Written Exam Cheating and Prevention and Detection Strategies: The Case Of DMU

The study aimed at investigating exam cheating focusing on prevalence, methods and reasons for written exam cheating and prevention and detection strategies. To that end, quantitative (on the prevalence, factors and methods of exam cheating) and qualitative (the possible prevention and detection strategies) data were collected adopting a mixed methods sequential explanatory design.  A total of 320 students (60% males, 40% females) responded to the questionnaire while 14 students participated in FGDs. The registrar director was also interviewed. Results indicated that more than 53.75%, of students admitted to cheating in exams. Results also indicated that as student achievement increases from the lower category to the medium, incidences of cheating increases but decreases in the higher achievement category. The three most frequent cheating methods used by students were copying from another student by looking at his/her test paper, using electronic devices like phones as cheat aid and passing notes on which answers to questions are written. The least frequently used cheating methods are distracting invigilators to help others cheat, writing notes on body parts and writing notes on desks. Time pressure to prepare for an exam, hard courses, students own laziness, hard exams and poor invigilators vigilance are reported as the most compelling factors forcing students cheat during written exams. On the other end, cheating to cope with stress of studying, cheating because everybody does it and because of lack of study skills are reported as weak predictors.To prevent exam cheating, an integrated and continuous effort involving cheating prevention (before the exam), cheating detection (during the exam) and cheating data retention-archiving (after the exam) should be instigated by the university. Archiving exam cheating data would help in taking measures and preventing it in the first place. These would create an atmosphere where success by cheating is unlikely and futile. Keywords: Exam cheating , exam cheating methods, exam cheating prevention& detection strategies DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-7-07 Publication date:March 31st 201

Civic Virtues and Civic Skills in Literary Texts: Content Analysis on Prevalence and Use, Grades Five to Eight Amharic and English Language Textbooks in Focus

Albeit the debates on the usefulness of literary texts, discussions on specific purposes of integrating literary texts in language teaching materials is rare. This study, in a moment the world is witnessing serious deterioration of solidarity and respect for human diversity, attempts to discern how literary texts with civic virtues and skills [in grades five to eight English for Ethiopia and Amharic textbooks] have been presented from the 1970s to date. This purely qualitative content analysis study intends to demonstrate how civic virtues and civic skills are infused in language teaching literary texts. Using content analysis design, the frequency of literary texts is identified, the nature of tasks driven from literary texts is explored and the apparent changes across editions are discriminated. Careful content analysis of the literary texts and activities from it has been made to determine the civic virtues and skills. A total of sixty three short stories, two riddles, fifteen fables and eight poems were found in thirteen different editions of the English language textbooks. Meanwhile the Amharic textbooks contain a total of twenty five poems, twenty two stories and two theatres and riddles. The findings reveal inconsistencies in the infusion of civic virtues and civic skills in literary texts of different editions. Some recent books explicitly state certain virtues and morals of stories requiring tasks and themes from literary texts while others leave it implicitly. Civility represents civic virtues that is not infused in any of the literary texts. Texts that instill patriotic feelings are common in textbooks used before 1991 while those used afterwards are significantly dire. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/69-02 Publication date:June 30th 202

Using Teacher Study Groups to Enhance Teaching Effectiveness of English Language Teachers in East Gojjam Zone

Teachers’ professional development is the core of educational improvement. The study investigated the role of participation in a Teacher Study Group in enhancing English language teachers teaching effectiveness by engaging them in a teacher study group and thereby designing teacher study group procedures that can enhance teaching effectiveness of teachers in the schools. Focus group discussion, document analysis and classroom observation were used as methods of data gathering. The teachers were engaged in a regularly customized TSG activities on the basis of Tripod 7Cs to investigate what they improve on their teaching effectiveness. A thematic crossover analysis is used to present the data.As learned from this case study, it is evident that the teacher’s collegiality and open mindedness to involve in a dialogic TSG has improved. Moreover, as reflected by the teachers, their teaching effectiveness (as self-admitted and measured by Tripod 7Cs) has improved due to participation in TSG. This justifies the worth of a statement nearly a century ago that ‘…there is no workable alternative to working together, respectful of differences and eager to keep the conversation going.” John Dewey, 1938). However, further studies should confirm the viability of TSG discussion focusing on verifying the statistical significance and dimensions of teaching effectiveness TSG brings before it is considered as an alternative CPD modality. Keywords: TSG, Teaching Effectiveness, 7Cs DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-7-02 Publication date:March 31st 201

