Effect of Cognitive Apprenticeship Instructional Method on Auto-Mechanics Students

This study focused on the effect of cognitive apprenticeship instructional method on the achievement of auto-mechanics students in Rivers State, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental pre-test design with an experimental and non-equivalent control group was adopted. The population of the study comprised all the 212 second-year auto-mechanics students of the four technical colleges in Rivers State, no sampling was carried out as the entire population of the students was used. Three instruments were used for data collection. These were cognitive apprenticeship instructional lesson plans, which served as the treatment, traditional lesson plans, and an auto-mechanics achievement test. Five research questions and five hypotheses were formulated, mean and standard deviation was used to analyse the data for answering the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that the students taught with cognitive apprenticeship instructional method tended to have higher mean post-test scores in the auto-mechanics achievement test than those taught with the conventional lecture method. Based on this, it was recommended that auto-mechanics teachers should always adopt cognitive apprenticeship instructional components, namely: modelling, scaffolding, coaching, articulation and exploration. This will enable them to cater for the diverse learning styles of the students

Effect of Examination Malpractice on Nigeria Graduate Productivity in the Labour Market Crew

Education as the bedrock of development and one of the fundamental factors determining sustainable economic development has been faced with a lot of challenges; most especially examination malpractice the paper examined the effect of examination malpractice conceptually by reviewing the related literature. Based on the literature reviewed, the paper concluded that there is a gap between the certificates obtained by graduates and their productivity at the labour market due to the various examination malpractice perpetuated by them when they were in school. The paper recommended that Examination malpractice should be discouraged in its entirety. The government, the citizens, the teachers/trainers, the students/trainees, the family and the school, employers and employees, must take this as a critical assignment that must be done.   Keywords: Education, Examination Malpractice, Labour Market, Challenges, Development

Challenges facing government revenue from the Nigerian oil industry: a system dynamics approach

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyExtractive industries (including oil, gas and mining) generally afford an opportunity for the host government to generate the revenue to fund sustainable growth and development. It is therefore not surprising for conventional economic theory to suggest this is a readily available revenue source for resource blessed countries. However, contrary to this reasonable expectation, several of these economies were found to be suffering a financial handicap. Nigeria, despite being the largest crude oil producer in Africa and the tenth largest in the world, has so far found realising the full financial benefits of this nature’s gift unattainable. Using both qualitative and quantitative data as well as grounded theory in the analysis of the qualitative data, this research work has been carried out to develop a model of Nigerian oil industry using System Dynamics modelling methodology in order to understand these challenges. Specifically, the research develops an System Dynamics model to capture and quantify the various potential revenue streams to the Nigerian government from the oil (petroleum) industry with the objective of providing an explanatory model of the causal factors and then using the model to construct policy experiments in order to evaluate policies that may optimise these revenues. Findings show that, the development of the model for the Nigerian oil industry was successfully undertaken. The model was used to evaluate two government policy interventions that were aimed at improving government revenue from the industry. Moreover, a range of alternative scenarios which suggested increase of transparency policy, reduction of rate of gas flare and reduction of time taken for repairs of vandalised facilities were used in the model. The relevant system actors in the Nigerian oil industry were impressed with the modelling idea, particularly in its ability to represents all the economic challenges facing the industry, which offered a better understanding of the system they are dealing with. Overall, the model was able to depict some potential policy points thus serving as a decision-making tool

Unethical Behavior by Professional Accountant in an Organization

The continuing influence and impact which personal and professional ethics exerts upon individuals, organizations and society, and the factors which influence organizational ethics, has been thrust into the headlines of the American populous. The ethical issues faced daily by organizations and their employees are neither always straightforward nor easy to resolve. Results of unethical behaviour by accounting/audit professionals, and the impact of ethics upon organizations, is a topic of growing concern in corporate board rooms around the world. This paper will examine the timely and important ethics and its relevance and importance to overall corporate wellbeing. In particular, what factors influence the likelihood that an individual will act ethically or less than ethical, and what this means to management, the organization, and internal controls in general. This paper is designed to help educate people on unethical accounting practices, why they occur, and how we as a nation can promote ethical behaviour

Analysis of the Effect of Private Healthcare Financing on Poverty in Nigeria: Evidence from Edo State

Poverty is one of the problems that challenge economies in Africa. Though it is a complex phenomenon which requires efforts by different experts to reduce or eliminate, conventional wisdom posits that “health is wealth”. Health status is a component of human capital development which plays a fundamental role in the poverty and well-being of individuals and national economies. Paradoxically the cost of accessing quality healthcare is an important contributor to income poverty among low income households. Thus adequate healthcare financing mechanisms (public and private) are required to attain quality health outcomes. This study therefore investigates the adequacy or otherwise of the current means of private health care financing in Edo state of Nigeria and it employed the survey method and multinomial logistic regression technique. Results revealed that the dominant means of private health care financing in Edo state is “out of pocket” payments which has negative effect on the income of households. It therefore recommends the introduction of a more effective collective healthcare financing mechanism to mitigate the financial burden associated with out-of-pocket spending. Also funding should be provided for research and development of locally manufactured drugs with high local content to enhance the availability and affordability of effective drugs

