Wait-time, a variable related to questioning in a teaching-learning situation, has been found to have implications for the inquiry mode of science teaching especially in Western classroom environments. Aside from the fact that the literature is very sparse in this area about what obtains in developing countries, nothing appears to be available with regard to how wait-time interacts with the sociocultural factors within non-Western science classrooms. In a non-Western country such as Nigeria where most science programs in schools are inquiry-oriented, do teachers take notice of, and effectively use, wait-time in the teaching-learning process? Are science teachers able to effectively use the mediating role of sociocultural factors in science teaching in a traditional environment which expects children to be seen only and not heard? The main purpose of this study was to investigate the wait-time of Nigerian integrated science teachers in relation to the amount of students' participation in inquiry. This study also investigated the relationship between wait-time and sociocultural attitudinal factors prevalent in traditional societies. The instruments used for data collection were the Hough's Observational Schedule and a modified version of the Socio-Cultural Environment Scale (SCES); a stop-watch was used to measure the wait-time of audio-recorded integrated science lessons of 37 integrated science teachers from selected junior secondary schools in Kaduna State, Nigeria.The results showed that the average wait-time TT and wait-time ST of the integrated science teachers was 3.0 seconds and 0.7 seconds, respectively. The study reported the amount of student participation in the student-teacher classroom discourse to be very low. Wait-time was also shown to have a strong relationship with sociocultural factors of authoritarianism, goal structure, societal expectation, and traditional worldview. The pedagogical and curricular implications of the results have been highlighted.
Every social organization such as the school is an embodiment of human beings who interact with one another in one way or the other and having specified roles to perform in line with their assigned duties. However, there is need for effective personnel management so as to avert conflicts and equally manage conflicts when they inevitably occur. This paper examined the management of personnel in the Nigerian school system. The implementation of every policy and programme in the school system requires the contribution of the efforts of members of staff at various levels, but this cannot be achieved unless there is unity of purpose and proper coordination of activities of all the staff by the school head. The success of any organization is not only determined by the quality of personnel available, but how well these human resources are harnessed and coordinated towards realizing the goal of the organization. Among the problems that militate against effective personnel management in the Nigerian school system were disagreement on policy matters, disparity in salary structure, dictation from the political class and violent trade unionism. To this end, there is need for greater competence on the part of the management staff to enhance success.
The study aimed to identify the degree of the administrative creativity of the public principals' practice in Tafila Directorate of Education. The sample consisted of 402 teachers (male and female) chosen randomly. The instrument of this study included 36 items. Means, standard deviations, and 3-way ANOVA were used for statistical purposes. The results indicated that there are statistically significant differences for the interaction of gender with experience, the interaction of experience with scientific qualification and the interaction of gender, experience and qualification. According to the results it is recommended that the Directorate of Education in Tafila Province should hold training courses to develop the principals' competence in administrative creativity skills, motivating the teachers who hold bachelor degrees or less to join high programs in education (General diploma, master) to develop their academic and educational knowledge.
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