American Journal of Educational Research

Present study was conducted to analyze the differences in the intrinsic motivation of the high and low academic achievers. Sample (n = 600) of the study was comprised of high academic achievers (n= 300; male=150, female= 150) and low academic achievers (n= 300; male= 150, female= 150). Age range of the participants was 17-19 years. Sample of the high and low academic achievers was collected through purposive sampling technique from different male and female colleges of Hyderabad city of Pakistan. Intrinsic Motivation Inventory was used for data collection. t-tests were computed to measure the differences in the intrinsic motivation of the high and low academic achievers and gender differences in the motivation of high and low achievers. Findings revealed significant differences in the intrinsic motivation of the high and low academic achievers and more tension in the low academic achievers. High achiever females found more competent, consider studies more useful and take some more pressure of completing academic tasks than the male high achievers.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1281-1283. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-20
Pub. Date: November 11, 2015

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Scan Paths Reduction in Eye Tracking Techniques

by José David Patón Romero, Ana Isabel Molina Díaz, Manuel Ortega Cantero and Miguel Ángel Redondo Duque

Original Research

Nowadays, the eye tracking is gaining interest as an evaluation technique in a variety of areas and disciplines. Its use allows the study and analysis of the way in which a person visually explores a particular scene, interface or image. The use of this technique in the educational field has increasingly gained place and impact, highlighting its use in the evaluation of multimedia materials. It is interesting to know where and how the students focus their attention when studying the educational materials displayed on a screen. In particular, it is interesting to know the order of visual exploration that the student follows. In this way, for example, we can know, given a content consisting of text and images, whether the explanatory text is helpful or if the image on its own is enough. One of the representations obtained by applying eye tracking sessions is the scan path, which shows the order of points of attention (points of fixation) and the user fixation time on the scene. The main problem is the huge number of points on which a user fixes their attention while visually scanning the contents displayed, so these representations are complex and the analysis task is arduous. Thus, the objective sought is to reduce these scan paths and represent those data that can be more relevant to the researcher, such as transitions between the different areas of interest, or the scanning order of them. In this way, we can achieve a higher level of abstraction and a great deal of information easier to analyze for obtaining conclusions.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1276-1280. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-19
Pub. Date: November 09, 2015

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Professional Socialization in Teaching - Training Colleges in the Arab Education System in Israel

by Jamal Abu-Hussain

Original Research

This pioneering study constitutes initial research on the topic of professional socialization in the teacher education process in teacher training colleges within the Arab education system in Israel. In recent years, criticism related to education has focused, among other things, on the process of teachers’ education and training. This process, it seems, neither realizes its objectives nor meets the needs and expectations of 21st-century education systems. The State of Israel has adopted a policy of conservation and control. Accordingly, the Arab education system and teacher training institutions are used as a tool to promote conservation and control, rather than as a lever for social, economic and political change. Whether we perceive Education as a conservative force or a way to create social change. Either way, the teacher training process plays a crucial role in initiating necessary changes, particularly because teaching in the Arab education system is still based on three principles: learning means listening; to teach is to speak; knowledge is an object. The variables derived from the theoretical and research literature about teachers’ professional socialization are: professional commitment, value orientation, and professional attitudes. According to the recently studies the general hypothesis is, changes should occur among these variables as a result of the professional socialization process. The current study is cross-sectional in nature. The research population included 153 subjects: 35 teachers and 118 teacher trainees in different stages of their training. The data were collected by use of questionnaires, and processed through SPSS. Statistically, the results show that no changes in variables occurred as a result of the training process and some of the variables were even decreased. As a result of this study, several questions surfaced for review and research. Dealing with these questions is expected to promote the professional socialization process within the context of teacher training colleges, in general, and teacher training colleges in the Arab education system, in particular. In addition, the study findings will contribute to a better understanding of teachers’ professionalization process and teacher training in general.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1269-1275. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-18
Pub. Date: November 09, 2015

