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Household National Health Insurance Subscription and Learning Outcomes of Poor Children in Ghana
Household National Health Insurance Subscription and Learning Outcomes of Poor Children in Ghana
by Raymond Elikplim Kofinti
Keep ReadingBullying roles intensity, psychosocial challenges and adjustment strategies of in-school adolescents in Kwara State
Bullying roles intensity, psychosocial challenges and adjustment strategies of in-school adolescents in Kwara State
by Mustapha Mulikat Ladi Abdulqadir
Keep ReadingUse of artificial intelligence to support surgical education personnel shortages in low- and middle-income countries: developing a safer surgeon
Profiling teacher pedagogical behaviours in plummeting postgraduate students’ anxiety in statistics
Relationships between undergraduate medical students' attitudes toward communication skills learning and demographics in Zambia: a survey-based descriptive study
Teacher Attitudes and Perceived Preparedness Towards Inclusive Education in Kenya: We Are Somewhat Okay and Kind of Prepared
Nutrition Education Package Focusing on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Tanzania
Interprofessional education and collaborative practice in Nigeria - Pharmacists' and pharmacy students' attitudes and perceptions of the obstacles and recommendations
Continuous assessment of undergraduates as predictor of their academic performance in educational administration and planning course
Cognitive styles and gender as predictors of students' achievement in summary writing in selected secondary schools in ibadan, Nigeria
Constructivism as pedagogical framework and poetry learning outcomes among Nigerian students: An experimental study
Cultural and socio-economic status factors affecting female education in sokoto state, northern nigeria: Implication for counselling
Development of an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation Design Training Package (IPPDTP) for Lecturers of Tertiary Institutions
Challenges and coping strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of distance learning in achieving business education objectives
COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE USE OF EMERGENCY REMOTE TEACHING (ERT) PLATFORMS: LESSONS FROM A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY
Household National Health Insurance Subscription and Learning Outcomes of Poor Children in Ghana
by Raymond Elikplim Kofinti
This paper investigates the effect of poor households’ subscription to National Health Insurance Scheme on their children's school performance. Resource-poor households are often vulnerable to low investment in education. This is particularly the case where expenditure on health can trade off educational spending and compromise children’s academic performance. This paper argues that poor households’ subscription to National Health Insurance Scheme could reduce their health expenditure and consequentially increase educational spending to improve their children’s school performance. This proposition was investigated using data from the seventh round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey. The Instrumental Variable method was employed to address possible endogeneity problems between health insurance subscription and children’s learning outcomes. Additionally, the propensity score matching technique was used to validate the results. The results show that poor households’ subscription to National Health Insurance Scheme improves their children’s learning outcomes in Ghana. The results, therefore, imply that universal health coverage among the poor could enhance human capital development in developing countries. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
Bullying roles intensity, psychosocial challenges and adjustment strategies of in-school adolescents in Kwara State
by Mustapha Mulikat Ladi Abdulqadir
It has been established that bullying behaviour is a major threat that no school can dismiss. The level at which bullying behaviour is perpetrated or experienced has not been clearly defined. The aim of this study was to examine bullying roles intensity, psycho-social challenges and adjustment strategies of inschool adolescents in Kwara State, Nigeria through survey of opinions. The population of the study comprised of 223,893 in-school adolescents in Kwara State while 400 in-school adolescents constituted a sample for this study. The result revealed moderate and low level of intensity of bullying perpetration and experience. Also, in-school adolescents who were victims experienced more of psychological and social challenges than those involved in other bullying roles. Recommendations were made based on the results of the findings.
