ANALYSING THE INFLUENCE OF LECTURERS’ PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF UGANDA: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM NKUMBA AND KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITIES, UGANDA

The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of lecturers’ pedagogical practices on students’ academic performance in the universities of Uganda. The study delineated pedagogical practices in Kyambogo and Nkumba universities of central Uganda. The objective of the study was to analyse the influence of lecturers’ pedagogical practices on students’ academic performance in the selected universities of Uganda, using a sample of 334 randomly selected final-year students and purposively selected lecturers from the selected universities. The study utilised a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, an objective and subjective epistemological positioning and a dualism ontological stance. Findings from the correlation results revealed a significant positive, but moderately weak relationship between pedagogical practices and students’ academic performance in the selected universities of Uganda (r = 0.486, p = 0.000 < 0.05). Regression analysis results indicated that the pedagogical approaches, engagement/interaction and assessment practices, when combined as in the model, explained only 23.6% of the variation in students’ academic performance in the selected universities of Uganda (R2 = .236). The remaining (76.4%) may be explained by other factors which were not considered in the study. The study, therefore, recommended that Government of Uganda (GoU), through the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) of Uganda, and other supervisory bodies of higher education ought to give ample sensitization and training to the university lecturers on better adoption and application of appropriate assessment practices to enhance students’ academic performance in the universities of Uganda.  Article visualizations

Literary Pedagogies and Teaching of Literatures Today

The primary purpose of sending persons to school is to equip the learners with skills of oracy and literacy as effective expression of issues. Literary studies have been more concerned with how to create and interpret a text, written or oral. As Ong (1977) points out it is strange that persons interested in writing and reading processes  like  structuralist and phenomenological analysts of textuality, have done little to enlarge understanding of these processes by contrasting writing and reading processes in depth with oral and oral-aural processes. The study, “Performance of Ateso Oral Narratives”, was carried out in some selected communities of Ateso speakers in Uganda and Kenya ethnographically and analysed qualitatively. Research has shown that the problem with much of pedagogical stylistics so far is that it has concentrated on spotting and interpreting textual patterns with little, if any, regard to the reader’s feelings (Oatley, 2004; Miall, 2006). The study recommended that paradigms of orality and writing should to be integrated in the visualizing a bright future of communication for African communities

Unusual clinical spectra of childhood severe malaria during malaria epidemic in eastern Uganda: a prospective study

Abstract Background In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), malaria remains a public health problem despite recent reports of declining incidence. Severe malaria is a multiorgan disease with wide-ranging clinical spectra and outcomes that have been reported to vary by age, geographical location, transmission intensity over time. There are reports of recent malaria epidemics or resurgences, but few data, if any, focus on the clinical spectrum of severe malaria during epidemics. This describes the clinical spectrum and outcomes of childhood severe malaria during the disease epidemic in Eastern Uganda. Methods This prospective cohort study from October 1, 2021, to September 7, 2022, was nested within the ‘Malaria Epidemiological, Pathophysiological and Intervention studies in Highly Endemic Eastern Uganda’ (TMA2016SF-1514-MEPIE Study) at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda. Children aged 60 days to 12 years who at admission tested positive for malaria and fulfilled the clinical WHO criteria for surveillance of severe malaria were enrolled on the study. Follow-up was performed until day 28. Data were collected using a customized proforma on social demographic characteristics, clinical presentation, treatment, and outcomes. Laboratory analyses included complete blood counts, malaria RDT (SD BIOLINE Malaria Ag P.f/Pan, Ref. 05FK60-40-1) and blood slide, lactate, glucose, blood gases and electrolytes. In addition, urinalysis using dipsticks (Multistix® 10 SG, SIEMENS, Ref.2300) at the bedside was done. Data were analysed using STATA V15.0. The study had prior ethical approval. Results A total of 300 participants were recruited. The median age was 4.6 years, mean of 57.2 months and IQR of 44.5 months. Many children, 164/300 (54.7%) were under 5 years, and 171/300 (57.0%) were males. The common clinical features were prostration 236/300 (78.7%), jaundice in 205/300 (68.3%), severe malarial anaemia in 158/300 (52.7%), black water fever 158/300 (52.7%) and multiple convulsions 51/300 (17.0%), impaired consciousness 50/300(16.0%), acidosis 41/300(13.7%), respiratory distress 26/300(6.7%) and coma in 18/300(6.0%). Prolonged hospitalization was found in 56/251 (22.3%) and was associated with acidosis, P = 0.041. The overall mortality was 19/300 (6.3%). Day 28 follow-up was achieved in 247/300 (82.3%). Conclusion During the malaria epidemic in Eastern Uganda, severe malaria affected much older children and the spectrum had more of prostration, jaundice severe malarial anaemia, black water fever and multiple convulsions with less of earlier reported respiratory distress and cerebral malaria