Socialization Experiences of First Year non-Western International Master’s Students at a Mid-Western University

As the international student population continues to increase in the United States’ higher education institutions, the need to explore the significance of socialization as a necessary predictor to academic success has become inevitable. While most studies on students’ socialization had investigated socialization experiences of students in general, there has been a paucity of research that specifically explored the socialization experiences of first-year international master’s degree students from non-Western countries. This study’s findings revealed respondents’ varying perspectives on adjustment, group support, social experiences, making friends, among other constructs, and implicated the need for more support services as well as the need for international students to take ownership of their socialization, determination, and persistence.

Thinking About Your Thinking: Metacognition and the Adolescentizing of Online Higher Education

Online education is considered a modern landmark in Self-Directed Learning (SDL), but current trends place that characterization and the effectiveness of the delivery method in jeopardy. U.S. growth trends indicate increasing numbers and percentages of younger students entering virtual classrooms, compounded by wholesale shifts to online delivery in the wake of COVID-19. As the online arena transitions from working adults seeking educational access to entire undergraduate populations, online education appears to be evolving from an alternative delivery method into a ubiquitous form of higher education, thereby losing its identity as SDL and with all the pedagogical consequences such an evolution implies. Amid calls for increased student access and the continuing clamor for accountability, we examine differences in metacognitive awareness and regulation strategies in the multigenerational melting pot that has become undergraduate online education. While our findings indicate that younger students possess lower metacognitive capacity for maximizing online success and lead us to caution against wholesale implementation and its overuse for younger participants, we also offer considerations to help both faculty and institutions leverage the benefits of effective online delivery and encourage them to move beyond the stale methodologies that all too often separate motivated students from truly meaningful education.

Relationship between Students’ Involvement in Decision-Making and Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools of Kenya

Secondary school principals play a key role in decision-making leading to students’ academic performance. There was a decline in the percentage of the examination candidates from Kakamega County who were selected to join public universities from the year 2011 to 2015. This study intended to establish the relationship between students’ involvement in decision-making by principals and academic performance. Respondents were sampled by simple random sampling. Pre-testing of instruments of data collection was undertaken to ensure validity and reliability of the instruments. Data was collected from 36 principals, 199 teachers and 393 Form 4 students by use of questionnaire and interview schedule. Research experts determined validity of the instruments. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, frequencies, percentages, means, cross tabulation and Pearson’s correlation. Hypotheses were tested through regression analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Regression analysis revealed that students’ involvement in decision-making explained 24.6%, and of the variation in academic performance. Leadership functions such as students allowed to elect prefects, prefects attending staff/BoM meetings. It was recommended that principals should involve students in decision making. This study would be significant to policy makers, principals, teachers and other education stakeholders in Kenya. The study would also form baseline information for future research.

Factors Affecting Parents Decision to Send Their Children Abroad for Studies: A Case Study of Parents in Ho Chi Minh City

The study aims to identify factors influencing the parents’ decision in Ho Chi Minh City to send their children to study abroad. The study used the exploratory factor analysis method to examine and estimate regression coefficients on sample 243 observations from parents whose children study abroad. Research has identified 6 factors affecting the decision to send a child to study abroad. The paper shows that the parents’ decisions to let their children study abroad are not only based on the parents’ desire but also on the students’ desire. In addition, factors such as the family’s financial capacity, training programs, career prospects, and self-reliance also affect the parents’ decisions to send their children to study abroad. Interestingly, the study found that factors of self-reliance have negative impacts on parents’ decisions to send their children to study abroad. When they realized that their child may have good self-reliance, great success would be obtained regardless of study location. As a result, motivation for the overseas study was no longer found by them. Since then, domestic training programs need to increase opportunities to practice English, the opportunity to practice independence and flexibility in training programs will limit your children to study abroad.

Child Friendly Environment of Classroom on Basic Level in Nepal: Education Achievement of Community School

This study focuses on child-friendly classroom environments and basic level academic achievement and analyzes the role that teachers, parents, students, and school management committees play in school work. Nepal’s disadvantaged schools are concentrated in rural areas, but those schools are also trying to make themselves child-friendly schools. The objective was to analyze the problems seen in the construction of child-friendly schools by analyzing the classroom environment, the current condition of the school, the impact of the child-friendly classroom environment on the level of educational achievement. The school management committee, teachers, the interaction between the parents and the stakeholders on various issues has helped in the construction of the child-friendly school and the community has expressed its readiness to help as the school is their own. According to the parents, the school has been punishing the children for one reason or another and the school should be reformed as there are protests from all quarters. In order to achieve the set targets as per the educational policy of the state and for the all-round development of the children-It has become necessary for everyone to pay attention to remove the small weaknesses and analyze the results and engage in classroom management including child-friendly schools.