Use of artificial intelligence to support surgical education personnel shortages in low- and middle-income countries: developing a safer surgeon
by Seno Saruni
Purpose In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), non-surgeon physicians are responsible for urgent and emergent surgical procedures due to the paucity of formally trained surgeons. The insufficiency of practicing surgeons also limits the mentorship and educational opportunities for these physicians. To assist with the limited formal surgical education for non-surgeon physicians, our team created an appendicitis curriculum with an associated task-trainer. The aim of this study was to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) model to automatically identify the tasks of the open appendectomy procedure from recorded videos for assessment and feedback. Methods Fifty videos were collected via cell phone cameras of expert surgeons and novices performing open appendectomies on a low-cost task-trainer. Video frames were extracted at one frame-per-second intervals, and then two investigators made annotations using a python-based video annotation software. A deep learning model was designed to identify which steps of the procedure were shown in the video frames. The AI model consists of a deep convolutional neural network for capturing the visual features and an attention-augmented bi-directional recurrent neural network to incorporate temporal dependencies among multiple randomly sampled frames from each video. Results Videos were used to train the AI model and evaluate its performance. Videos that did not include all procedural steps (n = 7) were excluded. The current accuracy and per-class F1 score (harmonic mean of precision and sensitivity) are 60.74% and 42.43% respectively. The average throughput of the model is > 100 frames per second, which substantiates that the AI model is suitable for real-time applications. Conclusion AI can be used to discriminate performed steps of an open appendectomy on our task-trainer. Collecting additional videos for AI model training will help increase its accuracy and efficiency. This technology can be further developed to determine if each step is performed correctly, which can facilitate providing feedback to learners. Such future AI developments may help assess and provide objective feedback to LMIC physicians who have limited access to expert feedback.
Profiling teacher pedagogical behaviours in plummeting postgraduate students’ anxiety in statistics
by Prince Yeboah Asare
The indispensable relationship between Research and Statistics makes the teaching of both courses crucial in all postgraduate programmes. However, over the years, postgraduate students have displayed a high level of anxiety in studying Statistics. Therefore, exploiting the descriptive case study strategy knitted within the sequential explanatory design, a Statistics teacher was studied in one of Ghana’s outstanding universities and the reported pedagogical behaviours were profiled. Primary data were obtained from 99 postgraduate students (reading various postgraduate programmes on regular, sandwich and distance modes of education) on their level of anxiety in Statistics (using the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale) and their experiences with their teacher’s pedagogical behaviours. Also, 12 of the postgraduate students were interviewed about the pedagogical behaviours of their teacher that reduced their anxiety in Statistics. To triangulate the primary data, secondary results on the teacher’s teaching practices were obtained from the Directorate of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance Unit of the university (originally gathered through a statistical academic support scale). Descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential (one-way ANOVA and SEM) statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data and the qualitative data were analysed into themes. Consequently, the study found 17 teacher pedagogical behaviours under teacher characteristics (cognitive and affective factors) and pedagogical practices that reduced postgraduate students’ statistical anxiety and heightened positive attitudes towards the study of Statistics. Therefore, a recognition of these pedagogical behaviours and their open display during the teaching of Statistics will go a long way in reducing postgraduate students’ high statistical anxiety. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Relationships between undergraduate medical students' attitudes toward communication skills learning and demographics in Zambia: a survey-based descriptive study
by Mercy Ijeoma Okwudili Ezeala
Purpose: This study aimed to detect relationships between undergraduate students' attitudes toward communication skills learning and demographic variables (such as age, academic year, and gender). Understanding these relationships could provide information for communication skills facilitators and curriculum planners on structuring course delivery and integrating communication skills training into the medical curriculum.Methods: The descriptive study involved a survey of 369 undergraduate students from 2 medical schools in Zambia who participated in communication skills training stratified by academic year using the Communication Skills Attitude Scale. Data were collected between October and December 2021 and analyzed using IBM SPSS for Windows version 28.0.Results: One-way analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in attitude between at least 5 academic years. There was a significant difference in attitudes between the 2nd and 5th academic years (t=5.95, P<0.001). No significant difference in attitudes existed among the academic years on the negative subscale; the 2nd and 3rd (t=3.82, P=0.004), 4th (t=3.61, P=0.011), 5th (t=8.36, P<0.001), and 6th (t=4.20, P=0.001) academic years showed significant differences on the positive subscale. Age showed no correlation with attitudes. There was a more favorable attitude to learning communication skills among the women participants than among the men participants (P=0.006).Conclusion: Despite positive general attitudes toward learning communication skills, the difference in attitude between the genders, academic years 2 and 5, and the subsequent classes suggest a re-evaluation of the curriculum and teaching methods to facilitate appropriate course structure according to the academic years and a learning process that addressees gender differences.
