The Literary History of the Igbo Novel

This book looks at the trends in the development of the Igbo novel from its antecedents in oral performance, through the emergence of the first published novel, Omenuko, in 1933 by Pita Nwana, to the contemporary Igbo novel. Defining "Igbo literature" as literature in Igbo language, and "Igbo novel" as a novel written in Igbo language, the author argues that oral and written literature in African indigenous languages hold an important foundational position in the history of African literature. Focusing on the contributions of Igbo writers to the development of African literature in African languages, the book examines the evolution, themes, and distinctive features of the Igbo novel, the historical circumstances of the rise of the African novel in the pre-colonial, era and their impact on the contemporary Igbo novel. This book will be of interest to scholars of African literature, literary history, and Igbo studies

Running Head: Education in Kenya

Modern Kenya has been steadily evolving since 1963 when the country attained independence. It has made remarkable progress in all spheres of national growth and development. It is, however, in the area of literacy and education that the growth is most noticeable. Contemporary educational developments have built on the legacies of the past – refining traditional values and incorporating them in the goals and objectives of Kenya’s modern system of education

Establishing a publishing outfit in Nigeria

The paper examines the steps in establishing a publishing firm in the Nigerian environment. The importance of publishing, determination of the book publishing to undertake, steps to follow in establishing a publishing company, networking with stakeholders in the publishing industry,the legal environment of publishing, challengesand the prospects of publishing in Nigeria were among the vital issues discussed. Library and documentary review formed the methodology of the investigation. The paper concludes that any investor intending to set up a publishing company should have an in-depth understanding of all the intricacies in publishing in order to maximize and enjoy the benefits and profits inherent in the publishing sector. It recommends that intending investors in the publishing sector avails themselves of the opportunities outlined in the section on prospects.Keywords: Publishing, Publishing Industry, Publisher, Nigeri

International accounting harmonisation in developed stock market countries: an empirical comparative study of measurement and associated disclosure practices in France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States of America

In 1973, leading professional accountancy bodies from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States of America established the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) in a bid to confront the problems of international accounting diversities. In addition to the efforts of the IASC, various other bodies such as the United Nations, the European Community, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, have at various times also attempted to address this problem. Against this background, the first main objective of this study is to assess the extent to which the accounting measurement and associated disclosure practices of five leading countries, namely: France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA differ in spite of the major efforts made so far to reduce or eliminate diversities in the accounting practices of different countries. The second main objective of this study is to ascertain the extent to which the accounting measurement and associated disclosure practices of multi-listed and domestic listed companies from these five countries differ. This is interesting in view of the argument that globalisation and internationalisation of capital markets provide a justification for global accounting harmonisation. In order to accomplish the study objectives, the financial statements of 413 large listed companies from France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA for the 1990/91 financial year and 293 large listed companies for 1970/71 financial year were surveyed to ascertain the extent to which there were significant diversities between the accounting measurement and associated disclosure practices of companies from the five countries before (1970/71) and after (1990/91)

The Roles of Dialogue and Negotiation as Strategies for Educational Conflict Resolution in Mission Secondary Schools in Okigwe Education Zone II, Imo State, Nigeria

Conflict is a reality of life and a human predicament, including the school environment. The good news is that conflict can be managed with good outcomes. This study was conducted to test the roles of dialogue and negotiation as strategies for educational conflict resolution in mission secondary schools in Okigwe Education Zone II of Imo State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey was the design. Four research questions were raised congruent with the purpose of the study. Correspondingly, four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A questionnaire titled “Strategies for Educational Conflict Resolution” (SECR) was used as the instrument for data collection. It was made up of 25 items modified in 4-point Likert scale, validated and tested for reliability. The population of the study consisted of twenty-five (25) schools with eight thousand and three hundred students (8,300) and three hundred and ten (310) teachers including principals. From this target population, twelve (12) schools were purposively selected for the study and two hundred and sixty-eight (268) students and teachers (including principals) were also purposively selected as sample size. Data collected were analyzed using mean scores while z-test statistics was employed in testing the hypotheses. The study found out that, there is no significant difference between the mean ratings of the responses of students and staff regarding conflicts in schools and the roles of dialogue and negotiations as strategies to combat them. Based on the findings it was recommended among others that schools should adopt policies that ensure the success of educational objectives in schools and at the same time strengthen conflict awareness and competence in its management. Keywords: Conflict, school, strategies, resolution DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-26-11 Publication date:September 30th 201

