Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science

Aims: Despite notable success in reducing gender disparity in some sectors, the problem still persists in many higher learning institutions in Tanzania. Using fifteen years data of staff employment from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), this study assessed gender disparity in employment and career advancement among academic staff.

Study Design: The study adopted the descriptive research design by describing the current situation using SUA as a case study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Sokoine University of Agriculture between March and May 2017 using data of academic staff.

Methodology: The Publish or Perish software was used to retrieve data on scholarly publications of individual academic staff between 1985 to 2017 for cohorts employed between 1985 and 2011. Descriptive analysis was employed to establish gender disparity in staffing and publication productivity.

Results: The findings show female academic staff increased from 5.3% to 20.78% only between the academic year 2000/2001 to 2015/2016. Likewise, gender gaps are observed across all academic ranks since the majority of staff are at the lower academic ranks where women were less in each aspect. Age-wise, the university is composed of aging senior academic staff where among 33.22% of all professors almost 15% (13.5% M & 1.1%F) were above 60 years old. On scientific publications, findings reveal female staff to be below the cohort/ group average for almost all years against their counterparts.

Conclusion: There is a clear disparity between male and female staff based on age, academic qualifications, ranks and publication productivity that implies the existence of some obstacles.

Aims: The study was designed to determine the effect of collaborative instructional strategy in improving students’ interest and achievement in Biology.

Study Design: The study was adopted quasi-experimental research design and was conducted in Obollo-Afor education zone.

Place and Duration: The study was conducted in Obollo-Afor education zone of Enugu state and spanned 7 months, between October 2018 to May 2019.

Methodology: Population of the study comprised of 1,691 SSI Biology students, from where a sample of 200 students from six (6) intact classes was sampled using multi-stage sampling procedure, to take part in the study. Biology achievement test and Biology interest inventory were instruments used to collect data for the study. Data were analysed using mean, standard deviation and ANCOVA.

Results: Findings revealed that students taught Biology using collaborative instructional strategy had better achievement and interest ratings, than those taught with the conventional method, female Biology students have slightly better interest and achievement that male Biology students when taught with collaborative instructional strategy and the interaction effect of gender and instructional method on achievement is significant. 

Conclusion: The study concludes that considering the ability of the collaborative instructional strategy to improve interest and achievement in Biology, it should be adopted as a method of teaching the subject in Nigerian secondary schools. 

Aims: Identify leadership competencies and skills needed by entry-level registered dietitians. An overarching goal was to provide curriculum developers in healthcare professions directions about leadership competencies required for entry into the professional workforce.

Study Design:  Modified Delphi Study.

Methodology: We invited 105 participants to populate two expert panel groups (1) practitioners serving in professional leadership positions as presidents for state affiliate associations of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (N=52) and (2) educators of dietetic professionals holding position of director of a Coordinated Dietetic programs (N=53). Perspectives about leadership competencies and skills from registered dietitians were examined through a three round Delphi study analyzing views of two expert panel groups: practitioners and educators.

Results: Initially, panelists identified leadership priorities for dietetics educational programs. In subsequent rounds, panelists rated importance of leadership priority statements. Through qualitative analysis, responses between panel groups were compared. Additionally, chi-square analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between ratings of each panel. Practitioners and educators rated 32 out of 202 leadership statements differently (p<0.5), indicating some contrasting leadership perspectives based on professional role.

Discussion: Findings from qualitative analysis suggest different leadership perspectives may exist between educators and practitioners. Educators are urged to consider differences in leadership perspectives when preparing students for leadership positions.

Unemployment has been an issue yet unresolved in the minds of every citizen. However, the hope is that the Nigerian government should resolve it, but this plight still looms and stirs on the face of all. This however is the plight in sight and therefore this study investigated employers’ identification of skills needed by technical and vocational education (TVE) graduates for industrial work effectiveness. The study determined (a) Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills needed by TVE graduates as identified by employers with 0-10 years of work experience, (b) Problem-Solving skills needed by TVE graduates as identified by employers with 0-10 years of work experience, (c) Technical Skills needed by TVE graduates as identified by employers with 0-10 years of work experience. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey design, with a population of 260 managers. Data collected were analyzed using arithmetic mean and standard deviation for research questions and z-test to test the hypothesis. The study revealed that, problem solving skills, technical skills and information and communication technology (ICT) skills are highly needed by TVE graduates for improved industrial work effectiveness. Findings of the study revealed that in terms of information and communication technology skills and problem solving skills, there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of employers. The study also revealed that employers of 0-10years of operation differed significantly in their mean ratings on technical skills needed by TVE graduates for industrial work effectiveness. Based on the findings, the researchers recommends that every effort should be made to ensure that machinery to enhance the acquisition of employability skills by TVE scholars be put in place during their days in school. There should be re-training scheme arranged by Nigerian government for TVE graduates after school.

