Educational Technology

The involvement of the community in sustainable forest management needs to be anchored on sound knowledge and vast understanding of forests, forest resources and their sustainable exploitation mechanisms. Humans encroachment into the Nandi Hills Forests, compounded by urban expansion, unsustainable timber harvesting and agricultural practices have over the years threatened to annihilate this catchment area. The study was undertaken in three districts; Nandi South, Nandi Hills and Nandi North Districts. A mixed methodological approach was used in this study, where concurrent triangulation and nested/embedded designs prevailed. The study reveals that environmental education has been institutionalized in the Nandi County and is yielding sustainable forest management. However, some institutional and capacity gaps do exist. Government agencies, international organizations and community-based organizations have been profiled as the predominant institutions that are involved in building the capacities of the locals through environmental education and forest conservation. Change detection, undertaken by way of GIS and remote sensing, has corroborated the perceptions and undertakings of the locals and institutions on forest management; exemplified by the level of awareness on the state of forest cover, and the ensuing consequences. The study proposes a heuristic for community environmental education centered on institutional arrangements, policy frameworks, formal and informal education approaches, GIS and remote sensing. Integrated community environmental education, epitomized in the heuristic, could be a robust tool for sustainable forest management once it is rolled out.

Knowledge management is a process that helps organizations to find important information, select, organize and publish them; and it’s a proficiency that will be necessary for actions like solving problems, dynamic learning, decision making. Knowledge management can improve a wide range of organization performance properties by enabling company to more intelligent performance, but it’s not enough alone; because knowledge management to be useful needs undertaking staff to organization and their job, that accept the knowledge management process with spirit and heart and perform it(Wiig, 1999:14). With considering the importance of this topic, the current discussion will study the relation between knowledge management and professional commitment of staff at a petroleum company in the south of Iran. Formation of this study was based on this question that with considering the importance of professional commitment and organizational commitment of staff, what the relation between knowledge management and professional commitment and organizational commitment of staff is. The tools of data collection in order to knowledge management evaluation is the 21 questions questionnaire of Proset et al., to evaluation of professional commitment and organizational commitment, that’s combination and native 27 questions questionnaire of Allen and Meyer et al.; the stability of professional commitment and organizational commitment obtained 83% and the stability of knowledge management evaluation was 0.87 and because of being Kronbakh alpha of questionnaires both more than 0.7, both questionnaires had obligatory stability. To determine being normal, the data obtained of Colmogroph -Smirnoph was applied and confirmed the results of being normal test. Hypothesizes of the study were examined by performing of Spearman correlation test and their significant and positive effects were proved, this means that knowledge management totally has a direct and significant relation with organizational commitment and professional commitment.

The article analyses the concept of motivation and features some facts on the importance of differentiation between the intrinsic-extrinsic constructs and integrative-instrumental orientation to motivation, as well as the necessity to study students’ actual motivational background to learning English. The article describes a recent study of motivational basis in Psychology students in terms of learning English. The research aims to find out and to assess the presence of a certain motivational type and orientation. The author examines and interprets the results of a written questionnaire concerning definite orientations to motivation in Psychology students of Cherkasy National University.

The aim of this study is to validate the psychometric properties of the short form of the Coolidge axis II inventory in clinical and non-clinical populations. The short form of the Coolidge axis II inventory is a 70-item self-reporting tool for measuring personality disorders based on DSM book criteria. In the study of the psychometric properties of this instrument the mean internal scale reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha) was obtained for both clinical and non-clinical population (n = 630) 0.79 and for clinical population (N = 120) 0.82. The average retest reliability (two weeks) of this instrument was 0.80. There was good convergence validity between these tools with the personality diagnostic questionnaire 4 (PDQ 4). In addition, the structural validity results showed that this tool has a good structural validity. This tool has good validity and reliability in both clinical and non-clinical samples.

The paper considers the problem of designing ESP curriculum for postgraduate students. The role and potential of ESP teaching has a state meaning for Ukraine and many other countries. The key point in ESP teaching is curriculum design. To design a curriculum, the paper determines the postgraduate students’ needs and formulates certain objectives and tasks for postgraduate ESP study. Four content modules are elaborated involving language materials and four types of speech activity.

