Workplace Conflicts and Perception of Quality Higher Education in Ghana

Conflicts as a complex reality are common in higher education settings. Unfortunately, little is known about their impact on perceptions of the quality of higher education. This study assessed the impact of structural and interpersonal conflicts on the perception of quality higher education. To obtain the data, the study used a cross-sectional survey research design. The study sampled 310 academic and administrative staff from three universities in Northern Ghana using a multi-stage sampling technique. The questionnaire was the primary data-gathering tool. The prevalence of conflicts and perception of quality in higher education were assessed using simple frequencies and percentages, while the structural equation modelling technique was used to investigate the complex relationship among structural conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, and perception of higher education quality. The results indicate that most workplace conflicts in higher education are structural in nature, arising from jurisdictional uncertainties, interdependence, and authority relationships. The findings further indicate that structural and interpersonal conflicts have little influence on perceptions of quality higher education. Nevertheless, in terms of direction, structural conflicts have a positive link with the perception of quality higher education, whereas interpersonal conflicts have a negative relationship. It is hereby recommended that a cross-sectional survey on the influence of conflicts on effective teaching and learning in public universities in Ghana should be conducted.

University Infrastructure Quality and Students Engagement at a Private University in Uganda

This study assessed the influence of university infrastructure quality on students’ engagement at the western branch of a private University in Bushenyi District, Uganda. Particularly, the study assessed the influence of lecture rooms infrastructure, university-level infrastructure and university utilities. Using the positivist approach, the study was guided by the correlational research design, collecting data using a questionnaire on a sample of 183 students. Descriptive analysis revealed that student engagement was high, lecture rooms’ infrastructure and university utilities were good. However, the students rated university-level infrastructure as fair. Regression analysis showed that lecture rooms’ infrastructure and university utilities were significant positive predictors of students’ engagement. However, university-level infrastructure had a positive but insignificant influence on students’ engagement. Thus, the quality of lecture rooms’ infrastructure is imperative, university utilities are essential and improved university-level infrastructure is a requirement for enhancing students’ engagement. Therefore, it was recommended that universities emphasise providing quality to classroom infrastructure, improve university-level infrastructure, and establish quality university utilities.

Exploring Undergraduate Research Projects Success Factors in Muni University, Uganda

This paper presents the success factors for undergraduate research projects (URPs) at Muni University. The objectives of the study were to determine the relevant skills required for the success of undergraduate research projects and investigate the roles of students, supervisors and faculty towards the success of URPs. Questionnaires were administered to a population of 70 final-year students. SPSS-v.21 program was used to analyse the data collected. The research instrument was reliable at Chronbach’s alpha 0.9038. Results showed that research, research environment, research management, personal effectiveness, communication, networking and teamwork skills are paramount to the success of URPs. The study found out that the key stakeholders (students, supervisors and faculty) perform their roles throughout the project period. However, there’s a need to have a mechanism for project tracking, filing complaints, and having URPs externally examined among others.

Teaching and Learning of Chemistry: The Hybridity of Third Space Approach

This article explored diversity and hybridity in the third space as a teaching resource. Students bring to the classroom or third space their diverse sociocultural issues, knowledge levels of chemistry, and socioeconomic status. Educators also bring to the third space their university knowledge and culture. Hence, a classroom or third space is a hybrid. The intersection of the students’ activity systems and educators’ activity systems created a third space. Activity systems are social practices that include the norms, values, divisions of labour, and community goals. The study intended to explore the negotiations by chemistry educators and first-year students in teaching-learning of acids-bases reactions. It is a topic that most students experience challenges from secondary school to graduate level. Acids-bases are one of the threshold concepts. Qualitative research was employed in the study. Data were collected through classroom observations. A thematic approach was employed to analyse data. Five chemistry educators and their classes were purposely sampled. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was employed to unpack group dynamics in a Zambian university. Interactions in the learning spaces generated constraints, tensions, diversity, and affordances for both educators and students. The findings suggest that hybridity may be a resource in teaching acids-bases threshold concepts. Educators should understand students’ knowledge and cultural diversities. Researchers can investigate how students’ different acids-bases knowledge levels can promote success in chemistry.

Adopting the ICT Innovation to Administrative and Activity Procedures in a University

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has made performing administrative tasks more convenient for organizations. This paper discusses the contribution of ICT innovations to administrative effectiveness with respect to the Open University of Tanzania (OUT). A descriptive research that is guided by two research questions and one hypothesis has been applied in this paper in respect to utilizations of ICT for university activities particularly with focus on examinations activity during this time of COVID-19 pandemic. Exams to Universities have an important role in the process of learning especially in assessing where faculties and particular classes need more focus or analyzing processes of learning by enabling students to see the material from a different perspective and improve their understanding. From the study the results revealed that ICT innovations in University activities can be effective if used in the administration of the University activities. However it was learnt that it’s more effective if adapted to innovation in an online Admission/registration, and a perfect fit for online examination system such as Online Oral Examination system (OREX) which was developed as a response to COVID-19 pandemic. The study also inveterate that the students, lecturers and senior administrative Staff (Registry) had very similar responses on the effectiveness of ICT innovation on the administrative process and academics of the Open University of Tanzania. It was recommended among others that the university should mobilize resources towards provision of facilities and training of its ICT personnel for more relevant innovations particular for online examination processes such as (OREX).

