BULGARIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATION POLICY

34-57

Authors: Nigusse Arefaine, Aynalem Tesfay, Kassa Michael (Ethiopia)

Web2.0 technologies have brought a paradigm shift on the teaching and learning process globally by providing creative, interactive and collaborative learning landscapes. These technologies have the potential to eradicate all possible physical and mental barriers for learning and pave the way to keep oneself up-to-date through the access of open contents and remains connected with people of same interest to secure lifelong learning. In the context of Ethiopian universities, the endorsement of these technologies for mathematics classrooms is at its infant stage. Likewise, much research is not conducted on experiences of mathematics instructors on adopting these technologies for classroom instruction. As a result, this study was conducted to describe the status of mathematics instructors awareness, experience, purposes and challenges on adopting Web2.0 technologies for supporting students learning of mathematics in three purposefully selected public universities in Ethiopia. Descriptive survey research design was employed for the study. Questionnaire, interview and observation checklist were used as data collection tools. Thirty mathematics instructors involved as respondents who were selected randomly. The study revealed that the instructors are aware of the use and benefit of Web2.0 technologies. But, they largely use them for the purpose of social communication or personal enjoyment than instructional practices. They do not incorporate them in course design and as classroom teaching and learning facilities. Internal and external factors related to awareness, experience, purpose and challenges hindered the instructors from adopting these technologies. It is recommended that web2.0 technologies need to be extended into the actual classroom instruction, and there has to commitment to build better ICT infrastructures and access to Web2.0 technologies on these institutions.

86-108

Authors: Win Thinzarkyaw (China)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the school culture in Yangon Region, Myanmar. A quantitative survey research design was used, and the school culture scale constructed by Gruenert (2005) was applied. The participants were teachers (N=114) currently working in the public/government schools in Yangon Region. Most of the teachers who participated in this study reported that they had experienced cooperative school culture in their schools. Moreover, the findings revealed significant differences in the school culture related to their school locations (urban and suburban areas) and levels of schools (basic education high schools and middle schools). However, no significant difference was found in school culture in accordance with the length of teaching service.

135-152

Authors: Olori Abiola Lateef (Nigeria)

This study investigated predictors of College of Education Trainee Teachers instructional graphic production competence. Two hypotheses were raised while the instruments used to collect data was a validated competency rating scale and questionnaires for students response. From the analysis of the data collected it was found that creative arts experience significantly contributed to trainee teachers instructional graphic production competence (B = 0.683, t = 4.631, P < 0.05). It was found that information technology experience significantly contributed to trainee teachers instructional graphic production competence (B = 0.539, t = 3.535, P < 0.05). It was found that trainee teachers attitude significantly contributed to instructional graphic production competence. (B = 0.023, t = 6.316, P < 0.05). Results also revealed that creative arts experience, information technology experience and attitude taken as a whole significantly predicted trainee teachers instructional graphics production competence. (F1198 =31.048, P < 0.05). It was recommended that the predictor variables should be considered educational technology lecturers during professional preparation of 21st century teachers.

187-207

Authors: Babatimehin Temitope (Nigeria)

The study determined the equivalence of the chemistry items using linear test equating approaches of CTT and IRT. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population for the study comprised 36,182 final year 2017/2018 senior secondary school students in Osun State. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select the sample for the study. Two instruments, Chemistry Achievement Test Type 1 (NECO), and Chemistry Achievement Test Type 2 (WAEC) were used to collect data. These were the adopted versions of June/July 2015 NECO and May/June WAEC 2015 Senior School Certificate Examination Chemistry (Objective) Paper 1. Data collected were analyzed using equated package of R-language. Results showed that linear test equating approaches of IRT and CTT produced different results. CTT equated scores of examinees in NCI were higher (range from 5 56) than WCI (range from 4 - 49). Similarly, IRT equated scores of examinees in NCI were higher (range from 13 53) than WCI (range from 11 - 48). The study concluded that there is no statistical equivalence between WAEC and NECO Chemistry examinations in terms of difficulty. The WCI were more difficult than NCI.