The study assessed the content validation of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) questions in Basic Science set by Adamawa State Educational Resource Centre (ERC), Yola, Nigeria. This was to determine the representativeness of the topics and their levels of the cognitive domain in the Junior Secondary School Basic Science curriculum in the Basic Education Certificate Examination in Basic Science question papers from 2013 to 2017. Document analysis research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all past Basic Education Certificate Examination questions in Basic Science. The research instrument used for the data collection was a designed checklist along table of specification. A pilot study was conducted and a reliability index of 0.86 was obtained using Cronbach alpha analysis. Three research questions were raised with two hypotheses tested at 0. 05 level of significance.  The result of the findingp=0.000 revealed that there is no significant difference between the topics in the Basic Science curriculum and those examined in the Basic Education Certificate Examination questions in Basic Science. Again, the result 0.675 showed that there is significant difference between the weights assigned to the various levels of cognitive domain in the Basic Science curriculum and those weights assigned to them in Basic Education Certificate Examination Basic Science question papers. Based on the findings, it was recommended that re-training, workshops, conferences and seminars should be organized for Basic Science teachers and external examiners regularly to update their knowledge on test construction.

Background: Mentoring is key to a successful career in medicine. Mentoring is the goal of developing nurturing relationships between elder adult who is dependable and someone who is younger needs consistent support or an intervention. Mentoring has shown to be essential for the acquisition of clinical and research skills, as well as career development. A good mentor maintains sight of the overall goal of the relationship and hold the focus for mentees personnel and professional growth overtime.

Objectives: The objectives of study were to explore how faculties of medical and dental programme understand their role as mentors and to identify the perceptions of faculties regarding mentoring medical and dental students.

Methodology: Cross sectional study was conducted at Melaka Manipal Medical College and lecturers from medical and dental faculties were participated in the study. The data were analysed by using SPSS.

Results: There were total 48 faculties (38 medical and 10 dental faculties) participated in this study. Majority (39.58%) of faculties defined mentor as counsellor, (22.91%) career guide, (16.6%) role model while (8.3%) defined as research guide. Regarding perception of faculties on the mentorship program, (81.2%) of faculties perceived that mentors have positive influence on choosing future specialties options of the mentees, (75%) of the faculties were willing to discuss with the mentees regarding personal, financial issues as well as academic performance individually, (77%) perceived that time constraint is the barrier for successful programme and (62.5%) of faculties perceived that there should have a formal training prior to appointment as mentor.

Conclusion: It was concluded that the roles, tasks and communication of mentor and mentees should be standardized. Mentors should have a formal training prior to appoint as mentor.

Classroom discipline is one of the most thought-provoking issues in modern education.Studies has it that students’ classroom misconduct interferes with teaching and learning and is believed to be a precursor to later school dropout and similar negative social outcomes. This study aimed at investigating the knowledge of pre-service teachers of Colleges of Education in Ghana on the concept of behaviour modification techniques in the classroom. A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to obtain a sample size of three hundred and sixty participants for the study. Data was collected using behaviour modification questionnaire developed by the researchers and analysed using SPSS data analysis software. The results show that most of the participants have insufficient knowledge on behaviour modification techniques for classroom management even though they exhibited strong knowledge on few of the items. At 5% level of significance, there was virtually no significant difference found to exist in pre-service teachers’ knowledge of behaviour modification practices in terms of gender difference. Furthermore, the study revealed that programme of study never had a significant effect on the pre-service teachers’ knowledge on classroom behaviour modification techniques. It is recommended that training programmes of teacher education should be reviewed to strengthen the knowledge of pre-service teachers on classroom behaviour modification techniques.