The Relationship Between Faculty Members' Perception of Emotional Blackmail and their Organizational Trust in Jordanian Universities

Purpose - this study aimed to determine the faculty members' perception of emotional blackmail (EB) and relationship to organizational trust (OT) in Jordanian Universities.Research Methodology - A quantitative approach used a correlational design with a convenience a random sample of a total of 289 faculty members in public Jordanian universities. EB Scale with three subscales; fear, obligation and guilt, with 25 items, and OT with a total of 12 items used in this study.Findings - the results revealed that participants perceived EB and OT at medium level. No significant differences in EB level according to participants' gender and college. There are significant differences in EB level according to teaching experiences in favour to less five years, 5-10 years, and more than 20 years. There are significant differences in EB level according to academic rank variables in favour to associate and assistant professors. No significant differences in OT level perceived according to participants' gender, college and teaching experience, while there are significant differences in OT level perceived according to participants' academic rank in favour to associate, assistant, and tutor. There is a negative correlation between EB, and OT perceive by faculty members.Practical implications - the researchers recommended that the Jordanian universities should pay attention to the (EB) and (OT) in their universities.Originality/ Value - This study is important for several reasons. EB influences the OT at any given organization, specifically universities. The findings of this study will contribute to the knowledge of EB and OT, revealing strategies that will help leaders establish organizational trust among faculty members.

High Wisdom Intelligence - Discussing Education of High Wisdom Intelligence

The number of talented persons who are equipped with high wisdom intelligence will immediately determine the quality of humankind’s entire life, and the future trend for humankind’s innovation and creation in fields such as thinking, cognition, society, politics, economy, military, science, arts, culture, and so on. Meanwhile, it protects the harmonious development of various fields. By illustrating the meanings of applying high wisdom intelligence in the survival and prosperity for each nation, ethnicity and individual, this article has a significant application to the understanding of educational studies of high wisdom intelligence.

The journey towards the best quality of MCQs test, a success story in a medical school

Multiple choice question (MCQ) test is the most popular assessment tool that used in medical schools, faculty training on construction of multiple choice questions and peer review are the main factors that contributing to have a good quality MCQ test. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of these two factors on the quality of MCQ test. An extensive training program was conducted for the staff members who were participated in teaching and assessment of undergraduate medical students of clinical biochemistry and psychiatric courses. Post-test item analysis was used to compare pre-training with post-training item analysis parameters. Chi-square test was applied, level of significance was 5%. Regarding difficulty index, it showed great improvement in number of questions which lie in acceptable range of difficulty from 16%, 25% before the training program to 61%,42% after the training program for psychiatry and clinical biochemistry courses respectively and this is significantly different (P0.05). In psychiatry course the number of questions with negatively discrimination power had been decreased from 36% before training program to 10% after it (P value 0.05). No significant improvement noticed in biochemistry course regarding this aspect. Both courses were showed improvement in the function of distracters, the percentage of test items where all distracters were functioning was increased from 11% to 41% in psychiatry course (P value=0.0002), and from 12% to 46%, in biochemistry course (P value=0.0001). The two courses which included in the study showed increased reliability after the training program and peer review processes, but this improvement is not statistically significant. A dramatic improvement was observed in the quality of MCQs after peer review and training program. We recommend adopting training program on construction of MCQs to be as teaching license for all medical school staff members in Saudi Arabia.

Effects of Cooperative E-Learning Approach on Students Attitude Towards Chemistry in Koibatek Sub-County, Kenya

The study investigated the effectiveness of Co-operative E-learning approach (CELA) on students’ attitude towards Chemistry. The Solomon Four Group, Non-equivalent Control Group Design was employed in the study. The study was carried out in Koibatek sub-county, Kenya where there has been a persistent low achievement in the subject. 489 form three students from twelve county schools, purposively selected from the sub-county were taught the same course content on the mole for a period of five weeks. The experiment groups received their instructions through the use of CELA approach and control groups using the conventional teaching method. The researcher trained the teachers in the experimental groups on the technique of CELA before treatment. Student Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) was used for data collection. The results of the study indicated that students in experimental groups outperformed those in the control groups. Also, there were no statistically significant differences in the mean score in SAQ between boys and girls exposed to CELA. Girls and boys performed equally well in altitudes towards Chemistry. Chemistry teachers should be encouraged to incorporate CELA method.

An education session on sickle cell disease with teachers in Lagos, Nigeria: evaluation of a randomized controlled trial

Sickle cell disease is a major public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria having the largest absolute numbers of young people living with sickle cell disease. Research in the Global North suggests that young people with sickle cell disease are not well supported at school, whilst research in the Global South focuses on attitudes to the identification of genetic carriers to prevent births of children with sickle cell disease, rather than support of those with the sickle cell disease condition itself. Between 2015 and 2017 a randomized controlled trial based on one hour education session for school teachers, based on information contained in a guide to school policy on sickle cell disease, was conducted with 402 young people with sickle cell disease across 314 schools in Lagos State, Nigeria. Young people with sickle cell disease in both intervention group and control groups showed significant decreases in the number of days of school absence and in self-reported indicators of lack of support, and significant increases in self-reported indicators of school support. The results suggest a breakdown of the randomization, probably because the young people with sickle cell disease all reacted positively to researchers taking an interest in their welfare in a context where they would usually be heavily stigmatized and would be inclined to hide their sickle cell disease status from others at school. In conclusion, conditions conducive to conducting successful research on sickle cell disease in this context - increased self-esteem in young people with sickle cell disease, reduction in within-school stigmatizing attitudes, and commitment by policy makers to improve the situation of young people in schools – are the very factors that would improve the experiences of young people living with sickle cell disease at school in Lagos, Nigeria. The fact that positive changes did occur warrants further research on this topic.

Impact of School Feeding Programme on Learners’ Academic Performance in Mlunduzi Ward, Tanzania

This study conducted to assess the impact of school feeding programme on pupil’s academic performance in Mlunduzi ward, Tanzania. The cross-sectional survey design was used for this study. This study was equally qualitative and quantitative in nature. A questionnaire was administered to capture the impact from 96 respondents in four randomly selected primary schools in Mlunduzi ward. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was employed to complement the questionnaires. A checklist was used to validate data from learners and teachers through the focus group discussion. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results expose that school feeding programme had shown significant impact on learner’s academic performance. The analysis has indicated that the school feeding programme had increased examination performance, helped to get learners into school, enhancing enrolment and reducing absenteeism. The assessment of examination scores in the period before and during school feeding programme had shown that learners got better in an examination during the school feeding programme than before. The study recommends that in practice school feeding programme is difficult interventions; it can be with advantages if the policy makers and implementers can benefit from a careful examination of the programme by involving local communities than depending on donors so as to ensure sustainability of the programme.

APPLICATION OF MATHEMATICAL MODELING TO STUDY THE POPULATION GROWTH OF SERGIPE

Knowledge of population growth of a particular region is of great importance for the political interests are reassessed and refocused. The objective of this work is to use the Malthusian model that takes into account the mathematical tool of Differential equations, in particular the separation of variables, and apply to the study of population growth in the state of Sergipe. The results showed significantly close to the estimated values by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). It is observed, that the forecast population growth for Sergipe has de-creased, changing from continuous to a discrete model by the year 2050.