No abstract

The overall purpose of this study was to assess heads, teachers, student-affairs officers and students' views about factors influencing university students' academic achievement and strategies taken to improve their achievement at Debre Markos University where found in Debre Markos city of East Gojjam province, Ethiopia. Convenience sampling was used and as a result the working group contained 1head, 1-teacher, 1-students' affair official and 3-students. Interview was used as a data collection method. For this purpose, a semi-structured interview form was developed. The interview form was developed by using theoretical foundations, practices and experiences. The validity of the interview form has been made. The draft form obtained for this purpose was given to two academics, who were experts, for their review, and it was revised in line with their opinions and finalized. As a result, firstly, participants reported university, teachers, language, families and student-related factors as the major factors influencing university students' academic achievement. Secondly, students reported that they were revising past sheet papers and drawing up plans and so on to improve their academic achievement. The head, teacher and students' affair official, however, reported they were giving counseling, training services, complex tasks to improve students' academic achievement

Background The issues of religiosity, healthy lifestyle behaviors and academic achievement are global agendas. Most previous research has focused on either one or two of the variables, not three of them (e.g. just the relationship between religiosity and healthy lifestyle behaviors). And addressing these three issues, by and large, demands a systemic approach to re-thinking the current level and improving it. Objective To examine the causal relationship between religiosity, healthy lifestyle behaviors, and academic achievement in the case of Debre Markos University (DMU) and Injibara University (IU), Ethiopia. Methods Four hundred forty students participated voluntarily using a simple random sampling technique. To attain this objective, a cross-sectional research method design was used. Results The mean scores of students’ religious practice and healthy lifestyle behaviors are more than average in all aspects. MANOVA results revealed that batch, ethnicity (region), and the university did not display a statistically significant difference among the composite (or combined) scores of both students’ healthy lifestyles and religiosity. However, religious affiliation and gender have an effect on religiosity and healthy lifestyle behaviors respectively. The correlation output informs that religiosity and healthy lifestyle behaviors are positively and significantly correlated with each other. Religious practice also significantly predicted students’ healthy lifestyle behaviors. Despite this, the academic achievement of students didn’t have any relationship with their religious practice and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Conclusion University students’ healthy lifestyle behavior doesn’t play an intervening variable in the effect of religious practice on academic achievement. Possible practical implications and recommendations have been forwarded.

Özet: Bu çalışmanın amacı, müdür ve öğretmen görüşlerine göre ilköğretim öğretmenlerinin motivasyonunu etkileyen faktörleri ve onların motivasyonunu artırmak için okul yöneticilerinin uyguladıkları stratejileri incelemektir. Çalışma, nitel araştırma yönteminde ve bütüncül çoklu durum çalışması olarak desenlenmiştir. Çalışma grubu iki müdür ve altı öğretmenden oluşmuştur. Veri toplamak amacıyla yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu geliştirilmiştir. Çalışmanın geçerliliğini sağlamak üzere iki akademisyenin soru formunu incelemesi sağlanmış ve görüşleri doğrultusunda düzeltmeler yapıldıktan sonra pilot çalışma yapılarak nihai form elde edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, öğretmenlerin verdiği yanıtlara göre maaşın, okulun yaşam koşullarının, teşvik edici faktörlerin miktarı ve eşitliğinin öğretmenlere eşit olarak dağılımının ilköğretim kurum öğretmenlerinin motivasyonunu etkileyen ana faktörler olarak belirtildiği görülmüştür. Öte yandan müdürler maaşla ilgili faktörlerin öğretmenlerin motivasyonunu etkileyen ana unsur olduğunu bildirmiştir. Öğretmenlere göre en yaygın etkili stratejiler olarak okul müdürlerinin öğretmenleri motive etmek için nakit ödüller, maddi olmayan ödüller ve diğer hediyeler ve fikirlerle destek verdiklerini bildirmişleridir. Müdürler ayrıca açık iletişim oluşturmayı, para ödüllerini, kaynakları ve diğer hediyeleri vermeyi, öğretmenleri güçlendirmeyi, fikirlerle destek vermeyi, katılımcı karar kullanmayı öğretmenleri motive etmek için en yaygın ve etkili stratejiler olarak kullandıklarını bildirmiştir. Abstract:The overall purpose of this study was to investigate principals and teachers' views about factors influencing primary school teachers' motivation and strategies taken to improve motivation. A holistic multiple case study was used. The working group consisted of two principals and six teachers. The researchers developed a semistructured interview form and ensured its validity and reliability by doing a pilot study. As a result, teachers' responses reported that school, salary, living conditions, quantity, and equity of incentiverelated factors are the major factors influencing primary school teachers' motivation. On another side of the group, principals reported that salaryrelated factors are the major factors influencing teachers' motivation. Secondly, teachers reported giving cash rewards, free resources, other gifts; and giving support in ideas as the most common effective strategies principals of schools used to motivate teachers. Principals also reported creating open communication, giving cash rewards, resources, and other gifts, empowering teachers, giving support in ideas, making participatory decision making as the most common effective strategies they used to motivate teachers.

This study aimed to investigate the level of practice, challenges, and prospects of SBM in Ethiopian schools. This study used a holistic multiple-case study. In addition to document review, the researcher collected data via an interview with maximum diversity sampling from eight participants. As findings, implementing SBM in Amhara regional stated, Ethiopia was poor. The significant challenges identified were: the low administrative capacity of crucial members of the SBMs, uncertainty, overload, lack of cooperation from the school managers, and teachers' misconception of the role of the SBM. To improve school management at the school level, Ethiopian schools should take the following prospects into account: Commissioned a steering committee, make a pilot project to allow some schools to have greater control over their budgets, give legal authority to schools to define themselves, increase the direct relationship between district education bureaus and regional educational bureaus, provide in-service training and so forth. The government should formulate operational policy guidelines to create an enabling environment for the SBMs.