Newspapers Coverage of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria: May - July 2018

The objective of the study is to examine the extent to which newspapers reported the issue of internally displaced persons IDPs in Nigeria The agenda-setting theory and the social responsibility theory formed the theoretical foundation to this study The study adopted content analysis and the survey method through interview to scrutinize six 6 Nigerian national newspapers- Daily Sun Daily Times Leadership The Nation Punch and Vanguard for a period of 3 months May 1 2018 to July 31 2018 Coding sheet was used to code 552 editions of the newspapers within the 3-months period where 182 contents on IDPs were found and analyzed Also interview guide was employed to garner the view of six 6 communications and media experts Findings presented through descriptive and inferential statistics revealed that the selected national newspapers mainly accorded low prominence to issue of IDPs through page placement stories The coverage of major issues the selected newspapers reported about the IDPs was about the vulnerability of the IDPs It was shown that coverage of selected newspapers as shown to have been varied geographically where North-East garnered the highest coverage while the South-West had no coverage on IDPs situation Results showed that the most dominant tone used by the selected newspapers was the positive Also findings revealed that Nigerian newspapers need understand more about the issue of IDPs editors of newspapers need assign their reporters to intensively cover the IDPs situation and report it frequently on their publications security agencies NEMA SEMA INGOs and NGOs need to corporate and collaborate with newspapers organizations for them to be further strengthened as a communication tool in proffering solution to the issue of internal displacements in Nigeria The study recommended among other things that the Nigerian press should be more intentional in increasing coverage on IDPs and give prominence to the coverage of IDPs by way of positioning of reports on the front pag

A Survey of Teachers’ Knowledge and Application of Teaching Techniques in Early Childhood Education

The primary purpose of this study was to identify teachers’ knowledge of teaching techniques and how they were applied in Early Childhood education, whether their qualifications contributed to their knowledge and effective use of teaching techniques as well as the areas they found challenging in the discharge of their duties. The study was anchored on the play theory by Jean Piaget. Using the survey method and with the aid of a questionnaire as an instrument, the researcher sampled the opinions of 53 teachers purposively selected from 10 schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State.  The findings showed that the teachers were fully aware of teaching techniques. The techniques or methods commonly used were play-way, demonstration, activity method, dramatization and role playing method. Also, the act of questioning was mostly applied and they adopted whatever technique that helped them to deliver the lessons. Majority of the respondents also admitted that the knowledge of subject matter contributes to the effective use of teaching techniques. Based on the findings, recommendations were made that government and other regulatory bodies should ensure that only professionally qualified teachers were recruited to teach Early Childhood Education. The teachers need to constantly acquaint themselves with subject matter that they teach since the knowledge of subject matter contributes to knowledge and application of teaching techniques. It was also recommended that teachers should be humble enough to invite professionals to help them in areas where they have difficulty instead of adopting any method that seems right to them. They should always consult, collaborate with or seek for assistance from experienced teachers