Social Sciences

Higher education has a strategic role in empowering women and in achieving gender equity. However, the increasing of women participation in higher education does not automatically extend and transform into the enhancement of women?s access and benefits from development. The purpose of this article is to explore gender issues and strategies of gender mainstreaming in higher education. It contributes to the analyzing of concepts and the implementation of power in organizational structure and practices in revealing the complexity of gender inequality in higher education. The intertwined of organizational, institutional and market significantly affect the realization of gender equality in higher education.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether training and feedback had any effect on the errors in descriptive and argumentative writing of Iranian EFL learners. 60 females upper_ intermediate Iranian learners in English Hermes language Institute participated in this study. The participants were selected via preliminary English Test (PET). The learners were placed into two groups serving the Experimental Group (N=30) that received training and feedback, and the Control Group (N=30) that received score. The learners are homogenous English proficiency level and they were randomly assigned to Experimental and Control groups. Both groups were pretested at the outset of the study. A unified post _ test was administered at the end of the experiment. The results of an independent samplest_ test revealed a significant difference between training and focused feedback on the numbers of errors in the descriptive and argumentative writing.

The French Enlightenment of 18th century was the spiritual successor of Descartes’ rationalism and English empiricism. It gave the main inspiration to the radical political and cultural changes in whole Europe. Descartes himself escaped to draw possible logical consequences from his philosophical method in the field of moral and politics. But subsequent development of suggested method of critical inquiry soon raised suspicion not only to the existing scientific knowledge, but also to all forms of social beliefs and institutions. Very soon the critical reasoning spread over the European continent influencing all people who considered themselves progressive and modern. Different kind of followers united the idea of Reason and the power of new knowledge.

The purpose of the study was to assess the peer acceptance of sensory challenged and non-disabled children in an inclusive education environment. A self structured tool developed by the investigator was used to assess the peer acceptance of sensory challenged and non-disabled children. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select the schools catering to the educational needs of both sensory challenged and non-disabled children attending inclusive schools in Bangalore city. 100 sensory challenged and 100 non-disabled children aged between 10-15 years were selected for the study. The research design included a quasi experimental design. Data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The post assessment data revealed that the intervention programme had a positive influence on peer acceptance of sensory challenged and non-disabled children in an inclusive education environment.

This study examines the relationship between socio economic and demographic factors on the child health status by employing Logistic Regression Model. For this the data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2006-07 was utilized. Education affects the capacity and the behaviors of the people living in the various regions along with some other explanatory variables. It was found that child’s health depends directly or indirectly on parental education and health acquiring activities. Parents with improved social status, protected source of water and access towards health services had better status of their child health. Death rate of child was found high among children of small aged mothers. Increase in birth space diminishes the chances of death and sickness of child. First order births faced great risk of death and sickness. Health care matter like maternal and fetal care in expecting period, delivery place and person who assisted during child birth also impact child physical condition. Research study suggested that Literacy rate should be enhanced to develop the understanding about reproductive health and to optimise the use of accessible health resources. Training and skills should provide to traditional birth attendants and enhance their contacts with professional health staff.

The mastery of writing skill is a crucial for ESL/EFL students. Scholars in the field of language teaching and learning have suggested so many strategies and methods to improve writing compositing. One of these methods is journal writing. However, whether the students actually realize that journal writing may improve a special kind of writing has not been explored. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of applying journal writing on the descriptive, reflective, and critical ability of EFL learners. The study included 80 male and female EFL learners of Hermes institute at the advanced level of language proficiency who were selected, and randomly assigned to experimental and control group. In the course of 10 sessions, the experimental group took the pretest and post test by which the teacher feedback and during which the treatment rubric were introduced. In control group, besides the pretest and posttest, they were provided with traditional writing with no treatment. Descriptive statistics and a paired sample t-test were utilized to analyze the data demonstrated that the two groups were significantly different regarding their writing ability. In order to compare the posttest of the three experimental groups while taking into account their initial differences on pretest (i.e. covariate) ANCOVA was administered. It was concluded that descriptive and reflective models of writing can lead to higher improvement in writing. In other words, the results of this study revealed that descriptive and reflective journal writing have positive effects on the learners’ writing achievements and provided opportunity for teachers to modify and revise their teaching performances in terms of allocating much time on the content of the learners’ writings to achieve the qualified teaching and learning.

Co-curriculum is an important learning component in order to help develop a pupil in full in terms of physical, spiritual, mental, emotional and enhancing values. This study aims to discuss the process element management curriculum of planning, organizing, directing and controlling by co-curriculum’s management team in school of the components human, physical and financial. This study focus on principals role which have to apply the elements of planning, organizing, directing and control in the manage school curriculum. Best practices of principals include planning, organizing, directing and controlling the extra-curricular activities at school. In conclusion, the best practice principals play a role very important in order to produce excellent students as envisaged in Philosophy National Education. 

Increased number of old population recently raises various social, economic and health issues. The various kinds of health hazards among old people include low mental health, depression, dementia and morbidity. There are several factors which affects the overall mental health of a senior citizen (people above 60 years). The primary objective of the present study was to identify the predictors of loneliness and depression among old people. The study included a sample of 60 old individual above age 60 from different old age homes. We interviewed each participant individually for a period of 30 minutes-1 hour to know about their internal self and overall psychological functioning. Qualitative analysis showed that social support and harmony in family life plays a crucial role for loneliness and depression among old people.

This paper examines the role of financial development in economic growth of Pakistan. We have generated financial development index for capturing the financial development in Pakistan, along with financial development we have also chosen some explanatory variables which are closely related to economic growth. We have used annual time series data from 1972 to 2013 and used ARDL model for empirical analysis. The result of our study states that financial development is positively related with economic growth.

Youth tourist is gaining more recognition in tourism marketing and product development in developing countries. Besides being an individual who favours cheap travel, free street shows, and non guided tours, youth tourist also desires to experience expensive events. However, youth in event tourism in Malaysia is hardly discussed, leaving the capabilities of this event unexplored. One of the Malaysian initiatives to enhance tourism, including youth is the Visit Malaysia Year 2007. Based on a case study of 130 respondents, this article draws the perspective of youth tourists’ perspective as fans of event tourism. The findings showed that forms and event suitability act as the mediators that encouraged youths’ participation in event tourism. In planning future event tourism, youth as fans should be transformed in more discern promotional campaign, as knowing who youth of event tourism are will define their desires and actual travel capabilities.