Walter Sisulu University
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Exchange Rate Volatility and Nigerian Stock Market Development
Get PDFPurpose: The study aims to evaluate the impact of exchange rate volatility on the indicators of stock market, such as the returns, capitalization, liquidity, transaction volume, based on the Nigerian evidence. Theoretical framework: The paper considers extant model of exchange rate-stock market interactions. Because the diversity of the market is important the paper follows suggestions by El-Wassal (2013) to examine variety of stock market indicators in order to offer accurate depiction of how the stock market drives exchange rate volatility.Design: The study employs a simple static regression model of stock market indicators with autoregressive adjustment component which absorb autocorrelation. The models are tested on annual data (1985-2020). Findings: The study finds that the exchange rate volatility has negative impact on stock market development -returns, capitalization and volume. The paper reveals further that other correlated controls factors impinge different impacts on the stock market indicators. Research, Practical and Social implications: One implication of the finding is that the volatility may discourage investors, reduce firm performance, and lead to reduction on the returns of firm shares. Policy makers should put in place growth-inducing infrastructural investments to make the business environment more conducive to attract foreign capital, while also positioning the capital market with several initiatives to increase trading activities. Originality/Value: The connection between the foreign exchange and financial markets is of policy importance. Although the focus is on the Nigerian markets, the evidence could be extended to other African and global markets, to serve as guide to foreign investors
Disparities in Rural Universities Transformation: A Review from a South African Perspective
Get PDFIn recent years, the South African government has placed a greater emphasis on transforming rural universities. This has been driven by a desire to increase access to higher education and improve the quality of education in rural areas. However, this process has not been without its challenges, among which is the fact that rural areas tend to be less developed than urban areas, making it difficult to attract and remain in the fulcrum of development. This paper is grounded in an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach toward transforming rural universities in South Africa. A systematic review approach was employed to investigate the problem, which enabled the researchers to draw logical conclusions from the findings of an exhaustive literature review to address the problem of the paper. After systematic scrutiny, inclusion and exclusion criteria were operationalised by limiting them to 8 relevant articles. The databases used were Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Scopus, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC). Findings revealed that Inequality, Poor physical infrastructure, and Lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and training support in Rural Universities were dimensions against rural university transformation in Africa. The paper, therefore, concludes that rural universities (RUs) are grappling with several challenges thwarting their efforts in delivering quality teaching and learning with the recommendation that adequate infrastructure, policy change, and provision of academic support for students should be provided
Analyzing LGB-Based School Bullying Among Senior Phase Learners in South Africa
Get PDFDespite LGB recognition, recent literature and news reports have evidenced the existence of LGB-based school bullying among school-going adolescents. Through this, learners experience calamities such as anxiety, insecurity, poor academic performance, and even suicide. For this reason, this study investigates the limitations of schools in combating LGB-based school bullying and determines methods to combat LGB-based school bullying..
Analysis of Connectivism as a Tool for Posthuman University Classrooms
Get PDFIn the posthuman era, teaching and learning through technologies are becoming increasingly important, most especially in the university system. Connectivism, a theory of learning that emphasises the importance of connections between people and information,is one of the most influential educational philosophies driving today’s educational dynamism. In a posthuman world, where technology is constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, connectivism is argued to provide a framework for understanding how students learn and how can technology be used to facilitate learning. This study argues that connectivism is one of the ways in which classroom stakeholders can be made to prepare for the posthuman era. The study is located within the transformative paradigm to enable the researcher to tailor the argument toward transforming the university classrooms anddeveloping a new way of thinking about society's present social boundaries by pursuing truth within a postmodern framework. In the same vein, conceptual analysis was adopted to make sense of the argument since it helps to interoperate and dismantle complex and ambiguous concepts toward meaning making. The analysis begins by presenting connectivism and its potential assumptions..
