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Building the research capacity of clinicians in the Pacific Island countries is important in addressing evidence gaps relevant to local policy and clinical practice. This paper aimed to assess the effectiveness of a reproductive health research workshop in increasing research knowledge and intention to perform research amongst a diverse group of clinicians. An online survey of clinicians and stakeholders in the Pacific Islands informed a research workshop curriculum. Physicians and nurses/midwives (n = 28) from six Pacific Island countries were selected as workshop participants as part of a research capacity building program. Questionnaires before and after the workshop were used to measure the changes in knowledge, confidence, competence, attitudes and intention to perform research and these were analysed thematically. Sixty-three of 85 (74%) stakeholders and clinicians responded to an online survey, which informed workshop curriculum development. Of the 28 workshop participants, seven were obstetrician-gynaecologists, eight junior physicians and eleven nurses/midwives. The mean pre-test score was 36% (±10) and the post-test was 43% (±6) (p<0.01). By profession, the obstetricians had higher prior research knowledge whereas nurses had a higher knowledge gain after the workshop. Attitude, intention and motivation to perform research was high and the participants learnt that research is important, to start small; to use routinely collected data; to encourage others to do research; and to network regionally. This paper has confirmed that online surveys, in low resource settings, can have an acceptable response rate. It has also shown that a research workshop for a diverse group of clinicians can be effective in increasing knowledge although knowledge gained was more significant amongst nurses/midwives compared to physicians. The other benefits of the research workshop were increased motivation and attitudes for research, which if well supported, should result in an increase in research output in the Pacific Islands. Future evaluation will assess the long-term effectiveness of annual research workshops and mentoring support in improving research performance and evidence utilisation in care.

The Australian Government recognizes that the Arts are a critical part of formal school education and it should not be viewed as subordinate or extra. This paper forms part of a wider research project titled "Pre-service teacher attitudes and understandings of Music Education" that started in 2013. The focus of this paper investigates music teaching and learning in a core unit within the Bachelor of Education (Primary) course at Deakin University (Australia). Using questionnaire and interview data gathered in 2014, I employ Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyse and codify the data. Three themes are discussed in relation to: Why it is important to include music in the primary school? What was enjoyable and what aspects were challenging in the music workshops? What can students integrate as generalist teachers into their future classrooms? Though the findings focus on "we did the how to teach it", it also highlights some challenges and opportunities for students and staff. Tertiary educators are challenged to raise the capacity and status of music when preparing students to translate the music curriculum into their future classrooms.

After centuries of dominance, literature has not been in a robust health for the last few decades. Several scholars have addressed the decline of literature in a number of books and articles attributing it to institutional and economic reasons. However, a major factor has not been taken into account. It is the larger audience who receives and absorbs literature. In this paper, I argue that the decline of literature emanates from the lack of appreciation of literature among the public who have deserted this field of humanity in the present days. I will investigate the causes of this desertion and explore its consequences in the field of literature. Through using a questionnaire, this paper looks and evaluates the experiences and perspectives of public. It is expected that the findings will contribute to literature to better understanding the decline.

This paper reports on a study which explored the mentoring experiences of professionally unqualified practicing teachers enrolled in a part-time Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The study sought to understand the mentoring experiences these students received from their teacher mentors, who were also their colleagues. Data was collected through interviews towards the end of their programme. Drawing on the concept of teacher knowledge, findings indicate that some students experienced subject-specific mentoring, others received only feedback on generic pedagogic issues, and some received minimal mentoring. They reported content-specific and pedagogical mentoring as the most useful, indicating that this significantly assisted them in improving their teaching, even though they had been teaching for some time. It also emerged that some students received very limited mentoring, where mentors simply complied to fulfil university assessment requirements. The study suggests a need for more focused, comprehensive and ongoing mentor training for mentor teachers. The success of this would require collaboration between all stakeholders involved in departments of education and universities. This paper further suggests that university-school partnerships required strengthening, along with appropriate strategies put in place, towards ensuring mentoring effectiveness.

Using qualitative data gathered through 144 questionnaires completed online by education sector personnel, this paper examines the relevance of a definition of e-working to the educational context. It identifies that the definition, which draws on and extends existing knowledge and identifies e-working to be a way of being a worker as well as a way or a mechanism for carrying out the work task, has clear potential to be applied within the education sector. The paper identifies that it is not the composite elements of the definition which may appear alien to the worker in the educational context, but instead inference drawn from the way in which the e-working term has hitherto been regarded.

In this paper, we report on an investigation into initial teacher education students' (ITES) understandings of sustainability and the Australian National Curriculum Sustainability Cross Curricular Priority (CCP). We also explore their willingness and capacities to embed the CCP into their own teaching practices. The ITES (N = 392) completed a quantitative survey with a series of Likert Scale questions and were asked to list "5 words" when they think of sustainability. Analysis reveals that ITES have generally limited to moderate understandings of sustainability and education for sustainability, but lesser understandings of the Sustainability CCP and the 9 organising ideas. Understandings of sustainability were dominated by an environmental focus. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the implications of narrow environmental understandings of sustainability. We explore factors that limit and enable teacher educators to embed sustainability education more explicitly. We note the importance role teacher educators play in supporting ITES to better understand sustainability.

