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The study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of Non-Formal Schools (NFS) established, for provision of primary education to out of school children of disempowered and neglected segment of Punjab, Pakistan, under Punjab Non-formal Education Project of Literacy and Non-formal Basic Education (L&NFBE) Department, Government of the Punjab. Data of enrolled students was collected from the web portal of the department. It revealed that the project envisioned establishing 990 NFBE Schools. The 100% target regarding establishment of schools were achieved and 33625 children were enrolled, as the target of enrolment was 19800 students. The enrollment was 61% more than the actual target. All fifth grade 373 students were selected as sample of the study through multistage sampling technique. The researcher developed an achievement test comprising of Urdu, English, Mathematics and Science subjects to assess achievement of students. The researcher personally administered the test to the students and marked it. Analysis of achievement scores showed that 61% students achieved more than 33% marks in the test. It was found that achievement mean score of male students was better as compared to female students. The achievement mean score of urban and rural students was almost same. Hence, it was concluded that the Non-Formal Schools were effective for provision of primary education to out of school children of disempowered and neglected segment of the society.

Key Words: Non Formal Basic Education Schools, disempowered / Neglected Segment of the society, literacy & numeracy skills

Teaching Islamic law in a UK university is a unique experience. First, Islamic law is based on religious beliefs whereas UK universities offer teaching in a secular environment. Secondly, law schools are primarily meant to train lawyers and Islamic law in its purest form is not practically applicable in the UK or even in most Muslim majority countries. Thirdly, due to the series of recent events, such as those related to terrorism, Islamic law and Islam more generally has created certain anxieties making the teaching and learning of Islamic law a sensitive exercise. These sensitivities exist not only in the interrelationship of Islamic law with other legal systems, but also within Islamic law creating different viewpoints over the need to redesign the studies of Islamic law. The opposing views on interpretation of Islamic legal texts and their application in modern cultures and societies can potentially create frictions of thought and argumentation at the classroom level, which makes teaching and learning of Islamic law both interesting and challenging exercise. Most importantly, from the teaching and learning perspectives, the diverse background of students and their varying expectations makes the delivery of Islamic law teaching a complex exercise unknown to any other law subject. In these contexts, this article examines the implications for approaches to teaching and learning Islamic law from the standpoint of above identified challenges. By placing those challenges in the framework of existing pedagogical literature, the article addresses the UK Professional Standard Framework (UKPSF) requirements in the context of teaching and learning in Islamic law.

Keywords: Teaching and Learning, Islamic Law, Higher Education, UK Universities, UK Professional Standard Framework (UKPSF)  