Teacher Power in EFL Classroom: Associations with Classroom Interaction

Instructional communication is a field that studies behaviors that facilitate leaning in classroom communication. One among these behaviors is teacher power which refers to the transactional process where in teachers are granted different power bases. This study tried to investigate teacher power bases in terms of classroom interaction by involving a writing skills teacher and his 30 students in a first year writing classroom. The students responded to a questionnaire and the lessons were audio recorded and transcribed. Binary logistic regression was computed to see how the teacher power bases relate with classroom interaction permissibility while qualitative data is transcribed and thematically analyzed. The results indicated that the teachers’ major power originates from legitimate and expert power bases as well as reward sources and this is negatively associated with classroom interaction. Therefore, it is suggested that the teacher bases his lessons on alternative power sources that can permit students interactions.  Keywords: teacher power, teacher power bases/ sources, classroom interaction& classroom interaction patterns DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/59-02 Publication date: August 31st 201

Essays on evaluating a community based health insurance scheme in rural Ethiopia

__Abstract__ Since the late 1990s, in a move away from user fees for health care and with the aim of creating universal access, several low and middle income countries have set up community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes. Following this approach, in June 2011, with the aim of enhancing access to health care and reducing the burden of out-of-pocket health care expenditure, the Government of Ethiopia rolled out a pilot CBHI scheme. The scheme caters to rural households and urban informal sector workers in 13 districts located in four main regions (Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya, and SNNP) of the country. The main aims of this thesis are to assess the factors that drive initial scheme uptake and contract renewal and to identify the impact of CBHI on utilization of care and financial protection. As a prelude to an assessment of these issues, the thesis also provides a systematic review of the literature on CBHI schemes and uses five clinical vignettes to assess the demand for modern health care in rural Ethiopia. The thesis uses data obtained from various sources: three waves of a household panel survey, a health facility survey and qualitative information gathered through focus group discussions and key informant interviews

Grammar Teaching Beliefs and Practices: The Case of a Communicative English Skills Teacher in DMU

The study intends to explore how the tensions, debates and beliefs about grammar teaching are adjudicated by a communicative English skills teacher to inform his practices. To that end, the researcher investigated an EFL teacher’s beliefs and classroom practices’ on the teaching of grammar in DMU. The data gathering instruments used were observation and semi structured interview meant to assess the way grammar is taught and uncover the underlying beliefs towards the teaching of grammar. The teacher is assumes contextualizing grammar items and using situations is a good thing in learning grammar while he also believes explicit grammar instruction might be appropriate only in lower grades. Regarding elements /dimensions of grammar to be taught and techniques and activities to be used the teacher believes that he has to dwell on the harmonized materials surfacing lack of awareness about the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic trinities. In the actual classroom, the teacher hardly created a context where their communicative needs necessitated the grammar structures. The teacher adopted PPP and situations and contexts were not created.  The presentation stage took much time and effort followed by the practice, but no time for production resulting in absence of integration of skills. The teacher emphasized the structural aspect of grammar items more and syntactic and pragmatic aspects less going The discrepancies between the beliefs and practices are significant though not enormous. Though the teacher believes in creating context for grammar teaching the observations didn’t prove this. The essence of and principles of PPP is of little importance these days as proved in research. Moreover, the emphasis on form and use can’t guarantee an effective grammar lesson. Based on these findings the researcher recommends further investigation of the issue encompassing students’ views and larger samples. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/59-01 Publication date: August 31st 2019

PROVISION OF QUALITY EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS: AN INVESTIGATION OF FACTORS

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors hindering the provision of quality education in government secondary schools. The study employed a mixed-method (QUAN+qual) with a descriptive survey design. Probability-simple random and non-probability-available and purposive sampling techniques were used. A study comprised a total of 1913 population, and 483 samples i.e. 6 headteachers, 114 teachers, 324 students, 21 parents, and 18 community representatives using Yemane formula. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, observation, and document analysis for triangulation. Descriptive (i.e. percentage, mean & Standard deviation) and inferential statistics (i.e. independent sample t-test) were used as a method of analysis. A test of significance employed as finding showed that except for school environment facility and resource-related factors, other factors had an insignificant effect on the provision of quality education. The findings from the descriptive analysis showed that there was a lack of professionally qualified teachers, lack of instructional resources, low participation of parents and community, low motivation of teachers, low-level implementation of active learning methods, lack of transparency among staff and shortage of administrative staffs. Therefore, the study recommended that the government should facilitate professional skill training for teachers, provides adequate instructional resources, and should employ qualified teachers to help the head teachers to adapt lucidity in secondary schools. The local government should also seek out the ways for unemployed citizens and revise ethical courses in an offer to improve the characteristics of students

