TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Professional development is the most effective and powerful skill to increase the learners’ needs and then make them able to acquire these tools to complete their learning criteria. It works to fulfill the requirement of a teacher to meet with the effective teaching styles. This study aims to examine the secondary school teachers’ perceptions about professional development, its importance in teaching practices and why it has been declared an instrument to get the students’ learning outcomes. For this purpose, we opted semi-structured interviews for the collection of data. The total 13 participants participated in this study. The findings of the study revealed that the professional development affects teacher’s classroom practices and enhances the learning achievement of students. The findings also showed that the continuous professional development induces teachers to improve their teaching competencies to meet the need of learners as per educational demands and the relevance of teacher efficacy for their effectiveness, as related to powerful CPD experiences. Moreover, school embedded professional learning opportunities can thus answer to self-direct desires for instructional change, which afterwards provide the motivational efforts to sustain and overcome the hurdles. Further, discussion and suggestions are given.  Article visualizations

Four year experience of sarcoma of soft tissues and bones in a tertiary care hospital and review of literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Sarcoma encompasses an uncommon group of cancer and the data is insufficient from Pakistan. We report our four years experience of Sarcoma of soft tissues and bones.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This cross sectional study was carried out at Aga Khan University Hospital from 2004 to 2008. The patients were divided into two groups from the outset i.e. initially diagnosed and relapsed group and separate sub group analysis was conducted.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Out of 93 newly diagnosed patients, 58 belonged to bone sarcoma and 35 to soft tissue sarcoma group. While for relapsed patients, 5 had soft tissue sarcoma and 9 had bone sarcoma. Mean age was 32.5 years. At presentation, approximately two third patients had localised disease while remaining one third had metastatic disease. The Kaplan Meier estimate of median recurrence free survival was 25 months, 35 months, and 44 months for Osteogenic sarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma and Chondrosarcoma respectively. For Leiomyosarcoma and Synovial sarcoma, it was 20 and 19 months respectively. The grade of the tumour (p = 0.02) and surgical margin status (p = 0.001) were statistically significant for determination of relapse of disease.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The median recurrence free survival of patients in our study was comparable to the reported literature but with significant lost to follow rate. Further large-scale, multi centre studies are needed to have a more comprehensive understanding of this heterogeneous disease in our population.</p

China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and Indian Anxiety: an Analysis

The present study analyzes Indian anxiety over Chinese mounting influence in the Indian Ocean Region particularly progressive activities of China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and Silk Road Economic Belt. The study deeply observes the reasons for Indian anxiety and misunderstanding on China's Belt and Road Initiative especially the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The study also argues that worldwide support exposed China's BRI importance in the regional socio-economic connectivity. However, India is the largest country in South Asia and has a strategic influence in the Indian Ocean. It plays an important role in other South Asian countries except for Pakistan in terms of economy, military and diplomacy. India's attitude is very crucial for China's BRI, especially the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, as being a most important neighbour of China regarding its economy and military magnitudes

Idealist, Realist or Neo-Realist Financial Aid Donors to Pakistan

Foreign aid has always been an important source of finance for Pakistan. The flow of foreign aid depends upon the donor's interest and motives that can differ as some may be truly interested in helping the recipient nation (Mumtaz, 2013). Some donors may have a national interest while others may want to enhance their economic relations which refer to the idealist, realist, and neo-realist theories of motivations respectively (Berthelemy, 2005). The present inquiry is informed by a qualitative interpretive approach based on semi-structured interviews regarding financial aid donor's motives. The overall results revealed people's perception that America has an inclination for both Pakistan's nation and region for its own benefits whereas the United Kingdom is interested in human resources. Saudi Arab and China have dual motives, one is the development of Pakistan and the other is security and trade interest respectively. So America is proclaimed as realist donors, United Kingdom as Neo-realist while Saudi Arab and China have mixed motivations. Both are Idealists with some realist and neo-realist motivation correspondingly. However other financial aid donors are not prominent amongst the Pakistani nations