Teachers’ Perceived Difference Between Content and Competence Based Curricula in Secondary School: A Case of Dar es Salaam Region.

This study investigated the perceived difference between content and competence-based curricula in secondary school classroom teachers in Dar es Salaam region. The objective of this study was to investigate the perceived difference between competence-based curriculum and content-based curriculum in Tanzanian secondary school teachers The samples for this study consisted of fifteen (15) classroom teachers in five secondary schools both co-education and single sex schools. Consultation was made to heads of institutions including National Examination Council of Tanzania. The data were collected through face- to face interview, document analysis and non-participant observation. These include, planning and teaching, assessment, availability of textbooks, textbook policy, class size, in-service training for classroom teachers and infrastructures. Through face-to-face interviews and documentation, the researcher found that lack of teachers’ involvement in the curriculum development and in-service training is a critical problem which makes teachers just implementers of the curriculum in use. The involvement of teachers in any curriculum review/design is any important aspect for effective implementation of any intended curriculum. The researcher recommends to the government and other education stakeholders to work on the factors such as class size, in-service training, availability of textbooks and infrastructures should be observed for quality education hence attain educational objectives. A there should be capacity building (in-service training) for classroom teachers and school quality assurance concerning the curriculum in use. Keywords: Competence based, Curricula and Teachers’ Perceptio

Exploring Factors Causing Disparity between Desired and Experienced Effects of Campus ERP Systems

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been used by organizations and companies the world throughout since 1990. Many universities have recently replaced their legacy systems with ERP systems to improve work efficiency. One solution available for universities by way of management information system is the Campus ERP system. The Campus ERP system helps universities incorporate all departments and functions within a single database system that manages all student information. Campus ERP is used to facilitate the routine work of end users and to achieve a better resource management. Nevertheless, the effects of Campus ERP systems experienced by users do not correspond with their desired effects of these systems. To investigate the reasons for these differences, we conduct a empirical study at the University of Nizwa (UoN) in Oman to identify the difference between the expected and desired effects of Campus ERP system and the reasons for that difference. The target group from UoN were administrator, developer and teachers. We examine the impacts of the Campus ERP system by introducing the TOC model as a catalogue of criteria to investigate the determinants affecting the influence of the ERP system. In our study, we classify these determinants as avoided reasons, identified reasons, and unidentified reasons. We investigate whether there exist any differences between the experienced effects and desired effects at UoN, assuming that the university is aware of the avoided reasons and the identified reasons. Thus, we set out to discover the unidentified reasons for the difference. By doing so, we contribute to a new understanding of unknown influential factors that lead to the difference between the desired and expected effects of ERP systems, which is significant as a yardstick for the successful implementation of Campus ERP projects

Preparing Culturally Responsive Teachers Of Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math Using The Geophysical Institute Framework For Professional Development In Alaska

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2011The Geophysical Institute (GI) Framework for Professional Development was designed to prepare culturally responsive teachers of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Professional development programs based on the framework are created for rural Alaskan teachers who instruct diverse classrooms that include indigenous students. This dissertation was written in response to the question, "Under what circumstances is the GI Framework for Professional Development effective in preparing culturally responsive teachers of science, technology, engineering, and math?" Research was conducted on two professional development programs based on the GI Framework: the Arctic Climate Modeling Program (ACMP) and the Science Teacher Education Program (STEP). Both programs were created by backward design to student learning goals aligned with Alaska standards and rooted in principles of indigenous ideology. Both were created with input from Alaska Native cultural knowledge bearers, Arctic scientists, education researchers, school administrators, and master teachers with extensive instructional experience. Both provide integrated instruction reflective of authentic Arctic research practices, and training in diverse methods shown to increase indigenous student STEM engagement. While based on the same framework, these programs were chosen for research because they offer distinctly different training venues for K-12 teachers. STEP offered two-week summer institutes on the UAF campus for more than 175 teachers from 33 Alaska school districts. By contrast, ACMP served 165 teachers from one rural Alaska school district along the Bering Strait. Due to challenges in making professional development opportunities accessible to all teachers in this geographically isolated district, ACMP offered a year-round mix of in-person, long-distance, online, and local training. Discussion centers on a comparison of the strategies used by each program to address GI Framework cornerstones, on methodologies used to conduct program research, and on findings obtained. Research indicates that in both situations the GI Framework for Professional Development was effective in preparing culturally responsive STEM teachers. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed in the conclusion

