriptive research design. Data were collected from 588 secondary educators and 42 rectors using a specifically designed questionnaire. Following the analysis of data, respondents confirmed the presence of children with special education needs in their classrooms. While respondents indicated that the majority of students with special education needs had an academic profile of the same level of age-matched peers, they reported difficulties encountered with these learners in terms of deficits in attention, participation and behavioural problems. The main barriers identified were the lack of training in special education and the lack of proper infrastructure. Findings revealed training and knowledge in special education, the availability of proper infrastructure, support in terms of teaching aids, specialised equipment and teaching assistants as the main enabling factors. Training is therefore recommended to build competency of educators and rectors in inclusive practices. Appropriate infrastructure and support in terms of educational materials and support personnel should also be provided.

Perception and Management of Stress by South African Foundation Phase Teachers

The prevalence and management of stressors experienced by rural-based foundation phase teachers in South Africa were examined in this study. Quantitative and qualitative measures were used to gain more insight into stressors experienced by teachers. A questionnaire with open-ended and closed-ended questions was used to collect data from n=119 participants. The results of the study indicated that many foundation phase teachers experienced a wide variety of stressors. There was also an indication that whilst some teachers do have the necessary skills to cope with the stressors that they experienced, within their teaching and learning environment, using various techniques such as: exercise, spirituality and planning other participants struggled to cope and required support. Recommendations were made in order to assist those teachers who were unable to manage the stressors they experienced, limitations of the study discussed and avenues for further research are also presented.

Teacher’s Use of Instructional Materials in Teaching and Learning Mathematics in Rwandan Primary Schools

Teaching and learning mathematics is easier, more interesting, more enjoyable, and more closely connected to real life applications with the use of instructional materials like textbooks, manipulatives, technology tools, and (physical or digital) models. This study investigated the impact of instructional aids on classroom interaction through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations of 15 mathematics teachers from five primary schools in Rulindo district, in Rwanda’s Northern Province. Interviews were analyzed thematically, and classroom observations were analyzed descriptively. The analysis indicates a lack of instructional materials for teaching mathematics overall. Most teachers use course books, but report that there are not enough books available. Use of ICT is limited due to the lack of power supply in some schools. Teachers in this study either did not use available instructional materials at all, or, if they were used, they were not used appropriately. Teachers also did not allow students to actively use the materials; thus, students were not given the opportunity to enhance their active learning and participate in constructing their knowledge of the mathematics content.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of the Relevance of Teacher Professional Ethics in Contemporary Lesotho

Previous research suggests that new teachers have more negative ethical perceptions than their senior counterparts. However, there is limited research on teachers’ perceptions regarding the relevance of professional ethics in the contemporary world. Hence this study sought to explore the extent to which pre-service teachers in Lesotho consider professional ethics to be relevant. A qualitative approach was adopted and Kohlberg’s (1987) moral development theory was used as the theoretical framework for the study. Data were generated with the use of both semi-structured and focus-group interviews. Forty-six (n 46) final-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) students were purposively selected to take part in this study. Sixteen (16) were interviewed individually, while 30 were interviewed in three focus-groups of ten participants each. The findings are that the participating pre-service teachers had mixed feelings about the relevance of professional ethics of teachers. Some emphasised the importance of a teachers’ code of ethics while others indicated that some of the regulations were outdated. The position taken in this paper is that teacher professional ethics are timeless. These are meant to protect the interests of different stakeholders in education as well as the image of the teaching profession.

Online Learning Amidst COVID-19 Emergency: A Case of the University of Malawi’s School of Education

This paper explores faculty members’ concerns and level of preparedness for open and distance learning (ODL) at the University of Malawi’s School of Education during the recent Covid-19 pandemic within a context that considers ODL as a means of mitigating the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with four experienced academic leaders within the school of education. The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM), particularly stages of concerns, served as a framework to understand the faculty’s concerns about the implementation of ODL initiatives. Inductive and deductive analysis approaches were used to analyse the interview transcripts to identify emerging themes. Deductive analysis revealed that faculty members expressed several concerns such as awareness, informational, as well as consequences concerns as they talked about their feelings and attitudes towards the implementation of ODL. Inductive analysis on the other hand revealed that faculty members’ perceptions such as minimal preparation, negative orientations, and lack of policy awareness hamper the implementation of ODL. These findings underscore the importance of members’ orientation change to ensure effective implementation of ODL in contexts like the institution under study. We discuss these and propose that professional development could help members develop positive attitudes towards ODL.

Adult Literacy Facilitators’ Job Satisfaction in Nigeria and South Africa

This study reported a survey conducted to assess the job satisfaction level among adult literacy facilitators in Nigeria and South Africa. The study adopted a quantitative approach and data was collected from eighty-six (86) adult literacy facilitators (Nigeria-50 and South Africa-36) randomly selected from Oyo State, Nigeria and King Cetshwayo District, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. A structured questionnaire validated by experts and pilot-tested among primary School teachers serves as the research instrument. Data collected from the study were analysed using frequency count, simple percentages, mean, multiple regression analysis and T-test. Results revealed that adult literacy facilitators' job satisfaction level in the two countries is on average. Provision of a positive working environment in terms of improvement in the infrastructural facilities in the literacy centre was ranked first amongst others as ways to improve the job satisfaction of literacy facilitators. There was, however, no statistical difference in job satisfaction among literacy facilitators in Nigeria and South Africa. Therefore, it was concluded that conscious effort must be made at mapping out strategies to improve literacy facilitators’ job satisfaction to enhance adult literacy delivery in the two countries.