The Contribution of Technological Innovations to Enhance Education for Sustainable Development (Published)
Technological innovations have revolutionized numerous sectors, including education, by providing new tools and methodologies that enhance learning experiences and outcomes. Governments worldwide made teaching and learning educational technology compulsory during the COVID-19 pandemic in all educational fields. Despite the numerous advantages, integrating technological innovations into the educational process is challenging. There remains a significant gap between the potential of these technologies and their actual implementation in classrooms and educational fields. Issues such as inadequate infrastructure, lack of teacher training, and resistance to change hinder the effective use of technology in education. Moreover, the rapid movement of technological advancements often exceeds the ability of educational institutions to adapt, leading to underutilization of available resources and missed opportunities for enhancing the educational process. While there is a growing body of literature on the subject, much of the existing research is fragmented and lacks a comprehensive framework that connects theory with practice. This study employs qualitative analysis to obtain information about the experiences, benefits, and discusses the challenges that may arise using educational advancements and techniques in language learning. It aims to provide teachers and educators with a better understanding of the impacts of using technology in the educational process and the development of language learning. In the paper, the researcher defines technology, in addition to Information Communication Technology (ICT), and reviews previous studies on the effective use of technological tools across educational settings. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the role of using modern technological innovations that can be effectively utilized and integrated into education, not only for learners but also for their instructors who need to achieve professional development, by increasing the engagement of using technology in educational settings, motivation, as well as improving accessibility and convenience.
Keywords: Educational Technology, Innovations, Professional Development, Technology
Policy Innovations in the Vet Sector. The Role of Instructors in Competency-Based Training in Ghanaian TVET Institutions (Published)
Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in Ghana aim at providing learners with the required knowledge, skills and attitudes to perform effectively in the rapidly changing scenes in the workplace. Upgrading all polytechnics institutions into technical universities and introducing Free Education policy for all trainees in TVET institutions are recent major transformation in the TVET system in Ghana. Among the features that are emphasized in this transition is the method of teaching and learning in an environment of competency-based training (CBT). The study therefore examines what form of teaching learning strategies undertaken by instructors in CBT in order to equip trainees with the requisite competencies to perform professional tasks in the world of work. The study reveals that the pedagogical skills of instructors in CBT have not changed from the traditional system and calls for comprehensive staff development programmes for CBT teachers to establish long-term changes in their mindsets, belief systems, values, intentions and theories to match their new roles and tasks.
Keywords: Innovations, Technical and Vocational Education, competency-based training, instructors.
Chemistry Entrepreneurship: A Panacea for Chemistry Graduates Unemployment-The Nigerian Experience (Published)
This study sought to examine chemistry entrepreneurship as a panacea for chemistry graduates unemployment in Nigeria. The recent economy recession world-wide and particularly in Nigeria has necessitated the need to make a paradigm shift from consuming economy to producing economy. For any nation to attain the status of producing economy, its citizens must have acquired entrepreneurial skills in all sectors of the economy. Entrepreneurship is the capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit. The notion to become an entrepreneur in Nigeria is fast gaining ground in the face of little or no government jobs. The labour market is gradually becoming more attractive to graduating students as they want to be self-employed and independent.In view of all these, there is the need to entrench entrepreneurship education into our school curricula at all levels of education, most especially the higher institutions. This being as it is, there is need for inclusion of chemistry entrepreneurship in the chemistry curriculum most especially for our higher education students.Chemistry entrepreneurship being offered as a course will equip the students with the knowledge and skills to convert innovations from researches in chemistry into marketable products for commercial gain. Many of the household materials being used on daily basis are the products of innovations from chemistry researches. Such household materials as soap, candle, cream, toothpaste, slippers, shoe polish, insecticides, herbicides among others are enough, if invested in, to make a chemistry graduate a wealth creator instead of a job seeker.In view of the above, the paper recommends that the Nigerian government should prioritise, generally the academic entrepreneurship and particularly chemistry entrepreneurship in all our higher institutions, as this will go a long way in arresting the spate of chemistry graduates unemployment and also strengthen the nose-diving economy in the country.
Keywords: Chemistry entrepreneurship, Innovations, Knowledge, Skills, Wealth Creation