Introduction: Everyday health information literacy refers to the competencies needed to find relevant information, evaluate its reliability, and use it to make decisions concerning health in everyday life. More evidence is needed of the determinants of health information literacy to better understand how it is acquired and through which mechanisms it influences health. This study seeks to examine the associations between socio-demographic variables and everyday health information literacy among young men. Method: The empirical data were collected using a questionnaire survey (n = 630) conducted at the Finnish Defence Forces call-ups in September 2012. Analysis. Statistical analyses included cross-tabulation with Pearson's chi squared test and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results: Among young Finnish men, compulsory or vocational education, father's manual labour occupation, and mother's associate professional occupation decreased the odds of having high everyday health information literacy. Conclusions: The study makes a novel contribution to the existing literature by providing information on the everyday health information literacy of young, generally healthy individuals in relation to their socio-demographic background. Future studies are needed to investigate the practices through which everyday health information literacy is acquired in different social contexts during the course of people's lives. Moreover, the associations between perceived everyday health information literacy and directly tested abilities as well as health behaviour and physical health could be investigated. The health information literacy screening tool can be further developed and used as a basis of tailoring and targeting health communication. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of ISIC: The Behaviour Conference" (Leeds, England, Sep 2-5, 2014), Part 2, Paper isic25.]

Introduction: As part of a larger study in 2006 of the information-seeking behaviour of third-grade students in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a model of their information-seeking behaviour was developed. To further improve the model, an extensive examination of the literature into information-seeking behaviour and information literacy was conducted resulting in a revised model that comprised two representations: the preparing, searching, using model to be used to inform the educator for such things as lesson plans and a simplified version, the beginning, acting, telling model to present as a visual aid to the young students. In 2012 a pilot study was conducted in two third-grade elementary classes in Buffalo, New York, USA, to test the two representations. As a result of the findings of this second study, the model was extensively revised once again, combining the two representations into one complete model. Method: The second phenomenological study used a similar qualitative methodology to that of the 2006 study. Data collection methods included participant observation, informal semi-structured interviews, pre- and post-questionnaires, field notes, and audiotapes of classroom sessions. Analysis: The data (transcripts of recorded classroom sessions and interviews and questionnaire responses) were analysed using coding to identify emerging themes and patterns. Results: The simplified version of the model, with its visual and mnemonic cues was appealing to the students, but was so simplistic in its depiction of concepts the teacher was required to make frequent interventions to explain and/or expand upon the concepts presented. Conclusions: The findings indicated that a more holistic, visual, and memorable model that uses child-friendly terminology to appeal to concrete-operational thinkers was required to facilitate information literacy instruction for young students and encourage and empower them as self-learners. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of ISIC: The Behaviour Conference" (Leeds, England, Sep 2-5, 2014), Part 2, Paper isicsp14.]

In this paper, we discuss the challenges experienced by Kenyan public universities in implementation of e-learning and recommend possible solutions towards its successful implementation. In the last few years, most Kenyan public universities have adopted e-learning as a new approach to teaching and learning. However, the implementation challenges faced by these universities have continued to impact negatively on its effective utilization. This paper presents the findings from a survey of 148 staff of three Kenyan public universities who are currently using e-learning in blended mode approach. The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges hindering the implementation of e-learning in Kenyan public universities. Data was collected through questionnaires, in-depth interviews and document analysis. The findings reveal that e-learning comes with some challenges that must be addressed by Kenyan public universities before successful implementation can be realized. However, the benefits and opportunities presented by e-learning far outweigh the challenges. The paper finally recommends some possible solutions that public universities could embrace towards successful implementation of e-learning.

Literature finds mentoring to be a substantive, enduring practice in widespread arena, and among the attributes associated with career success and satisfaction. This paper provides a tangible mentoring model that has been operational for several years, and which applies what the literature proscribes to higher education academic settings. The Faculty Mentoring Program (FMP) this paper describes was created by the faculty at an AACSB-accredited School of Business at a mid-sized public regional college as the School anticipated transitions attendant to that accreditation. FMP objectives are consistent with those of mentoring programs interested in optimizing performance and satisfaction of new entrants in any workplace setting, and the reviewed secondary literature establishes and indicates the transferability of FMP core planks to other workplace settings. The phases used to operationalize, assess, and revise that FMP are reported along with strategies used to optimize its reception, impact, and outcomes should that be helpful to those considering if such a construct might be beneficial to pursue in their own settings.

Preparing young people to be active citizens has to be a core value of schools and higher education institutions. Thus, education for citizenship is important because every society needs people who can contribute effectively to the future health of their communities locally, nationally and globally. The field of citizenship education is one that encompasses an abundance of topics and issues (Cohen, 2010). In an attempt to bring some much needed clarity to this field, this paper presents the theoretical and conceptual background for a field study that intends to examine whether young people graduating from high school in Bahrain are equipped with the civic knowledge and understanding necessary to participate effectively as citizens. It also provides young people's conception of citizenship, their perception of their identity, and their concern about their community issues. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this paper analyses the ways in which young Bahrainis perceive their identity and citizenship status. In this mixed methods approach, a questionnaire was administered to 460 final year secondary school students, followed by in-depth interviews with a stratified sample of 22 young people who had participated in the questionnaire survey. The findings provide valuable insights into the problems encountered by young Bahrainis as they engage in the process of learning about citizenship. This helps the educators, curriculum designers and policy makers to build upon what Bahraini young people already know and understand, and revise the content and types of activities that should be introduced if effective learning is to take place. [A bibliography is included.]

