Successful leadership mainly depends upon the knowledge and understanding about various leadership skills together with leader’s personal capacity to execute these skills efficiently. Elementary school head teachers, therefore, require notable expertise to professionally perform their important administrative responsibilities for achieving the school goals and objectives. In this context, this survey study was mainly conducted to investigate the extent of the leadership capacities of elementary school head teachers’ they possessed and differences in their views when grouped by their gender and administrative experience. To achieve the objective, a questionnaire comprising 24-items with six subscales developed by Ng (2010) was adapted with minor changes. The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 363 head teachers randomly selected from 1014 elementary schools of Multan division and finally 336 (92.6%) responded. Results of descriptive statistical analyses suggest that the participants believed with high consensus that they were not well equipped with needed leadership skills in four areas specifically in the area of ‘quality assurance and accountability’. Inferential statistical tests revealed no significant differences in participants’ perceptions based on their gender. Significant differences, however, were found in their views based on their administrative experience. The conclusions of this study point to the relevant strategies for planning continuous professional development of elementary school head teachers in Pakistan.
Internationally, centralized systems for collecting students’ feedback have become an increasingly common practice in higher education institutions [HEIs] for monitoring quality of teaching as well as for professional development of faculty members. The collection, analysis and reporting of evaluation results are carried out systematically in many HEIs across the globe. However, how to effectively close the feedback loop with students as well as teachers on the results of student evaluations of teaching [SETs] remain an issue to be addressed. Consistent with global trend, HEIs in Pakistan are also supposed to conduct SETs. In this context, the main intention of this study was to determine whether the cycle of teaching evaluation process is completed, and feedback loop proceeds effectively towards closing around the SETs or not in Pakistani HEIs. To achieve the objective, the triangulation design was used in which an online search was carried out in 130 Pakistani HEIs’ official websites to collect qualitative data. Concurrently, a questionnaire comprising 13 close-ended items, with “yes-and-no” scale, was administered in online format to collect quantitative data from a sample of 507 faculty members and 110 administrators from 130 Pakistani HEIs. Based on content analysis of documents and descriptive analysis of participants’ responses, this paper concludes that universities in Pakistan are bound by HEC to collect feedback from students using central system of Quality Enhancement Cells, but limited attention has been placed to close the feedback loop with students and teachers to inform improvements. Finally, this paper recommends the need for universities in Pakistan to genuinely listen to students’ voices and to act on their feedback as part of quality assurance.
School education in Pakistan has allocated resources to upsurge English language learners (ELLs) academic achievement. But in spite of concerted efforts, students of English language specifically at elementary level continue to lag behind in their academic achievement. Additionally, English language teachers feel themselves unequipped to fulfill the linguistics and academic needs of these learners without relevant professional development training. The main objective of this quasi experimental pre-test post-test design study, therefore, was to analyze the effect of SIOP model on students’ achievement in English in comparison with students who were not taught using this model. All the students enrolled in grade 8th in elementary schools of district Lodhran served as study population. Two intact/pre-existing sections of grade 8th in two elementary schools were taken as study sample. One section with 32 students (experimental group) was taught using SIOP model while the other section with 40 students (control group) received instruction with conventional methods. The inferential analysis of pre-test post-test data exhibited statistically significant differences in experimental group students’ English achievement level who received instruction with SIOP. Findings of this study suggest that the use of SIOP model has positive effect on English language learners (ELLs) academic achievement as well as closing the English achievement gap. Finally, this study provides valuable implications for teachers, school administrators and policy makers to improve academic performance of English language learners.