Bending Strength Classification of Some Common Nigerian Timber Species

This paper was aimed at the EN338 (2009) strength classification of some common Nigerian timber species, namely; Strombosia pustulata, Macrocarpa bequaertii, Nauclea diderrichii and Entandrophragma cyclindricum. Twelve (12) timber planks from the selected species were supplied from Ekiti state in the southern part of Nigeria. The specimens for experimental measurements were prepared from the obtained timber planks. Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the physical and mechanical properties of the selected timber species in accordance with EN408 (2003). The mechanical properties were determined using four point bending test. The generated properties were used to obtain the characteristic values of the material properties in accordance with EN384 (2004). The selected timber species were then graded in accordance with EN 338 (2009). Strombosia pustulata, Macrocarpa bequaertii, Nauclea diderrichii and Entandrophragma cyclindricum were assigned to strength classes D35, C14, D30 and D18, respectively. Other properties such as tensile and compressive strengths parallel and perpendicular to grains, shear strength as well as shear modulus were computed from the empirical relationships given in EN 338

Determination of Strength Classes of Selected Nigerian Timbers in Accordance with EN338 (2009)

Wood has several unique, independent properties. The physical and mechanical properties of wood do vary from species to species and even within species due to environmental conditions during growth. In Nigeria, timber is been grade based on permissible stress (NCP) an upgrade to the limit state is required. A laboratory test was carried out to develop the physical and mechanical properties (four-point bending test) of the timber species in accordance with EN 13153-1, ASTM D143 and EN 408. The strength classification of selected timber was performed according to EN 338 using characteristic value of the material properties in accordance with EN384 from the generated physical and mechanical properties, after being adjusted to 12% (Eurocodes reference moisture content). The timber species considered were Tectona grandis and Gmelina arborea. The result showed Tectona grandis had a higher property than Gmelina arborea and the species were assigned to strength classes of D50 and D35 (hardwoods) respectively. The study shows that the selected timber species are suitable for structural purposes.Keywords: Strength classes, Nigerian timber, Four-point bending test, Tectona grandis, Gmelina arbore

The practice and challenges of e-Government in Nigeria in the 21st century

This paper investigates the state of the present condition of e-government commitment in Nigeria. It also, examines the difficulties encountered in the implementation process.Layne and Lee (2001) “Stages of growth theory” was adopted to explain the position of Nigeria in the implementation and the challenges it faced on e-government.To do this,this paper used secondary data as a source to collect different articles and report.This paper finds that while e-government is present in Nigeria, it is still in its initial stage.Not only have that, the environment lacked many prerequisites for the survival and continued maintenance of e-governance due to many factors such as inadequate electricity, technical expertise etcetera.It is therefore suggested that both the government and the stakeholders should take it up as a challenge to find quick and lasting solutions to them. There must also be political will and government should have its administrative staff retrained in IT to properly manage the facilities and infrastructure necessary for e-government

Comparative study on energy consumption in dynamic window secured implicit geographic forwarding routing protocol

An Ideal WSNs should operate with the least possible energy required in order to increase the lifetime of the sensor nodes and at the same time, ensure network connectivity. But the Inherent power limitation makes power-awareness a critical requirement for WSN, this calls for the need to manage energy in sensor nodes. Also In order to ensure successful transmission of data from sensor node source to destination, it becomes necessary to maintain network availability. The network must be resilient to individual node failure which can happen due to zero power posses by the node and due to security attacks posed on the node and the network. Dynamic Window Secured Implicit Geographic Forwarding (DWSIGF) routing protocol has proven to be robust, efficient and resistant to some security attack which causes failure in network availability. However the extent to which energy is consumed in sensor nodes which deploys DWSIGF as its routing protocol has never been mentioned. In this research, we performed a comparative study on energy consumption in DWSIGF routing protocol. Using the first order radio model, we determined the energy consumed in a network. The protocol (DWSIGF) is matched up against its counterpart SIGF as the traffic is increased. Observation shows that DWSIGF due to the variable timing assigned to the CTS collection window, CTS signal fails to reach destination as collection window time expires, thus the need for retransmission. This in turn consumes more energy than the counterpart SIGF which has a fixed CTS collection time. The simulation work was done using Matlab 7.0. Energy consumed in the random variant of both protocols (DWSIGF and SIGF) was also observed to be higher than the priority variant of the protocols