The main objective of this paper is to briefly present roles of different teacher supervisors according to distinct models, highlighting the importance of collaborative dialogues supported by video recordings. This paper will present results from a qualitative study of an English as a foreign language teacher education course in Brazil. The results indicated that collaborative supervision was an efficient tool to address adversities within educational contexts and that student teachers who observed their pedagogical actions through videos became more reflective and self-evaluative, as they provided a deeper analysis regarding their practice. With collaborative supervision, teacher candidates can be encouraged to recognize and understand the complexities of language learning and teaching both locally and globally.

This paper examines orthographic intraference and its implications for teaching and describing English as a second language (ESL). Orthographic intraference is used here to denote instances of single word spelling, acronyms, mix up of homophones, homonyms and compound word spelling arising not from interference but from orthographic rules and features of the English language. The paper is based on the concept of intraference and examples were gathered from Nigerian English, the educated variety, from 2005 to 2013 with questionnaires and recording of spontaneous speeches and from secondary sources. The study established that orthographic intraference cases are widespread and common in Educated Nigerian English. Consequently, the paper proposes that teachers of ESL identify, teach and drill learners on them to make learners internalize the generally accepted standard forms.

This paper was an attempt to examine youth empowerment in higher education for sustainable development of developing communities in Cross River State in Nigeria. In Cross River State developing communities, youths are in the majority and form a very strong formidable force in the society we live, study, but are not empowered while in school nor after graduation. Hence, they rarely contribute to sustainable development of their communities. To address this problem, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The design of the study was ex-post facto. The sample of the study was one hundred and forty six (146) youths drawn out of a population of five hundred (500) youths in the study area. The instrument used for data collection and analysis was a self-developed research questionnaire comprising 30 items. The data was analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation analysis. The result of the analysis showed that when youths in higher educational institutions are empowered, they will contribute to sustainable development of their communities. Based on the conclusion, the paper recommended that government, parents and stakeholders should address the issue of youth empowerment in educational institutions to enable them acquire skills for empowerment in the society.

This paper identified the role of electronic payment system in promoting accountability in government ministries as well as the challenges facing the implementation of e-payment in government ministries in Ebonyi State. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The population of the study comprised of 112 accountants as well as accounting education graduates working in the Ministry of Finance as accounting officers. The entire population was studied because of the small number of the population. A structured questionnaire was administered to all the respondents while 98 copies of the questionnaire were filled correctly and returned. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using t- test. All the items except absence of a standard format for remittance of public funds were accepted as the challenges of implementing e-payment in government ministries in Ebonyi State.The test of hypothesis showed no significant difference on their responses based on gender and experience. The researchers based on their findings concluded that e-payment helps in assuring correctness of financial transactions recorded. The paper recommended that security of accounts details of e-payment beneficiaries should be prioritized to prevent hacking of such accounts; efforts should be geared towards the improvement of power as well as provision of alternative power; and Government should ensure adequate provision and maintenance of e-payment facilities.

It is commonly agreed that a country cannot be fully developed without large-scale investment in her educational scheme since the breakthrough of a country is directly proportional to her educational level. Since the acquisition of effective reading skills has a positive effect on all school subjects, then reading is sine-qua-non for human capital and global development. Yet, it has been observed that many Nigerians today have a poor reading habit. Thus, this paper focuses on this poor reading habit among our people today and its causes. The paper is rounded off with suggestions as to what concerned stakeholders can do to develop and re-invent the reading culture in Nigeria.

According to the development of English language learning and curriculum design, English language series became a very important issue that affects education globally and in Sudan. In specific, this study reports reasons behind the failure of teaching SPINE 5 (which is one of SPINE series) from the teachers' point of view. In Bahry Locality in Sudan, 100 questionnaire papers were designed and distributed to English Language teacher. In Bahry Locality, 83 of them were filled and returned. The questionnaire papers were analyzed using descriptive and analytical research methods using SPSS to find reasons behind the failure of Teaching SPINE 5 to help curriculum designers in Sudan find solution to these problems. The questionnaire is divided to six domains: 1) Teachers, 2) Pupils, 3) Curriculum and Textbook, 4) Teaching methods, 5) Activities, 6) Teaching and learning environment. The main findings of the study were 1) English language teachers are not specialized and not qualified enough to cope with SPINE 5. 2) Most of the English Language teachers do not refer to the teacher's book to teach the four skills in their lessons plan. 3) Most of the teachers are not aware of the concept of integrated English curriculum as mentioned in SPINE series, and the book title doesn't reflect its content. 4) Most of the teachers do not attend and observe lessons to other teachers in their school and need training. 5) SPINE 5 Textbook is too long to be covered in one academic school year, and its layout is not logical or attractive, moreover, it doesn't widen students' knowledge about western culture. 6) The four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are sometimes taught separately and the same class is taught by more than one teacher, each teaches different skills. 7) No supplementary materials or teaching aids are used to teach SPINE 5. 8) Pupils background of English is weak and their seating is not comfortable and the classrooms are crowded, so it is too difficult to use communicative competence to develop their acquisition of language. It has been strongly recommended: 1) Employing English language teachers must be according to their qualifications, and a regular training programme should be set to train English Language teachers to make them aware about what is new in the pedagogy world. 2) Every pupil must be provided with a copy of SPINE 5 book in the beginning of the academic year to enable teachers and pupils achieve their tasks. 3) Teaching English language should be through British culture, according to the British environment not ours, and develop teachers' language and ability within British culture training by sending teachers to England to have reinforcing courses in the English heritage not Sudanese or by organizing courses to be taught by British teachers with the collaboration with the British Council in Sudan. 4) Class-room must not consist of more than 40 students to help using communicative approach. 5) Raise the number of English periods to 6-7 periods a week instead of 5.