Teacher Attitudes and Perceived Preparedness Towards Inclusive Education in Kenya: We Are Somewhat Okay and Kind of Prepared
by Kennedy Bota
The effectiveness of inclusive instructional practices is influenced by teachers' attitudes and sense of preparedness. This study investigated educators' attitudes and perceived preparedness for inclusion. Participants were 1052 primary educators from Kenya. Participants completed questionnaires on attitudes about inclusion and preparedness for inclusion. Results indicated that educators held moderately positive attitudes about inclusion and felt somewhat ambivalent regarding their preparedness for inclusive pedagogy. Educators who felt prepared to engage inclusion held more positive attitudes about inclusion. Educators with degrees in special education, who had also taken more courses in special education, held more positive attitudes about inclusion and reported higher perceived preparedness. However, the majority reported limited knowledge about special education and opportunities for collaboration as significant barriers to inclusive practices. These findings suggest that increased educator training for inclusive education is needed and desired by primary school educators in Kenya.
Nutrition Education Package Focusing on Infant and Young Child Feeding in Tanzania
by Kissa B.M Kulwa
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a nutrition education package on feeding practices, nutrient in-takes and growth of infants in rural Tanzania.Design: Cluster-randomized controlled trial in 18 villages allocated to nutrition education package (n = 9) or routine health education (n = 9 villages), measured at baseline (6 months) and end of the trial (12 months).Setting: Mpwapwa district.Participants: Infants aged 6-12 months and their mothers.Intervention(s): Six months of nutrition education package (group education, counseling, cooking dem-onstrations) and regular home visits by village health workers.Main Outcome Measure(s): Primary outcome measure was the mean change in length-for-age z-scores. Secondary outcomes included mean changes in weight-for-length z-scores (WLZ), intakes of energy, fat, iron and zinc, the proportion of children consuming foods from & GE; 4 food groups (ie, dietary diversity) and consuming the recommended number of semisolid/soft meals and snacks per day (ie, meal frequency).Analysis: Multilevel mixed-effects regression models.Results: Mean change in length-for-age z-scores (b = 0.20, P = 0.02), energy (in kcal) (b = 43.8, P = 0.02), and fat (in grams) (b =2.7, P = 0.03) intakes were significant in the intervention but not in the control group. There was no effect on iron and zinc intakes. More infants in the intervention than the con-trol group consumed meals from & GE; 4 food groups (71.8% vs 45.3%, P = 0.002). The mean increase in meal frequency (b = 0.29, P = 0.02) and dietary diversity (b = 0.40, P = 0.01) were more significant in the inter-vention than control.Conclusions and Implications: The nutrition education package is feasible and can be implemented with high coverage, demonstrating the potential to improve feeding practices, nutrient intake and growth in rural Tanzania.
Interprofessional education and collaborative practice in Nigeria - Pharmacists' and pharmacy students' attitudes and perceptions of the obstacles and recommendations
by Segun J. Showande
Introduction: Many countries have implemented interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP), but there is a dearth of information on the state of IPE in Nigeria. We evaluated the attitude of Nigerian pharmacy students and pharmacists towards IPE and IPCP and the perceived barriers to and recommendations for the implementation of IPE and IPCP. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 238 community and hospital pharmacists and 765 pharmacy students in Nigeria was conducted with an online questionnaire using the Interprofessional Attitude Scale. Information on the perceived barriers to and recommendations for implementing IPE was also collected.Results: Two hundred and seven pharmacists (87%) and 629 (82.2%) pharmacy students agreed that it is necessary for health profession students to learn together. Perceived barriers to the implementation of IPE and IPCP included professional pride [pharmacists = 51 (21.42%), pharmacy students = 55 (7.19%)], prejudice against other health professions [pharmacists = 35 (14.7%), pharmacy students = 74 (9.67%)], uni-professional training [pharmacists = 5 (2.1%), pharmacy students = 7 (0.92%)], and government policies that discourage IPE and IPCP [pharmacists = 10 (4.2%), pharmacy students = 20 (2.61%)]. Recommendations proposed were the integration of IPE in undergraduate pharmacy curricula, cooperation among health professionals to curb professional rivalry, and the provision of necessary facilities and resources by the government.Conclusions: Nigerian pharmacists and pharmacy students had positive attitudes towards IPE and IPCP. The perceived barriers to implementing IPE in Nigeria include discouraging government policies. Deliberate and implementable government policies on IPE are needed.
