Abstract: This study examined and compared science teacher efficacy beliefs of elementary pre-service teachers in Kenya and U.S.A. by surveying 168 Kenyan and 189 US Pre-service teachers through a cross-sectional survey research design. Data were collected using STEBI-B scale, an inventory developed by by Enochs and Riggs (1990), with a reported Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients as 0.90 and 0.76 for Personal Science Teacher Efficacy (PSTE) and Science Teacher Outcome Expectancy (STOE), respectively. Data were analysed both descriptively (means and standard deviations) and inferentially using a 2 x 2 factorial MANOVA. The dependent variables were PSTE and STOE scores. The independent variables were participant gender and country of origin. Results indicate a significant interaction between gender and country. There was a significant main effect for country but not for gender. With a significant MANOVA, follow-up univariate ANOVA tests indicated a statistically significant difference in the PSTE with USA scoring higher on average and a significant difference in the STOE score with Kenya scoring higher. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed.

Abstract: The classical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) vector model is known to be very effective and useful in teaching basic NMR 1D pulse sequences such as spin echo. For more complicated spin systems, density matrix calculation is often used. This method is known to be very complicated and not easy to follow after couple steps. Students usually get lost within the calculation and loose the physical meaning of the effect of different NMR pulses and other operations (chemical shifts, scalar-couplings) on the spin-system under investigation. As a compromise, another methodology has been developed which depends on the spin angular momentum operators. This is known as product operator formalism which involves less mathematical calculations, but still requires the user to know the correct outcome of different NMR pulses, scalar couplings and chemical shifts on different spin operators. We have developed product operator graphical user interface (OP-GUI) using MATLAB software that is capable of calculating product operators of up to four-coupled ½ spin systems. The effect of NMR pulses, scalar-coupling and chemical shifts on the spin system under investigation can be easily calculated. In this paper, several examples are given as prove of concept to show the capability and flexibility of the obtained OP-GUI in dealing with spin systems. We believe the obtained calculator is an effective teaching tool for new students in NMR and will help them to better understand and interpret complicated NMR pulse sequences applied on up to four weakly coupled ½ spin systems.

Abstract: This study examined the extent to which Lagos Eko project training had enhanced the teachers’ performance and the academic performance of the students in . It also investigated the perceptions of teachers and students on the school provision of supportive facilities to aid the Eko Project training. The study adopted descriptive survey and ex-post- facto research designs. Using the whole population of the 24 trained teachers enrolled for the 2012 Lagos Eko Secondary Education Training in Production and Utilisation of Media as the sample for the study, the standardised Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project information sheet, Registration forms filled by the participants, Students academic profiles from the school records before and after the training; and a questionnaire for students to elicit information on the quality of the teacher’s instructions before and after the training were used as the instruments to guide answers to the research questions. T-test and Multivariate Analysis of Variance statistical tools were used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that the perceptions of teachers and students to the quality of instruction delivery after the exposure of trainee teachers to Eko project training did not differ, and that the exposure of trainee teachers to Eko project training enhanced their quality of instruction delivery in classrooms after the training. Also, a significant difference was found to exist in the perceptions of the respondents to the provision of supportive facilities to aid the implementation objectives of the intervention project which implies the dependence of the success of Eko project training on the provision of required facilities to support instruction delivery. The study also found a significant difference in the academic performance of students before and after being taught by Eko project trainee teachers and that the effect of the Eko project accounted for 90%, 84% and 46% of the variability in Mathematics, English language, and Basic Science performances respectively. Based on the findings therefore, It was recommended that the project should be a continuous process towards enhancing sustainable students’ good academic performance in the state secondary schools, and that efforts should be made by the World Bank to extend this project to the other states for holistic and effective transformation of secondary education in the country.

Abstract: Scientific process skills are those that facilitate learning in science, allow students to be active, improve the sense of responsibility for their own learning, increase their retention skills and also show routes and methods of research. The measurement tool used to measure undergraduate students’ science process skills is a test consisting of 26 questions. This test covers identifying and checking basic skills and variables such as observation, classification, measurement, communication, and prediction using space-time relationships, and integrated process skills such as inference, operational definition, making the interpretation of data and hypotheses and conducting experiments. According to Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive development, questions also knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation aspects. This study, by expediently electing among the education faculties in Turkey, was conducted with 165 undergraduate students from different departments at Faculty of Education of a big university in the Eastern Anatolia province, Turkey to determine the relationship between undergraduate students’ awareness levels regarding scientific process skills and application potential, using survey method which is an implementation of non-experimental quantitative research methods. In the science process skills tests (SPST) prepared for this purpose; the effect of students’ demographic characteristics (grade level, branch, academic achievement, and learning environment) on these skills were studied and results, using SPSS 18.0 software package with an analysis of variance (ANOVA), were statistically evaluated. Of these assessment results; it has been concluded that the difference in levels of awareness of the students lead to significant differences in terms of science process skills application potential, however, other variables and demographic characteristics do not lead to significant differences.

Abstract: Survey research was conducted to examine practitioners’ reported implementation of key instructional roles in response to intervention (RTI) models. A survey was administered to 65 practitioners who completed a nationally accredited degree program from 2004-2011, resulting in a Masters Degree in Special Education and a state teaching endorsement as a highly qualified K-12 special educator. Research addressed the question: To what extent do practitioners trained as special educators report engaging in six key roles, and associated subskills, in their implementation of an RTI Model? Results suggest that educators trained in special education, working in general or special education settings, engage in implementing each of the key roles within their RTI models. Implications and suggestions for teacher preparation of special educators are provided.