Analyzing Mathematics and AP Statistics Assessment Items in Terms of the Levels of Thinking Skills They Assess

This study is a part of a large study that investigated the Assessment Practices of Mathematics Teachers who also teach AP Statistics. In this paper I investigate the thinking skills that assessment items used mathematics and AP Statistics classroom assess. Two teachers who were teaching mathematics and AP Statistics participated in this study. Each teacher was observed 12 times in class. Artifacts were also collected from each teacher, mainly oral questions and written questions. A mathematics taxonomy framework was used to analyze the characteristics of the assessment items. The results of the study indicated that assessment questions (oral and written) in AP Statistics and mathematics mostly assessed recall of factual information, comprehension of factual information and routine use of procedures

The Role of Community Based Information Centres in Development: Lessons for Rural Zimbabwe

Community based information proposals from the library profession in Zimbabwe should in theory fit well with government strategic goals for a “knowledge based society”. In reality, information technology has opened floodgates for international and national development by bringing in a plethora of community based information systems and services. This paper highlights developmental issues initiated by different community based information centres. It defines community, information, rural development and enunciates on community centers throughout their evolution to the modern community based information centres. The premise of the paper is that establishing community based information centres in Zimbabwean rural areas will strengthen and empower rural people to be among global players. The major scale of this paper is to provide platforms for erecting these centres in rural Zimbabwe for the purpose of providing everyone with useful, practical information for daily chores. Rural Zimbabwe has a bigger share in national and international development which can be achieved by harnessing community based information systems and services. Despite low level penetration of community based centres in Zimbabwe, the Matabeleland South initiatives have capacitated Zimbabweans to follow the trend. The centres should be spread throughout the country and provide information for development. Community based information centres can play a significant role in meeting social economic targets for rural people by connecting, empowering rural populace to developmental floodgates. The paper finally shows how community information based centres complement support for the government and agencies in resource sharing and enhances the services available through such centres. Keywords: information, information technology, rural development, and community based information centres: Zimbabwe

Towards a Sustainable Energy Future for Sub-Saharan Africa

Current global population is estimated at 7.5 billion with 1.25 billion living in developed countries and 6.25 billion in less developed countries. Africa’s population is approximated at 1.25 billion with 1.02 billion in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, an estimated 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity and 3 billion rely on solid fuels for cooking and space heating. Two thirds of those lacking access to electricity live in sub-Saharan Africa, whereas only about 16% of those in sub-Saharan Africa use modern energy forms as the primary cooking fuel. Lack of access to electricity has adverse socio-economic effects, while heavy reliance on solid fuels has negative socio-economic, health, and environmental impacts. Several initiatives are being undertaken to mitigate the situation; notable are future aspirations for universal access to clean and modern energy expressed in the 2030 sustainable development goals (goal number 7), 2063 African Union Commission Agenda, Paris Agreement, and the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4A). This chapter discusses the past and present energy situation and presents possible scenarios for a sustainable energy future in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular emphasis on Southern Africa

A case for teaching development philosophy to science and engineering undergraduates in Zimbabwe's State Universities

A ZJER research paper on teaching development philosophy to science students in Zimbabwe's Universities.The paper highlights some concepts of socio-economic relevance which have negatively impacted the Education system and introduces a Development Philosophy concept that is required during the training of Engineering, Social and Physical Science Undergraduates in Zimbabwe's State Universities. As a nation we have done well in establishing a sound university education system, but the focus has since shifted from demand for university education to demand for a vibrant economy that provides sufficient employment to its graduates. The progress that has been made in the higher education sector has been phenomenal but still falls short of economic expectations in a number of sectors. It is fact that by and large, the nature of the subjects taught in Sub-Sahara African Universities including our state universities are primarily within the traditional Science and Engineering disciplines and are regularly modified to be in line with global trends in social, technological and scientific advancement. The economic challenges facing Zimbabwe and its State Universities now necessitate a new approach to university education that produces a different type of graduate that is empowered individually, corporately and nationally through a philosophical study of the relationships between economic development, skills, equipment, capital and resource utilization. This paper also presents the basis for a course of action required for enhancing the education and human resource development in Sub-Saharan Africa, although the focus will be on Zimbabwe through a strategic process of aligning attitudes and understanding towards sustainable socioeconomic growth using state universities and colleges. Globally, some national attitudes can be observed as follows: (I) Under “similar conditions” one nation will contemplate war with another nation over the death of one or two of its citizens whilst for another nation hundreds have to die before being forced to accept that there is a national disaster. (Ii) In one nation a large piece of land is turned into a thriving economy whilst in another, similar land is turned into hazardous wasteland. These two precursors highlight strengths and weaknesses that can be embodied in public education systems in shaping socio-economic norms and values

The Status and Quality of Science Education in Rural Day Secondary Schools in Chirumanzu District, Zimbabwe

The study investigated the current status and quality of science education in satellite schools in rural Zimbabwe. The study was conducted in five secondary schools in Lalapanzi cluster in Chirumanzu district, Zimbabwe. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. It used semi structured questionnaires, observations and interviews as data collection tools. Results show that science teaching and learning is more didactic and theoretical in approach so that learners only develop factual knowledge of science principles and facts. Furthermore a number of factors such as insufficient teaching and learning resources, ill equipped laboratories, inadequate time for preparation and teaching due to a heavy workload and large class sizes limit the quality of science teaching and learning. The study also show that the provision of adequate funds to purchase equipment, build more laboratories, facilities and ensure a regular supply of consumables will improve the quality of science teaching and learning. The provision of laboratory assistants as well as payment of adequate salaries, allowances and incentives for science teachers could improve the quality of science education in Lalapanzi cluster secondary schools. It is recommended that more resources and funding be allocated to education and science education to enable schools to provide the required infrastructure and facilities as well as consumables. Science teachers should engage in ongoing professional development to be equiped with pedagogical skills as well as pedagogical content knowledge. Keywords: science education, satellite school, quality science educatio