Continuous assessment of undergraduates as predictor of their academic performance in educational administration and planning course
by Yinusa Akintoye Faremi
The study was designed to investigate how Continuous Assessment (henceforth, CA) marks in Educational Administration and Planning course for undergraduate students will significantly predict their final examination marks. The study adopted ex post facto research design with a total of 221 undergraduates, who registered for a course in the second semester, at the Faculty of Education, Osun State University, Nigeria. The undergraduates' scores in continuous assessment and examination scores at the end of the semester formed the data for the study. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that Biology students had the highest mean value when compared with the mean of undergraduates from other specialised areas. The regression analysis result (F1, 219=40.414, p<0.05) reveals that the CA significantly predicts undergraduate students' performance in semester examination and made the best contribution to students' performance in Educational Administration and Planning. From the findings, it was concluded that continuous assessment scores are a good predictor of undergraduate students' performance in semester examination. It was recommended that there should be thorough supervision of the CA, all process must be monitored in Nigerian Universities for quality assurance. Copyright © 2020 by authors.
Cognitive styles and gender as predictors of students' achievement in summary writing in selected secondary schools in ibadan, Nigeria
by Oladotun Opeoluwa Olagbaju
Performance in the English language especially in public examinations in Nigeria has been very poor with summary writing identified as one of the dreaded aspects of the subject. Research efforts have shown that instructional practices in English studies are not tailored to learners' personality traits such as cognitive style and gender. Cognitive style is an individual's preferred means of receiving, processing, and making use of information. Gender also plays an important role in the teaching-learning process. This study considered the global and analytic dimensions of cognitive style. This study determines to what extent cognitive style and gender can predict students' achievement in summary writing. The research design is descriptive with 350 participants drawn from four senior secondary schools in Ibadan. Data were analyzed using regression analysis, and the results show that cognitive style and gender are predictors of students' achievement in summary writing. Teachers are encouraged to individualise instruction through the knowledge of learner-related variables. © 2020 Oladotun Opeoluwa Olagbaju.
Constructivism as pedagogical framework and poetry learning outcomes among Nigerian students: An experimental study
by Ugwuozor, F.O.
For poetry as a stand-alone subject, there is very scant empirical evidence that exist which estimates the impact of constructivism on its learning and teaching in Africa. There are, however, a number of existing studies in this regard in the Western context. This paper, using an experimental approach, examines the impact of constructivism on poetry learning among junior high school students in southeast Nigeria. Repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to estimate the achievement level in poetry of a randomized selection of participants across control and treatment groups. Results show a significant effect for the constructivist method on achievement among students in the treatment group compared to the control group. They also show that the effect of the constructivist method on students’ achievement is not determined by gender. The implications for research and practice are discussed according to these outcomes. The study concludes that while constructivism may stimulate increased students’ learning outcome, more interaction time between students and teachers and related resource will be crucial in further driving the gains of constructivism in pedagogy. © 2020 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
Cultural and socio-economic status factors affecting female education in sokoto state, northern nigeria: Implication for counselling
by Zainab Lawal Ibrahim
Despite Nigerian government's initiatives such as Northern Education Initiative (NEI), Girl Education Project (GEP) and Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in bridging the massive educational gap between males and females in Sokoto state it remains one of the states with high illiteracy level due to cultural and socio-economic status factors affecting female education. The study investigated the attitudes of parents towards female education and cultural and socio-economic factors responsible for low enrolment and recurrent withdrawal from school. Simple survey design was used, population of 800 students from Women centre for continuing education (WCCE). A sample of 260 students was drawn using Krejcie and Morgan table. Attitudes of parents towards female education questionnaire (APTFEQ) with a reliability of 0.76 and effect of socio-cultural and socio-economic factors on female education questionnaire (ESCSEFFEQ) with 0.84 reliability were the instruments used in collection of data. The study found out that parents have negative attitude towards female education and poverty is the major reason for low enrolment of female students and recurrent withdrawal. Early marriage, gender inequality, religion, child labour and uneducated parents also contributed to such situations. Recommendations were that government should provide free education to females, provision of job opportunities to reduce poverty rate and public awareness campaign on the importance of female education. Female counsellors are required to counsel female students to be successful Academicians in their society. Counsellors should organize conferences and use such forums in conversing with parents about the importance of female education as the major implications for counselling. © 2020 by authors.
Development of an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation Design Training Package (IPPDTP) for Lecturers of Tertiary Institutions
by Nwangwu E.C.
