Perception of Students on the Use of Mobile Phones in EFL Learning: A Phenomenological Study

This research study focuses on the students’ perception on the use of mobile phones in EFL learning in the context of Nepal. It aims to investigate how the students are taking smart phones as a means for EFL learning in their educational experience. The study was carried out among the students of the bachelor level at Dhankuta Multiple Campus. It was largely informed by a phenomenological approach in order to examine the students’ experiences of using mobile phones in EFL learning. The semi- structured interview was held to collect the required data. Results indicate that all participants have positive attitudes on the use of mobile phones in learning English. However, they feel a few difficulties in understanding the text through the mobile phones. They expect supportive guidance and reliable network quality for effective EFL learning. Mobile phones can serve as a useful language learning tool if it is utilized properly for specific purposes. All curriculum developers, syllabus designer and policy makers should consider the space of mobile assisted English language learning in the present curriculum.

Wild Edible Plants of Dhankuta, Eastern Nepal

The Dhankuta district, situated in the Eastern part of the country, is a hot spot for floral diversity. The vegetation zone ranges from sub tropical Sal forest to cool temperate alpine forest. The study of wild edible plant of this area was an attempt to highlight the types of wild edible plants found and their mode of use in local people. Present study records 132 species of wild edible plants belonging to 63 families and 103 genera. Fruits are the most common edible parts of the wild edible plants followed by leaves, young shoot, root or tuber, seeds, flower, whole plants, bark, nectar, nuts, inflorescence and buds.

Elderly Care: Policy Initiatives and Older Parents’ Perception in Nepali Society

Elderly care in the present day Nepali society is affected with the changes in the family arrangements. The old age situations without children, children away from home, and out migration of children create impacts on the maintenance and care of the elderly parents. The major issues of apprehension with the elderly population are their health status including their social, psychological and emotional conditioning, and elderly support activities. Based on focused group discussions and analysis of the selected narratives collected through personal interviews in Province-1, this paper finds, more or less, a common perspective of the elderly parents that their life situations become lonelier and difficult as they become older and feel helpless in absence of their children. Social inclusion and integration of senior citizens have been two major aspects in the state policy interventions while the daily life issues and activities of the elderly are of equal concern. The initiatives for elderly care shall be based on their interest, choices and needs.

Role of Teachers' Union in Professional Development of Teachers in the Public Universities of Nepal

This paper focuses on the role of teachers' union in the professional development of teacher in the public universities of Nepal. To date no worth mentioning impression about the activities of teachers’ union in the professional development of teachers has been observed. Hence, this paper explores the affirmative role of the union in the professional development of its members. In the course of this study, in-depth interview was carried out for the collection of the data and thematic analysis was done for analysis and interpretation. The participants in this research were five leaders from different teachers’ unions and two members as beneficiaries from the union. It has been found that the teachers’ union works as a platform for sharing knowledge and skills among the teachers, and it also makes the existing teachers as well as the newly appointed teachers aware of the recent development in the field of teaching and learning in the global education ambiance. Moreover, the use of different available networks facilitates in encouraging the academic actions that eventually supports in the professional enhancement of the teachers.

Perception and Practices of ICT Integration in Higher Education Classroom

ICT integration in pedagogy has created the new discourse in our educational institutions. It has created the teaching learning is more challenging as well as productive. Gaining these insights, this study searched the perception and practices of ICT integration in higher education classroom and its integrating ways in teaching. This study used the qualitative research design whereas applied the phenomenological design to inquiry. For study, I selected the study area and informants through the convenient and purposive sampling respectively. The focus group discussion, in-depth interview and personal introspection helped me to understand the phenomena of ICT. The major finding is that the motivation factor is crucial for integration of ICT tools. The finding showed that ICT tools can integrate in six phases such as motivation, infrastructure development, training, bridge up, implementation, and monitoring. The ICT tools can be integrated through the brainstorming, self-presenting, collaborative, problem-based learning and project-based learning techniques/methods. The successful integration requires the support and training for the teachers and students. It always promotes the learning culture in supportive way and creates the opportunities to access in information to the users.

Measuring Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies of Higher Level Learners

The metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among higher level learners has been widely acknowledged for successful reading comprehension. However, literature shows a little empirical research in this area in Nepalese context. This paper attempts to measure the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies of higher level learners of Nepal. As a quantitative study, cross-sectional survey design was used to obtain the primary data from 142 higher level learners pursuing MPhil degree from different universities of Nepal through questionnaire. The metacognitvie awareness of reading strategies of the learners was measured in univariate analysis and difference of their awareness in terms of independent variables was assessed in bivariate analysis using t-test. The study revealed that higher level learners had metacognitive awareness of reading strategies at different levels. Among the three groups of strategies, cognitive strategies were found most frequently used by the learners and supportive strategies were found least frequent to them. The independent variables i.e. sex and subject of specialization did not affect in the learners’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. The differences were not seen statistically significant. This implies that teacher can use and instruct the learners with similar type of reading strategies irrespective of gender and group of subjects.