The paper begins with a brief review of the literature and how business students choose their major in the U.S. and we list the most popular majors in the U.S. Universities. We also talk about the factors that influenced student's choice. In our next research project, we will not only use a larger sample size but also the sample will come from a few universities to reduce the sampling bias. In this paper, we also talk about changing trends in international students. We talk about the large group of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic students, and we show that with literature and graphical support. In the next section, we analyze one of the up and coming new business majors "Business Analytics" We finish the paper with a discussion of growth of international students both at graduate and undergraduate level, and how we will address the shortcomings of this paper with our next project.

The current framework for integrating HIV/AIDS into university curriculum is mainly informed by the need to make HIV/AIDS education relevant to specific disciplines, and to equip graduates with necessary skills to respond to HIV/AIDS in their professional capacities. This strategy mainly emphasizes content and knowledge and largely ignores the current context in which students live and make sexual decisions. This paper explores the opportunities for utilizing multidisciplinary, and participatory integrated HIV/AIDS education programmes to address sexual risk-taking and students' vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS within their university campuses. It examines students' preferences regarding development and implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes based on the findings of a PhD study conducted at three universities in KwaZulu-Natal province. Data was obtained through a questionnaire survey involving 1400 students, and in-depth interviews with 24 students and three HIV/AIDS coordinators drawn from across the three universities. Non-participant observations were also conducted at each of the three universities. Study findings indicate that participatory programmes and those that have an entertainment component demonstrate currency within student communities. Students rejected the didactic approach undertaken by some communication programmes with some participants arguing that "young people don't want be told what to do." A comparative semiotic analysis of HIV/AIDS posters within university campuses revealed a huge disparity between posters designed by students and those obtained from national communication campaigns. The choice of imagery and semantic codes differed significantly. The paper suggests the adoption of a Freirian pedagogical methodology in implementing an integrated and multidisciplinary HIV/AIDS education programmes so as to generate conditions in which students are able to reflect on their own realities and personalize the risk of HIV infection.

This paper studies the transactional distance between the students and the tutor as well as the autonomy of students in a postgraduate course of the Hellenic Open University (HOU). The aim of the paper is to examine how the relation between autonomy and transactional distance evolves during an academic year and how this relation is affected by demographic parameters, such as gender, age group and student experience (year of studies). For this purpose an empirical research was conducted and a sample of postgraduate students responded to a questionnaire (which included a scale for transactional distance, a scale for autonomy and demographic questions) during two different time periods within an academic (2012-2013). The results of the statistical analysis showed that during the evolution of the learning process there was a small change in transactional distance, especially for the dimension of co-understanding, while there was also a change in one of the dimensions of autonomy, namely sensitivity to others. However, no relation was observed between transactional distance and autonomy, ether in the first or the second measurement during the academic year. This finding is also regarded in the overall framework of the different critiques and interpretations of Moore's theory.

This paper explores factors contributing to the willingness to communicate (WTC) in English as a foreign language (L2) in a Thai university setting. The study uses multiple methods within a qualitative research approach. Data were collected through interviews, stimulated recall, and classroom observations. Relevant contextually-related variables that emerged from the analyses were categorized into four dimensions: social- psychological context, classroom context, cultural context, and social- individual context. The findings revealed the overlapping nature of factors in all dimensions, which reflects the complex interactions among contextually dependent WTC variables within the language classroom. This paper contributes to the knowledge of WTC in a second language (L2) from a qualitative perspective.

Students' use of test information to prepare for a test in a controlled or supervised test environment has been examined in studies outside Australia. This paper reports the findings of the use of test information and its value, in terms of an improvement/decline in marks, in an actual test of an undergraduate subject taught at an Australian university. Using a questionnaire survey of students, the study finds that students overall don't perceive test information useful, there is no statistically significant difference in performance between known and unknown questions, students' scores improve from the use of information and in some instances the improvements are statistically significant between students with different characteristics. The paper contributes to our understanding of students' willingness to use information and the benefits of such information to study and perform for improved test scores. The study has implications for educators making test information available as a preferred practice or universities using it as part of a policy to improve student retention rates or supplement evaluation of students' learning.

Inspired by the unexpected results of a standardized questionnaire survey of Swiss university students' motivation and attitudes toward English, the paper discusses the influence of global and local contexts on language learners' motivation and identity. As a result of the unprecedented spread of English as a foreign language (Crystal, 2003; Graddol, 2006), and, more importantly, the underlying social and economic issues that it reflects, elements of the global context intermingle with local realities to create new learning experiences, unaccounted for by traditional research paradigms. Individuals find themselves at the convergence of multiple contexts that affect and are in turn affected by their language attitudes and identity as well as sense of self. The intricate relationships between contexts and individuals continue to gain emphasis in current approaches to language learning motivation (cf. Dörnyei, MacIntyre, & Henry, 2015), which position L2 learn in in a new light, questioning the power and relevance of different motivational categories and also these of a generalizable theoretical model. The quantitative study presented in this paper explores interrelationships among key elements of the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009) and a number of motivational factors on the one hand, contrasting them against the economic and social background of the Swiss context on the other. The findings of the project reveal that such repositioning of the participants in the multicultural, pluri-lingual environment of Geneva and its socioeconomic reality was indeed essential to the interpretation of the results since the extraordinary strength of external and societal factors in participants' motivational profile gained meaning only in the light of the particularities of the local context. Therefore, the paper showcases the potential of a broader perspective on L2 motivation and the importance of learner-context relationships.