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Effects of Corporal Punishment on Girl’s Enrolment and Retention in the Techiman Municipality

by Asonaba Kofi Addison

Original Research

School corporal punishment is administered within schools, when pupils’/students are punished by teachers or school administrators for going against rules and regulations. The goal of punishment in the schools is to decrease the behaviour that it follows. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of corporal punishment on girls’ enrolment and retention in schools in the Techiman Municipality using six selected schools in the municipality which is located in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. Descriptive survey research design which falls under quantitative research design was used with a sample size of 120 junior high school pupils selected from six (6) public schools. Questionnaire was the main instrument used in this study. The findings revealed that corporal punishment had both positive and negative effects on students. The findings also indicated that physical punishment made some students stop school, therefore, it was inferred that corporal punishment affect girls’ enrolment and retention in schools. It is thus recommended that the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Techiman Municipality organises or conduct awareness workshops and seminars about the effects of corporal punishment on learners for both students and teachers.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1255-1268. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-17
Pub. Date: November 08, 2015

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Checklist for Competence-Oriented Textbooks in Science

by Bölsterli Bardy Katrin

Original Research

Textbooks are crucial tools for implementing new curricula. Consequently, not only teachers’ performance but also good textbooks have to meet certain standards to improve the quality of competence-oriented tuition. However, there are no empirical studies investigating how competence-oriented textbooks may be conceptualized or assessed. This is a major problem as many countries already implemented competence-oriented tuition or plan to do so soon. To reduce this research gap, this study investigates the following research question: Which standards should science textbooks meet in order to support competence-oriented teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools? A mixed-methods design was chosen to answer this question. First, a qualitative survey was used to formulate preliminary standards for competence-oriented textbooks. The participants of this inquiry were experienced teachers, textbook authors, publishers, science educationalists or educational scientists from three German speaking countries. These preliminary standards were validated and served to generate items for the quantitative questionnaire. In this survey, the preliminary standards were weighted according to their importance. In total, 178 primary school teachers (grades 4 to 6), 171 secondary school teachers (grades 7 to 9), and 44 science educationalists from the German speaking part of Switzerland took part. If the relevance of a standard was ambiguous, the standard was also rated qualitatively. These empirically weighted standards were used together with standards individually to be weighted to generate a checklist for Competence-Oriented TEXtbooks (COTEX). In this paper, the English version of the checklist is presented. The checklist is available online under www.schulbuchforschung.ch. COTEX can be used to conceptualize or assess competence-oriented textbooks.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1250-1254. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-16
Pub. Date: November 05, 2015

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Estimation Comparison of Multidimensional Reliability Coefficients Measurement of Senior High School Students’ Affection towards Mathematics

by Wardani Rahayu and Dogol Harjono

Original Research

The purposes of this study were to develop instrument of high school students’ affection towards mathematics. It also compared estimation of multidimensional reliability coefficients of the instrument, i.e. McDonald reliability and Maximum reliability coefficient. The research used multi-stage random sampling technique. Conceptually, construct of the affection instrument consists of 5 dimensions, namely: attitude, interest, self-concept, values, and morals. Inter-rater reliability coefficient which were obtained for the five dimensions move from 0.73 to 0.80 and produce 86 selected items. These results were achieved from the items which have been selected through expert study and panelists’ validation. Empirically, first and second trials (try out) testing which used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with Maximum Likelihood method (ML) recieved loading factor value above 0,3. In the first and second trials, the multidimensional reliability coefficient calculation showed that the value of McDonald and Maximum reliability coefficients were more than 0.9, which means that the level of reliability of the affection instrument towards mathematics of high school students classified in a very high level. Hypothesis testing of McDonald and Maximum reliability coefficient used t-paired test on bootstrapping methods samples. The result is McDonald reliability coefficient is lower than Maximum reliability coefficient.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1244-1249. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-15
Pub. Date: November 05, 2015

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Role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in a Good Examination System

by Sajjad Akbar and Abdul Quddus Qureshi

Original Research

This paper presents the growing role of examinations in improving the quality of education by embracing the integrated automated exam system for providing the robust, transparent, accurate and authenticated outputs. This automated exam system through ICT will bring substantial quality improvement in education. A part from implementing ICT quality, problem in exam has also been discussed. ICT will make exam system more efficient and transparent account. This will produce competent human resources, which will contribute to the development of the country.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1238-1243. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-14
Pub. Date: November 05, 2015

