Evaluating the quality of BEd programme: Students' views of their college experiences

Quality assurance of teacher training has become of a great concern nowadays. This paper addresses the quality of BEd programme of the University of Education (UE) Lahore. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the quality of BEd programme with regard to the internal efficiency of Government Colleges for Elementary Teachers (GCETs), the affiliated institutions of UE. The study was conducted on a random sample of 600 BEd students drawn from 11 GCETs in Punjab province. Data was collected through a questionnaire which was validated through a pilot study in 2006. The reliability of the final questionnaire was established at 0.863 allowing the researcher to launch the study at large scale (Gay, 2000). The findings revealed that BEd programme was effective in terms of updating student teachers' knowledge and skills. Student teachers favoured the quality of BEd curriculum, lesson planning and presentation by themselves and their teacher educators, and had some reservations about the proper use of audio-visual aids for effective classroom teaching learning processes. Female gender showed more satisfaction with the quality of BEd curriculum and teaching than their male counterparts. No significant difference was found in the opinion of the students of GCETs having low, medium, and high enrolment.     

Peranan bahasa dalam kebudayaan

Bahawa “bahasa” dalam pengertian orang-orang Melayu tidaklah semata-mata bersifat lingual (yang hanya menjadi alat komunikasi antara dua pihak pengguna bahasa sahaja); tetapi bahasa itu adalah lebih kultural (yang menjadi pengilham dan pendorong manusia ke tahap lebih baik dalam hidupnya; sekaligus mempertinggi kebudayaan manusia itu).     

A qualitative inquiry of doctoral students' herding in education and validation of ‘herding in educational decisions’ scale

Fresh PhD recipients are experiencing restricted career opportunities yet the enrolment of PhD Scholars is increasing rapidly. Perhaps, doctoral students lack conscious educational decision-making. Building on such a perspective of doctoral students' unconscious educational choices, we explored their educational choices throughout their life trajectory. We started with a qualitative inquiry of 18 different PhD scholars in Pakistan. The findings helped us in developing a measure to determine the extent of herding in doctoral students' educational decisions. We ‘benefitted from’ this opportunity and validated the scale in two separate quantitative inquiries for conducting an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The study concluded a 3-dimensional scale (consisting of 15-items) for measuring ‘herding in educational decisions’. The study offers certain implications for conscious educational decisions.     

Experimental tests used for treatment of red weathering crusts in disintegrated granite – Egypt

Rock weathering is defined as the process of rocks alteration as a result of the adjustment of its internal constituents by the action of physical, chemical and biological factors, to the prevailing conditions of the atmosphere and in the environment. In humid polluted areas “red weathering” is one of the major deterioration forms that characterize most granitic rocks. Several intervention steps are required to remove and treat all surfaces affected by this form. It is one of the most aggressive forms of deterioration which are essentially composed of some complex species of clay minerals “Kaolinite, Illite, Montmorillonite and Tosudite”, in addition to some species of salts as “Gypsum” pigmented by “Hematite” as a colorant. After several investigatin techniques, these crusts need several intervention and conservation steps to remove and eliminate the aggressive effects resulted from the red crusts through three essential steps: “cleaning, gap filling and strengthening and stabilizing”. After evaluating all materials and methods that were performed by “DBN, SEM, EDX, and AAS”, the present study suggests that the most suitable cleaning methods are composed of three essential steps “dry and vacuum cleaning (DVC), ultra-sonic cleaning (USC), poultice cleaning (PC)”. Furthermore, the elected gap filling material composed of “Araldite AY-103” mixed with “Granite powder as petro-filler.” Finally, different evaluation methods proved that “Wacker H” is the most suitable strengthening and stabilizing material for consolidation purpose.     

Sorption of ammonium and phosphate from aqueous solution by biochar derived from phytoremediation plants

The study on biochar derived from plant biomass for environmental applications is attracting more and more attention. Twelve sets of biochar were obtained by treating four phytoremediation plants, Salix rosthornii Seemen, Thalia dealbata, Vetiveria zizanioides, and Phragmites sp., sequentially through pyrolysis at 500 °C in a N2 environment, and under different temperatures(500, 600, and 700 °C) in a CO2 environment. The cation exchange capacity and specific surface area of biochar varied with both plant species and pyrolysis temperature. The magnesium(Mg) content of biochar derived from T. dealbata(TC) was obviously higher than that of the other plant biochars. This biochar also had the highest sorption capacity for phosphate and ammonium. In terms of biomass yields, adsorption capacity, and energy cost, T. dealbata biochar produced at 600 °C(TC600) is the most promising sorbent for removing contaminants(N and P) from aqueous solution. Therefore, T. dealbata appears to be the best candidate for phytoremediation application as its biomass can make a good biochar for environmental cleaning.     

Bread wheat varieties as influenced by different nitrogen levels

INTRODUCTION Dera Ismail Khan lies in Pakistan’s arid zone (71.07° longitude, 31.57° latitude and 500 m above sea level). This zone is in the extreme south of (NWFP) Pakistan at the bank of the River Indus. Dera Ismail Khan is bounded by Sulaiman Range to the West, the Indus River on the East, Marwat and Bhit- tani Ranges on the North and Vehowa Nala (Punjab) on the South. Besides certain local variability the area is comprised of four basic divisions viz mountains, a series …