Firm Heterogeneity and Development: A Meta Analysis of FDI Productivity Spill-overs

abstract: In order to assess the relationship between economic development and firm heterogeneity, this paper studies productivity levels in the context of FDI. We illustrate that developing and emerging countries show a lot of variation in the extent of heterogeneity of their populations of firms. Heterogeneity is a bit stronger at per capita GDP levels below $10.000, but also remains substantial at higher levels of development We take stock of the rich literature on FDI-spill-overs analysing econometric studies on FDI spill-over effects that were published over the period 1983-2008 and deal with national studies in 30 developing countries and emerging markets. One important finding is that these studies tend to ignore two sources of heterogeneity: exports and – especially – R&D. We use a meta-analysis to correct for differences in research design (including regional effects, sample size and level of aggregation) and investigate the spill-over effects of foreign firms on domestic firms. Focusing on the effect of firm heterogeneity on productivity, we investigate several sources of heterogeneity including firm size (production share), internationalization (both exports and foreign ownership) and labour quality. We observe positive, and significant effects for heterogeneity in terms of labour quality, size and export as 44% –66% of the coefficients are significant and positive and less than 9% of the coefficients are negative and significant. This robustness contrasts with contradictory findings for foreign ownership where 63% of the coefficients are insignificant or negative. At another level this study identifies research design factors that influence the reported findings on FDI spill-over analysis

Prevalence, associated risk factors and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of Campylobacter species among under five diarrheic children at Gondar University Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Recent reports indicate that Campylobacter species are becoming one of the leading causes of bacterial diarrhoeal disease worldwide and most of the isolates are resistant to different antibiotics. This study aimed at determining the prevalence, associated risk factors and susceptibility pattern of Campylobacter species in under-five diarrheic children. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2011 to March 2012. Samples were collected from under five diarrhoeic children who visited University of Gondar Teaching Hospital and seeking medical services during the study period. Stool specimens were aseptically inoculated using selective media and species isolation was further processed following standard procedures. Antimicrobial susceptibility test for Campylobacter species was performed using the standard agar disc diffusion method. The data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16 packages. Odd ratio was used to see their association between variables and then logistic regression was used to measure strengths of association. P-values less than 0.05 were taken as statistically significant. RESULT: A total of 285 under five children with diarrhoea were included in this study. Of these144 (50.5%) were males and 141(49.5%) were females with the age range of one month to five years and mean age of 2.26 years (25months). Among 285 stool specimens cultured, 44(15.4%) of them were positive for Campylobacter species. Culture positivity for Campylobacter was higher in children below 12 months of age. Latrine usage, water source, boiling drinking water, bottle feeding, nutritional status and exposure to domestic animals had statistically significant association. Highest drug resistance rate were found in ampicillin (68.2%), tetracycline (56.8%) and trimethoprim- sulfamethoxazole (54.5%). CONCLUSION: Isolation rate of Campylobacter species were frequent among under five children. The frequency was higher in those children who were malnourished, drinking of unprotected water and direct contact with infected animals (especially cats, dogs, pigeons, hens and their products). The antimicrobial resistance patterns for some of the commonly prescribed antibiotics were high. Therefore, awareness of hand washing and proper boiling of drinking water are probably important in preventing infection with Campylobacter species and childhood diarrhea should not be underestimated and effectiveness of the drugs should be continuously monitored by doing antimicrobial susceptibility test

Informal Evaluation and Institutionalization of Neoteric Technology Ideas: The Case of Two Danish Organizations

In this paper, we explore the complex process of how ideas evolve in organizations that are engaged in developing and using information technology (IT)-based systems. We put forward a framework emphasizing the interconnection between creativity and institutionalization. We argue that ideas are embedded in existing institutionalized technologies in organizations and that emerging technologies introduce neoteric ideas to them. Furthermore, we argue that, when attempting to introduce technology-based ideas, human actors will focus their attention on ideas embedded in existing institutionalized technologies while informally evaluating and making sense of these ideas. Moreover, we suggest that conflicts between competing frames of reference during this evaluation may result in the rejection, adoption, or multiplication of new technology ideas. Drawing on information systems (IS)-based theories of creativity, Scandinavian institutionalism, and empirical data from two Danish organizations, we investigate the interplay between creativity, technology, and human sensemaking in the process of translating and transforming technology ideas into full-fledged technological innovations