सूक्ष्म शिक्षणको परिचय, विशेषता, चरणहरू र फाइदा–बेफाइदा [Introduction, Features, Stages and Advantages and Disadvantages of Micro-Teaching]

सूक्ष्म शिक्षण भनेको पूव–आभ्यासिक शिक्षण हो जुन वास्तविक कक्षा शिक्षणभन्दा पहिले गरिन्छ । वास्तविक कक्षा शिक्षणमा आवश्यक हुने सीप हाँसिल गर्न–गराउनका निमित्त सूक्ष्म शिक्षण उपयोगी उपाय मानिन्छ । यो छोटो समयमा धेरै तालिम प्राप्त शिक्षकहरू उत्पादन गर्न अपनाइएको शिक्षक तालिमको नयाँ अवधारणा हो । शिक्षाशास्त्रीय दृष्टिले कुनै विषय शिक्षक, प्रशिक्षण वा तालिमका क्रममा प्रशिक्षार्थीहरूलाई वास्तविक कक्षा शिक्षणभन्दा अगाडि सिपालु बनाउन अनिवार्य रूपमा सूक्ष्म शिक्षणमा सहभागी गराइन्छ । नेपालका सन्दर्भमा शिक्षाशास्त्र सङ्कायका उच्च माध्यमिक शिक्षा, स्नातक र स्नातकोत्तर शिक्षाका क्रममा र शिक्षक प्रशिक्षक तालिमका कार्यक्रममा सूक्ष्म शिक्षण कार्यक्रम समावेश गरिएको पाइन्छ । कुनै प्रशिक्षार्थीलाई आवधिक वा पूर्णावधिक शिक्षणमा जानु पूर्व सिपालु बनाएर पठाउनका लागि सूक्ष्म शिक्षण कार्यक्रम सञ्चालन गरिन्छ । यसले प्रशिक्षार्थीहरूमा सीपको दक्षता र मनोबल दुवैको विकास भई शिक्षण कार्यलाई उद्देश्यमुखी, सार्थक र प्रभावकारी बनाउने आघार निर्माण गर्छ । प्रशिक्षार्थीलाई आफ्नो पेसामा सचेत र जागरुक बन्ने प्रेरणा मिल्छ । यसले दक्ष र निपुण शिक्षक उत्पादन गर्न पुनर्बल गर्दछ । वास्तविक शिक्षण, छोट्याइएको शिक्षण, व्यक्तिगत सीप विकासको उपाय, तुरुन्त पृष्ठपोषण प्राप्त हुने, कुशल शिक्षक उत्पादन गर्ने उपाय, नियन्त्रित र नियमशासित शिक्षण, सीपमुखी, उपचारात्मक शिक्षण आदि सूक्ष्म शिक्षणका विशेषताहरू हुन् । सूक्ष्म शिक्षणलाई सीप परिचय, सीप प्रदर्शन, पाठयोजना निर्माण, पाठ शिक्षण, पृष्ठपोषण, पुनर्योजना, पुनर्शिक्षण र पुनर्पृष्ठपोषण प्रदानको चरणमा शिक्षण गर्नु पर्दछ । सूक्ष्म शिक्षणबाट प्रशिक्षार्थीमा आफ्ना शिक्षण दुर्बलता हटाउन, आपसमा सीपको आदानप्रदान गर्न, आत्माविश्वासिलो बन्न, शिक्षण उद्देश्य, विधि, सामग्री आदिको निर्माण, छनोट र प्रयोग सम्बन्धी ज्ञान सीपको विकास गर्ने जस्ता महइभ्वपूर्ण सहयोग प्राप्त हुन्छ ।

Process and Practices of Community Participation in School Education of Nepal

Formally, community participation in schools was started after the establishment of democracy. It has really a good influence on development of physical infrastructure and efficient use of local resources for school development. In this context, this article analyses the existing situation of level of participation and struggle of member of SMC experiences while they are working as authority’s persons. It is a drawing upon a grounded theory. The site and sample both are purposive and information was also collected by open-ended interview with real stakeholders. This article argues that poor language and economic status as well as lack of awareness of community people, political intervention and differences between home and school culture are subjected to what fairer terms of difficulty of community participation within schools for backward society with illustration how such problems influence on participatory decision making practice in school. This article emphasizes the need of education policy; it is obviously based on the society’s socio-economic and intellectual capacity.

Challenges and Opportunities of Online Education during Covid-19 Situation in Nepal

Nearly all governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions due to Covid-19 pandemic which are affecting up to 60% of the world’s student. Around, near to 200 countries closed their schools are interrupting the education of more than 1.5 billion young people and impact in long-term social and economic consequences. The aim of the meta-analysis is to evaluate the challenges and opportunities of online education during Covid-19 situation in Nepal by performing a systematic Meta analysis of related published literature. The Meta analysis was done diverse subjects and diverse research design was eligible among the 11 full-text articles. A formal extraction protocol was the PRISMA-P. Main finding of analysis is to offer an opportunity to shift to online learning and interaction and use virtual platforms for e-conference, webinars, podcasts, online class/ online-lectures etc. Opportunities for being continuations of academic career from any part of country; increase learning outcome among job holders. The changes in education technique, modality and process, which may required extra effort initially, provides teacher, faculty and facilitator the forcedly to keep pace with current trends in technology. This study recognized challenges as unequal access and quality of internet conveniences; affordability of laptops/computers; limited interaction; and frequent disturbances.

Hinduism: A Perspective on the World and Life Education

Once religion was ruling the world as science is doing today. The rule is possible through power and knowledge. This indicates that religious philosophy can also regarded as an important source of power and knowledge. Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and so on as forms of religious faith have different philosophy become basis of knowledge. This paper, based on review of articles relevant on the theme, Hinduism, argues that Hinduism is an important perspective on knowledge which explains what world is and how it is operating. The ultimate goal of life is to get liberation which is possible through Hinduism. Hinduism has four basic paths that lead to union with God. These paths are for persons of different temperaments and natures. Some may prefer contemplation, some may be rational, some may be emotional and some may believe in action. Each path is called Yoga (Yoking of mind to God. These yoga are: (i) Raj-yoga, (ii) Jnana-yoga, (iii) Bhakti-yoga, (iv) Karma-yoga, through which human beings liberates himself/herself. Thus Hinduism is a perspective of knowledge which guides human beings understanding the nature of the world and the way through which liberation is possible.