The Relationship of Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Intentions of University Students: The Mediating Effect of Attitudinal Factors

The study intended to examine the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions of students studying business education in different universities. More over the mediating effect of attitudinal factors on the relationship of intended variables was also explored. Six hundred graduate students were surveyed through a questionnaire from three public universities. The findings displayed that entrepreneurship education was significantly affecting entrepreneurial intentions of the students. Attitudinal factors have a strong mediation for entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions of higher education students. It can be concluded that entrepreneurial curricula and instruction along with attitudinal factors can add significantly to advance entrepreneurial intentions of students. It is suggested that the students of higher education, may be exposed towards entrepreneurship knowledge through regular instructional process, seminars and workshops to enhance their entrepreneurial capacities.

The Role of Elementary Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence Competencies in improving Students’ Motivation and Student-Teacher Relationship

Emotional intelligence is an accumulation of many emotional intelligence competencies and these competencies are generally found in people with different variations. Emotionally strong teachers impact teaching learning process in schools positively. The present study was conducted to find out the effects of emotional intelligence (EI) competencies of teachers on student-teacher relationship and student’s motivation at elementary level. Twenty five competencies of teachers were explored under five major domains i.e. emotional self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation, social-skills and social-awareness. Goleman’s Emotional Competence Inventory (Boyatzis & Goleman, 2002) was used as a tool for data collection. Two questionnaires were developed by the researchers after review of related literature for measuring the student’s motivation and student-teacher relationship. For assuring the reliability of instrument, Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was calculated, which ranged from 0.73 to 0.86. One hundred and sixty elementary school teachers (EST) and senior elementary school educators (SESE) were selected as the sample of the study from two tehsils of Sargodha district. The data of one hundred and fifty one respondents were analyzed through t-test, one way ANOVA and regression analysis. The findings discovered that teacher’s EI competencies had significant effect on students’ motivation and student-teacher relationship in elementary schools. There was no gender difference in emotional competencies of teachers. It was concluded that age had significant effect on teacher’s EI competencies as younger ones scored higher on ECI. It was recommended that training programs may be organized to enhance teachers’ emotional intelligence competencies.

Early Childhood Teacher Competencies: Perspectives of Educational Leaders of Public and Private Sector in Karachi

In Pakistan, various teacher development and professional competency model exist and have been presented. However, there is a lack of a competency model for teachers of early childhood care and education (ECCE). This research study was an attempt in initiating a formal discourse regarding how school leaders perceive ECCE teacher competency (TC). The study approached an exploratory qualitative study with the intent to understand the perspective of educational leaders from the public and private sector pertinent to ECCE-TC. Four school leaders, two from each sector respectively were approached to share their perceptions regarding the same. The researchers used an in-depth qualitative interview with a help semi-structured interview topic guide. The findings reveal that ECCE is a specialized field and that there is a need for ample work to be done to recognize this field. The data also revealed that there are discrepancies concerning recruitment criteria, teacher appraisal and credits for continuous professional development. More so, there is a need for national level agenda to address the gaps of competency and licensing framework. We present a policy recommendation as closure of this paper for Pakistan to have a task force on ECCE with the relevant field experts who could contribute with their pragmatic experience and align Pakistan ECCE landscape with global standards

What Should We Learn from New Trends in Teacher Education

This theoretical paper discusses the salient features of new trends in Teacher Education and their implications for teachers’ learning in 21st century. With this, the paper represents Social Justice Approach, Master-Apprentice Approach, Teacher Identity Approach, Reflective practices Approach, Competence Approach and, Applied knowledge Approaches. In addition, the paper presents seven elements of effective Professional Development required being a 21st century teacher as suggested by Darling-Hammond et al., (2017). Besides, the paper describes ‘How teachers learn’ suggested by Jones and Dexter (2014). It further discusses the questions and concerns that have been raised about these new trends. In addition, it highlights the issues faced by Pakistani teacher education program. Finally, the paper recommends what trend(s) Pakistani teacher Education should adapt that help teachers becoming prepare for 21st century.

A Comparative Analysis of the Pronunciation of Engineers and Bureaucrats: An Explanatory Research

It is a fact that English has become part and parcel of our society. All the fields of our society have been affected by English in the modern epoch. Major important issues pertaining to English language teaching are still unanswered because of lack of strategy for teaching English in our educational institutes. Similarly, pronunciation is one of the major factors, which ruins the image of a speaker, although he or she is good in grammatical and other features of English language. The purpose of instant study is to find out the reasons behind mispronunciation of English language in our society. For this purpose, two types of important professional fields of our society were taken up for experiment, which were bureaucrat and engineer. Similarly, two types of research tools were adopted, first was an Observation Sheet and second was structured open-ended questionnaire. The results show different aspects of both targeted groups. It was revealed by the research that bureaucrats are in favour of going with correct pronunciation, whereas engineers are not as enthusiastic to be corrected in pronunciation as bureaucrats.

Pragmatic Competence: Difficulties faced by Pakistani EFL Learners

The study investigates the pragmatic knowledge; pragmatic competence level as well as speech act strategies used by Pakistani EFL learners. It reveals that Master level English language learners are unable to produce and comprehend the intended meanings in the target language. As a result, pragmatic failure and misunderstanding occurred. Pragmatic comprehension and production is essential for effective communication especially for EFL learners in this modern age where people have to communicate cross-culturally as English is being used as lingua franca internationally. The study explores the problems faced by EFL learners in comprehending and producing the correct speech acts in English. The study used two data collection tools: a WDCT in which speech acts of refusal and apology are used to find out pragmatic competence level and difficulties faced by Pakistani EFL learners. A Likert Scale questionnaire is used to know about the views and suggestions of the Pakistani EFL learners about the teaching and learning environment regarding the pragmatics. The data of speech acts of refusal is analyzed qualitatively according to the taxonomy of Beebe, keeping in view frequency, shift and content of semantic formulas. While the data of speech acts of apology is analyzed according to the speech act strategies of Cohen. Data collected through the Likert scale questionnaire is analyzed quantitatively. The study finds out that pragmatic competence level of Pakistani EFL learners is very low as well as they have to face many difficulties which result in pragmatic failure. Findings of the study show that Pakistani EFL learners lack knowledge of pragmatics in the target language. EFL learners acknowledged that pragmatic knowledge is very important for effective communication and it should be an integral part of syllabus and classroom activities.