The use of microcomputers in the training of deck officers

The changes in the maritime industry have led to major adjustments in the training of seafarers in general and deck officers in particular. There are innovations not only in the training programs, but also in the means to achieve them. The maritime community is seeking ways to categorize the high cost simulators in order to make their training use compulsory. Obviously, not every maritime college will be able to take advantage of this valuable training tool. This paper advocates the use of microcomputers in the training of deck officers, as a possible alternative to the costly simulators. It investigates the different methodologies that may be used by computer-assisted Instruction (CAI). It gives examples and illustrations of possible use of CAI in addressing subjects such as collision avoidance and use of radar that are important for deck officer training. Moreover, it looks into some existing instructional software and some application programs and highlights their specific training features in different discipline areas of deck officer training. The delicate question of program evaluation has also been given some attention in line with the hardware prerequisites and the academic aspects of the problem. The author gives some insights into the training potentials of a cargo handling program entitled Mariner. He shows how this PC-based program may be used to teach ship stability and cargo handling. In conclusion, the paper suggests some changes in the approach of the IMO model courses and recommends guidelines for the implementation of CAI in the ARSTM1 of Abidjan

An experience of elicited inquiry elucidating the electron transport in semiconductor crystals

In this study we report the results of an inquiry-driven learning path experienced by a sample of 10 electronic engineering students, engaged to investigate the electron transport in semiconductors. The undergraduates were first instructed by following a lecture-based class on condensed matter physics and then involved into an inquiry based path of simulative explorations. The students were invited by two instructors to explore the electron dynamics in a semiconductor bulk by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The students, working in group, had to design their own procedure of exploration, as expected in a traditional guided inquiry. But they experienced several difficulties on planning and carrying out a meaningful sequence of simulative experiments, many times coming to a standstill. At this stage, the two instructors actively participated to the students’ debate on the physics governing the observed phenomena, never providing exhaustive explanations to the students, but giving comments and hints, sometimes expressly incorrect, but effective to stimulate students’ reasoning and activating a proficient scientific inquiry. The relation between this teaching intervention and student cognitive and affective development has been investigated by methods of discourse and behaviour analysis, as well as by the analysis of a student motivation/satisfaction inventory. The elicited inquiry stimulated the students to follow a question-driven path of exploration, starting from the validation of the model of electron dynamics within the semiconductor, up to performing reasoned inquiries about the observed characteristic of charge transport. Our results show that the stimulated activation of the inquiry process constitutes an efficient teaching/learning approach both to effectively engage students into an active learning and, at the same time, to clarify important experimental and technological aspects of semiconductor science, representing a viable example of integration of a traditional lecture-based teaching approach with effective learning strategies

Learning Path Construction in e-Learning – What to Learn and How to Learn?

Whether in traditional or e learning, it is important to consider: what to learn, how to learn, and how well students have learned. Since there are various types of students with different learning preferences, learning styles, and learning abilities, it is not easy to provide the best learning approach for a specific student. Designing learning contents for different students is very time consuming and tedious for teachers. No matter how the learning process is carried out, both teachers and students must be satisfied with students’ learning performance. Therefore, it is important to provide helpful teaching and learning guidance for teachers and students. In order to achieve this, we proposed a fined-grained outcome-based learning path model, which allows teachers to explicitly formulate learning activities as the learning units of a learning path. This allows teachers to formulate the assessment criteria related to the subject-specific knowledge and skills as well as generic skills, so that the pedagogy could be defined and properly incorporated. Apart from defining the pedagogical approaches, we also need to provide tailored learning contents of the courses, so that different types of students can better learn the knowledge according to their own learning abilities, knowledge backgrounds, etc. On the other hand, those learning contents should be well-structured, so that students can understand them. To achieve this, we have proposed a learning path generation method based on Association Link Network to automatically identify the relationships among different Web resources. This method makes use of the Web resources that can be freely obtained from the Web to form well-structured learning resources with proper sequences for delivery. Although the learning path defines what to learn and how to learn, we still needed to monitor student learning progress in order to determine proper learning contents and learning activities in an e-Learning system. To address the problem, we proposed the use of student progress indicators based on Fuzzy Cognitive Map to analyze both performance and non-performance attributes and their causal relationships. The aim is to help teachers improve their teaching approaches and help students reflect their strengths and weaknesses in learning. . This research focuses on the intelligent tutoring e-Learning system, which provides an intelligent approach to design and delivery learning activities in a learning path. Many experiments and comparative studies on both teachers and students have been carried out in order to evaluate the research of this PhD thesis. The results show that our research can effectively help teachers generate high quality learning paths, help students improve their learning performance, and offer both teachers and students a better understanding on student learning progress

