Awareness and Utilization of Agricultural Enhancement Strategies and Adult Education for Sustainable Community Development in Bayelsa State (Published)
This paper assessed the level of awareness and utilization of agricultural enhancement strategies and adult education for sustainable community development in Bayelsa State. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Two research questions were formulated to guide the study. The population of study comprised of all adults engaged in agricultural activities in the eight LGA in Bayelsa state. A total of 509 farmers formed the sample of the study. Agricultural Enhancement Strategies for Sustainable Development Questionnaire” (AESSDQ) developed by the researcher was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by experts of measurement and evaluation and adult and community development experts. It was subjected to pilot testing and the outcome was analyzed using Cronbach Alpha Formula which yielded a coefficient value of 0.80. One-on-one mode of questionnaire administration was adopted and 100% return rate was achieved. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results revealed that the level of awareness and the extent of utilization of agricultural enhancement strategies for sustainable community development among farmers who attends adults’ education programme is higher than those who does not attend adult education programme. It was recommended amongst others that Adult education should be given more attention than it already has as a veritable tool for promoting sustainable community development.
Keywords: Adult Education, Sustainable Community Development, Utilization, agricultural enhancement strategies, awareness
Utilization of Electronic Human Resource Management among University Administrators in Rivers and Bayelsa States, Nigeria (Published)
The study examined the utilization of electronic human resource management among university administrators in Rivers and Bayelsa States, Nigeria. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The population of the study comprised forty-six (46) Deans in the six (6) public universities in Rivers and Bayelsa States, Nigeria. A sample size of forty-one (41) Deans representing 89% of the entire population using a simple random sampling technique was taken. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Instrument titled, “Utilization of Electronic Human Resource Management among University Administrators Scale (UEHRMAUAS) was validated. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.82 using Cronbach Alpha Statistics which guaranteed the use of the instrument for the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypothesis was tested using z-test statistics at 0.05 alpha level. It was found among others that, utilization of human resource management among university administrators in Rivers and Bayelsa States in Nigeria has improved the administrative process in the universities. Recommendation among others is that the university management should ensure the provision of internet connected computers in all the offices in the universities.
Keywords: Management, Utilization, electronic human resource, university administrators
Extent of Availability and Utilization of Library Information Resources among Out – Of- School Young Prisoners in South Western Nigeria (Published)
Information is very crucial to the development of mankind. It is also an asset that is necessary to facilitate human activities. It is for this reason that libraries are established to meet information needs of citizens, particularly, those of the out- of – school young prisoners in Nigerian prisons. The study, therefore, attempted an investigation into the availability and utilisation of library resources for the prisoners. The sample was drawn from prison population of prisoners in two major cities randomly selected in South Western Nigeria. The sample drawn was 500 out of the total population of 1,625 in the sampled prisons. Questionnaire titled: Availability and Utilization of Library information Resources for Prisoners ( AULIRPO) was used to collect data on availability and utilization of library information resources by the out- of- school prisoners and descriptive statistics of survey type was employed to analyse the data collected. The result indicated that only newspapers, textbooks, dictionaries and encyclopedias are the only available and frequenly utilised library information resources by the out of school prisoners who are discovered to be in their productive ages of between 45- 54 years. Challenges like inadequate provision of library cresources, poor funding and lack of good building facilities affect prisoners’ utilisation of library information resources. It was concluded that out- of- school prisoners have access to a few library resources and it was recommended that government should be more sensitive to providing befitting library facilities and relevant library information resources to out- of- school prisoners, among others.