While the practice of inclusive education has recently been widely embraced as an ideal model for education, the acceptance of inclusive education practices has not translated into reality in most mainstream classrooms. Despite the fact that education policies in South Africa stipulate that all learners should be provided with the opportunities to participate as far as possible in all classroom activities, the implementation of inclusive education is still hampered by a combination of a lack of resources and the attitudes and actions of the teachers in the classroom. The main purpose of this paper was to develop a deeper understanding of a group of South African teachers' personal understanding about barriers to learning and how their understanding relates to their consequent actions to implement inclusive education in their classrooms. A qualitative research approach placed within a cultural-historical and bio-ecological theoretical framework was used. The findings, in this paper, indicate that the way in which teachers understand a diversity of learning needs is based on the training that they initially received as teachers, which focused on a deficit, individualised approach to barriers to learning and development, as well as contextual challenges, and that both have direct and substantial effects on teachers' classroom practices. As a result, they engage in practices in their classrooms that are less inclusive, by creating dual learning opportunities that are not sufficiently made available for everyone, with the result that every learner is not able to participate fully as an accepted member of their peer group in all classroom activities.

Now a day, the buzz word for a language classroom is "learner autonomy" that is defined differently by different experts. The fundamental of learner autonomy, however, is to involve the learning in the teaching and learning process. The term "webquest" is also a new concept to the teachers in this part of the world. A webquest is an internet based module designed by an instructor that presents a task with predefined process, resources and a rubric for the learners to undertake the tasks step by step and at the end they self-assess their performance based on the rubric provided in the module. This paper explores the possibility of implementing such a task that makes use of technology (i.e. a webquest) where the learners need to explore the resources by themselves' write down a paper based on their reading and the piece of writing is assessed by the learner her/himself based on a rubric provided. The research shows that when the learners are given autonomy in the classroom, their learning boosts up and their performance curve also rises.

The conflict situations that have afflicted parts of Kenya every five years, in the wake of general elections, since 1992 were most prominent after the disputed presidential elections of 2007. The magnitude of the clashes, loss of life, destruction of property and internal displacement of people were hitherto unwitnessed. The situation of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Kenya has continued to be of national and international concern. The 2007/2008 post-election violence exacerbated the dire situation of OVC in Kenya. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated the number of children displaced by the 2007/2008 post-election violence (PEV) in Kenya at 100,000 and those orphaned at 300,000 high. Some of the OVC lost both parents during the violence. Many more were born during and after displacement, and have no knowledge of their homes or origin. They do not understand or even remember the circumstances that caused their parents to be displaced. A survey by UNICEF in 2010 noted that on the overall after 2007/08 post-election conflict, about 15% of orphans were 0-4 years old, 35% were between 5 and 9 years old while up to 50% were 10-14 years old. This paper identifies the challenges the OVC are experiencing in schools as absenteeism, lack of physical infrastructure, insecurity, psychological trauma, among others. The paper also proposes strategies and programmes that various stakeholders have, and should put in place to assist OVC.

In the past decade, the term "world-class university" "WCU"--also called "globally competitive universities", "world-class", "elite", or "flagship" universities--has become a catch phrase, not simply for improving the quality of learning and research in higher education but also, more important, for developing the capacity to compete in the global higher education marketplace through the acquisition and creation of advanced knowledge. The main objective of paper is to propose a strategic approach for developing world-class universities in Egypt, to achieve this objective the paper starts by attempting to construct an operational definition of a world class university. It then outlines the features of world class University, the requirements of the transformation into a world-class universities, the challenges involved in achieving world class universities, and the key problems and challenges of the Egyptian higher education system. Finally. The selected statistical population of the research are Higher Education experts [N = 57], and a mix methods of conducting a questionnaire and interviews are used. The research questions are: 1-What does it mean to be a world-class university? 2-What are the essential features and characteristics of world-class university? 3-How does the ecosystem influence the performance of universities? 4-What are the present performance, problems and challenges of the Egyptian higher education system? 5-What are the higher education reform initiatives in Egypt? 6-What are the requirements that could upgrade public Egyptian universities to world class universities? 7-What are the existing challenges of developing world-class universities? 8-What Strategic approach is developed for Egypt to develop its world-class universities? One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test is used to analyze the data. Results: The result obtained in the study is to use the collaborative approach rather than to upgrade the present universities or create or merge.

This practical paper discusses the effect of explicit instruction to raise Japanese EFL learners' pragmatic awareness using online discourse completion tasks. The five-part tasks developed by the authors use American TV drama scenes depicting particular speech acts and include explicit instruction in these speech acts. 46 Japanese EFL college students enrolled in an English grammar course received explicit instruction and completed the tasks in five consecutive classes using an e-portfolio system that allows them to share their learning outcomes. Their pragmatic awareness was measured by pre- and post-instruction pragmatic judgment tasks. The results showed that the participants' pragmatic awareness developed significantly after the instruction. The learners evaluated the awareness raising activities as effective; however, their learning outcomes reveal challenges in developing grammatical and lexical knowledge together with pragmatic knowledge. This paper will discuss the effects of the instruction, the participants' perception of the usefulness of the tasks, and their actual responses to the tasks to further identify the challenges that Japanese EFL learners should meet to develop well-balanced communicative competence in the language.