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Determinants of Student Performance in International Trade Course

by Wanasin Sattayanuwat

Original Research

Using the probit model, this paper seeks to identify factors that influence student learning in college international trade course at a Thailand university. The study used 79 students completing questionnaire. Male students outperform their female counterpart. High parental income family has positive effect. Average-GPA students do better in class. The probability of high performance among students who feel comfortable commuting to campus was higher than students who feel uncomfortable. Students who graduated from public-high school did better in class. Surprisingly the probability of high performance was significantly lower for students who feel campus clean. Measure of attitude towards school having a good facility did have a significant impact on the likelihood to do better in class. Students who felt this class was fun and who have good attitude towards instructor were much more likely to do better in class. Personal tutor and perfect attendance has a positive effect.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1233-1237. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-13
Pub. Date: November 04, 2015

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Descriptive Reports of Integration of Mental Health into the Primary Health Care (PHC) System in One of the Areas of Iran

by Mahboubeh Dadfar and Fazel Bahrami

Original Research

Integration of mental health into the Primary Health Care (PHC) system has been carried out many ago years in Iran. There are three services levels in the program including: Health house (The first level), rural health center (The second level), and city health center (The third level). Aim of the study was descriptive reports of the program in one of the regions of Iran. This was a descriptive cross sectional study in one of regions in Iran which has carried out this integration on it. Data gathered by monthly reports from one of regions of Hashtgerd, Savojbalagh, Alborz province, Iran. In Khurvin health house of Hashtgerd, Savojbalagh, Alborz province, Iran, integration of mental health performances into the PHC system including training, case finding, identifying, referral and follow-up of mentally patients were done by behvarzes. Most of patients under coverage this health house, were visited and followed by a general physician (GP) and they were cared by behvarzes. In Shahid Kohsar Golbaz rural health care center in there, which is one of the mental health service providing levels, diagnosis and treatment were done by a GP who was a director of the center. Patients who were visited at this center had been referred by Khurvin health house. Mild mental patients referred directly more than severe mental, epilepsy and mental retardation patients to this rural health care center. Psychiatric emergency cases were under covered by the same GP. Activities in this area were in a framework of a program and were including such activists: Mental health services, mental health training, mental health promotion, and mental health research. Level of case finding was excellent (for epilepsy) and poor (for mental retardation). On the bases of an report from the city health center in Hashtgerd, Savojbalagh, disorders were 1 case for severe mental disorder and mental retardation, 10 cases for mild mental disorder, 1-5 cases for other disorders per 100 under coverage population, and 1-3 cases for epilepsy per 1000 under coverage population. The most and the least common of disorders were mild mental disorder (56.9%) and mental retardation (6.9%). The most important achievement of the project of integration of mental health into the PHC is reduction of load of hospital professional services. This integration is successful in this area and can be continue with some changes and reforms that will be discussed in the paper.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1229-1232. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-12
Pub. Date: November 04, 2015

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Delocalization and Spatialization of the Classroom: Deterritorialization in Education

by Dante Augusto Couto Barone, Milton Antonio Zaro and Cláudio de Musacchio

Original Research

This study aimed to discuss the concepts of the deterritorialization of the teacher and student roles in education. Among the concepts discussed, two are relevant for the considerations: the delocalization and spatialization of the classroom. As the environment for research, teachers and primary school students from public schools in Porto Alegre and surroundings were used. The guiding issue for the research was on how students and teachers were solving the problems caused by social pressures exerted at school for the use of mobile phones, tablets and social networks in the classroom. Initial results indicate significant progress for the introduction of new aspects and characteristics in the TEACHER and STUDENT territories, and one of the conclusions is that both the delocalization and spatialization are concepts that should guide teacher training courses more significantly in order to improve practices and education in the teaching and learning relationship. In conclusion, the educational use of social networking in education, and audio and video media in the production of educational content built by the students themselves, nurture new spatialization and delocalization, providing results and students who are more reflective and protagonists of their cognitive and intellectual growth.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1217-1228. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-11
Pub. Date: November 04, 2015

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Servant Leadership: Empowering Learners through ‘Flipped’ Classrooms