Addressing Potential Conflict Among University Students During Collaborative Tasks
No full textUniversities in South Africa are confronted with student unrest, which has hindered the effective university education process. They have faced various shortages of academic activities and teaching and learning because of protests and subsequent management responses that culminated in the closures of universities at most times. Student unrest has made it difficult to actualise the set predetermined goals and objectives of the university. These challenges have severally been linked to problems with tuition fees, financial support for students, adequate and conducive hostel accommodation, student socio-economic background and university management styles. Among the management styles, according to the literature and observation, is the decision-making process where the issues concerning students are decided upon. This study explores the potential of the collegial leadership approach to enhance the university decision-making process towards alleviating student unrest in universities. This study is located within a transformative paradigm to transform social unrest in the university system. Conceptual analysis was employed to make sense of the adopted approach as a veritable tool for managing the power differential between the students and the university management. The study found that collaboration and teamwork, consensus building and organisational relationships are the dimensions of managing student unrest in universities. The recommendation is that collaborative management style, teamwork, consensus building and organisational relationships are encouraged in the university management process
Students’ Cognition of The Induction Step in Proving Inequality Propositions
Get PDFTheb induction step in proof of induction requires some clever tricks in order to get the expected formula for = + 1, especially in statements with inequalities. The purpose of this study was to determine undergraduate students’ cognition regarding the induction step in proving inequality propositions in order to create opportunities to teach the principle of mathematical induction better. A class of 67 students participated in the study on learning proof by induction using the problem-based approach. The Action-Process-Object-Schema theory was used to structure the study and the cyclic activities-class-discussion-exercises instructional approach was used to teach proof by induction. Data for the study was comprised of individual students’ written responses to a task of two questions and the transcriptions of the semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students at most showed indication of partial understanding of proof by induction. Executing the induction step sits at the heart of proof by induction and necessitates logical reasoning at the object-level conception. Inadvertently, the implication was the most challenging aspect in proof by induction. The majority of students made inroads in setting up the proof properly but could not succeed in proving that () ⇒ ( + 1). Some students had challenges of where to begin a proof, so much that they chose to start with direct substitution. In line with that, most students also concluded without deriving the expected formula required to draw a conclusion
A Survey of Mathematics Pre-Service Teachers' End-of-Teaching Practice Reflections of Educational Contexts
Get PDFPre-service teachers need to identify their understanding and beliefs about mathematics learning and teaching against the backdrop of the environment where,they teach during teaching practice. Pre-service teachers will one day be responsible for full-time teaching and their current reflections of educational contexts’knowledge serve as a point of reference to their acquisition of teacher knowledge. Of the four knowledge bases for teaching, namely, pedagogy, pedagogical content knowledge, subject matter and educational contexts, the focus in this study was on the last.This study purposed to promote and describe mathematics pre-service teachers’ reflections of educational contexts at the end of a six-month teaching practice session. The 2022 cohort of 140 Bachelor of Education mathematics students participated in the study. The judgmental sampling technique was used to select 40 reflection reports. Moreover,four students were selected for interviews purposively based on their earlier reflections in the reports. The reflective reports and the interview transcriptions were analysed thematically throughthe lens of the Van Manen framework. The findings revealed that most of the pre-service teachers operated at the practical reflection level and very few attained the critical reflection stage. Student teachers took class preparation seriously,but they were disadvantaged by lack of teaching resources. They engaged themselves in many school duties,but this was only helpful if they were guided by experiencedteachers. In response to some school management shortcomings, pre-service teachers projected wishes that could improve their teaching practices
Secondary School Learners' Migration Impact in Urban Schools in South Africa
Get PDFThis study employed a qualitative research approach to explore the impact of learner migration in urban secondary schools of OR Tambo Inland District in the Eastern Cape Province, RSA. The study was triggered by the observation of increasing learner enrollment in urban schools whereas declining in rural schools. The study was grounded on the assumption that understanding the factors that contribute to learner migration will help to identify its impact and come up with ways of mitigating the situation. The study adopted an interpretive constructive paradigm where a case study research design was employed. Verbatim accounts and natural meaning units were used to present and analyse data. The study found that there is an influx of learners from rural to urban schools. Learners migrate to urban schools in pursuit of better-quality education in urban schools. This according to findings leads to overcrowded classes and shortages of resources in urban schools. The study recommended that attention be given to rural schools as they sometimes lack necessary resources like infrastructure and human resources. The study also recommended that urban school teachers be equipped with the necessary skills on how to deal with overcrowded classes. This research adds to the existing literature on learner migration
Some Convergence Results for a Sequence of Gornicki Type Contractions Mappings
Get PDFThe stability of fixed points for a sequence of mappings satisfying the conditions introduced by Górnicki is studied in a metric space(X;d). In particular, these mappings are only defined on a subsetXnof themetric spaceX. In this paper, we study the convergence of Tng and the convergence of its fixed points, fxng. We also illustrate our results by applying them to an initial value problem for an ordinary differential equation
Pharmacophore Model-Based Virtual Screening Workflow for Discovery of Inhibitors Targeting Plasmodium falciparum Hsp90
Get PDFPlasmodium falciparum causes the most lethal and widespread form of malaria. Eradication of malaria remains a priority due to the increasing number of cases of drug resistance. The heat shock protein 90 of P. falciparum (PfHsp90) is a validated drug target essential for parasite survival. Most PfHsp90 inhibitors bind at the ATP binding pocket found in its N-terminal domain, abolishing the chaperone's activities, which leads to parasite death. The challenge is that the NTD of PfHsp90 is highly conserved, and its disruption requires selective inhibitors that can act without causing off-target human Hsp90 activities. We endeavored to discover selective inhibitors of PfHsp90 using pharmacophore modeling, virtual screening protocols, induced fit docking (IFD), and cell-based and biochemical assays. The pharmacophore model (DHHRR), composed of one hydrogen bond donor, two hydrophobic groups, and two aromatic rings, was used to mine commercial databases for initial hits, which were rescored to 20 potential hits using IFD. Eight of these compounds displayed moderate to high activity toward P. falciparum NF54 (i.e., IC50s ranging from 6.0 to 0.14 μM) and averaged >10 in terms of selectivity indices toward CHO and HepG2 cells. Additionally, four compounds inhibited PfHsp90 with greater selectivity than a known inhibitor, harmine, and bound to PfHsp90 with weak to moderate affinity. Our findings support the use of a pharmacophore model to discover diverse chemical scaffolds such as FM2, FM6, F10, and F11 exhibiting anti-Plasmodium activities and serving as valuable new PfHsp90 inhibitors. Optimization of these hits may enable their development into potent leads for future antimalarial drugs