Education

Quality Assurance in Nigerian Education System: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Cure (Published)

The Nigerian education system has remained in the doldrums since the pre-independence period. While the colonial administrations lopsided educational policy may be blamed for this, efforts at post-independence educational reforms did not seek to correct or change the fortunes of the system. The lethargic condition the system was thrown into during the colonial administration has continued through successful regimes and republics. Consequently, this has generated questions about its relevance. While the questions on relevance are valid, it should however be said that education has continued to serve its utilitarian purpose elsewhere in more progressive societies. These symptoms of decay are diagnosed in this paper, with a view to recommending measures that would enhance quality assurance in the education system.

Keywords: Diagnosis, Education, Quality Assurance, Symptoms, cure

Research Anxiety among Education Undergraduates in Nigeria (Published)

This survey study investigated research anxiety among education undergraduates in University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The population was 1,467 final year education undergraduates while the sample was 500 students drawn through proportionate random sampling technique. One research question was posed and 3 null hypotheses were formulated. Data for analysis were collected through the administration of copies of “Research Anxiety Scale” developed by the researchers on the respondents. The reliability of this scale was established through the test re-test method with an interval of two weeks. The obtained reliability co-efficient for the 4 sub-sections of section B were 0.81; 0.78; 0.76 and 0.81. The research question was answered with mean and standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested with t-test of one sample mean. The results show that research anxiety is pervasive among education undergraduates. It also shows that instructional, weak computation ability and research supervision factors contribute significantly to research anxiety among education undergraduates. These results were discussed, their counselling implications stated and recommendations were also made. One of the recommendations is that lecturers should be exposed to periodic seminars, workshops and conference to update their knowledge of research.

Keywords: Anxiety, Education, Research, Undergraduates

Effective School and Its Role in Achieving the Characteristics of the Encouraging Educational Environment in Jordanian Public Schools (Published)

The objective of the present study was to measure the contribution of the effective school in achieving the characteristics of the encouraging educational environment in Jordanian public schools. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher followed the analytical descriptive approach in terms of applying the study tool, the study population may be from all eighth grade students at the Ras al-Majar Primary Mixed School, The study found that the active school contributes to the characteristics of the encouraging educational environment in the Jordanian public schools by 55.2%. The researcher recommended the necessity of spreading the effective school culture in all areas of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan because of its many benefits in improving the educational environment.

Keywords: Education, Fan, Features, School

The Relationship between Types of Misconceptions and Achievement in Genetics among Senior Secondary School Biology Students in Jos North LGA of Plateau State (Published)

This research work was aimed at finding out the relationship between types of misconceptions and achievement in genetics among senior secondary schools biology students’ in Jos-North Local Government Area of Plateau State. Correlation research as well as survey research designs were employed for this study. Three research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The research was analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation while the hypothesis was analyzed using Pearson’s r. The population of the study consisted of randomly selected biology teachers and students’ of Government Senior Secondary Schools in the area of study. Thus, a total of two hundred and ten (210) respondents’ were used. Two hundred students and ten teachers drown from ten schools served as sample for the study. Three instruments were used for data collection. Achievement Test in Genetics (ATG), Questionnaire on Types of Misconceptions (QTM) and Biology Teachers’ Questionnaire on Students’ Causes of Misconceptions in Genetics. Major findings from this research work revealed that, there is poor trend of students’ academic achievement in genetics test, students’ held vary form of misconceptions in genetics concepts and the most prevalent misconception found among the students’ was the vernacular misconception, abstractness (AC), was the major reason for students’ causes of misconceptions, and there is perfect negative relationship between students types of misconceptions and their achievement. Recommendations were made based on these findings. Some of these recommendations are; effective and evidence-informed pedagogic practices are clearly needed by all teachers, and students, to identify, overcome and eliminate misconceptions in the acquisition of accurate scientific knowledge, to promote effective and meaningful learning, teachers’ need to identify the causes of such misconceptions and find ways to rectify them. The Government on her part should brace up to her responsibility of providing adequate teaching aids and instructional materials to all her schools, which must be equally use by the biology teachers to stimulate students in learning genetics.

Keywords: Biology Students, Education, Genetics, Nigeria, Senior Secondary School, Types of Misconceptions