Enhancing Biology Achievement of Secondary School Learners Using Experiential Computer Assisted Instruction

This paper reports a study that investigated effects of Experiential Computer Assisted Learning (ECAI) on learners’ achievement in Biology in Kenya. Solomon’s Non-Equivalent group four research design was used. Four schools were purposively sampled. The schools were randomly assigned to four groups, two experimental and two control groups. All the learners covered same content. Teachers of the experimental groups used ECAI while teachers of control groups used regular approaches. The study focused on the topic Genetics and involved a sample of 163 Form Four learners. Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was used to collect data. The instrument was validated by five experts in Educational Research. Reliability of BAT was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. A co-efficient of 0.719 was obtained. The Constructivist and Experiential learning theories guided the study. Data collected were analyzed using ANOVA, t-test and ANCOVA. Hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.05. The findings indicate that learners taught using ECAI had significantly higher scores than those in control groups. It is recommended that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) incorporates ECAI in the teaching of school Biology to enhance learning. Science teacher education programmes should also incorporate ECAI to enhance its use in schools.

Enhancing Biology Achievement of Secondary School Learners Using Experiential Computer Assisted Instruction

This paper reports a study that investigated effects of Experiential Computer Assisted Learning (ECAI) on learners’ achievement in Biology in Kenya. Solomon’s Non-Equivalent group four research design was used. Four schools were purposively sampled. The schools were randomly assigned to four groups, two experimental and two control groups. All the learners covered same content. Teachers of the experimental groups used ECAI while teachers of control groups used regular approaches. The study focused on the topic Genetics and involved a sample of 163 Form Four learners. Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was used to collect data. The instrument was validated by five experts in Educational Research. Reliability of BAT was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. A co-efficient of 0.719 was obtained. The Constructivist and Experiential learning theories guided the study. Data collected were analyzed using ANOVA, t-test and ANCOVA. Hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.05. The findings indicate that learners taught using ECAI had significantly higher scores than those in control groups. It is recommended that the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) incorporates ECAI in the teaching of school Biology to enhance learning. Science teacher education programmes should also incorporate ECAI to enhance its use in schools.

University Graduates’ Perception about the Effect of EFL Speaking Skills on Employability

This paper explores the perception of Bahraini graduates from the University of Bahrain on the speaking skills they acquired in EFL courses in higher education and to what extent it served them in job interviews and at work. The study employed an online survey to collect data from Bahrainis who have graduated from the University of Bahrain in the last five years, and 214 responses were collected. The results showed that the majority of participants thought that university EFL courses should focus more directly on English speaking skills as they affected their success in job interviews and for work. According to the participants, the three major obstacles to improving English speaking skills required for increasing employability in EFL courses were that these courses were mostly based on indoctrination, that students rarely found a chance to talk in class and also that topics were far from verbal communication needs at work. The study suggested some in-class strategies for improving English speaking skills and also recommended either making speaking a compulsory graded component of EFL courses and/or adding a compulsory English speaking course to the university programmes.

Responsiveness of Library Resources and Services in Ensuring Students’ Readiness towards ASEAN Integration

Academic libraries in the new millennium are leaders in knowledge management. Librarians in universities are innovative in their use of new information technologies to provide access to a range of multimedia sources. Today’s libraries teach students the information handling skills to last a lifetime. As the heart of the educational institution, the SPUP University library has a vital role to provide the necessary resources for the learning and research needs of its clients. Thus, this study was conducted to look into the responsiveness of SPUP library resources and services to ensure students’ readiness towards ASEAN integration. The results of the study clarified the extent of utilization of the library resources and availing of the services rendered. Likewise, the skills and competencies of the academic librarians which are needed to facilitate and foster involvement in the initiatives to be undertaken to strengthen the students’ readiness towards ASEAN integration were elicited from the respondents. Findings revealed that students’ utilization of library resources and services is to a great extent. Moreover, the library skills and competencies in the ASEAN integration among SPUP librarians is high. Meanwhile, the students chose to create library flyers and brochures for the promotion of the ASEAN integration as one of the prioritized initiatives to be implemented by the SPUP library to strengthen students’ readiness towards ASEAN integration.

A New Concept of Dreaming

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