This paper reports on the experimental use of a recently developed musical looping app with a class of Japanese university students of English during 2014. Working in groups using shared hand-held devices, students created compositions based on lexical chunks or formulaic sequences selected freely from a fixed text. A scored example of one such group composition is included in the paper. During research, the author acted as instructor and a participant/observer role afforded an intimate view of the educational process. Self-assessment questionnaires prior to and post working with Loopy indicate that students experienced increased confidence in their ability to produce spoken English over a three-month period. The affordances and constraints of using the musical app to learn English are examined and a significant increase in speech rate when reading from a fixed text is also noted.

This paper offers a tentative snapshot of Grade 6 mathematics classroom practices in Rwanda based on twenty video recorded lessons. It has an objective of investigating through evaluation, the teaching strategies used by Rwandan Grade 6 Mathematics teachers in their classrooms. In the absence of sufficient instruments to measure Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in practice, a coding scheme was developed and applied to our video recorded lesson data, which helped us to answer our question of knowing the PCK levels of Rwandan Grade 6 Mathematics teachers. Choosing Rwanda as research site is mainly based on our will to know Grade 6 Mathematics practices in developing countries and particularly in Rwanda context where there has not been any study of this kind done before, which could add to researchers' existing understanding of practical PCK. The findings suggest that there are differences in the extent to which practical PCK is engaged as some teachers seem more likely to use teaching strategies that research suggests are effective like being able to unpack the content in their teaching. Even if the overall impression is that it is fair to assume that teaching in Rwanda is not in a calamity, some teaching practices need to be improved. These include making connections and linking the contents. The paper ends with a discussion of methodological issues.

This research paper explores the effectiveness of using mobile technologies to support a blended learning course titled Scientific Research Methods in Information Science. Specifically, it discusses the effects of WhatsApp mobile learning activities guided by activity theory on students' knowledge Management (KM). During the 2014 academic year, the researcher adopted an experimental approach-based comparison between an experimental group (34 students) and a control group (34 students). The learning process of the experimental group was based on continuity between 2 hours of in-class learning and 1 hour of learning activities that were mediated by WhatsApp instant messaging each week. The control group's experience was 100% in-class with no app mediation. The researcher used the t-test to compare the means of the control and experimental groups in the test and the students' attitudes at 0.05 alpha levels. This research paper is useful for exploring the effectiveness of mobile technologies in supporting blended learning courses.

This paper reports a predominantly qualitative classroom study on cooperative learning about nature of science (NOS) using a case from the history of science. The purpose of the research was to gain insight into how students worked with the historical case study during cooperative group work, how students and teachers assessed the teaching unit, and in what ways students' ideas about selected aspects of NOS changed as a result of the teaching unit. In cooperation with two biology teachers, a four-lesson teaching unit about NOS and the early research on Archaeopteryx was developed, field-tested, modified, and tested again. Altogether, five classes of 10th and 11th grade students from two Swiss schools participated. Data were collected by videotaping group work, interviews with student groups and teachers, questionnaires, and pre- and post-tests about NOS conceptions. Results show that group work was mostly of good quality, both with regard to students' cooperation and understanding of the case study. Second, both the topic and the instructional design of the unit were judged very positively. Third, students showed more informed views on the selected target NOS aspects after the teaching unit. The paper ends with conclusions regarding teaching and learning about NOS, cooperative learning and questions for future research.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that determine intention to adopt e-learning in Jordanian universities. Two models of e-learning that are observed among adopting institutions: E-learning as a supplement to traditional classroom mode, and total electronic learning. The respondents in this research have just been introduced to the first model. The paper takes a social, and technical approach in its investigation by using a research model based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to identify the factors that affect intention to adopt e-learning. The model identifies specific salient beliefs that may influence technology usage, such as instructors attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, perceived usefulness, ease of use, Normative beliefs, Internet Self-efficacy, Perceived Accessibility and university support. stratified random sampling method was used to select instructors. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis was used to assess the relationships in the constructs. The paper presents some findings on e-learning adoption intention determinants. It also discusses some of the implications of the findings on theory and practice.

This paper explores the issues underlying the credit risk governance mechanism of banking institutions in emerging economies. This is an important area of study given the essential role that banks play in the financial markets of emerging economies and the widespread banking reforms that these economies have implemented. The aim of this study is to draw conclusions about the level of satisfaction among banks' credit risk officials' with respect to Credit Risk (CR) governance mechanism currently installed in their respective commercial banks and proposes a novel research model. The proposed research model is based on the premise that by being in constant touch with the credit risk officials through their opinion surveys and in addition by acting upon the information so gathered can lead to significant improvement in CR governance mechanism in emerging economies. This paper attempts to gain insights into the four important elements underlying Credit Risk (CR) governance mechanism in commercial banks, namely, CR governance organization, CR governance policy and strategy, CR governance operations and systems at transaction level and CR governance operations and systems at portfolio level. The study draws conclusions on the basis of primary data collected from the senior credit risk officials who are themselves involved in designing and implementing CR governance mechanism in their respective banks. It also attempts to identify potential revisions/modifications in the existing CR governance mechanism that may be targeted in near future in emerging economies. The study findings are based on the empirical data collected from thirty commercial banks in India, an emerging economy through a structured questionnaire. The study concluded that Indian credit risk officials had medium level of satisfaction with regard to current CR governance practices followed in their respective banks. It was further concluded that there lays a strong case to take remedial measures with regard to some issues to build up a sustainable CR governance mechanism. The top priority issues identified, such as: sanctioning of authority in accordance with the professional qualification of the personnel, regularity in training, regular revisions in credit risk rating model, monitoring practices at the transaction level and credit portfolio management have clearly highlighted avenues for future areas of improvement and up-gradations in CR governance mechanism in commercial banking sector, a special subset of Corporate Governance.