by Suriyakumari Lane

Original Research

The paper explains the concept of servant leadership in relation to teaching and learning. A teacher who is a servant-leader enables each student to be a servant-leader. The teacher empowers students to help each student to grow and have the opportunity of being a leader. To empower learners their lecturers must themselves be empowered, so that they can empower their students. To empower ourselves and our students our learning/teaching strategy should include the establishment of a community of learners. A community of learners is established by the teacher moving from the position of lecturer to a position of a facilitator of collaborative learning, where the students learn from each other, as well as from their teacher, who is a co-participant in the learning process. When teachers give up their powerful position as teacher, students have the opportunity to take responsibility for their learning. An obstacle to empowering learners is the teacher-centred learning methods we adopt. The author argues that ‘flipped’ classrooms are the way forward to empowering learners and enabling them to become critical and independent learners, developing skills such as leadership and communication. ‘Flipped’ classrooms are classes where the lecture content delivery takes place before the ‘lecture’. The students can access the content of the lecture before the lecture. The ‘lecture’ slot will consist of checking understanding of key concepts and principles and a discussion of difficult concepts. The students who have grasped the difficult concepts could explain them to the students who have not done so in a collaborative community of learners. The ‘lecture’ time is used as an interactive team work session where students engage in active learning, applying the knowledge they have gained in their prior reading. The aim is to create a student-centred learning environment giving each student the opportunity of achieving their full potential.The research methodology is to conduct a literature review on servant leadership, empowering learners and ‘flipped’ classrooms to investigate whether the three concepts could be linked in the context of teaching/learning. The methodology is theoretical and exploratory.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1211-1216. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-10
Pub. Date: November 04, 2015

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The S-Lab’s Lab in a Box: A Potential Game Changer for Rural Schools in the Developing World

by Stephen Mecca, Megan Skrypek, Elizabeth Degaray, Brittany Mandeville, Nicole Boyd, Michelle Feely, Jack Ricci, Delina Auciello and Kerry McIntyr

Original Research

The S-Lab’s Lab-in-a-Box features a computer lab hosting a rich set of educational resources (the GSAP Portal) for internet- and electricity deprived- schools. The first version of the portal prototyped in Ghana includes the Rachel initiative on a 32 GB file set. The portal has been expanded to a 64 GB drive hosted on a Raspberry Pi server, on a local dedicated file server or directly on a PC or Laptop and its elements have been mapped to the Ghana school curriculum. The original powering option which consisted of solar collector and lead-acid battery was re-designed to eliminate the 12v-to-5v conversion making use of LiPo battery packs with significant improvements in energy, costs, weight and size. The system was also extended to bring science activities to the schools using available (Android) tablet sensors and instrument- analysis- reference- simulation- APPs plus a few inexpensive instruments and components. Eighty-two schools, the most recent of the 158 recipient schools, were reviewed; seventy-two of these had connection to the grid and 4 of the remaining 10 were provided with the solar powered Lab-in-a-Box . Several challenges were encountered ranging from equipment theft (1 school) and interveners replacing the computer OS resulting in erasure of the drive (several schools) to staff turnover. The latter is the biggest challenge as staff trained on the systems are replaced every two years at most schools; several schools failed to train replacements. Dramatic results were realized in one district, Birim North, which moved from the lowest performing school in the region and 117th in the country prior to the intervention to 1st in the region and 17th in the country over two years following the intervention. The results demonstrate the need for commitments of the district as well as the individual schools.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1202-1210. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-9
Pub. Date: November 02, 2015

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Adjustment of Undergraduate Students in Relation to Their Social Intelligence

by Moumita Kundu, Birbal Saha and Bhim Chandra Mondal

Original Research

The present study was focus on adjustment ability among undergraduate students in relation to gender, stream of the study and social intelligence. The sample consists of 300 undergraduate students with 150 boys and 150 girls, which were selected randomly from different colleges under the Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, W.B. Adjustment Inventory and Social Intelligence Inventory are used to collect the data from the students. The study revealed that male and female as well as science and humanities students of under graduate students did not differ significantly with regards to their adjustment ability, however, differ significantly with differently social intelligent persons.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1198-1201. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-8
Pub. Date: October 31, 2015

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Drawings and Tables as Cognitive Tools for Solving Non-Routine Word Problems in Primary School

