Educational Resource Needs and Access to Tertiary Education among People with Disability in Bayelsa State (Published)
The paper investigated educational resource needs and access to tertiary education among people with disability in Bayelsa State. Three research questions were raised and three hypotheses tested in the study. Mixed method approach was adopted in the study while 165 respondents consisting 160 persons with disability, four Deans of Student Affairs and an executive of Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) in Bayelsa State were sampled for the study using multistage sampling technique. Respondents were selected from within and outside four randomly selected tertiary institutions namely; Bayelsa Medical University (Yenagoa LGA), Federal University Otuoke (Ogbia LGA), Niger Delta University (Southern Ijaw LGA) and Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education (Sagbama LGA). Instruments used for data collection were questionnaire for the persons with disability as well as Focus Group Discussion while five Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)was conducted with the other respondents. Data collected quantitatively were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and t-test while the qualitative data was analyzed using content and thematic analysis. The finding of the study indicated that financial resource, policy intervention and assistive technology were the priority educational resource need of the respondents. Inaccessibility to tertiary education has implication on the employment prospects and human rights of the respondents and this can only be corrected through appropriate policies, better infrastructure among other strategies. There were differences between the opinion of students and non-students on the issues interrogated. It was recommended that the government should collaborate with school administrators to create a fund for persons with disability who wish to acquire tertiary education across all spheres.
Keywords: Access, Bayelsa State, disability, educational resource, tertiary education
Transition from Conventional Assessment to Authentic Assessment Methods in Tertiary Education 21st Century Classroom in South-East Geo-Political Zone (Published)
This paper investigates the shift from conventional assessment methods to authentic assessment methods in tertiary institutions particularly, in the 21st century classrooms. The paper will focus on exploring students’ preference for conventional and authentic assessment methods, the benefits and challenges of transitioning to authentic assessment methods which emphasizes real-world problem-solving and application of knowledge and skills. Descriptive survey research design was deployed in the study, guided by four research questions and four hypotheses. The population will comprise students from tertiary institutions in South-East geo-political zones in Nigeria. A sample of 1838 students was drawn from five tertiary institutions using simple random sampling and accidental sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was the “Conventional versus Authentic Assessment Methods in 21st Century Classroom Questionnaire” (CAAM21CCQ). The instrument was adapted from Saher et al. (2022) and Fatmawati (2018) respectively. The estimated reliability coefficient of the instrument using Cronbach Alpha was 0.813. the instrument was administered using Google forms. The research questions were answered with using descriptive statistics. Whereas, the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha levels using paired t-test, independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as appropriate. Findings indicated that students prefer both assessment methods and authentic assessment foster development of the 21st century skills. Further, no statistically significant difference was found on students’ perception on challenges of authentic assessment methods and the implementation strategies based on gender and programme. It was recommended among others, that educators should combine conventional and authentic assessment methods when necessary.
Keywords: 21st century classroom, Authentic Assessment, conventional assessment, tertiary education