Nurturing Inclusive Education through Cooperative Learning as Pedagogical Approach at Primary School Level

Inclusive education is a way of reducing exclusion and increasing participation in such a way that responds effectively to the diverse needs of all learners without differentiating on the basis of their weaknesses and strengths. This approach with the use of cooperative learning strategies provides an ample opportunity to learners by developing a sense of community where their voices are heard and responded. This qualitative inquiry was planned to look at prospects of cooperative learning instructional strategies to foster inclusion in the learning environment. The main objective of this study was to examine students’ success through cooperative learning instructional strategies that are conducive to foster inclusion in the classroom. Data were collected from seven highly experienced teachers of inclusive schools by using purposive sampling technique. Participants were provided fair chance to share their belief and experiences aligned with the topic of cooperative learning for inclusion. The findings indicated that teachers use Co-op, Co-op, Numbered Heads Together, Social Skills Training and Jigsaw techniques for students on IEPs (individualized education plans) to create cooperative learning environment that is conducive to inclusive education. It is recommended that training sessions and workshops should be organized for teachers to assist them in effective implementation of cooperative learning approach. To gain more generalizable results, the study may be conducted by using quantitative approach as well

Effect of Induction Training Program on Teachers’ Effectiveness at Elementary School Level in Punjab

Induction training programs are organized to make teachers familiar with their profession so that they can perform their duties effectively. This study was an exploration of framework of induction training program (ITP) for elementary school educators in Punjab. This qualitative inquiry was based on opinion of all induction training experts and documents related with teachers’ training. The purposively selected sample for this study was five experts of induction training program and documents related with induction training of teachers. Interviews of induction training experts were conducted. Thematic analysis of interviews and documents related with induction training of teachers was conducted. Different themes and coding categories were identified to execute the analysis of responses of induction training experts and documents of induction training. It was concluded from the results that there were five phases of framework of induction training program. First phase was training needs assessment (TNA), second was methodologies, third was training areas, fourth was rationale and fifth was evaluation. There is need to conduct researches on exploration of framework of induction training programs. This will enable different countries to compare their frameworks and enable their teachers to become more effective in accordance with international standards

Role of Learning Styles in the Quality of Learning at Different Levels

International audiencestyles and their role in quality of performance at secondary, intermediary and university level for language students from six different fields. The association and differences in students' learning styles related to their demographics were also explored. Data analysis showed that the majority of the students from all the fields in sample showed the diverging style and the accommodating style as their most preferred learning styles. The learner's gender and nature of house affected the preference for learning styles. Other variables showed no association with learning styles. The learning styles of language students have no relationship with the grades obtained in their previous exams. This study leads to the fact that it should be replicated on a large sample of language learners and comparison should also be made with their current quality of learning/academic performance

Determinant Attributes of Customer Choice of Banks, Supplying Mortgage Products

The present study focuses on finding out the main attributes that determine the customer’s choice of bank for supplying the mortgage products. The data has been gathered through questionnaires from 400 customers using mortgage products of different banks. Reviewing the literature four variable are taken for study to determine the dependent variable customer choice of banks using mortgage products and they include cost of bank, quality of services, confidence of customer in bank and convenience of customer using mortgage product. Results were analyzed using ordinary least square (OLS) regression and correlation techniques and findings of the data have been tested which appeared as significant statistically. The results indicated that choice of customers for the mortgage product depends on all the independent variables like quality of services, cost of mortgage product, confidence level of customers build by the bank and convenience of the customers. Further analysis can be done on exploring more independent variables, which are important for customers in choosing a bank providing mortgage products

Identification and Prioritization of CSFS and Perception of the Stake Holders for Fast Track Construction Projects in Pakistan

Construction industry is characterized by its unpredictability in terms of time and cost. Worldwide 85% of the projects suffer time overrun resulting in cost increase. Project management being a neglected aspect in Pakistan results in project time overrun. Many scheduling techniques are employed to regain the lost schedule, fast tracking is one such technique. Fast tracking is overlapping the project activities in order to reduce project duration with increased activity and project cost. Globally fast tracking has seen ages of practical implementation since 1960s. However being a newer trend in Pakistan, it is yet to witness maturity. Fast track projects opt for time and quality over cost and in fast track projects we accept the tradeoff between the high cost of buying time while maintaining quality. The main idea behind fast tracking is to overlap the activities which otherwise are executed in sequence. Particularly the emphasis is kept on overlapping design and the construction activities. After an extensive literature review a preliminary questionnaire containing 93 success factors was used for the pilot survey. After the pilot survey full scale survey questionnaire was prepared containing 45 success factors. The questionnaires were sent to a sample size of 63 comprising of the contractors, consultants and the construction clients. The data collected was analyzed using PASW-18 and MS Excel. After conducting the statistical tests the success factors were ranked in order of importance using RII and mean values. Keeping the mean value as the yard stick, success factors with mean value of 4 and above were identified and prioritized as the CSFs (Critical Success Factors). Similarly the stakeholder’s perception on the CSFs was also evaluated. At the end conclusions and recommendations were formulated. Keeping in view the research parameters, the research’s contribution is twofold, one to the local CI (Construction Industry) and other to R&D (Research and Development) community. Keywords: Fast Tracking, Construction Industry, Critical Success Factors, Stakeholder’s Perceptio