This survey research was performed to investigate the provision of guidance services and the possible hurdles as perceived by principals and teachers in government girls’ high and higher secondary schools of Kohat division, KPK (Pakistan). The objectives of the study were; to investigate the provision of educational guidance services in Govt. Girls High and Higher secondary schools. To explore teachers’ and Headmistress/Principals opinion about the possible hurdles in the provision of guidance services to secondary level students. The research questions were; do educational guidance services are provided in government girls’ high and higher secondary schools? What do the teachers and principals consider the hurdles in the provision of guidance services to secondary level students? Population of the study was all the teachers and principals of government girls’ high and higher secondary schools of Kohat division. Total 72 out of 77 principals and 216 out of 243 SST teachers were selected as sample through multistage random sampling techniques. For data collection self developed questionnaire was used. Its reliability index was 0. 81 checked through test retest method. Descriptive statistics i.e. %age was used for data analysis. Findings of the study showed that no guidance services are practiced in schools. Lack of training, unavailability of specific guidance teacher in schools and over work load of teaching staff are perceived as hurdles in practicing guidance services in schools. The major recommendations of the study were establishment of guidance services cell in each school, a trained guidance teacher may be appointed for the group of cluster schools who can visit each school regularly. Key Words: Guidance services, teachers’ perceptions, Principals’ perceptions, hurdles.vThis survey research was performed to investigate the provision of guidance services and the possible hurdles as perceived by principals and teachers in government girls’ high and higher secondary schools of Kohat division, KPK (Pakistan). The objectives of the study were; to investigate the provision of educational guidance services in Govt. Girls High and Higher secondary schools. To explore teachers’ and Headmistress/Principals opinion about the possible hurdles in the provision of guidance services to secondary level students. The research questions were; do educational guidance services are provided in government girls’ high and higher secondary schools? What do the teachers and principals consider the hurdles in the provision of guidance services to secondary level students? Population of the study was all the teachers and principals of government girls’ high and higher secondary schools of Kohat division. Total 72 out of 77 principals and 216 out of 243 SST teachers were selected as sample through multistage random sampling techniques. For data collection self developed questionnaire was used. Its reliability index was 0. 81 checked through test retest method. Descriptive statistics i.e. %age was used for data analysis. Findings of the study showed that no guidance services are practiced in schools. Lack of training, unavailability of specific guidance teacher in schools and over work load of teaching staff are perceived as hurdles in practicing guidance services in schools. The major recommendations of the study were establishment of guidance services cell in each school, a trained guidance teacher may be appointed for the group of cluster schools who can visit each school regularly. Key Words: Guidance services, teachers’ perceptions, Principals’ perceptions, hurdles.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have become a part of daily activities in the higher education institutions. The use of these technologies has become not only a necessity for students and other people, its use is growing at a rapid pace. The academic use of ICT is the necessity for online students. The students of conventional universities are also using these technologies for various purposes. These digital modes are also being used for bullying known as cyber bullying which is making its way into the higher education institutions as well. The purpose of this survey research was to compare the cyberbullying experiences of online and conventional universities’ students, and to explore gender differences in such experiences. A self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data. The population of the study consisted of all students (1809) enrolled in Spring Semester 2019 at the Institute of Education and Research, University of the Punjab as conventional participants whereas, all students (1139) enrolled in the Department of Education, Virtual University of Pakistan as online participants. Sample was selected using random sampling technique. It was found that more than 58.7% of the students had experienced cyber bullying in different forms. Exclusion and Flaming were the two topmost forms of cyberbullying. It was more common among the students of conventional university as compared with their counterparts in the virtual university. Impersonation was the least prevalent form of cyberbullying. No significant differences were observed between the experiences of male and female students.

Key words: Cyber bullying, Online learning, Conventional learning, Internet, Technology

The paper addresses the effect of Frayer Model, Choral Response and Muddiest Point on the academic achievement of undergraduate students in this study. This study employed quasi-experimental design. The sample was 87 undergraduates who were already divided into two groups that were later named as experimental group and control group by using fishbowl method. Before starting the experiment, pretest of both the groups was taken to check either both groups are at same level or not. After pretest, treatment was applied in different timeframes for the period of sixteen weeks and then they were post tested. Pretest and posttest of both the groups were same that were developed by observing basic rules and guidelines of test development. The tests were validated by five experts in the field of assessment and curriculum development. The reliability was ensured by psychometric analysis after administering these on 200 undergraduate students. Paired sample t-test was applied to investigate the effect of assessment methods on students’ achievement. Independent sample t-test was applied in order to compare two groups, one that was given the treatment and the other was not given any treatment. The results of the study explored that the mean achievement scores of Muddiest Point was greater than the other two methods of assessment i.e. Frayer Model and Choral Response.

Key Words: Frayer Model, Choral Response, Muddiest-Point, Academic Achievement

Throughout history, the third gender identity has always been a taboo and stigma in many societies of the world. This is a genetic condition known as Klinefelter syndrome (KS) caused by the presence of extra chromosomes XXY in the males. Individuals with KS also known as transgender have always been the target of harassment, emotional and sexual abuse, and mockery in Pakistan. This research was aimed to study the barriers perceived by the teachers in the education of individuals with Klinefelter syndrome in Pakistan. The researchers have collected data from 50 teachers of special and regular schools in Punjab Pakistan through a self-developed structured questionnaire. The Cronbach’s Alpha value for the questionnaire was 0.7 which is considered acceptable and in this case, the reliability of the scale was 0.826 which shows very good internal consistency. The study concluded that one of the major barriers perceived by the teachers is attitudinal barriers, at the next level there were resource barriers and at the third level, there were policy barriers.