by Timo Reuter, Wolfgang Schnotz and Renate Rasch

Original Research

External representations play a central role in the process of word problem solving. This study aimed to shed light on teacher-provided representations as cognitive tools for primary students when working on non-routine word problems. Non-routine word problems are characterized by the fact that they cannot be solved by simply applying familiar routine calculations due to their demanding mathematical structure or complex situations described in the problem text. Since primary students often do not generate external representations, the present study examined the questions if providing students with a representation facilitates problem solving in general, and, more in detail, what type of representation (table or drawing) and what level of pre-structuring provided in the representation is most helpful. In an experimental design we studied a sample of 199 4th-graders who worked on non-routine word problems. The experimental design consisted of three tests: A pre-, a treatment-, and a transfer-test. In the pre-test, we measured participant’s prior performance with non-routine word problems. In the treatment-test, an experimental group received problems accompanied by tables and drawings with different levels of pre-structuring to measure student’s performance when external representations were provided for the problem solving process. A control group received no representations. In the transfer-test, participants worked on problems without provided representations to measure participant’s performance after they were exposed to external tools in the treatment-test. Results indicate that providing drawings or tables did not facilitate problem solving in general, which was against our hypothesis. If a representation was provided, a drawing was more helpful than a table, which was in line with our assumptions. However, the drawing effect was depending on the problem type and the level of pre-structuring. Obviously, simply providing external representations was not sufficient to facilitate problem solving. This speaks of the necessity of an early training in diagram literacy.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1187-1197. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-7
Pub. Date: October 31, 2015

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The Impact of Andragogy on Learning Satisfaction of Graduate Students

by Christian Eugene Ekoto and Prema Gaikwad

Original Research

The study of adult learning—andragogy—has emerged as a learning framework due to its increasing popularity in the past four decades. Research on andragogy has been mostly exploratory till recently, when Lynda Swanson Wilson designed and tested the Adult Learning Principles Design Elements Questionnaire (ALPDEQ) to measure six andragogy principles and eight andragogy processes (a 77-item instrument). The present study attempts to find the applicability of andragogy by testing its principles using the self-developed Perception, Experiences, and Learning Satisfaction of Knowles’ Andragogical Theory Questionnaire (PELSKATQ) on 91 graduate students from multiple disciplines (Business, Education, Public Health, and Religion) and two programs (Masters and PhD). The findings of this study showed that gender, marital status, program of study, age, field of study, work experience, coursework completion do not influence learning satisfaction of adult learners. We recommend further studies integrating other factors related to adult learning such as teaching and learning strategies, types of classroom interactions, and types of course assignments.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1178-1186. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-6
Pub. Date: October 29, 2015

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Teaching Effectiveness of Teacher Educators in Different Types of B.Ed Colleges in West Bengal, India

by Pranab Barman, Dr. Dibyendu Bhattacharyya and Pranab Barman

Original Research

Generally Teaching is delivered by a teacher to enhance the amount of learning of a learner. To make learning more meaningful, understandable and fruitful to a learner, effectiveness of teaching delivered by a teacher is very essential condition. This concept of teaching-learning process is not exceptional one in case of teacher training institutions. Through the present study an attempt has been made by the investigators to study the level of Teaching Effectiveness of Teacher Educators who are working in different Govt.-aided and Private-unaided/Self-Financed B.Ed Colleges in West Bengal. The investigators have used Descriptive Survey method for the present study. In this study, Teaching Effectiveness of Teacher Educators has been evaluated by their concerned students. The sample consists of 151 B.Ed College Student-Teachers out of which 57 Student-Teachers taken from three Govt.-aided B.Ed colleges and 94 Student-Teachers taken from four Private-unaided/Self-Financed B.Ed Colleges. The random sampling technique has been used for the selection of sample. The investigators have developed a Scale by themselves to measure the level of Teaching Effectiveness of Teacher Educators on the basis of Likert’s five point scale i. e. Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. For the analysis of data Mean, S.D., t-Test and Graph have been used by the investigators in the present study. The overall results of the study explore that the level of Teaching delivered by the B.Ed College Teacher Educators is Moderately Effective. It is also revealed that Teaching Effectiveness of Govt.-aided B.Ed College Teacher Educators is comparatively better than that of the Teacher Educators who are working in different Private-unaided/Self Financed B.Ed Colleges in West Bengal. It is also explored that Govt.-aided and Self-Financed B.Ed College Teacher Educators differ significantly with respect to their Teaching Effectiveness and on most of the dimensions of Teaching Effectiveness, namely Subject Mastery, Presentation Style, Motivational Strategy, Effective Communication, Student-Teacher Interaction, Informal Academic Support and Personal Attribute.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1164-1177. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-5
Pub. Date: October 29, 2015

