A Phenomenological Assessment of Factors that Affect Medication Adherence Among Hypertensive Nigerian Immigrants

This qualitative study explored the perceptions that affect medication adherence among hypertensive Nigerian immigrants in Sacramento, California. The research questions focused on factors that influenced the adherence to hypertension medication; specifically, how the sample population explained the cause of hypertension and whether culture and religion impacted the cause and management of hypertension. A phenomenological approach was used to understand perceptions about medication adherence. A predefined group of 9 acted as a purposive sample and was given semi-structured individual interviews. Qualitative data analysis of the interviews was performed using Colaizzi\u27s 7-step method. Results from the study found the cause of hypertension was believed to be genetics, stress, and diet. Education was strongly cited as the reason for dispelling cultural beliefs toward hypertension cause and management of the illness. Reasons for nonadherence were linked mostly to forgetfulness and side effects of hypertensive medication on sexual performance in males. Participants reported that prayer did not affect medication adherence, but was used for psychological healing. Living in the United States was viewed as a both a positive and negative influence on the management of hypertension

The Relative Effects of Activity and Direct Teaching Adjuncts on Primary School Pupils’ Learning Outcomes in English Language

Early Childhood Education in Nigeria has not only witnessed population explosion today but has also gained much popularity among the elite. Children at this stage of development of reasoning and formation of concepts (0-8 years), require the use of varieties of instructional strategies to develop competence and performance skills. Instructional strategies in Early Childhood Education involve the use of different teaching approaches, tactics, methods, devices, designs, actions, efforts, skills and wisdom that can motivate the learner to learn better. Teachers’ persistence in the use of traditional lecture or teacher talk in Nigerian schools, has led to learner underachievement in both oral and written work probably because teacher talk does not involve the learners sufficiently in learning situations.  This paper focused on child-centered instructional strategy of active modeling. The strategy is used with the consideration of the child’s age, interest and participation during the lesson. The traditional strategy of teacher talk was combined with teacher modeling as an adjunct. The control class employed the teacher talk and black board illustration, as obtains in the regular Nigerian classroom. The treatment which lasted six weeks was implemented by qualified university graduates in education.  The results of the study show that the active modeling class achieved significantly higher English language mean score than both the teacher  adjunct and the direct instructional approach {F(2, 71)= 4.841; P < .05}. There was no significant difference in the achievement of pupils under teacher modeling adjunct and the direct teaching instructional strategies. It was recommended that the period of teacher training be extended by at least one year to enable the trainees acquire depth in their subject content areas as well as acquire greater competence in modern instructional strategies. Keywords: Learner-centered, instructional strategy, modeling, Early Childhood, primary school, Adjunct

Attitude of Public Primary School Pupils to Inclusive Education Practice in Umuahia Town

The importance of the primary school as the place for laying the foundation for essential skills acquisition for national growth and development is not in doubt. However, making this opportunity available to all children from rich or poor homes, able or disable is still a point in contention in most less developed nations such as Nigeria. As can be found in literature, most developed nations have taken steps to accommodate practically all children in school; but most of developing nations, particularly African nations are yet to take decisive steps in this regard. In Nigeria, the implementation of inclusive education is still at the proposal stage. There is therefore the need to find out the attitudes of school children to inclusive education practice. This study therefore investigated the attitudes of primary school children to inclusive education practice in Nigerian primary schools. The study involved 240 primaries three and four school boys and girls in equal proportion, who were drawn through stratified sampling technique from four equivalent mixed gender primary schools in a Nigerian state capital in South –Eastern Nigeria. Data collection employed a researcher constructed and validated attitude scale for primary school pupils. Twenty items were used in the test, with coefficient alpha .78. Data obtained was analyzed using analysis of variance technique. The results reveal that the class of pupils significantly influenced the attitudes of children to inclusive education practice: [F (1, 240) = 6.269; p < .05].   Both school and gender did not significantly influence pupils’ attitude to inclusive education. School by gender interactions were however significant: [F (3, 240) = 4.060); p< .05]. It was recommended that school children should be enlightened on the needs and benefits of inclusive education before the implementation of the policy. Keywords: Attitude; primary school; Inclusive education; pupils; childre

The Effect of Parental Supportiveness and Gender on English Language Achievement of Primary School Children in South-Eastern, Nigeria

English is a very important language in Nigeria today. It is a unifying language for the federation and also a major language of instruction in Nigerian schools. It is as well the official language of government business and the language of commerce and trade. Most school books and reading materials are written in English, but the standard of written and spoken English language by Nigerian pupils is very poor. It has been suspected that poor English language skill is a major contributor to the recurring mass failure of Nigerian students in public examinations. This study therefore investigated the effect of parental home-work supervision on English Language achievement of primary school children. The study is a quasi-experiment with pretest, post-test control group design. The experimental group adopted monitored parental home-work supervision while for the control group, the parent were neither trained nor monitored. The treatment lasted six weeks before the post test. English Language Achievement Test with reliability of 0.87 was used to measure learner achievement. The result showed that monitored parental home-work supervision was significantly better than the control (t-obt = 3.40, p<.05). The effect of gender was not significant. Regular Parental home-work supervision was recommended.Keywords: Parental Supportiveness, home-work, supervision, Gender, Achievement and English Languag