Keywords: Barriers, Education, Klinefelter syndrome, Perceived, Teachers

The advent of modern technology has augmented the need for its integration in educational processes. The organizational climate plays a significant role in the acceptance and use of technology by academia. This study was conducted to investigate technology acceptance by university teachers and to explore the relationship between organizational climate and technology acceptance. A mixed-method approach using the sequential explanatory design was employed for data collection. The population of the study was the faculty members from different departments of the universities operating on dual-mode education. A sample of 300 teachers was selected by proportionate stratified random sampling technique and 20 teachers from survey participants were selected for the interviews. The validity of the tool was ensured through feedback provided by experts and the reliability of each variable was checked through Cronbach’s alpha. The researcher himself visited the universities for the collection of quantitative as well as qualitative data. It was concluded that male teachers were significantly better in technology acceptance than their female counterparts; a significant strong positive relationship was observed between conducive organizational climate and technology acceptance; a significant weak but positive relationship was found between non-conducive organizational climate and technology acceptance; a significant correlation was found between sub-components of organizational climate and technology acceptance. It is recommended that the female teachers must be imparted training regarding effective use of educational technology for teaching; a conducive climate at HEIs must be maintained to enhance acceptance and use of technology. Annual performance appraisal of teachers must include criteria for acceptance and use of technology by the academia.

Key Words: Educational Technology, Organizational Climate, Higher Education, Blended Learning, Technology. 

The main objective of the present study was to develop and validate a tool to measure metacognitive abilities among prospective teachers called Prospective Teachers’ Metacognitive Abilities Questionnaire (PTMAQ) with three sub-dimensions: Cognitive Strategies Use (CSU), Self-Regulation (SR), and Cognitive Self-Consciousness (CSC). The initial draft, comprising of thirty-five (35) items, was pilot tested on 244 prospective teachers enrolled in B. Ed and M.A. Education of a national university of Pakistan. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was ensured through SPSS version-24 with factor loading less than 0.5 unloaded items were deleted from the tool. Moreover, Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was also ensured to make the model fit, through AMOS software. The results of the test affirmed that the model is a valid and reliable; reduced to fourteen (14) items with α =0.784, out of which four (4) items retained for the Cognitive Strategies Use (CSU) with α =0.615, five (5) items for the Self-Regulation (SR) with α =0.742, and five (5) items retained for the Cognitive Self-Consciousness (CSC) with α =0.747. The results thus provided evidence to use Prospective Teachers’ Metacognitive Abilities Questionnaire (PTMAQ) to identify and measure metacognitive abilities among prospective teachers.

Keywords: Prospective Teachers; Metacognitive Abilities; Cognitive Strategies Use; Self-Regulation; Cognitive Self-Consciousness

The purpose behind this correlational study was to establish the relationship between students’ learning styles and two of the personality traits i.e. conscientiousness and neuroticism. For this research, the population consisted of all the public university students from province of the Punjab. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 1,000 students from 10 universities of Punjab. ‘NEO-BFI’ developed by Costa & McCrae in 2010 (having 44-items for measuring personality traits) and LSI developed in 2005 by Kolb & Kolb (consisting of 10 factors for measuring learning styles) were used simultaneously to collect the required data. Both these instruments were standardized. Pearson correlation was applied for analyzing the data to find out the relationship between styles of learning and traits of personality. The study concluded that conscientiousness trait of personality was strongly correlated with the assimilating, accommodating and converging styles of learning and neuroticism trait of personality was strongly related with the diverging and accommodating styles of learning.