Educational capabilities vary in diverse geographical regions. Training is critical to standardize and optimize educational practices for desired outcomes. In Guyana, indigenous Amerindian preservice teachers need to acquire the skills and overcome the technological barriers to better prepare learners beyond the classroom. Even though internet access would allow indigenous Amerindians in Guyana to develop technology literacy skills and access educational resources, Indigenous pre-service teachers have a low rate of technology adoption in the classroom. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to discover the perceptions of indigenous Amerindian preservice teachers on the adoption of digital technology in the classroom. Rogers’s diffusion of innovation theory and David and Venkatesh's technology of acceptance model were used to understand indigenous Amerindian preservice teacher perceptions about the use of digital technology, in respect of perceived barriers, and the coping and adopting mechanism throughout their pedagogical practices. Ten Indigenous Amerindian preservice teachers participated in this qualitative study. Semi-structured, interviews were the primary data collection tool. Open coding was used to generate themes and analyzed emergent coding. The findings from this study indicated that the rate of adoption of digital technology could accelerate if (a) training is strategic, (b) there is a reduction of institutional barriers, and (c) professional practices are aligned for educational growth. This study potentially contributes knowledge to education and leverage and adoption of digital technology, to advance understanding of learning and pedagogical best practices. The findings may contribute to positive social change in that professional development centers can improve skills that provide flexible learning for improving access to psychological therapies to integrate digital technology beyond the classroom. and serve as a catalyst to promote growth by capacity building.

This study is an effort to explore Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions about integrating Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) tools in teaching and learning English and reasons they choose or avoid utilizing such tools in the classroom. 100 male and female English teachers with BA, MA, or PhD degree participated in this survey. A questionnaire was used for the purpose of the study. The findings reveal that the majority of teachers were positive towards computer mediated teaching. They asserted that CMC tools are time, energy, and money saving; interesting for the students; reduces cultural barriers by facilitating exposure to the authentic materials; enables teachers to encourage students beyond the limit of time and space; and enables learners to learn at their own pace. The results of the correlational analysis shows that the better teachers were at working with computers the more they showed positive attitudes towards applying technology in their teaching practice.

Physics is commonly related to basis of science and technological development. Kenyan Fundamental Education Curriculum, identifies physics as a mandatory subject at forms one and two in secondary schools. It is also as a vital element for an entry to physics, engineering and technological related programs in the middle colleges and Higher Leaning Institutions. Scientist, technologists, and engineers are considered to be role models in their professions to the subsequent age band of scientists, therefore they are required to exhibit advanced ability in physics. Secondary schools’ graduates with C+ (plus) in physics at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), qualifies for university right entry into most science and technology associated programs. Such ceiling qualifications have blocked many of young Kenyans who are interested in such programs. The need for pre-university bridging in physics is high among the KCSE graduates who are willing to join physics related programs. These are openings which Kenyan universities are hunting for. Currently one of the main concerns to Kenyan Commission for University Education (CUE) is commercialization of university education which has been identified to be diluting higher education. Most universities insist in pre-university physics bridging programs for anyone who had attained grades below C+ in physics. Each and every university has its own entry requirement for pre-university physics bridging. Different universities are also at variance in content to be covered and learning durations. The secondary school physics content and that of pre-university bridging are not equivalent quantitatively. This paper describes on intellectual delivery of physics bridging programs in relation to entry prerequisite, content descriptions and period for the program completions among public universities. Eight (8) out of 22 public chattered universities were randomly sampled. Questionnaires, Interviews schedules and document analysis were used to collect data. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were taken on and results analysis done using content and narrative analysis. Results disclosed wide inconsistencies in the organization of university physics bridging programs ranging from entry requirements, program contents and duration.

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between academic achievement, need for achievement and anxiety among 101 above average female achievers. The participants of the study were between the age range of 16-18 years. Academic achievement was assessed by previously passed examination, 65% being the cut off score. The A M Sn-dm (n-ach) by Deo & Mohan was used to assess need for achievement and IPAT Anxiety Scale by Krug, Scheier and Cattell was used to assess anxiety amongst the students. The average achievement score was 79%. The mean need for achievement and anxiety scores were 132 and 39 respectively. A positive but insignificant correlation was found between academic achievement and need for achievement. A negative but insignificant correlation was found between school achievement and anxiety. A negative but significant correlation at .01 level of significance was found between need for achievement and anxiety. The present study has implications in child rearing and teaching practices.

Class room management is a tool to set learning environment. Well managed class rooms make instruction easy and learning must occur. Study was designed to investigate the essentials of classroom management at pre- primary level by using stratified random sampling technique thirty teachers were selected as sample of the study. Results indicate classroom management is a complicated activity which needs a lot of effort it never happens by chance. Physical material need to be set in such a way that traffic in class room will not be effected. Conflicts and misbehavior should also address. Effective teaching strategies enable teacher to become learning facilitator at per-primary level.