BULGARIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND EDUCATION POLICY

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.