Curriculum enablement and posthumanism: Pathways for creating and implementing a community development curriculum

This article argues that the application of transcendent disciplinarism as a lens for critical inquiry and curriculum enablement is urgent in a posthuman era. The paper asserts that a curriculum must be responsive to societal needs by providing students with a "toolbox" for developing functional and productive societies. The community development degree is pedagogically premised on utilising multiple disciplinary synergies primed for analytically and practically improving the human condition. The article uses critical terms in posthumanism, such as relationality, resilience, and sustainable communities, to evoke a return to the local by analysing the creation and implementation of a responsive community development curriculum. Through pedagogical approaches that infuse collaborative and cooperative learning with active learning strategies, we argue that the community development curriculum should be structured to enhance the capabilities of students to assist communities in adapting and transcending to transformation. This paper followed a systematic literature review of journal articles extracted from SCOPUS, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and EBSCOhost electronic databases. A final sample of twenty-four articles was reviewed, analysed, and presented using ATLAS.ti flow chart diagrams. The study's findings revealed that posthumanism-inspired transformation normatively conceives the earth as a connected entity and places as entangled and interconnected. The article further interrogates how the posthuman approach can be used to create and implement pathways for curriculum enablement

An Architectural Framework for E-Voting Administration

One of the key areas of concentration in achieving harmonious democracy is transparency in the electoral processes. Some countries on the African continent such as Ghana and Kenya have recently had issues of doubt and mistrust of the administration and the management of their Electoral Commission and hence a suspicion of election fraud which has prone threats of violence, economic declination and on the peak, legal implications. There was a claim of double registration, duplicated ballots, lost ballots, wrong count of ballots, failure of biometric registration system, impersonation, and alteration of counted votes in the immediate past election in countries such as Ghana, which led to series of court cases. E- Voting brings about a suitable solution to these. Available Literature at present exclusively reveals that most e-voting systems have presented several failures in design. This raises eyebrows concerning the technical and procedural controls on whether they are sufficient to guarantee trustworthy voting. The best methods possible should be applied in order to come up with the best solutions based on a framework that thoroughly addresses the requirements and standards. Therefore, this paper seeks to optimize the voting processes and governance of the Electoral Commission of respective countries by proposing a trustable e-voting theoretical framework which dwells on biometric data of various candidates as the basis for encryption of ballot, dedicated channel for transmission of counted ballots and/or connecting and disconnecting the database server before and after voting. Various literatures are considered to help propose a robust framewor

Using problem-solving instruction to overcome high school chemistry students’ difficulties with stoichiometric problems

The study sought to find out the difficulties encountered by high school chemistry students when solving stoichiometric problems. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. 525participants drawn from 8 highs schools in a local education district in Zimbabwe participated in the study. A validate stoichiometry achievement test was used to collect data at pre-test and post-test stages. The researchers also prepared a difficulty identification index to analyse the difficulties encountered by the students. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. From the findings, six major difficulties identified were lack of understanding of the mole concept, inability to balance chemical equations, use of inconsistent stoichiometric relationships, identifying the limiting reagent, determination of theoretical yields and identification of substances in excess. The study also found that the use of problem-solving instruction was effective in remedying the identified difficulties in comparison to the conventional lecture method. It was strongly recommended that chemistry educators should analyse and understand student difficulties if they are to assist the learner to become confident and efficient problem solvers. Furthermore, chemistry educators should implement the problem-solving pedagogical technique as a means of addressing the difficulties students have in stoichiometry problem-solving

Critical Thinking Skills and Academic Maturity: Emerging Results from a Five-Year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Study

The QEP that was implemented in this study focused on enhancing students’ critical thinking skills. A pretest/ posttest approach was used to assess students’ critical thinking progress in freshman level core English and Math courses. An intervention was performed involving intensive instruction and assignments relating to a set of reasoning strategies such as: analytical, analogical, inductive, deductive, and comparative reasoning, among others. When students performed well on assignments by applying the reasoning strategies, it was assumed that critical thinking occurred. However, pre/ posttest results in these classes were often disappointing, and seemed at times to suggest that freshmen are not very good critical thinkers. Whereas, when another critical thinking national assessment,the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) Exam was given during the sophomore to junior year, students performed very well. Thus, the hypothesis that critical thinking skills may be impacted by academic maturity began to emerge

Recurrent Difficulties: Stoichiometry problem-solving

The study sought to find out the difficulties encountered by high school chemistry students when solving stoichiometric problems. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. 525participants drawn from 8 highs schools in a local education district in Zimbabwe participated in the study. A validate stoichiometry achievement test was used to collect data at pre-test and post-test stages. The researchers also prepared a difficulty identification index to analyse the difficulties encountered by the students. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics. From the findings, six major difficulties identified were lack of understanding of the mole concept, inability to balance chemical equations, use of inconsistent stoichiometric relationships, identifying the limiting reagent, determination of theoretical yields and identification of substances in excess. The study also found that the use of problem-solving instruction was effective in remedying the identified difficulties in comparison to the conventional lecture method. It was strongly recommended that chemistry educators should analyse and understand student difficulties if they are to assist the learner to become confident and efficient problem solvers. Furthermore chemistry educators should implement the problem-solving pedagogical technique as a means of addressing the difficulties students have in stoichiometry problem-solving