Religious Leaders and the Burdens of Integrity in Nigeria

In Nigeria, most religious leaders are found wanting when it comes to leadership with integrity. Integrity is now a very serious missing link in the life of most religious leaders of Nigerian society. The paper focuses on integrity as required of religious leaders in Nigeria with particular reference to Samuel as a religious leader in Israel. The paper employs both qualitative and descriptive approaches in the documentation of data. Primary data is sourced from the biblical text (1 Samuel 12: 3 – 4) in conjunction with published works. Findings reveal that most religious leaders in Nigeria do not live up to expectations when it comes to the use of public funds and resources. This is because most people encourage shortcuts rather than integrity. The paper recommends Samuel’s leadership integrity whose life was a match to his word. Integrity is an unavoidable value of personality that should characterize religious leaders in Nigerian society. Samuel’s integrity is a benchmark for religious leaders because integrity sustains a person when no longer in office

Impact of Role Overload on Job Performance among Construction Workers

This research examined the Impact of Role Overload on Job Performance among construction workers. 103 junior workers selected via simple random sampling were used for the study. They were all males and have a mean age of 31 years. Two instruments were used: Rizo et al (1970) Role conflict scale measured Role Overload while the Annual Performance Ratings of the organization measured workers performance. The results showed that the low performance workers experienced greater role-overload than the moderate and high performance workers. Thus, the hypothesis that role overload affects workers performance negatively was accepted. It is recommended that organizations should reduce work load in line with human capacity, redesign jobs and employ more workers to reduce role overload

Social Networking Sites Usage and the Negative Influence on Students’ Academic Achievement in Secondary Schools in Uyo Senatorial District, Akwa Ibom State

The study explored social networking sites usage and the negative influence on students’ academic achievement in secondary schools in Uyo Senatorial District, Akwa Ibom State. Five research questions were raised to guide the study. Descriptive survey research design was used to carry out this study. The population of this study comprised all Senior Secondary Two (SS2) students in Uyo Senatorial District and the target population is 21,726. The sample size for this study comprised 452 students from 27 sampled schools. Multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting the sample size. A researcher-developed questionnaire titled “Social Networking Sites Usage and the Negative Influence on Students’ Academic Achievement (SNSUNISAA)” was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha Analysis. A coefficient value of 0.79 was obtained and this was considered appropriate for the study. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using frequency distributions and arithmetic mean. The z-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that students’ academic achievement was greatly impeded by their use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs), time spent on SNSs, gender use, the most visited SNSs, poor grammar and spellings. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended amongst others that, all education stake holders should regularly and adequately communicate the negative influences of these sites to the students. This will enable them to be watchful of their activities and improve in their academic endeavours by their ability to regulate, eliminate or reduce the time spent or wasted on these SNSs. Keywords: Social networking site, Negative influence, Students, Academic achievement, Secondary schools

Factors Militating Against Effective Planning of Secondary School Education in Taraba State

Secondary school education is facing many problems such as shortage of professional teachers,inadequate instructional material, and funding, overcrowding and poor quality of educationalperformance. The problems have been linked to lack of effective planning of Secondary education as apanacea for academic excellence in the Northeast of Taraba. A survey research design was adopted forthis study, using a structured questionnaire as data collecting instrument with one hundred and sixtyrespondents. Data collected were analysed using mean score. The study revealed that inadequatefunding, inadequate data, shortage of professional planners, poor capacity development programme ofplanners,lack of planning materials, coupled with instability in the education policy and politicalupheavalsare the problem facing planning of secondary school in Taraba state. The study recommendthat government should employ expertise in the educational sector, man-power periodic training andretraining for maximum planning and implementation of educational policies, regular data generation,analysis, prompt implementation, periodic evaluation reports, and priority to funding of educationalplannin

In vitro antibacterial activity of Synclisa scabrida whole root extracts

Ethanolic, cold water and hot water extracts of the root of Synclisia scabrida were tested, by the agarwell diffusion and macro-broth methods, for activity against clinical and typed strains of Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus sp. and Bacillussubtilis. The ethanolic extract was bactericidal at the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against 8 of the 10 test organisms (MIC, 3.125 to 12.50 mg/ml and MBC, 3.125 to 25.00 mg/ml). The cold water extract was bactericidal against E. coli (clin) and B. subtilis ATCC 6051 strains and bacteriostatic against 5 others while the hot water extract was bacteriostatic against 2 of the organisms at MIC. Three column chromatographic fractions of the crude ethanolic extract, Fss-1, Fss-2, and Fss-3, were active against 5 to 8 of the 10 test bacterial strains. Fss-3 was bacteriostatic against the Proteus sp. (clin), which was not susceptible to the crude ethanolic extract. Conversely, the crude ethanolic extract was bactericidal against P. aeruginosa ATCC 10145 to which none of the fractions showed activity. Thus, the results justify the folklore application of extracts of S. scabrida in treatment of bacterialgastroenteritis among other diseases