UFS Publications Platform (Univ. of the Free State)
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Administrative Effectiveness in University System: The Trajectory of Students’ Involvement in Governance
Full text linkMuch vacuum has been identified in the trajectory of university governance, which had led to epileptic university operation as a result of student and university management dichotomies in Nigeria. To this end, this study investigated students\u27 involvement in university governance and administrative effectiveness in public and private universities in Ekiti state. The study adopted survey design. The population consists of all staff and students of all universities in Ekiti State. The sample consisted of 500 respondents selected using proportionate sampling technique. A questionnaire titled, “Students Involvement in University Governance and Administrative Effectiveness Questionnaire” (SIUGAEQ) was used to collect data. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive and Inferential Statistics such as Frequency Counts, Percentages, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), and T-test. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that the level of students’ involvement in university governance and administrative effectiveness was high which indicates that there is a high level of students’ involvement in university governance and administrative effectiveness in public and private universities. The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between students’ involvement in University governance and administrative effectiveness. Findings also showed that there was no significant difference in the level of students’ involvement in University governance in public and private universities as well as in the level of administrative effectiveness in public and private Universities. The study recommended that students should be actively involved in the university decision-making process. This will accord them a sense of belonging, reduce incessant conflicts between the university management and the students which will, in turn, lead to improved administrative effectiveness of the university system
Assessment of Employability Skills in Uganda’s Schools: Challenges and the Way Forward
Full text linkIn today’s volatile labour market, employers look beyond academic achievement when considering job applicants. However, since Uganda’s school curriculum is configured to cater for the academic achievements of learners, many graduates fall short of employers’ expectations. The issue that graduates lack Employability Skills (ES) pertinent in the contemporary labour market is hardly new, and stakeholders are incessantly advocating for mainstreaming ES in the national curriculum. While this advocacy is timely, the matter of how ES can be assessed and measured is muted. Yet the effectiveness of teaching and learning of ES is best inferred from the effectiveness of their assessment. This paper draws stakeholders’ attention to such obtrusive but muffled matter that is key to the successful mainstreaming of ES in the national curriculum. We conclude that to meet today’s labour market demands, Uganda’s schools need to shift the assessment strategies towards measuring ES, now prized in a complex global environment. Since the outcomes of assessing cognitive skills have had an important influence on policy, the assessment of and for learning ES will attract attention and support of policymakers in developing ES in the school system
The Behaviours and Roles of School Principals in Tackling Security Challenges in Nigeria: A Context-Responsive Leadership Perspective
Full text linkPrincipals are at the apex of all activities in the day-to-day life of secondary schools. Their function goes beyond mere guaranteeing effective teaching and learning, as well as the smooth running of secondary schools, they are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring an enabling environment that is composite of security and safety for both learners and teachers. However, in recent times, Nigeria has witnessed insecurity and safety challenges to unprecedented heights with students in secondary schools also at the receiving end of these unfortunate realities. Going by the current torrent of insecurity and its obvious engulfment of the Nigerian State, there is a need for principals to build bridges and galvanise their schools against the debacle of insecurity that is ravaging this nation. This paper seeks to propose the context leadership theory as the means to address this menace. The paper provided a detailed explication of insecurity issues in Nigeria, its impacts on secondary education and the implication of principals’ behaviours and roles in effectively combatting insecurities. The engagement of this theory unravels the emergence of roles that the principals can take to nip the problem in the bud. Such roles include: managing the school’s vision and mission, ensuring teachers\u27 professional development in handling security issues, fostering normative relationships across the entire school community, dealing with internal and external influences, and manage the school’s resources. Thus, we recommend that principals need to take on the roles as mentioned above in order to ensure that the current spate of insecurity in the country does not shut the gates of their schools
Quality Curriculum Implementation and Improvement for Global Competitiveness: An Assessment of Science Teachers’ Creative skills
Full text linkCreativity, a part of the Nature of Science, plays a key role in scientific knowledge development. Scientific Knowledge and skills connote the heartbeat of science teaching. Creative strategies and activities are therefore essential for adequate science curriculum implementation. This study examined science teachers’ creative thinking skills in Ondo state, Nigeria. It also investigated demographic variables influencing this skill. Five research questions were raised and answered. Descriptive research design of the survey type was employed. One hundred and seventy Science Teachers were randomly selected as sample. The “How creative are you” test was validated, and the reliability index yielded 0.83. Findings revealed that Science teachers’ creative thinking skills were fair and not satisfactory for global competitiveness. Gender, year of experience, qualification and teaching subject did not influence teachers’ creative thinking. The findings imply that teachers with fair creative thinking skills in the science classroom may garnish their lessons with less creative strategies and activities that may prompt students’ interest and possibly result in better performance. It was recommended that sensitization should be made on the relationship between creativity and science teaching and the need for science teachers to be more creative in their approach to teaching. Furthermore, Science teachers should be willing to try out innovative approaches regardless of their gender, year of experience, qualification and teaching subjects
Students’ Perception of Teachers and Parents’ Accountability in Secondary Schools