This paper presents the experience of an initiative, the EXPLORE courses, designed to bring science and technology closer to secondary school. The EXPLORE courses, organised by "EXPLORATORI: Natural Resources" project, are particularly addressed to secondary school teachers and are conducted at Catalonia (North East of Spain). The main objective is to provide secondary school teachers with the opportunity to explore the natural resources. Based on a combination of face-to-face and online learning, the programme of the courses uses an interdisciplinary approach, integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and STEAM (STEM + art) fields. Data presented in this paper correspond to the 2012 and 2013 editions. The results, which were obtained from a written questionnaire completed by teacher participants of EXPLORE courses, indicate that more than 70% of secondary school teachers were encouraged to introduce some course contents on their teaching classes after participating in an EXPLORE course.

This paper proposes several activities that encourage self-learning in engineering courses. For each activity, the context and the pedagogical issues addressed are described emphasizing strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, this work describes and implements five activities, which are: questionnaires, conceptual maps, videos, jigsaw and projects. These activities are applied in seven different knowledge fields and are conducted individually or in group depending on the nature of the subject and of the activity. Furthermore, this paper shows how the same activity can be applied in subjects of different years and how the implementation level changes, depending on the course in which it is conducted. The activities proposed have been introduced in engineering courses, but they can also be applied in any other knowledge field. Finally, the paper proposes four rubrics to assess three of the proposed activities (videos, jigsaw and project), being two of them for the project activity.

This research is an exploratory study that investigates students' perceptions pertinent to textbook layout and organization and their evaluation of the textbook ease of learning. The objective is to find out whether the layout dynamics of school textbooks make any difference in students' interest in studying or subject understanding. 73 students from various private schools of Pakistan's cosmopolitan city Karachi responded to a quantitative survey that gauged their perceptions regarding textbook components such as paper, print, color, and textbook pedagogical features. Findings indicate that students rank print and color above paper quality, and that there is no particular relationship between a book layout and the actual use of textbooks.

Recently, many universities have started to do their best to enhance their contribution in the scientific publication. Thus, researchers and faculty members have been offered many various financial and promotional incentives for publishing their papers in international journals, particularly the ISI ones. The present study aims to identify the opportunities and obstacles that faculty members at Najran University can obtain by publishing in ISI journals. In addition, distinction of the most important obstacles that can hinder such publication was another aim of the present study. Based on intensive review of related literature and a series of structured interviews, a questionnaire was developed, validated and verified. A stratified sampling method was used to choose participants of this study. Findings revealed that the contribution of ISI Journals to the identification of globally well-known journals, the development of participants' skills of refereed scientific publication in international journals, and the provision of positive attitudes towards scientific publication were the most important opportunities researchers have got. However, high standards of ISI journals, mastery of foreign languages, mainly English, and the originality of high intellectual topics were the most important barriers or obstacles that faculty members encountered when trying to publish their article papers in ISI journals. No statistically significant differences due to study variables regarding the opportunities were found. Nevertheless, significant differences due to specialization and previous knowledge of publication in ISI Journals were found.

The relationship between education and empowerment has been widely debated in development literature. In recent times, social capital and community-centric learning have been increasingly recognized as important variables in the empowerment process. This paper outlines the development of a "Three-dimensional Empowerment Framework", and looks at the relationship between a community-centric learning process and empowerment in selected villages in Uganda. Based on a study of two villages, the paper evaluates the role of the "Lifelong Learning for Farmers" (L3F) programme, developed and supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), in empowering farming communities. The purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of empowerment in the selected farming communities and to identify factors that may contribute to empowerment, including the L3F programme. Two sample villages with similar demographics were used for comparison, one L3F village and one non-L3F village, with 62 respondents from the L3F village and 78 from the non-L3F village, selected randomly. A survey, which included demographic questions as well as an empowerment scale, was administered to respondents from both groups. The responses were analysed and a regression model showing the factors that influenced empowerment was developed. The study shows that the integration of human capital (viewed purely from learning, knowledge acquisition, reflective practices, skills and competencies), social capital and financial capital, has a positive impact on development outcomes such as empowerment.

There have been current controversial discussions concerning the performance of private primary schools versus public primary schools in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (K.C.P.E.). Lately, the private primary schools appear to be performing better than public primary schools. For example; in the 2003 K.C.P.E. results, more than 31% of the top 100 candidates came from private schools; in the 2004 K.C.P.E. results, more than 92% of the top 100 candidates came from private schools. In January 2005, 68% of admissions to national schools came from private schools (MOEST, 2005). In 2006, though more than 60% of the top 100 positions were taken by private schools most of the public primary schools showed improvement. This performance has elicited all kinds of reactions from political leaders and educationists. Among them the question; why are the performances as such? And what factors contribute to the performances? This paper therefore sought to establish the factors that contribute to the current academic performance of these schools. The paper made use of ex post facto research design. Simple random sampling was used to select eight public and eight private primary schools in Kitale Municipality. Through interviews and questionnaires the teachers and the administrators provided information on enrollment, academic performance, teacher-pupil ratio and factors leading to the current performance. The work was based on the systems theory which postulates that a school is like a factory that has inputs and outputs. Inputs have to undergo a process and outputs tested for their quality. It justifies the use of tests as a measure of academic performance. The government needs to step up financial and material support to public schools to cater for high enrollment due to F.P.E. program. It is hoped that educational stakeholders including teachers, parents, policy makers and students will benefit from the study.

