Assessment of Special Education Service Delivery: A Global Perspective (Published)
This paper preoccupied itself with the assessment of special education service delivery to persons with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities, who are the subjects of special education, encounter difficulties that prevent or make it strenuous to use a part of their body completely or easily or that they cannot learn easily. Special education service delivery requires the expertise of special educators and para-professionals like the psychologists, social welfare workers, medical personnel and a host of others who are charged with the delivery of quality special education services to meet the needs of all persons with disabilities. Special education services include rehabilitation services, assessment/identification strategies, home/hospital based services, provision of materials/equipment and assistive technology for persons with disabilities etc. Globally, there are two paradigms for service delivery namely special school setting and general or regular school settings. The paper sampled trends of service delivery in India, Brazil, Kenya, Malaysia and of course Nigeria. The paper found that most countries have embraced the regular classroom as modality for service delivery for persons with disabilities. The paper identified challenges in the areas of teacher-pupil ratio, funding, failure of parental instruction, individualized education programme, special facilities, equipment and assistive technology, poor rehabilitation services, inclusion, attitudes to persons with disability amongst others that must be tackled to enable efficient service delivery for persons with disability. It was on this note that the paper was concluded.
Keywords: Assessment, Global, Nigeria, Perspective, Service delivery, Special Education
Item Response Theory Validation of Advanced Progressive Matrices in Nigeria (Published)
Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) is a leading global non-verbal mental ability test for identification of individuals with clear thinking skills who can handle rigorous study programmes and cope with complexity and ambiguity of the contemporary workplace. The test is popularly used in America, Europe and Asia but has never been validated for use in Nigeria. A validation sample of 2100 in Nigeria was randomly drawn for this study. Triangulation research design, adopting Item Response Theory (IRT), guided this validation of APM. Results revealed that all items of the test yield favourable statistics under 3-Parameter Logistic IRT Model with regards to discrimination, difficulty and guessing. Item Response Function showed preponderance of APM’s reliability (0.948) and construct cum concurrent validity (0.701) with Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT). X-Calibre analysis confirmed suitable difficulty indexes (-2.595 to 2.133 b parameter) of APM. The APM is bias-free and very suitable for use in Nigeria.
Keywords: 3-Parameter Logistic Model, Advanced Progressive Matrices, CFIT, Item Response Theory, Nigeria, Test Bias, X-Calibre
LEVEL OF CLASS, GENDER, TYPE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL AND NIGERIA ADOLESCENTS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR (Published)
The study examined secondary school adolescent’s sexual behavior in Gboko, Benue State Nigeria. A total of 488 Nigeria adolescents took part in the study. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The safe sex behavior scale was used for data collection. Three hypotheses were tested at alpha level of 0.05 using independent t-test. The first hypothesis established a significant difference between junior and senior secondary school adolescents on sexual behavior (t(df=486) = 2.88; p<.05), and there was a significant difference between male and female secondary school adolescents on sexual behavior (t(df=478) = 1.65; p<.05). Also significant difference was found between Nigerian day and boarding students on sexual behavior (t(df=486) = 1.56; p<.05) Based on the findings, level of class of secondary school, Gender and type of school in Nigeria play important role in Adolescent sexual behavior and therefore it was recommended that proper guidance counseling and sex education should be given to adolescents on sexual behavior.
Keywords: Adolescents, Gender, Nigeria, Secondary School, Sexual Behavior
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL BASED SELF-ESTEEM AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR AMONG SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN ADO EKITI, NIGERIA. (Published)
The study was carried out to investigate the relationship between organizational Based Self-Esteem (OBSE) and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) among selected secondary school teachers in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. A sample of 150 participants, 67 males and 83 females, who were selected using the random sampling technique from the population of 3 selected private secondary teachers in Ado-Ekiti participated in the study. A questionnaire comprising of the 10-items Organizational Based Self-Esteem measure developed by Pierce et. al (1989) and the 20 items Organizational Citizenship Behaviour Scale extracted by Belogolovsky and Somech (2010) from the original 24 items scale developed by Somech and Zahavy (2000) was used to gather data. It was hypothesized that: (a) there will be a significant relationship between OBSE and OCB among secondary school teachers, (b) there will be a significant effect of gender on levels of OBSE and OCB, (c) there will be significant effect of marital status on levels of OBSE and OCB, and (d) there will be a significant interaction effect of gender, age and marital status on OBSE and OCB. The result showed a positive relationship between OBSE and OCB while there is no significant effect of gender on levels of OBSE but on levels of OCB. There is a significant effect of age on levels of OBSE and OCB. Also, there is no significant interaction effect of marital status, gender and age on OBSE and OCB. Results were discussed in line with previous literature and it was recommended that teachers should be encouraged to develop a personal self-worth and identification with the teaching profession by according them respect and recognition; as it will automatically help them to provide quality services to the student, school and fellow colleagues.
Keywords: Ekiti State, Nigeria, Organizational Based Self-Esteem, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Teachers