The Use of True-Random, Quasi-Random, and Nonrandom Sampling Techniques in in Educational Studies

The most commonly used sampling techniques in research are probability and nonprobability methods. While probability sampling is based on the principle of random selection of participants in a particular study, non-random selection is the basis of probability sampling. The random and non-random classifications appear to have some potential flaws and are insufficient to represent all sampling procedures involving human participants. Similarly, most authors believe that they use random sampling techniques, although in reality, they do not use true random sampling. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to highlight that sampling techniques can be characterized as true-random, quasi-random, or nonrandom, rather than merely random and nonrandom. Attempts have been made to show how inadequate random and non-random sampling methods are, the characteristics of true-random, quasi-random, and nonrandom sampling procedures, and when each sampling procedure is appropriate. Since each unit of the population is randomly selected and the chance of selecting the unit is equal, a real random sample is used to estimate the characteristics of the population directly from the sample. With quasi-random sampling, it is not possible to directly estimate population characteristics, but only indirectly. However, population characteristics cannot be directly or indirectly estimated by using non-random sampling techniques. Keywords: True-random; quasi-random; non-random; sampling techniques DOI: 10.7176/CEIS/14-1-03 Publication date: January 31st 202

The Applications of APA styles in African Academic publications: An Evidence from Bahir Dar Journal of Education

Having skimmed through recently published articles of Bahir Journal of Education (BJE), I inadvertently engrossed with a few imperfections that are incompatible with a currently in use publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) style. Notwithstanding strong efforts have been made to produce high-quality articles in terms of contents, methodological approaches and scientific credibility, the oversights of very technical details of specific APA style and formatting have been found. From professional points of views, these oversights might certainly affect the quality of the journal. The main objective of this paper is to uncover the frequent errors that overlooked within the articles since 2014, and thereby to conquer the errors using sixth edition publication manual of the APA and up-to-date manuscripts that are available at the http://apastyle.apa.org/. I presented a series of errors observed in seven randomly selected articles regarding the titles, abstracts, citations, methods, statistical presentations and lists of reference entries to take viable measures that tackle the errors virtually. Finally, based on the observed mismatches, I forwarded implications for the quick use of publication manual of APA that could support the authors, the reviewers and the examiners of the journal articles. Keywords: BJE; APA styles; publication manual; oversights; frequent errors DOI: 10.7176/IKM/9-2-0

The Prevalence of Academic Dishonesty and Perceptions of Students towards its Practical Habits: Implication for Quality of Education

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