Information communication and technology (ICTs) has become common place entities in all aspects of life. Within the education sector, ICT has begun to have a special attention although not extensively as in other fields both globally and locally. Limited funds still presents a challenge in rolling out the e-school projects in Kenyan secondary schools and more so in Mombasa County. This paper presents trends in financing ICT projects in secondary schools in Mombasa County and how projects in the sampled schools which are ICT complaint manage the IT programmes. Furthermore, the paper also sought to uncover the alternative financing options available that could complement the existing ICT projects in increasing the pace of e-schools project implementation. A case study was used using three categories of respondents in each school namely; the administrators, the teachers and the students who were issued with questionnaires and interview schedules whose results revealed that many of the schools which had ICT facilities depended heavily on government funding CDF in financing the ICT projects. The paper also reports that the schools under study were already using educational management software for various processes in the schools. It was revealed that schools still faced infrastructural challenges due to inadequate finances. Notable challenges including limited funding to support the purchase of the ICT facilities to improve access to educational materials, lack of training for teachers to adopt ICT as a teaching tool and lack suitable e-content for various subjects. The outcome of the findings indicated that largely the initial objectives of the project had been realized in a number of the sampled schools. Teachers, students and the school administrators were using computers to access educational resource material from the internet, prepare and process examination results, manage, monitor and process financial reports and communicate using email. It was also evident that the quality of teaching and learning, students' level of interaction, reasoning, recall, synthesis and evaluation had improved tremendously. It is upon this background that the paper sought to analyze the impact of financing ICT projects in managing of secondary schools e- learning in Mombasa County, Kenya.

The performance of students in Kiswahili subject is of crucial importance to everyone in Kenya since it is a media of communication in public institutions and other sectors of the Economy. More so Kiswahili serves as a national language of Kenya thus one of the language requirements for pursuance in any Diploma or Degree courses. Based on this fact, this paper is set to examine the effect of the level of motivation of teachers of Kiswahili on student performance in Secondary Schools in Kenya. The paper is founded on Victor Vroom's Expectancy theory; he posts that motivation is a combination of three factors Valence, Expectancy and Instrumentality. The theory stresses that students and teachers expect to get a reward from the effort they put in their work. This paper adopts a survey research design and a stratified random sampling procedure to select teachers teaching Kiswahili from the selected 14 schools out of 29 schools in Keiyo Sub-county. Questionnaires and document analysis are the modes of data collection used. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. It is thus ascertained that there is a statistically significant relationship between the level of motivation of teachers and performance of Kiswahili subject. The author recommends adoption of a workable motivation schedule to improve the teachers' level of motivation and consequently performance.

The youth cannot be ignored in view of the vital roles they play in the socio-economic development of nations around the globe. Entrepreneurship education has been identified as one of the most innovative ways of arresting graduate unemployment around the globe. Youth unemployment has been on the increase in recent times partly due to traditional courses the youth pursue in most tertiary institutions in Ghana which have less linkage to the world of work. Youth unemployment policy features prominently on the national agenda of most developing countries, including Ghana. Consequently, many graduates rely on the government to provide them jobs after school. It is against this backdrop that entrepreneurship education has been introduced in most tertiary institutions in Ghana to equip students with the much needed innovations and entrepreneurial skills to set up businesses as a way of relieving the government from the provision of jobs to the throng of unemployed graduates. This paper evaluates the entrepreneurship education in the Polytechnics in Ghana and how it is structured to meet the aspiration of the students. The paper also investigates students' attitude towards the study of entrepreneurship. It also highlights students' capacities to establish their own businesses after graduation and how they could raise funds and promote stronger relationships with the business community. It is hoped that this would go a long way to unearthing challenges students encounter in the study of entrepreneurship as a course.

This paper examines the perceptions of English language lecturers from three colleges of education on the factors that inhibit the implementation process of the revised English Language Nigeria Certificate Education Curriculum. The study which is underpinned by the CIPP Evaluation model is part of a larger study on the evaluation of the curriculum. The Nigeria Certificate in Education is the minimum qualification for teaching in Nigeria (National Policy Brief, 2005). The concern for the quality of teachers in Nigeria is crucial as the Nigerian government recognized the problem of inadequate training of teachers at the NCE level in 2010 and proposed to obliterate the colleges of education and phase out the Nigeria Certificate in Education (The Nigerian Voice Online, 2010). The recent review of the Nigeria Certificate in Education is a laudable feat; however, the effective implementation of the provisions of the revised curriculum may be a source of apprehension (Tom-Lawyer, 2014) as there are factors that limit its implementation. Therefore, this paper views the perspectives of the lecturers on the factors that impede the implementation process of the curriculum and proposes measures to enhance its implementation. The study adopted a mixed study approach, within the framework of the CIPP model while utilizing a case study. The sample comprised twenty lecturers from three colleges of education in the country drawn through purposive sampling. The instruments used were questionnaires, interviews, field notes and observation checklists and documentary analysis. The methods of analysis were descriptive/inferential and thematic content analysis. The findings showed that the views of the lecturers on the implementation of the curriculum were that in-service training was not available for lecturers; the abilities of the students influenced their teaching. It recommends among other things, an immediate review of the admission policy and an extensive involvement of the lecturers in the future review of the curriculum.