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Influence of Parents Economic Status on Girls’ Academic Performance in Mixed Day Secondary Schools

by Josephine Nthenya Muandu, Damaris Parsitau and Patriciah W. Wambugu

Original Research

The study sought to investigate the influence of parents’ economic status on academic performance of girls in mixed day secondary schools in Njoro Sub-County Nakuru County, Kenya. Survey research design was used. Data was collected from 176 form four girls who were randomly selected from 10 mixed day secondary schools in Njoro Sub-County. In addition, 18 form four parents and 10 form four class teachers were purposively selected and involved in the study. Parents’ questionnaire (PQ), form four girls questionnaire (GQ) and class teachers’ questionnaire (TQ) were used to collect data. Data was analyzed using percentages, frequencies, means, standard deviation and inferential statistics namely, Pearson product moment correlation. The findings of the study showed that parents’ economic status influenced girls’ academic performance in mixed day secondary schools. The findings of the study are significant to stakeholders in education on issues of economic status that influence academic performance of girls in mixed day secondary schools. It is hoped that this study will equip the education stakeholders with information on how to enhance the academic performance of girls not only in mixed day secondary schools but throughout the education system.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1159-1163. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-4
Pub. Date: October 28, 2015

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An Overview of the Occupational Safety and Health Systems of Nigeria, UK, USA, Australia and China: Nigeria Being the Reference Case Study

by Usman Abubakar

Review Article

This paper reviews the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) frameworks of Nigeria, UK, USA, Australia and China considering Nigeria as a representative developing country. The study looks at each of the five OSH regulatory and enforcement models against a range of performance themes with a view to uncovering strategic lessons for Nigeria and other developing nations. The study identifies some of the potential drivers behind the developments of the different OSH management frameworks. These drivers include robustness of the OSH laws, efficiency of the judicial system, degree of independence of the OSH enforcement agency, adequacy of financial budgets, good workforce-inspector ratio, accident history and activities of the civil/human right groups. Even though Nigeria is used as a reference case study, the observations and conclusions drawn are generic and applicable to typical developing countries. The paper may also be found beneficial by researchers looking to have a high level view of the OSH management frameworks of Nigeria, UK, USA, Australia and China. Although Nigeria is working to implement a new and more comprehensive OSH law, i.e. the Labour, Safety, Health and Welfare (LSHW) Bill (2012), this paper does not assess Nigeria’s current OSH standing against the provisions of LSHW Bill which is yet to be rolled out. (The second part of this bipartite series will address some of the key structural and potential implementation issues surrounding LSHW Bill).

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1350-1358. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-3
Pub. Date: October 28, 2015

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Perceived Influence of Information Sources Availability and Use on the Academic Performance of Secondary School Students in a Nigerian Metropolitan City

by Aderanti Ruth A. and Amuda Adedotun

Original Research

This study investigated the influence of information sources availability and use on academic performance of secondary school students using a descriptive survey design. Two hundred and eight senior secondary school students were randomly selected from six secondary schools in Ibadan. Data was collected using a self-structured questionnaire that covers all the variables under study. Percentage was used to answer the research questions while Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to test the hypotheses postulated. The findings indicated that information sources that are mostly available in secondary schools are the teachers and lesson notes while library and internet facilities are the least available. The result of the hypotheses showed significant relationship between the independent variables (information sources availability and use) and dependent variable (academic performance). r (206) = .21, p < .01. And r (206) = .42, p < .01 respectively. Implication for counselling and recommendations were made based of the results of the findings.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1346-1349. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-2
Pub. Date: October 28, 2015

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Using DAST-C and Phenomenography as a Tool for Evaluating Children’s Experience

by Nasser Kolaini Mamaghani, Sara Mostowfi and Mehdi khorram

Original Research

Theoretical framework, in educational research, guides the qualitative research process which is selected based on the researchers’ goals, purpose, or focus of investigation (Ornek, 2008). In the process of teaching, two important questions arise. The first is how much fact and information students should learn. The second is in what way and in what textual form they should be presented. Phenomenography is the empirical study of the qualitatively different ways in which aspects of the world are experienced. That is, it involves mapping phenomena, or the relations between persons and aspects of their world, in this paper first we use phenomenography for understanding children’s experience about environmental protection then we design a game board based on our findings and evaluate children’s understanding. We use different number of preschool and primary school children (30-50) in each part of study, finally findings were analyzing, which show that game board in terms of educational tool can be used in educational process. Because of children involvement and collaboration and its effect on children.

American Journal of Educational Research. 2015, 3(11), 1337-1345. DOI: 10.12691/education-3-11-1
Pub. Date: October 27, 2015

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