The Literary History of the Igbo Novel

This book looks at the trends in the development of the Igbo novel from its antecedents in oral performance, through the emergence of the first published novel, Omenuko, in 1933 by Pita Nwana, to the contemporary Igbo novel. Defining "Igbo literature" as literature in Igbo language, and "Igbo novel" as a novel written in Igbo language, the author argues that oral and written literature in African indigenous languages hold an important foundational position in the history of African literature. Focusing on the contributions of Igbo writers to the development of African literature in African languages, the book examines the evolution, themes, and distinctive features of the Igbo novel, the historical circumstances of the rise of the African novel in the pre-colonial, era and their impact on the contemporary Igbo novel. This book will be of interest to scholars of African literature, literary history, and Igbo studies

Measuring the Degree of International Harmony in Selected Accounting Measurement Practices

The I-index developed by Van der Tas and chi square tests suggested by Tay and Parker are used to quantify and assess the degree of harmony in selected accounting measurement practices of large companies from France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US. The results indicate significant differences in accounting for inventory, fixed assets, and investments among the countries. The 3 sub-topics that exhibited a high degree of harmony were the treatment of gains or losses on the disposal of fixed assets, short-term investments and long-term investments, a reflection of the preference of regulators and companies in the different countries for taking disposal gains and losses to income as they occur. Depreciation and inventory costing methods had the lowest I-index scores respectively, suggesting that the level of international harmony in these 2 basic accounting measurement practices is fairly low. It was found that the disclosure of information on accounting policies, even on fundamental accounting measurement methods such as inventory costing methods, tends to be quite low

Bayesian Logistic Regression Model on Risk Factors of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

This research evaluates the risk of diabetes among 581 men and women with factors such as age, ethnicity, gender, physical activity, hypertension, body mass index, family history of diabetes, and waist circumference by applying the logistic regression model to estimate the coefficients of these variables. Significant variables determined by the logistic regression model were then estimated using the Bayesian logistic regression (BLR) model. A flat non-informative prior, together with a non- informative non- flat prior distribution were used. These results were compared with those from the frequentist logistic regression (FLR) based on the significant factors. It was shown that the Bayesian logistic model with the non-informative flat prior distribution and frequentist logistic regression model yielded similar results, while the non-informative  non-flat model showed a different result compared to the (FLR) model. Hence, non-informative but not perfectly flat prior yielded better model than the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) and Bayesian with the flat prior. Keywords: Bayesian approach,  Binary  logistic regression,  Parameter estimate,  Prior,  MCMC.

EFFECT OF BLENDED E-LEARNING ON PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS: A CASE FOR SUSTAINABLE TEACHER EDUCATION

The study investigated the impact of blended e-learning on pre-service teachers’ achievement in Mathematics. The sample consists of 280 level I pre-service teachers in school of sciences of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education Owerri. The quasi-experimental research design adopting the pre-test, post-test non-equivalent type was used in carrying out the study. A researcher made objective test questions titled “Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT)” was used for data collection. It had reliability coefficient of 0.83 determined using Kuder-Richardson (KR20) formula. The control group was taught mathematics using the traditional method while the experimental group was taught using blended e-learning method (traditional and e-learning). The data generated were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed that blended e-learning is an effective method of teaching mathematics among pre-service teachers. Based on the result it was recommended that blended e-learning method should be applied in teaching Mathematics education of pre-service teachers.   Article visualizations