Senior high school students’ usage of time and its impact on their academic achievement in Northern Ghana

Research studies have investigated the influence of institutional characteristics on student academic achievement. However, relatively little research focuses on time utilisation and its impact on student academic achievement. The current study investigated students’ utilisation of time in public senior high schools in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study aimed to determine how students utilisation of time on self-study, group study, religious activities, and classroom instructional activities predicted their academic achievements. A total of 500 students sampled from 7 public senior high schools in the Northern Region of Ghana participated in the study. The research design employed was the cross-sectional survey research design. The instrument used to collect the data was a questionnaire. Analysis was done using multiple regression analysis with the aid of the SPSS (Version 16) software. The results suggest that the time students spent attending classes positively and significantly influences their academic achievement. Class attendance, group studies and self-studies times were found to be positively related. The study recommends that students group study and self-study activities should be made compulsory and that adequate time should be allotted within study hours for students to engage in meaningful self-study and group study activities.

Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) of Food and Drugs: The Role of Student Translator in National Development

The role of language in facilitating national development can never be over-emphasised because the national understanding and cohesion that run on the wheels of language create opportunities for sustainable development. An integral aspect of language that typifies this is Translation which serves as a key contributing force towards the consolidation of understanding while creating opportunities for personal, group and national development. The study and practice of French Translation now increasingly offer more opportunities for creative and constructive engagement of Nigerian youth as student translators empowered to meet French Translation/Interpretation needs in canned/preserved food and drug sectors of the country. Suffice it to add, these initiatives carry the prospects of reducing Nigeria's double-digit unemployment rate, curb youth restiveness, banditry and militancy, provide credible alternatives to crime, prostitution and illegal migration, thereby contributing to national development in quantum leaps and bounds. This paper aspires to initiate ways in which the teaching of French Translation in Nigeria Universities can include Translation Quality Assessment (TQA) with a view to unleashing the productive capacity of Nigerian translation students as well as channel their energies towards worthy ventures in sustainable growth and national development through TQA of the French Translation in canned/preserved foods and drugs. The paper provides fresh insights into how Nigerian universities can increase their contributions to national development by maximally leveraging on TQA of French Translations of canned/ preserved foods and drugs to access funding for initiatives that fall under current donor mappings.

Impact of Effectiveness of Early Childhood Education on Students Learning Outcomes in Pakistan

Learning occurs faster in the early years of life. Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs generally entail an acquisition of concepts, skills, and attitudes that lay the foundation for school readiness. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of ECE on students learning outcomes and highlight problems related to the implementation of ECE program in District Faisalabad of Punjab province, Pakistan. All the teachers managing these ECE centres in Government schools of District Faisalabad were the population for the study. There were 313 ECE schools, and a sample of 173 ECE teachers was selected randomly (one teacher from each school). A well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data was analysed through SPSS, and the results were interpreted. It was concluded that a lot of challenges existed. These include untrained ECE teacher, lack of financial resources, lack of learning and physical facilities, continuous mentoring and evaluation, and lack of awareness of the significance of ECE among people. These also have a significant influence on the effectiveness of the ECE program. In Consequence, the effectiveness of ECE programme has a significantly positive impact on students learning outcomes. It was recommended that emphasis should be placed to improve the provision of ECE and to address the problems related to its implementation. And That government should introduce a proper system for effective monitoring and evaluation to maintain a conducive environment for learning and for complete mainstreaming of the ECE program.

Minority Males and Graduate Education: Confronting Microaggressions in Counsellor Education Programs

Microaggressions are intentional or unintentional exchanges that communicate hostile, derogatory, negative slights and insults to people of colour. Microaggressions are prevalent on college campuses across the United States. This article explores the impact of microaggressions on minority male graduate students in counsellor education programs. The article further discusses how institutions and counsellor education programs must address racial stereotypes through cultural competency training and hiring diverse faculty and staff. A quantitative design was employed to understand minority males’ perceptions of microaggressions. The sample of the study consisted of (n=99) participants comprised of Asian (n=30), Hispanic (n=33), and Black (n=36) male degree recipients from counsellor education programs. The data were collected using the Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale (REMS) while a one-way ANOVA was used to examine the impact of microaggressions. The study revealed a difference in perceived microaggressions between Asian, Hispanic, and Black students in counsellor education programs.

The path to decoloniality: A proposal for educational system transformation

It was observed that in all circles of discussion, Africans talk about decolonisation and turning away from systems that favour the West in disfavour of Africans. Thinkers like Molefi K. Asante, Chukwunyere, and others have approached this matter of decolonisation at an angle of Afrocentrism. They intend to present African views from an undiluted African perspective. However, within that struggle, it is quite noticeable that the African basic education system has not done sufficient work to decolonise the presentation of African thoughts. There is a noticeable overrating of foreign languages like English and Afrikaans in terms of subjects or modules taught in South African schools and tertiary institutions. As it is, Sciences national papers are delivered to schools written in two languages, which are not aboriginal in Africa, i.e. English and Afrikaans, regardless of the province where they are delivered to. Within that backdrop, it becomes questionable whether African language practitioners are incapable of producing tools to Africanize the language of learning or the colonial languages refuse to forsake the African educational system. This conceptual study is set forth to explore decoloniality in the education sector and argue for the use of African languages as a mode of instruction in learning and promoting them to be at the same level of honour as those overvalued western languages. In this study, analytic critical theory is used to apply criticality and rationality, which guided the researchers to be more inclined towards reason than emotionality over this dire issue.