Even though students with eidetic or photographic memories are naturally found in universities, it is not necessary that all the students be of the same super endowment. However, in the university setting, we need students who have stability in all faculties so that the learning process is maximised through constructive and interactive instruction. Issues in education can neither be divorced from the fact-value dichotomy nor from the nature-nurture imperatives that affect and determine educational outcomes. In this regard, neither can some issues escape some element of subjectivity nor others be strictly measured and assessed by scientific strictures. The objective of this paper is to examine some of the learning disabilities among our law students at ZCAS University, and how these affect their academic performance. We settled on this topic after noting that some of our students do not perform well because of many learning disabilities which could be hidden from our view and which should have been diagnosed during the pre-admission period; and also diagnosed through pre-admission tests. Our objective was to establish some of the underlying causes of their poor performance during tests and final year examinations. In this paper, we theoretically explore learning disabilities related to mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the well-being of our students. The research took the form of administering questionnaires to the relevant students through purposive sampling. With regard to the methodological approach, we adopted an exploratory approach by using descriptive, quantitative and analytical qualitative methods such as content and thematic analysis. We found out that some students came to the university not because they had academic strength and aptitude in the field of law but because they could afford to pay for the programme. We also found out that some of the students admitted to the university had poor learning styles and habits such as spending too much time online with friends. Furthermore, it came to light that some lecturers did not deliver lectures to suit the learning styles and preferences of students. Our findings were not conclusive enough as similar tests have to be carried out in future in different places to validate and corroborate our findings.
Equality of admission tests using kernel equating under the non-equivalent groups with covariates design