Developing a reading programme through an action research in a secondary school

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that could promote interest and motivation in reading among the non readers as part of Ping Yi Secondary School Media Resource Library's activities. It is an attempt to improve the current practice of reading enrichment programme by conducting a school-based action research, using technology to promote screen and conventional print-based reading. There are three tasks involved in this study. The first task is to investigate the reasons as to why students are not keen to actively read during the library's enrichment reading programme. The second task is to explore the factors and the context that would motivate students to read. This is achieved through the review of literature and interview with students and teachers. Based on the findings of these two tasks, an alternative enrichment reading programme is developed and implemented. The final task is to evaluate and analyse the outcomes of the implementation of alternative reading programme called the Striving for Total Achievement and Responsibility (STAR) and to report the research project. A random sample of 65 students from Secondary two, three and four were selected to participate in the STAR project. The project became the platform for students to hone their reading interests, and acquire and develop multi-literacy skills. Based on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of data, it was found that while participating students began to read more, maintaining the momentum to read remained a real challenge to the teacher librarian. The data gathered showed that there was modest gain in the areas of cognitive, social and technical knowledge among the participants. The research highlights the fact that it is critical for a teacher designing a reading programme to share his or her goals with the participants at the onset; to provide participants with critical support to facilitate the construction of their own learning processes and to relate their learning journey to the demands of the workplace so that they could find relevance and meaning in what they learn and study in school. Although limited in scope and focus, the larger underlying concern of this study is to propel further research on the relationships between reading interests and academic performance among students of different levels, ethnic groups, gender and academic abilities

CIRA annual report FY 2016/2017

Reporting period April 1, 2016-March 31, 2017

Envy on Social Network Sites: How Reading Friend's Posts Leads to (Benign) Envy and Influences Purchase Intentions

Seeing other's perfect lives as presented on Social Network Sites (SNSs) sometimes triggers envy, and previous researchers were worried about the negative impact of it on users’ well-being. This dissertation examines if users are suffering ill effects from the consumption of SNS services and addresses the positive effects of envy on purchase intentions and consumer behavior. Two types of envy are distinguished: one is benign envy with a motivation of moving up, and the other is malicious envy with a motivation of pulling the envied person down. This dissertation investigates the prevalence of (benign and malicious) envy on SNSs, explored the impacts of tie strength (i.e., relationship closeness) and post content (experiential vs. material purchases) on envy and the impact of envy on purchase intentions. Eight studies, including surveys and experiments, were conducted using various samples (total N = 1816) in Western countries. The results showed that users only experienced a limited degree of envy and it was more likely to be benign envy rather than malicious envy. Benign envy was positively predicted by the tie strength but was independent of the post content. Furthermore, benign envy was positively associated with the purchase intention of the envied object. It was also found that consumers posted their experiential purchases more frequently than material purchases on SNSs; and most SNS users perceived experiential purchases as more self-relevant than material purchases, and hence more envy was triggered after reading posts about experiential purchases. This dissertation argues that, given that experiential purchases could bring people more happiness than material purchases, experiencing benign envy about other’s experiential purchases is not necessarily a bad thing–it motivates people to work harder and pursuit the experiential purchases that could bring more happiness. Marketers can also utilize this emotion for better advertising (e.g., by showing the tourism-related ads to those who are benignly envious about friends' vacation experiences). This dissertation further contributes to the literature on the SNSs and well-being, experiential and material purchases, envy, and consumer behavior. More details and the theoretical and practical implications for SNS users, marketers, platforms, and researchers are elaborated in this dissertation