Analysis of Impact on Mental Health and Motivation Levels of Higher-Levels Students Due to Novel Virus COVID-19

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the impact on Mental Health and Motivation levels of university students because of nCOV-19. This study analyzed the perception of students’ mental health and Motivation level due to nCOV-19. The population comprised 25000 students of the University of Education Multan, Baha Uddin Zakariya University Multan, and MNS University of Agriculture Multan. They selected a sample of 250 students through the cluster and stratified sampling technique. A survey was conducted for the quantitative components of the study amongst students using a self-made questionnaire based on the factors of mental health and motivation level. Three factors of mental health are stress, anxiety, and depression. The researcher distributed and administered the questionnaires himself. The study reviewed relevant literature regarding nCOV-19, character and higher educational institutions, and other factors influencing these variables. The received information was broken down using illustrative and inferential measurements. Descriptive statistics included mean, median, mode, and standard deviation. The results show that students receive a high level of data collected about the motivational level of students. Both anxiety and depression at a low level, and stress at moderate level amongst university students during the nCOV-19 Pandemic. Inferential statistics included t-test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression. The commonness of stress and depression in females is greater than males with a minimum margin, which shows females face a slightly higher level of stress and depression than males. But the commonness of anxiety in females is greater than males with a moderate margin, which shows females face a higher level of anxiety than males. Pearson coefficient correlation indicates a negative low degree of correlation between the impact of motivational levels and students' academic achievement.

Analyzing George Bernard Shaw’s Portrayal of Women in the Light of Postfeminist Theory

The paper aims at investigating the critical opinions about Bernard Shaw’s ambivalent relation to feminism. In this regard, the researchers highlight the emerging role of postfeminism and its overlapping elements with the Islamic portrayal of womanhood. Shaw differs from his predecessors drastically – he portrays independent female characters as compared to the invisible and submissive females of the past. Thus, one of the striking features of Shaw’s drama is the depiction of liberated women. The Shavian women do not consider men folk as their rivals. There is a shift from powerless to empowered women in academia. The researchers find out that there is an ideological conflict between feminism and Islam but as far as postfeminism is concerned, there is none. Rather, postfeminism propagates and supports the Islamic concept of womanhood thoroughly. It is also worth noting that feminist ideas and ideology have greatly dented the social and political fabric of mankind and human civilization in general. Whereas, postfeminism propagates in favor of maintaining a balanced position for womanhood in life which is a balance between social and individual life, and a balance between professional and family life. The purpose of this article is to promote a better understanding of the status of women in Islam and its overlapping and common areas with postfeminism, that is, God has equated female folk at par with their male folk. The research is significant as it challenges the western notion of women in Islam and dispels the erroneous notions of suppression of women in Islam. The prime finding of this research is that postfeminism proclaims equal footing for men and women in life, as enshrined in the Holy Quran. Further, the researchers lament that just because of myopic-minded people, the world is not making any progress intellectually. The researchers recommend that there is a dire need to promote liberal intellectuals like Shaw who harbor no bias against Islam and Muslims to maintain peace and order in the world.

Visual representation of COVID-19 in Children‘s Literature: A Semiotic Analysis

The massive spread of Coronavirus has badly affected the entire globe and lives of the people irrespective of age or gender. Children in this regard are no exemption. They are affected not only physically but also emotionally and mentally due to the virus and quarantine period. This study aims to provide a semiotic analysis of the visual representations of Covid-19 in the children’s book covers selected on a global level. These covers are new emerging literature and serve to narrate a global discourse related to COVID-19. The researchers have followed the qualitative approach and the data have been collected using purposive sampling technique to provide a holistic interpretation of the selected covers. Framework, selected for the study, is ‘Semiotic Analysis’ by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). The findings revealed that the participants’ actions and overall circumstances in these covers are highly meaningful. The action narrative and colorful illustrations aim to motivate the young audience in a positive manner. Furthermore, they communicate a message of hope and urge them to fight against the virus. The visuals in these covers are therefore quite significant in their meanings and interpretations.

Evaluation of Public Transport: A Case Study of Hyderabad Sindh Pakistan

The spatial and economic growth of cities and regions is heavily influenced by transportation. A better knowledge of public transportation will help to clarify the positions of the public and private sectors, as well as recognize the critical government position. To study the problems and issues of the public transportation system, Qasimabad, Hyderabad is selected as a study area due to some serious issues of public transportation. Personal observations and questionnaires were used to gather data from the research area. And for analyzing the data SPSS and MS Excel are used. The results reveal that the existing public transportation system is not meeting the needs of residents. Hence use of private transportation is high and causing environmental and traffic jam problems. As 68% of respondents use a motorbike for recreational purposes, 64% of respondents are not using public transport due to safety factors. In general, 54% of respondents were not satisfied with the service of public transport. As people are willing to use public transport but due to some factors such as safety, they are not using public transport so it is suggested that both vehicles and roads must be safe for users. This study aims to study the existing scenario of public transportation in terms of services and facilities, and people’s perception about public transportation. So it is concluded that people are tending to use public transport but under some certain conditions (factors preventing the use of public transport), if these concerns are solved then public transport system will become more efficient.