Keywords: personality traits, conscientiousness, neuroticism, learning styles, higher education

Epistemological beliefs about Mathematics are associated with students’ cognitive performances and effective responses. This study aims to investigate the epistemological beliefs of students about the Mathematics curriculum and their relationship with academic achievement. In this study, a quantitative research approach through the correlational method was used. 600 students from 20 public secondary schools of the Lahore District were selected through two-stage random sampling. Conceptions of Mathematics Inventory were adapted after ensuring its validity and reliability in our local context. The reliability of the inventory was α = 0.917. It was found that secondary school students had sophisticated epistemological beliefs about Mathematics curriculum beliefs about formulas; which are significant in Mathematics as they represent useful ideas and are based on the certainty of knowledge. Moreover, students’ epistemological beliefs were positively correlated with their Mathematics academic achievements. It is recommended that teachers may try to recognize the Mathematics epistemological beliefs of students as they commence a new session of classes and take care of appropriate instructions that enhance students’ Mathematics epistemological beliefs.

Keywords: Academic Achievements, Epistemological Beliefs, Mathematics, Secondary School Students 

Violence occurred in the schools is perpetrated by teachers, peers, non-teaching members of the schools and senior school fellows. Persons with hearing impairment lacks in hearing due to problems in auditory pathway. It has increased the risk of school violence due to effects of limited hearing and inability to communicate. This qualitative research study was carried out with the objectives of exploring the influence of school ferocity on the health and psychology of the adolescent hearing impaired girls. The sample of present research comprised of hearing impaired girls getting education in the schools of Punjab from grade 8 to 10. A total number of 17 adolescent girls with hearing problems were taken from 7 schools of three populous cities of Punjab. All of the girls who were selected as participants had been experienced any type of school violence in school timings and having record of any physical or mental illness and who were willing to be the part of this research. Based on literature review, an interview protocol was formulated as tool of the study. It is used after validation through piloting to conduct the in-depth interviews from the victimized girls to get insight into their health and psychological problems. On the basis of interviews, it was found that headache, stretching of muscles, pain in different body parts, stomach problems, disturbance in menstrual cycle emerged as major health problems. Anxiety, depression, isolation and insomnia were major psychological problems reported by the victimized girls. The empowerment of adolescent girls with hearing impairment is recommended to uplift their life by raising their power of speech against school violence.

Keywords: Psychology, health, school violence, adolescent girls with hearing impairment

The present paper investigates higher secondary schools school managers’ competence and practices in the contexts of Instructional Leadership (IL). This study was descriptive and survey research method was used for data collection. Population of the study consisted of school managers of higher secondary schools located in Rawalpindi (Pakistan). Researchers used “Instructional Leadership Inventory” (ILI) for data collection from respondents. The findings of the study detected significant differences among school mangers with certain variations, regarding IL competence. Male school managers were found better than female school mangers in IL competence. No gender differences were found among school leaders regarding practices of IL. Public and rural sector school managers were found more competent in IL competence than private and urban sector school managers, but in practice of IL, all school managers were found similar. It was concluded that school managers have instructional leadership competence with certain variations, but in IL practices there were found similar. There are implication of instructional leadership in the changing paradigm of education towards the effective role of heads as an instructional leader. Key Words: school managers, instructional leadership, secondary schools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms are helping everyday life ranging from simplistic procedures such as self-service checkouts to the complexities of dispensing correct medication to patients. Likewise, AI is helping the education sector in unprecedented ways. Today AI is being used from simple online delivery of teaching through to the creation of virtual assistants and complex data analytics. However, AI related incidents, such as the recent failure of Zoom to prevent posting of obscene images and controversy over AI predicted A-level grades in England, reveal the vulnerability of AI programmes. These failures evidence that AI algorithms may behave contrary to the expectations of developers. Such incidents have caused concern about the reliability of AI, which has also been criticised as being unethical. With the help of various examples of the use of AI in the education sector as well as in everyday life, this article addresses the trust issues arising out the use of AI in teaching and learning. Are concerns about AI over exaggerated? Is this lack of trust due to misconceptions about AI systems? This article argues that although more needs to be done to make AI algorithms safer and reliable to overcome the existing misconceptions and lack of trust, the AI technology is developing very fast and already proving to be very useful in many areas of science and knowledge. The research concludes that AI should be trusted because by restricting its growth, it is likely to constrain our growth as a species.

