American Journal of Educational Research

Involvement of software in teaching is provide a batter support, more clear and visual operation of complex circuits and waveforms to the faculty of power electronics in classroom teaching. The software packages available for simulation of power electronic circuits are MATLAB, PSPICE and PSIM and many more. Use of the software in classroom teaching is provide an additional support to the faculty and its better then the time consuming black board practice. This paper provides a case study of power electronics circuits in PSIM software. Different power electronics converters model are prepared on PSIM software and generate simulation waveforms. This paper is helpful for the faculty of electrical engineering to find the applications of PSIM in teaching.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2013, 1(4), 137-142. DOI: 10.12691/education-1-4-4
Pub. Date: May 27, 2013

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Novice Teachers’ Challenges and Survival: Where do Malaysian ESL Teachers Stand?

by Fatiha Senom, Abd Razak Zakaria and Shanina Sharatol Ahmad Shah

Original Research

The transition from the teacher education institution to life in a real classroom has been characterized as a type of reality shock in which beginning teachers realize that the ideals they formed while training may not be appropriate for the realism they are faced with during their first year of teaching [1]. Unfortunately, this concern is not fully addressed in schools in Malaysia as beginning teachers have the same responsibility as a teacher with many years of service. It is suggested that it is not until they have survived the initial shock of the first year that novices are able to begin to concentrate on the important areas of long-term planning, overall student goals, and individual students’ needs [2]. This article examines challenges that novice teachers in Malaysia face in their early experience of teaching through a review of significant literature. Based on recent studies from the literature, these challenges are discussed and future direction for research in this field is suggested.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2013, 1(4), 119-125. DOI: 10.12691/education-1-4-2
Pub. Date: May 18, 2013

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The Obstacles of Teaching Evidence Based Medicine in Iran, from the View Point of Clinical Academics and Medical Students; a Qualitative Study

by Narges Khanjani, Reza Tabrizi and Ahmad Maghsoudi

Original Research

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) is being taught in many medical universities around the world, however many studies have reported obstacles for effective EBM teaching. In this study we aim to evaluate the obstacles of teaching EBM in Iranian Medical Universities which have made slow progress in EBM. A qualitative descriptive study with content analysis was designed to thoroughly and deeply discuss the obstacles of teaching EBM. Interested academics and students from Kerman Medical University participated in focus groups. Data collection was continued until data saturation was achieved. Then was coded and categorized into main themes. Our results showed 6 main obstacles, which were time constraints and the heavy work load, poor infrastructure, EBM not practiced in general, clinical academics not acquainted with EBM, false believes about EBM and assessment based on memorizing the textbook or class notes. To overcome these barriers, our participants suggested compulsory courses or workshops, proper timing, teaching EBM to clinical academics, strengthening the infrastructure and supervision of a credible body over EBM teaching. Although EBM is taught limitedly in some Iranian Universities, due to several obstacles the progress has been slow and unsatisfactory. Some of these obstacles can be locally alleviated by the universities, but others need the cooperation of higher organizations such as the Medical Council or the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2013, 1(4), 143-148. DOI: 10.12691/education-1-4-5
Pub. Date: May 28, 2013

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Citation Practices in Selected Science and Humanities Dissertations: Implications for Teaching

by Geoffrey Mokua Maroko

Original Research

The citation feature provides justification for arguments and demonstrates the novelty of one’s position in research writing. It shows how a piece of research arises out of, and is grounded in the current state of disciplinary knowledge. As such, research supervisors encourage the candidates under their guidance to make citations especially when writing literature reviews and discussion sections of their dissertations. This requirement plunges many a student in confusion on how to go about this integral undertaking without written citation norms in their disciplines. The question that emerges is: On which benchmarks should dissertation writers base their citations when writing dissertations in their disciplines? Put in other words, on which benchmarks should research supervisors base their judgement on the quality of citations in their students’ dissertations? The aim of this paper therefore is to uncover citation practices in selected Humanities and Science dissertations from Kenyan public universities. The paper analyses the citation types and reporting verbs of choice employed in Humanities dissertations and compares them with those in the Science dissertations. Consequently, the paper proposes a set of citation norms that can inform the writing of the Humanities and Sciences dissertation and suggests a genre-based approach for raising students’ consciousness to the citation norms during the drafting stage of their dissertations.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2013, 1(4), 126-136. DOI: 10.12691/education-1-4-3
Pub. Date: May 25, 2013

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A Review of Men’s Health Curricula in Medical Schools

by Andries J Muller, Vivian R Ramsden and Gill White

Review Article

The goal of this review was to search for information about postgraduate education in medical schools and family medicine residency training programs on the topic of men’s health. The databases Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed were searched using MeSH terms such as “male”, “health education”, “curriculum” and “family physician” and “general practitioner”. Other types of literature and ephemera were also reviewed using the same search terms. With the help of a health librarian at the University of Saskatchewan, three articles were identified initially. By exploring the references of these articles as well as with documents found on various websites, a total of 108 articles and nine textbooks were in the end reviewed. The literature that were found, were divided and analyzed in three distinct categories: curriculum in general, Family Medicine curriculum in Canada and the current status of men’s health training in the world. There is a paucity of literature on the topic of men’s health education in Canada. Other countries such as Australia have done some work in this field but the details of the specific curriculums are lacking.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2013, 1(4), 115-118. DOI: 10.12691/education-1-4-1
Pub. Date: May 10, 2013

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