Keywords: Availability, Library Resources, Prisoners, Utilization, out- of- school
Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice; Teachers’ Utilization of Instructional Resources in Teaching Social Studies in Basic Schools in West Mamprusi District in Northern Region, Ghana (Published)
This research work examines the extent of teachers’ utilization of instructional resources in teaching Social Studies in Basic Schools. The study also examines the various instructional resources that can be utilized by Social Studies teachers’ for teaching purposes within West Mamprusi District in Northern Region, Ghana. The researcher used qualitative method for data collection and analyzing. The researcher elicited information from respondents using structured interviews. The research focused on Basic Schools within West Mamprusi District. Two research questions were formulated for the research. The descriptive research design was used for the study. The targeted population consisted of head teachers, teachers and pupils in basic schools within West Mamprusi District. Ten (10) Basic Schools were randomly selected for the study. Twenty (20) Social Studies teachers and twenty (20) pupils, two (2) each were selected from the ten (10) schools using purposive sampling. All head teachers from the ten (10) basic schools were also interviewed. The study found out that teachers do not use instructional resources in the teaching of social studies from the interviews conducted. The causal factors for not using instructional resources in teaching from the interviews include; waste of time in preparing and organizing instructional resources to teach a particular topic, difficulty to obtain and expensive to buy by either the teacher or school, financial constraints, teachers lack of identification of materials and human resources, lack of knowledge by the teacher of what type of raw materials and resource persons to rely on for use in order to enhance the learning capacities of his/her students, and teachers basing their lack of instructional resource use to their many years of experience in teaching the subject. Based on the findings, recommendations were made that Social Studies teachers need to be given orientation on the need to always teach the subject using instructional resources through in-service training, workshops, and seminars, Ghana Education Service and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) should support schools in terms of procuring the needed instructional resources to enhance the teaching of Social Studies, Teachers should also be initiative and creative enough to improvise their own instructional resources within the environment to promote effective teaching and learning to enhance students understanding, and internalization and application of lesson content, The government must take the lead in terms of financial and production of these resources for all schools, The education resource centers of the country should also be commissioned to identify, relocate, collect, store and distribute instructional materials and ideas to institutions of learning ,Such resource centers should have a common directorate and research unit, which will help coordinate its activities and seek ways of improving its services.
Keywords: Citizenship Education, Effective teaching of Social Studies, Instructional resources, Resource centers, Social Studies, Utilization, basic schools
Use of Electronic Information Resource Databases among Lecturers and Postgraduate Students in University Libraries in South-South Nigeria (Published)
The purpose of this study is to find out the utilization of electronic information resource databases in University libraries in South-South, Nigeria. 6 (six) research questions and 4 (four) hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The survey design was employed. The population of the study was made up of 1,421 lecturers and 922 postgraduate students. Data collection was done through the use of questionnaire titled Utilization of Electronic Information Resource Databases in University Libraries (UEIRDUL).The research questions were analyzed using percentages, while z-test proportion of difference of significance was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that lecturers and postgraduate students in the federal and state university libraries use different types of EIR database. The level of usage of EIR databases by lecturers and postgraduate students in the federal and state university libraries in South-South, Nigeria was generally high as most of them indicated that they use these resources frequently for their academic activities. The proportion of lecturers and postgraduate students in the federal and state universities that use the EIR databases for different purposes do not differ significantly. It was recommended among others that librarians in both universities should identify non users of the EIR databases and effective steps should be taken to encourage them to use the databases.
Keywords: EIR databases, Libraries, Nigeria, Universities in South-South, Utilization
The Levels of Deployment, Utilization and Job Performance of Teachers in the Public Senior Secondary Schools in Edo State (Published)
A central concern is that teachers are the bedrock upon which the attainments of the objectives of the programmes in the school system are based. Adequate deployment and utilization enhances their job performance. This study had the broad objective to investigate the Levels of Deployment, Utilization and Job Performance of Teachers in the Public Senior Secondary Schools in Edo state, Nigeria from the customers’ perspective. The specific objectives were to determine the level of deployment of graduate teachers in Edo State public senior secondary schools and to identify the level of deployment of graduate teachers in the different teaching subjects in Edo State public senior secondary schools. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was made up of 3366 graduate teachers deployed to 306 public secondary schools in the 18 local government areas as at 2010/2011. A sample size of 396 graduate using multi –stage randomly selected procedure determination from a finite population. Questionnaires were distributed to the filled and returned. Validity of the instrument was measured using content validity, and this was done by experts from the academia. Internal consistency was done using Cronbach alpha coefficient test statistic to test the reliability of the instrument, yielding a coefficient of 0.78. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson product moment correlation at 5% probability level of significance and regression analysis with charts for illustrations. The findings indicated that: There is low deployment and uneven distribution of graduate teachers to public schools. Also, poor utilization of these teachers was very obvious. Thus, the study concluded that job performance would be very low. The study therefore recommended that government should carry out an analysis to fill areas of scarcity, rationalize distribution of teachers and ensure there is a balance in deployment. This will create a fair system of graduate teachers in both urban and rural areas especially in mathematics and English subjects.
Keywords: Deployment, Job Performance, Utilization, teachers and Public schools