A preliminary inquiry on the association between pre-admission assessments and academic performance of first year dental technology students’ within a South African university of technology

The use of selection, diagnostic, proficiency, placement, admission, manual dexterity and aptitude tests can reportedly predict students’ academic success. Predictive admission procedures help to reduce dropout rates, improve academic performance, increase success rates, and selectively exclude applicants who are unlikely to be successful in the course. There is an absence of research, however, in this area of work in Dental Technology. To examine the association between pre-admission assessments and Dental Technology students’ academic performance in a South African University of Technology. A quantitative and cross-sectional study design was used. The target populations were the 2018 and 2019 first-year Dental Technology students. Retrospective data extracted from academic records and programme files were statistically analysed to measure the correlations against students’academic performance. Despite there being no significant differences between pre-admission tests and students’ academic performance, there were significant positive correlations between first year university subjects. There are indications of horizontal coherence between the discipline-specific subjects in the first-year Dental Technology curriculum. Examining the association between pre-admission tests and students’ academic results through to graduation, together with the horizontal and vertical alignments of all subjects in the undergraduate Dental Technology curriculum, can facilitate the learning pathways for students to succeed academically at universities.

Assimilate The Qur'an's View with Science and Technology Perspectives

Integration in the education of Muslims has become an agenda among Islamic intellectuals and activists. Where secular humanism and atheistic modernism leave Muslims with a legacy of educational dichotomy. Many contemporary Islamic educational institutions have been established since then, each with some distinctive integration models. Many Muslims advance the true integration of the Qur'an worldview in the Science and Technology curriculum whose students are at a critical stage of cognitive development, affective, spiritual, social, and ethical. This research presents qualitative reports that analyze several samples of integration models in a number of Islamic schools in Indonesia. In an effort to understand the Science and Technology Perspective this article assesses the worldview that has brought science and technology to its current stage. This research proposes a model for Islamic school education in which science and technology undergo thoughtful but holistic reconstruction, reinterpretation, and diversion of frameworks, and are organically infused with the Qur'an, and enrich 'Islamic studies' with good grounding and Science.