Key Words: Technology enhanced learning, Teaching and learning, Artificial intelligence, Social concerns, Misuse, Reliability, Trust, Human Development

Legal profession has become the art of ‘dropouts’ (khan 2012). In recent past law schools have been unable to deliver quality education (Osama 2014). The study was determined to measure the pressures and impacts of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) on legal education in Pakistan. The study develops insight and understanding of overall context in the VUCA environment and its impacts on stakeholders in legal education. The result of the study explains the benchmark for stakeholders in legal education to combat the challenges and achieve their ultimate goals.

Key Words: VUCA in Education, Legal education stakeholders, professional challenges.

Although several studies have focused on conflict resolution, none of them has considered the effect of intragroup conflicts on self-determination and self-confidence of university students. The nature of study was descriptive type. The data were collected through multistage random sampling technique. The sample consisted of 386 students of 6 universities of Punjab. Structural Equation Model was developed by applying AMOS 21. Findings revealed that intragroup conflict had a positive effect on students’ selfconfidence and self-determination. Results of the study have a suggestion to implement strategies to create harmony within the group to promote self-determination and selfconfidence.

Key Words: Conflict, Intragroup Conflict, Self-determination, self-confidence

A man’s personality and his habits play an integral role towards his personal and professional success. Many individuals succeed due to their persona and how they treat and behave with others. Introversion and extroversion are the two major personality traits usually found in humans. This study provides an exploratory analysis of the two different types of personality traits: introversion and extroversion among the professionals of private educational institutions of Karachi. The study used qualitative research approach using semi structured interviewing technique to collect the data. The data was collected from the heads of these institutions and it was analyzed using thematic analysis. The results show that both introverted and extroverted people can work collaboratively in an organization by putting the best of their abilities and strength to ensure the prosperity of the organization. Both perform their work by abiding by the set of rules and regulations formed by the executive management to achieve the common goals. The findings also reveal that extroverts have a higher success ratio than introverts due to their expressive communication skills. The need for achievement is high for both extroverts and introverts because both have a strong desire for growth. Recommendations include allowing flexibility to the workforce to ensure that everyone works in the best possible way according to their own personality traits.

Key Words:1. Introversion, 2.Extroversion, 3. Success, 4.Communication Skills

This study had been designed to explore the research difficulties faced by MS/M.Phil students in conducting research and its effect on their research attitude. A sample of 165 research students enrolled in MS/ M.Phil program in University of Sindh. Sample was drawn through simple random sampling technique. Two data collection tools were employed; first scale was developed to explore research difficulties faced by studentresearchers and second tool was adopted from Elena C. Papanastasiou (2005) “Attitude Towards Research” (ATR) to study the student-researchers’ research attitude. The results showed that MS/M.Phil students face a range of difficulties when conducting research. They face more administrative difficulties (M= 5.20) than personal difficulties (M= 4.98). The results also showed that students had positive attitudes in two factors; research usefulness (M= 5.61) and general attitude towards research (M= 5.45) and they had negative attitude on other factors; research anxiety (M= 4.98) and research difficulty (M= 4.54) factors. Likewise a moderate positive correlation was found between the research difficulties and the each factors of research attitude. Regression was also used to estimate the impact of research difficulties on research attitude of students; personal difficulties had a week impact on student’s research attitude (β =.233, P <.002) whereas administrative difficulties had higher impact (β =.348, P <.00001) on student’s research attitude. Thus, it can be concluded that research difficulties faced by students cause to change their research attitude.

Keywords: Research, Attitude, Impact, personal and administrative factors