Getahun, Dawit Asrat

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

Context-Based Developmental Assets, Well-Being, and Thriving Among Youths: Implications for Interventions

By Dejenie, Meseret Ayalew

This study investigated the relationships between context-based assets (personal, family, school, social, and community) and gratification delay, hedonic well-being, and psychological well-being. The study participants were 614 students selected from private, public rural, and public urban secondary schools. Data were collected using selected items from scales related to gratification delay, life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, psychological well-being, and developmental assets. The data were analysed using canonical correlation and two-way between-groups ANOVA. The results revealed a statistically significant relationship between context-based assets and gratification delay. In addition, context-based assets were also significantly correlated with the hedonic well-being and psychological well-being variables. The commonality coefficient showed that personal assets made a great contribution to the canonical solution of all the functions. The results further indicated that experience with assets differs as a function of school type, but gender did not have a significant effect. It is concluded that context-based assets are highly associated with positive youth development outcomes, including the ability to delay gratification and enhance hedonic and psychological well-being. Research with an experimental design should be conducted to further investigate and understand how intervention on each context-based asset contributes to youth thriving. © 2025 Unisa Press.

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Scientific Reasoning Among Teachers and Teacher Trainees: the Case in Ethiopian Schools and Teacher Training Colleges

By Getahun, Dawit Asrat

Because teachers' instructional practices are fundamental to the development of scientific reasoning ability, it is important that teachers become proficient in scientific reasoning. With such a premise, the study examined the scientific reasoning ability of teacher educators, schoolteachers, and prospective teachers in a province in Ethiopia. The study involved 37 (2 F; 35 M) teacher educators, 116 (51 F; 65 M) prospective teachers, and 140 (57 F; 83 M) primary school teachers. Lawson's Test of Scientific Reasoning was administered to collect data. Analysis of the data showed that the participants generally had a low level of reasoning ability with 86% of them classified as intuitive thinkers. Group comparisons revealed that teacher educators were better in reasoning ability than schoolteachers who in turn were better than prospective teachers. It is found that equal proportions of teacher educators were transitional thinkers and intuitive thinkers, but the vast majority of prospective teachers (94.8%) and schoolteachers (88.6%) were intuitive thinkers. Considering six dimensions of scientific reasoning, participants' difficulties in scientific reasoning were evident mainly in relation to hypothetico-deductive reasoning and control of variables. Implications of the results for curricula at different levels and teacher preparation programs are discussed.

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