Poorly designed PowerPoint presentations used by most lecturers for content delivery at conferences and in classrooms are seen as an inhibitor to effective teaching and learning. These kinds of presentations often have too many tiny words with no infographics or multimedia elements nor conformed with multimedia design principles. This indicates a lack of requisite skills by lecturers to design compelling and memorable presentations. The present study therefore developed an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation Design Training Package (IPPDTP) for use by lecturers in mastering PowerPoint presentation design that leads to effective content delivery at the tertiary level of education. The study adopted Research and Development (R&D) design with three research questions and one null hypothesis, and it was carried out in four phases: Phase I—needs assessment; Phase II—IPPDTP development; Phase III—IPPDTP validation by ICT experts; and Phase IV—trial-testing of IPPDTP by users. The population for the study was sixty-nine participants. The instruments for data collection were the IPPDTP questionnaire, expert validation, and user evaluation questionnaires. The instruments yielded reliability coefficients of 0.78, 0.81, and 0.84, respectively, and an overall reliability coefficient of 0.87. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions while t-test statistical tool was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that IPPDTP was functional and very effective in mastering PowerPoint presentation designs while users expressed satisfaction. It was therefore recommended that lecturers should obtain and use IPPDTP to learn how to create effective PowerPoint presentations as well as improve their presentation skills to keep abreast with global best practices. © Common Ground Research Networks, Emmanuel Chukwunweike Nwangwu, Peter Uzochukwu Obichukwu, Anthonia Uju Uzuagu, Christian Basil Omeh, All Rights Reserved. Permissions: cgscholar.com/cg_support
Challenges and coping strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of distance learning in achieving business education objectives
by Onojetah, S.O.
The study investigated the challenges and coping strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of distance learning in achieving the objectives of Business Education in Delta State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was employed. A total of 73 lecturers participated in the study. All the 73 lecturers participated in the study because of their manageable size. The medium of data collection was a 35-item structured questionnaire, which was validated by experts in Measurement and Evaluation and Business Education. The instrument had a reliability index of 0.81. Mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the data collected for the study. The study identified 10 administrative challenges, 10 technology-based challenges and 13 strategies for achieving the objectives of the Business Education programme under the distance learning education system. The study recommended adequate funding, recruitment of qualified facilitators, production and distribution of course materials to students and lecturers, the appointment of educational administrators and planners as Directors of Centres and regular in-service training for the facilitators in the use of ICT in instructional delivery. © 2020 Sunday Omorohwovo Onojetah. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE USE OF EMERGENCY REMOTE TEACHING (ERT) PLATFORMS: LESSONS FROM A NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY
by Unknown Author
Aim/Purpose This study examines the use of the Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) plat-form by undergraduates of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, during the COVID-19 pandemic using the constructs of the UTAUT2 model. Five con-structs of the UTAUT2 model were adopted to investigate the use of the ERT platform by undergraduates of the university. Background The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak disrupted academic activities in educational institutions, leading to an unprecedented school closure globally. In response to the pandemic, higher educational institutions adopted different initiatives aimed at ensuring the uninterrupted flow of their teaching and learning ac-tivities. However, there is little research on the use of ERT platforms by under-graduates in Nigerian universities. Methodology The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 334 undergraduates at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, while a questionnaire was used to collect data from 271 students. Quantitative data were collected and analyzed using fre-quency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation, Pearson Product Mo-ment Correlation, and regression analysis. Contribution The study contributes to understanding ERT use in the educational institutions of Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country. Furthermore, the study adds to the existing body of knowledge on how the UTAUT2 Model could explain the use of information technologies in different settings. Findings Findings revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between habit, hedonic motivation, price value, and social influence on the use of ERT platforms by undergraduates. Hedonic motivation strongly predicted the use of ERT platforms by most undergraduates. Recommendations for Practitioners As a provisional intervention in times of emergencies, the user interface, navi-gation, customization, and other aesthetic features of ERT platforms should be more appealing and enjoyable to ensure their optimum utilization by students. Recommendations for Researchers More qualitative research is required on users’ satisfaction, concerns, and sup-port systems for ERT platforms in educational institutions. Future studies could consider the use of ERT by students in different countries and contexts such as students participating in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and the English for Speakers of other languages (ESOL) programs. Impact on Society As society faces increased uncertainties of the next global pandemic, this article reiterates the crucial roles of information technology in enriching teaching and learning activities in educational institutions. Future Research Future research should focus on how different technology theories and models could explain the use of ERT platforms at different educational institutions in other geographical settings and contexts. © (CC BY-NC 4.0) This article is licensed to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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