230-250

Authors: Olayeni Kofoworola Pius, Adisa Buki (Nigeria)

The study focuses on some selected universities in South Western Nigeria, which include two federal universities Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and University of Lagos (UNILAG); two universities of Technology Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH). It also covers two private universities Covenant University (CU) and Joseph Ayo-Babalola University (JABU). This study was aimed to better understand the gender composition of Nigerian school of architecture and the factors that influence a female student's choice of the course in order to encourage the girl child enrolment in the course in Nigeria universities. Through the survey approach, questionnaires were used to elicit information from students in the last two years of the B.Sc. programme and those in the two years of the M.Sc. programme. The result shows that the strongest stimulator of a young woman's decision to enrol in architectural course is the perceived future prospect in the profession this is followed by her personal interest as well as existing relationships with people who have studied the course. This research establishes that identity is often contested ground for women architectural students who, at times, uphold gendered stereotypes about women's suitability for commonly viewed masculine course like architecture, yet also subscribe to an ideal that the course is accessible to all who want to study it. As a consequence, it is critical that the education system finds novel ways of challenging and addressing cultural norms and practices that facilitate gendered stereotypes in construction-related courses (such as architecture) in the country.

148-171

Authors: Johnbosco O.C. Okekeokosisi, Mary Noeleen Obi

The need for undergraduate students to utilize social networking sites for en-hancing their learning necessitated the study. The study was carried out to de-termine the extent of utilization of social networking sites (SNSs) for enhancing academic learning of undergraduate students. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. Proportionately stratified random sampling technique was used to draw the sample size of 331 undergraduate students from three out of the five federal universities in south-south geopolitical zone of Nigeria. A questionnaire titled the use of Social networking sites for Enhancing Academic learning of undergraduate students (USNSEAL-UGS) was developed by the researchers for data collection. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and Z-test statistics. The findings from the results revealed that undergraduate students utilize Facebook, Whatsapp and Google+ for enhancing their academic learning at great extent. Gender had no influence on the undergraduate students' utilization of social network sites in enhancing their learning. Based on the findings, recommendations were made which include that seminars and workshops should be organized by donor agencies, philanthropists, management of tertiary institutions and student un-ion government (SUG) for undergraduate students in order to enlighten them on its effective utilization in improving their learning and their learning outcome.

188-203

Authors: M.A. Ayanwale, F.R. Abayomi

Examination malpractice has invaded Nigeria and has only increased in tempo despite measures intended to curb it. It is therefore not in doubt that some stakeholders and policy makers in the educational sector today including teachers who combine public examining duties may not be knowledgeable enough to track the "menace" while marking. In this study, the authors con-structed and validated instrument to measure examiners' disposition towards knowledge of examination malpractice indicators of West African Examinations Council (WAEC). Consequently, scale development research type of single subject design was employed. The sample for the two phases consisted of nine hundred and sixty (960) WAEC mathematics examiners from 9 marking centres, which were drawn randomly from Osun, Ogun and Ondo State, Nigeria. Instrument used for data collection was Examiners' Attitude Towards Knowledge of Malpractice Indicators Scale (EAKMIS). Data were analysed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Ordinal Alpha. The results showed that the scale was reduced from twenty (20) to eleven (11) items across three (3) dimensions. Final compliance indices were: χ2 = 457.54, p = 0.01, RMSEA= 0.03, GFI = 0.96, AGFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.94, NFI = 0.90, SRMR= 0.01, CFI= 0.91 and IFI= 0.91. The ordinal alpha reliability index for the three (3) factors of EAKMIS was 0.79, while the reliability index for each of the subscale of the EAKMIS ranged from 0.85 to 0.93. It was recommended that there should be intensive training and retraining for all the examiners by the examining body where issues related to detection of examination malpractice cases while marking would be discussed.

225-248

Authors: V. Panev, A. Barakoska

Values are a topic of multidisciplinary areas, elaborated by various scientific disciplines. The consequences of non-acquisition of human values are mani-fested in all spheres of social life. Therefore, they are important for research in the field of social sciences, and especially in the field of pedagogy, education and personal development. Given the importance of values in the development of pupils' personality, we conducted a survey in a large school in North Macedonia to examine the attitudes and opinions of teachers, pupils and school support staffs on the extent values are achieved in an elementary school. The re-sults allow us to perceive the realization of the value-based educational goals in primary class grade and subject teaching and to determine the pedagogical assumptions important for the development of students' values orientations.