Full text linkThis study investigated students’ perceptions of teachers\u27 and parents\u27 accountability among senior secondary school students in Ibandan, Nigeria. The study adopted an ex-post facto survey research design on a sample of three hundred and twenty-three participants. The study was guided by two research questions; what is the students’ perception of teacher accountability? what is the students’ perception of parent accountability? Students’ perception of Teachers’ Accountability Scale (SPTAS) and Students’ Perception of Parents’ Accountability Scale (SPPAS) were used for data collection. Descriptive statistics namely; frequency counts, percentages and means, were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that students’ perception of teacher accountability was significantly low, but students’ perception of their parents’ accountability was significantly high. This implies that teachers are not achieving the optimal learning of their students and not taking care of the students\u27 progress according to their capacity while parents are carrying out their responsibilities accordingly. It is recommended that teachers should attend workshops, seminars and in-service training to upgrade their teaching activities. Teachers should encourage students to improve their attainments and develop their personalities. Teachers should make themselves available to students and help them to understand topics that are difficult to learn. Parents should assist their children that have challenges of coping with academics by employing the service of private home tutors. Parents should endeavor to encourage and give their children adequate time to read and do their home works at home rather than engaging them with domestic work and watching of non-educational movies most of the time
A Correlational Perspective of Social Media-Related Behaviours and Students’ Discipline in Public Secondary Schools
Full text linkThe study examined Social media-related behaviours and students’ discipline in public secondary schools in Kogi State, Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to investigate how often students interact with social media and the effect of this on students’ discipline. Descriptive research of the surrey type was used for the study. The population consisted of all the 55,800 students in all the public secondary schools in Kogi State. The sample for the study consisted of 900 students, 500 teachers and 45 schools. The samples were selected using proportionate sampling and simple random sampling techniques. Two self-designed instruments were used to collect relevant data. They are; Students’ Discipline Questionnaire (SDQ) for teachers and Students’ Social Media-Related Behaviour Questionnaire (SSMRBQ) for students. The validity of the instruments was ascertained by experts in the area of educational management and test and measurement. The reliability coefficient of 0.86 was obtained for SDQ for teachers and 0. 88 for SSMRBQ for students. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. All the hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that most of the students were engaged in social media. A high percentage of the students (81.2%) in the study area often interact with social media. The study showed that there was a significant relationship between social media-related behaviours and students’ discipline. The study further revealed that there was a significant relationship in the social media-related behaviours and student’s discipline in the rural areas. Based on the findings, it was recommended that school administrators and teachers needed to inform and educate students on the harmful effects and the negative behaviours that students pick up from social media on regular bases
Basic Education as a Tool for Promoting National Integration among Children in Rural Basic Schools
Full text linkThis paper examines basic education as a tool for national integration among pupils of basic schools in rural areas of Oyo State, Nigeria. National disintegration of pupils in basic schools is one of the major reasons why the government of Nigeria launched universal basic education; its reasoning is that, once the foundation is established properly, the structure becomes solid. This study adopted a descriptive research design, which had as its purpose to characterise the population being studied. The sample of the research study consisted of 3 273 respondents (1 376 male, 1 897 female). Four research questions are raised and answered by this study. Data for the study was collected by means of a closed-ended questionnaire. The face and content validity of the study was ascertained and the reliability coefficient, using the Cronbach Alpha, was found to be 0.86. The findings of the research study showed that the elements of basic education that can bring about national integration among basic school children include the inculcation of sound moral behaviors, obedience to rules and regulations, respect for dignity of labour and democratic norms. The study also revealed that the inculcation of self-confidence in the pupils, a continuous search for knowledge, developing a sense of respect, and imbibing a spirit of national consciousness and patriotism are ways of promoting national integration. Based on the findings of the study, it recommended that subjects that could bring about integration should be emphasised more in the classroom by the teachers, to instil in the lives of the pupils a spirit of unity. Also, in order to promote integration of the pupils of basic schools, school heads and teachers should inculcate in the lives of the pupils a strong desire for knowledge and continued learning
Framing Ubuntu Philosophy to Reconstruct Principals’ Behaviour and Teachers’ effectiveness in Secondary Schools
Full text linkThe dwindling of teachers’ effectiveness in secondary schools as linked to the behaviour of principals necessitates this study. The study was theorised with Ubuntu philosophy to uncover deficiencies relating to principals’ organisational behaviour indices such as; communication, participatory decision making and stress management as correlates of teachers’ effectiveness in secondary schools in Ekiti State Nigeria. Descriptive research of survey design was used to cover all public secondary schools in Ekiti State. Seven hundred and twenty (720) respondents were sampled; 360 teachers and 360 students were selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure. Principal Behaviours Questionnaire”(PBQ) administered on teachers and “Teacher Effectiveness Questionnaire”(TEQ) administered on students were used to collect data. Face and content validity were used to ascertain the degree of accuracy and appropriateness of the instruments. Test-retest reliability method of the instruments was done with reliability coefficients of 0.77 and 0.94 respectively. Descriptive statistics (frequency counts and percentages) and Inferential Statistics (Pearson Product Moment Correlation PPMC and Regression Analysis) were used to analyse the data. The study found out that the effectiveness of teachers is on average while principals’ behaviour variables are highly significant to teachers’ effectiveness with the conclusion that communication, participatory decision making and principal stress management are the dimension of teachers’ effectiveness in secondary schools