Document Clustering based on Topic Maps

Importance of document clustering is now widely acknowledged by researchers for better management, smart navigation, efficient filtering, and concise summarization of large collection of documents like World Wide Web (WWW). The next challenge lies in semantically performing clustering based on the semantic contents of the document. The problem of document clustering has two main components: (1) to represent the document in such a form that inherently captures semantics of the text. This may also help to reduce dimensionality of the document, and (2) to define a similarity measure based on the semantic representation such that it assigns higher numerical values to document pairs which have higher semantic relationship. Feature space of the documents can be very challenging for document clustering. A document may contain multiple topics, it may contain a large set of class-independent general-words, and a handful class-specific core-words. With these features in mind, traditional agglomerative clustering algorithms, which are based on either Document Vector model (DVM) or Suffix Tree model (STC), are less efficient in producing results with high cluster quality. This paper introduces a new approach for document clustering based on the Topic Map representation of the documents. The document is being transformed into a compact form. A similarity measure is proposed based upon the inferred information through topic maps data and structures. The suggested method is implemented using agglomerative hierarchal clustering and tested on standard Information retrieval (IR) datasets. The comparative experiment reveals that the proposed approach is effective in improving the cluster quality

Teaching of Statistics in Social Sciences Through E-Learning

International audienceThis paper focuses on the organization and content of social interactions in a group of University of Lyon 2 students engaged in an e-learning situation dealing with statistical concepts. The importance of social interactions in the teaching and learning has been informed by socio-constructivist theories. We examined observable traces of micro-level exchanges between students engaged in a complex e-learning task, noting technical constraints and spatio-temporal characteristics that influence course participants engaged in a social organization established to achieve a common goal. To do this we used both quantitative and qualitative analyses of messages exchanged on a participant discussion forum. Statistics education in an online, distance, collaborative group situation is a new framework for learning. The mechanism of teaching and learning based on collaborative work through the observable traces of online social interactions was explored. The main focus of our study was to discover what occurs when students attempt to learn Statistics without face-to-face meetings with their classmates and their teacher. Our data show that in this online course, students took keen interest in the topic and enhanced their learning. We believe that this online mode of teaching statistics, even though lacking in face-to-face interactions, should be implemented on a wider scale since it has the potential to provide more opportunities for interactions irrespective of geographical boundaries

ISO, As an Agent of Change for Manufacturing Sector: A Case Study from Pakistani Perspective

Purpose - The purpose and aim of this study is to investigate how and why any organization needs to become registered with ISO. The case is written especially for the students of business management to enhance their capabilities that help them when they go in practical life. Methodology and Approach - This study contains qualitative approach. Data required to write this paper was collected from direct meetings and by conducting interviews from relevant persons. Findings - This whole study concluded that if any organization wants to make their products up to mark and never having to say sorry to customer than they must follow the quality standards of ISO and needs to become register with it. Paper Limitation - This case study is self-reported. Name of organization and names of persons are supposed and these are not basis on truth. It does not consist actual events occurred in the organization. And this study is also limited by the fact that findings relate to only one country. Originality/value - This case study elaborates the complete understanding of how any organization can get ISO quality standards certification. Keywords - Bureau verities quality information, International organizations of standards, Quality, Quality manua

Maternal Health Challenges during COVID-19 and Way Forward

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every country around the globe. Although every individual is at risk of getting the virus, maternal, fetal and newborn clients face specific and potentially unknown challenges which can make them highly compromised. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the maternal health challenges faced by women during COVID-19 and to propose possible strategies using the socio-ecological model (SEM) to promote the physical, social, and mental well-being of women and their infants during the perinatal period. SEM can be used as a framework to plan and implement strategies focusing on health promotion and disease prevention. It guides stakeholders to design actions at each level, starting from individual to the policy level