Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, was declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) on 11^th of March, 2020 after it has spread to many countries of the world. It has also caused more than 171 countries of the world to close their educational institutions for several months in the year 2020. The impact of COVID-19 on education is bizarre and unprecedented in history because more than 1.5 billion students from across the globe have been affected by school closure. Most Nigerian students and other African or underdeveloped countries were more disadvantaged because most educational institutions in Nigeria still follow the traditional set-up of face-to-face lectures in the normal classroom settings.  This opinion article highlights the importance of online education in a time of global pandemic and natural disaster. It also examines the strengths and challenges of online education.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) directly influences the development of teaching and learning processes since they promote innovative pedagogical actions and generate new learning spaces. It helps a self directed learning environment for the teachers and students at any time at any place. Through the internet, online resources provide the facilities of changing the culture of learning without teachers and educational institutions. Evaluating, categorizing and selecting quality standard online resources are necessary for the students of school level for mathematics. Thirty online resources were chosen as a sample, evaluating criteria were developed and assessed through the defined ranking. The result revealed that about 36.67% resources were below the average level and rejected for use in school level mathematics of Nepal based on curriculum, digital technological status, and pedagogical perspective.

The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is skills and training preparatory program meant to expose students of higher institutions of learning to practical experiences outside their institutions. Quality of the students’ exposure to industrial work experience and unemployment trend of graduates poses a serious threat to institution(s), societies and environment at large. The study examined the performance of Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme in Federal polytechnic Offa, Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative approach and data were elicited from five years (2014-2018) of National Diploma Students of the seventeen (17) participating departments. Inferential statistics of Two-Way Analysis of Variance and Simple descriptive statistical models were used in the analysis of data. The study revealed the downward trend in the performance of students. The p-values of the mean scores of students in each departments was 0.002 and the mean scores of students on yearly basis of 0.016 were all less than 0.05. The study rejects the null hypothesis and accepts the alternative hypothesis that there is significant difference between the departmental and yearly SIWES scores of students. The result of the Least Significant Difference (LSD) post hoc test revealed that the difference is between all the departments. The study recommended a data pool of relevant training organizations and the development of technology for proper placement of students to improve their skill acquisition and employability.

This paper reports the findings from an action research on effect of teaching how to find research topic to the undergraduate students’ interest and motivation in learning research. The action research employing mixed methods approach was conducted on 95 first year Bachelor of Bhutan and Himalayan Studies (BHS) students taking research methods course at the College of Language and Culture Studies, Royal University of Bhutan. Baseline data were collected using self-developed questionnaire (N=95), focus group interview (N=6) and four experts’ rating on students’ research topics. Intervention strategies to find research topic were adapted from Bui [1] and Lester and Lester Jr.’s [2] framework and implemented to enable students to speculate, frame and evaluate their research topic. After three weeks of intervention, a post-intervention data were collected employing same procedures and tools as the pre-survey data were collected. Further, to validate the findings, researcher added field notes from the observation during implementing the intervention. Findings showed that intervention strategies have made an impact on students’ ability to find research topic, which in turn indicated that students interest and motivation towards research learning augmented. Recommendations to fortify students’ research learning experience and need for future research are also provided. 

The Higher Teachers’ Training Colleges (HTTCs) and Higher Teachers’ Technical Training Colleges (HTTTCs) in Cameroon prepare all teachers seeking to be employed within the education service in Cameroon. In the last decade, Ecole Normale Superieur (ENS) and Ecole Normale Superieur d’Enseignement Technique (ENSET)’s enrolments for initial teacher preparation programs have grown significantly, with peaks in numbers during the recession years. There is also some evidence of attrition when beginning teachers complete their 3-year courses with the Ministry of Higher Education, which sponsors their teacher education program. This research sought to investigate the principal determining factors that are extrinsic, intrinsic and altruistic to choosing teaching as a career in Cameroon. It also investigated the expectations and the plans of pre-service teachers in Cameroon. The study was carried out within a duration of 6 months with a total of 210 (125 females and 85 males) teacher trainees in their first year, involved in the study. The types of motivation when choosing teaching as a career were studied using ‘Teaching Career Choice Scale’. The model of motivation types was supplemented by subscales: Influenced by others, Career growth, motivation and alternative choice. The findings of the study revealed that male and female student teachers have similar motives in selecting teaching as a career. The mean scores for both genders were closely related. For altruistic factors, the mean ranges respectively for males and females were 32.41 and 32.26. Extrinsic factors stood at 40.18 and 37.06 respectively. Intrinsic and altruistic factors motivated teachers the less, scoring a mean range of 26.07 and 26.14. This paper also discussed the findings in relation to wider issues concerning gender, and drew conclusions which may be helpful to policy-makers and institutions in the recruitment of students into pre-service teacher training.