Despite a bulk of research in international context investigating the relationship of cognitive test anxiety with students’ academic performance, little work has yet been done in this area on samples of students in Pakistan. This correlational design study was, therefore, conducted to examine the relationship between secondary school students’ cognitive test anxiety and their examination performance in educational context of Pakistan and to ascertain how the direction and/or strength of this relationship may be moderated by students’ gender and their school sector. Data were collected on students’ cognitive test anxiety, total obtained marks in SSC examination and obtained marks in English along with students’ gender and school sector from 1712 mixed ability students enrolled in year 11 in 91 public and private institutions. Both the descriptive and inferential statistical techniques (i.e., Mean, SD and Independent samples t-test) along with Pearson’s R correlations and hierarchical multiple regression were performed to analyze the data. Results depicted that female sample students reported higher level of cognitive test anxiety in comparison to their male counterparts. Results also suggested a small but significant negative effect of cognitive test anxiety on students’ examination performance and that student cognitive test anxiety component accounted for 10% of variance in their examination performance. Results further revealed that the magnitude of relationship between students’ cognitive test anxiety and examination total point scores do not change much for the moderating variables and these variables accounted only for 3% of variance. The magnitude of moderating effect, however, found to be somewhat stronger in the school sector in comparison to students’ gender.
This study analyzed the effect of ICT integration on secondary school students’ physics achievement and reasoning skills and used quasi-experimental pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group design. The study population comprised all the secondary school science students enrolled in grade 10th in secondary schools of district Multan. Two pre-existing/intact sections of grade 10th in one of the secondary schools constituted the study sample. Experimental group, comprising 31 students, was taught through ICT integration, while control group, comprising 30 students, was taught through traditional method. Researchers collected pre-test and post-test data using Physics Achievement Test (PAT). To measure students’ reasoning skills, a questionnaire comprising ten close-ended items designed on Likert 5-point scale, was administered to students after post-test. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were used to analyze the data. Data analysis indicated that the experimental group, who received instruction through ICT, performed significantly better than the control group. Furthermore, results showed that ICT integration enhanced students’ reasoning skills. Overall, this study revealed that the use of ICT integration has a positive effect on students’ physics achievement along with their reasoning skills. Finally, this study provides useful guidelines for teachers, administrators, and policymakers for improving school students’ academic performance.
Four basic and interrelated language skills i.e., listening, reading, writing and speaking have long been used by language teachers as a prerequisite as well as an indispensable part of foreign language teaching. In this context, the key intent of this survey design quantitative study was to examine views of undergraduate students about the extent of efficacy of these basic language skills in enhancing their learning and how students approach and use each of the skills. The data used to reach the conclusions were collected through a 23 item self-developed questionnaire comprising four sub-scales i.e., listening (5 items), reading (9 items), writing (5 items), and speaking (4 items). The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 207 male and female students randomly selected from three departments of one public university in Pakistan. Based on the descriptive and inferential analyses of students’ responses, it was concluded that students consider all the four basic language skills as an effective and helpful tool for enhancement of their learning as well as delivery of information. The study finally recommends teaching these skills to students at early educational levels with different methods and approaches to make them more successful and willing learners.
The accessibility of modern computer technologies in schools is increasing all over the globe. Generally, the presence of a well-equipped and functional computer lab facility in school provides the opportunity not only to modernize educational methods but also to augment students and teachers’ interest towards the efficient use of computer technology along with access to quality education. In line with prevailing global trends, federal and provincial governments in Pakistan especially Government of the Punjab also made concerted efforts to provide computer lab facility in secondary schools in past two decades. In this context, this article mainly focused on examining the usefulness of computer labs for enhancement of secondary school students learning experiences. Descriptive survey design was used to achieve the objectives of this study in which a self-developed questionnaire designed on Likert five-point format was administered to 320 sample students selected from 32 secondary schools using cluster and stratified random sampling techniques. Both the descriptive (i.e., percentage, mean, SD) and/or inferential statistics (i.e., independent-sample t-test) were used to analyze collected data. The results revealed that secondary school students believe, with a higher level of consensus, that computer labs are useful for enhancement of their learning. Some concerns, however, were also highlighted by students regarding the availability of required physical facilities in computer labs. It was recommended for school authorities to provide well-equipped and fully functional computer labs in schools to achieve maximum benefits for students.
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