263-286

Authors: E.N. Okwuduba, O.E. Chinelo, S.N. Naomi

The relationship between emotional intelligence and academic performance is well established but less is known about how six emotional abilities predict academic performance. Using a sample of 164 undergraduate students, the researchers examined the relationships among the six emotional abilities of emotional intelligence and their academic performance in chemistry. The participants responded to Schutte emotional intelligence scale and provided informed consent for their total score in basic chemistry course to be paired with their responses (academic performance). Analyses tested the collective influence of six emotional abilities, gender, age and total emotional intelligence on academic performance. The examination revealed that except for, gender age and ERS (r =.053 - .117), all emotional abilities of emotional intelligence and total emotional intelligence positively and significantly correlated with academic performance of students in chemistry (r = .321 - .537). Gender differences exist between the six emotional abilities and academic performance in chemistry with strong significant prediction among male students in all the six emotional abilities but not so among females. To better delineate the relationship between the emotional intelligence and academic performance, multiple regression using a stepwise method was performed. The results revealed that two key emotional abilities namely, emotional expression (EE) and utilization of emotion for problem solving (UEPS) were able to explain 30% of the variance in academic performance of students in chemistry. The study confirmed the results of the previous findings on the significant relationship between emotional intelligence and academic performance and proceeds further to provide an empirical evidence on dimensional influence of emotional intelligence on academic performance. Discussion was offered based on the findings and implication as well as direction for further research are briefly highlighted.

18-33

Authors: A. O. Adepetun, A. A. Adewara

Bayesian Approach to Randomized Response Technique has been a technique for estimating the population proportion, especially of respondents possessing stigmatized attributes such as induced abortion, use of drugs and tax evasion. In this paper, we propose Bayesian estimators of population proportion of a stigmatized attribute assuming Kumaraswamy and the generalised beta prior using life data on induced abortion. The newly proposed Bayesian estimators were validated numerically for a large interval of the designed values of the population proportion at different sample sizes. It was observed that the newly developed Bayesian estimators were more sensitive in capturing stigmatized attribute than the Bayesian estimator developed by Hussain & Shabbir (2012) for relatively small, moderate as well as large sample sizes.

50-70

Authors: W. M. Tarekegne

This article examines instructors perception and practice on active learning and continuous assessment in higher education of Ethiopia. Data were collected from participants (instructors, deans, department heads, and students) through questionnaires, interview, focus group discussion and observation. The results show that instructors perceive positively for these two constructivist strategies. In addition, even though some instructors are trying to use few active learning and continuous assessment methods in their classrooms the majority of them are not practicing as expected. The factors affecting successful implementation of active learning and continuous assessment include teachers commitment, students attitude, and institutional problems, lack of resources, large class size, and high teaching load.

80-91

Authors: O. O. Gambo, S. A. Fasanmi

Most of the challenges facing Nigerian universities are traceable to inadequate funding. The sector often blames the government for inadequate funding of public universities while the government complains of scarce resources. The incessant closure of universities as a result of unresolved issues between labour/student unions and management, as well as the government is usually as a result of funding such as unpaid outstanding allowances and dilapidated facilities among others. This paper explored other alternatives to funding university education in Nigeria as the beneficiaries of university education were identified because every rational individual will contribute to a project because of the benefit they will get from it. The paper recommended that all beneficiaries of university education should be informed through approprite medium to contribute their quotas to the funding process. Managements of universities are also challenged to judiciously use available resources.

109-129

Authors: T. Tverdokhlib

The article is focused on a specific aspect of history of men's secondary schools of the Orthodox Church theological seminaries, which functioned in the Ukrainian gubernias of the Russian Empire. Organization of pedagogical education in theological seminaries is established to be a prerequisite for suc-cessful teaching activity of their graduates. The paper reveals the content of pedagogical education in theological seminaries, knowledge, skills and abilities that students attained there within 1866-1884. The paper focuses on arranging seminarians teaching practice at daily, holiday and Sunday schools. The paper identifies the forms and methods of pedagogical education and requirements set up by the Holy Synod for organization of educational process in secondary theological educational institutions. The paper reveals the specific features of staffing and teaching and methodological support for teaching Pedagogy and concludes about the advantages and disadvantages of pedagogical education in theological seminaries and the level of pedagogical education compared to classical gymnasia.