Effects of Motivation on Test Performance of First Year Covenant University Students

This study examined the effect of motivation on test performance of first year Covenant University students, Ota, Ogun State. The study adopted pre-test, post-test experimental design. Data for the study were obtained from sixty (60) students with age range between 15 and 18 years (average age = 16.5 years). Participants were randomly assigned to three conditions using independent group design. The independent and dependent variables were motivation and test performance respectively. The two hypotheses were analysed using Mann- Whitney U test. The result shows a significant difference between the result of the unrewarded students in the control group and students rewarded with verbal praise in the experimental group (U = 61.000, N1 = 20, N2 = 20, p< 0.05, one-tailed). There was also a significant difference between the result of the students rewarded with primary reinforcers and the unrewarded students in the control group (U = 45.000, N1 = 20, N2 = 20, p< 0.05, one-tailed). This study justifies the importance of motivation on test performance. To improve students’ academic performance, teachers are encouraged to motivate their students. Key words: Teachers, motivation, test performance, Ot

Can they see what it means: visual literacy and biology learning in Lagos State Secondary Schools

Studies have shown that visual learning is dependent on visual literacy since visually literate learners will not merely look at visuals but see meanings. However, it appears very little has been investigated on this report in Nigerian context. Thus this study examined the effect of visual learning in Biology with the hope of highlighting the effect of visual literacy on performance and pointing out the implications for teaching and counselling. The design was a comparison group pre-test post-test design and 240 students were randomly selected from four secondary schools in Lagos State. The reliability and validity of the instrument; Visual Literacy Scale (VLS) was 0.80 and 0.89. Pre-test results of both groups, revealed no significant difference t (238) = .14, p = .88 > 0.05 in visual literacy level of respondents as majority, 87% demonstrated low level of visual literacy in Biology. No significant difference was also found for sex, t (238) = .749, p = .454 > 0.05 but visual literacy was found to have significant effect on academic performance, t (238) = 21.16, p = .000 < 0.05. These findings suggest the need for teachers to be more inclined to not just teaching biology but teaching visual literacy skills and counsellors to rise up to the challenge of providing preventive and proactive intervention

Mean water balance dynamics and smallholder management options for improved agro-ecosystem productivity

United States Agency for International Developmen

Taxation as a Source of Revenue Generation in Local Governments, Nigeria

This paper examined Taxation as Source of Revenue Generation in Local Governments, Nigeria which covers a period of 5years (2013-2017). The researchers’ adopted a descriptive and empirical case study approach using secondary data. Findings revealed that some of the potential sources of revenue are completely neglected by the local government authority and also finds out that civil servants constitute the highest source of tax revenue in form of PAYE to the local government. Also, it shows that taxation in no doubt have impacted the economic development of Nigeria in general. Based on this study, it is recommended that periodical training of tax officials should be introduce by the government to maintain high generation of tax revenue and the system deserves autonomy that will enable it to hire the right quality of staff and equipment that it deserves to make it function effectively. Keywords: Revenue, Taxation, Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/10-6-04 Publication date:March 31st 201

Synthesis and Characterization of New Polymers from Adenopus breviflorus benth oil, Styrene and Divinyl benzene by Cationic Polymerization

A variety of new polymers ranging from soft to hard plastics were prepared by cationic polymerization of Adenopus breviflorus oil with styrene and divinyl benzene initiated by modified boron trifluoride etherate. The fully cured thermosets were found to contain between 78- 92% cross linked materials possessing crosslink densities of between 2.39 x 103 to 2.09 x 104 mol/m3 and glass transition temperatures of 12 – 800C. The tensile moduli of the materials ranged from 1.47 to 404MPa, the ultimate tensile stress varied from 0.18 to 7.78MPa and the elongation at break varied between 2 and 34%. Depending on composition, some of the materials possessed good damping and shape memory properties. Overall the newly prepared materials from Adenopus breviflorus oil hold a lot of promise as new polymeric materials

A Systematic Review of Consumer Behaviour Prediction Studies

Due to the importance of Customer behaviour prediction, it is necessary to have a systematic review of previous studies on this subject. To this effect, this paper therefore provides a systematic review of Customer behaviours prediction studies with a focus on components of customer relationship management, methods and datasets. In order to provide a comprehensive literature review and a classification scheme for articles on this subject 74 customer behaviour prediction papers in over 25 journals and several conference proceedings were considered between the periods of 1999-2014. Two hundred and thirty articles were identified and reviewed for their direct relevance to predicting customer behaviour out of which 74 were subsequently selected, reviewed and classified appropriately. The findings show that the literature on predicting customer behaviour is ongoing and is of most importance to organisation. It was observed that most studies investigated customer retention prediction and organizational dataset were mostly used for the prediction as compared to other form of dataset. Also, comparing the statistical method to data mining in predicting customer behaviour, it was discovered through this review that data mining is mostly used for prediction. On the other hand, Artificial Neural Network is the most commonly used data mining method for predicting customer behaviour. The review was able to identify the limitations of the current research on the subject matter and identify future research opportunities in customer behaviour prediction.Keywords: Consumer Behaviour, Prediction, Statistics, Data Mining, Dataset, Customer Relationship Management, Literature Revie

Water availability for dry season irrigation in the Anayari watershed in Ghana

United States Agency for International Developmen