Faculty of Education NAU

Happy birthday VC

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Celebrating the inaugural lecture of Prof Tony Ogbalu of the Faculty of Education

( Fresh and good news from Nigeria Academy of Science AGM today.
Two of our members Prof Gammaniel (DG NIPRD) and Prof Charles Esimone (DVC acad Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka) have been elected Fellow of Academy of Science (FAS). We congratulate them specially and the pharmacy profession because out of 9 fellows elected nationwide and covering various disciplines, today, 2 are pharmacists. We give all glory and thanka to God

Best poet and comic contest @ Annual ONESTREET Friends Xmas Party @ Patriot Summit Suites, Enugwu-Ukwu:
Dresscode: Look Nice!
Time:8pm
DJ: Dr. Will
Date: Friday December 16
Admission: Invitations only with your ID Card.
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How many of you students have been battling with project writing? You write your first chapter five times and your supervisor keeps canceling them? Have you ever sat down to think about your work, why you are doing it or how you should do it? have you thought about what you want to achieve or does it seem to you that you're writing a mere essay for a Coca Cola competition? You see, that is the mistake most of you make. Are you even reading this write-up or you'll close it to look at your facebook notifications: your bae pics and selfies, right? If you are still here, now listen to your teacher. Below are some tips for your project writing, presented as scenarios and examples:

SCENARIO ONE: Let's assume your topic is a simple one titled "Family background as a correlate of secondary school students' attitude towards alcoholism in Anambra State".
The word CORRELATE already suggests that you are trying to establish the relationship between family background and students' attitude towards alcoholism. Note that in correlational studies, the researcher is not attempting to establish causation (Nworgu, 2015), but simply trying to see if the independent and dependent variables are related in any way. The independent variable in this topic is "family background", while the dependent variable is "attitude to alcoholism". An independent variable is the one in which a change in it also affects the other variable (dependent).

WHAT TO DO? First of all begin with any of the variables, either alcoholism or family background, establishing their relevancy from the onset. In this case, I suggest you begin with the independent variable. Why? you have to show that family background is at all important in attitude formation and attitudinal change. You can do this in One and a half pages. At the end of the last paragraph talking about family background, you can add that family background also affects people's attitude towards different objects and subjects. meanwhile in your discussion already, you have listed the elements/variables under family background to include social status, economic capacity, level of parental education, cultural background, and religiosity, among others. By so doing, you have cleared the air on what you mean by family background.
After having linked family background to attitudes, then go into another paragraph to give two definitions of attitude. After defining it twice, then explain what those definitions mean in the context of your study. THIS IS CALLED OPERATIONAL DEFINITION. Now go on to explain the kinds of attitude you have read (give citations), then, state that one of the more worrisome attitudes that gives parents and teachers concern is the attitude to alcoholism.
Oya, begin to define alcoholism because all the variables must be defined in the background. Bring in citations (from google search) of studies showing that attitudes to alcoholism can be dependent on family background or what PG students would call "home variables".
At the end of your background, maybe all your citations are foreign and the Naija ones are outside your area of study. Use this as a justification for embarking on the study and close the background. It is very easy. If not, meet a consultant on the matter.
Digest this part, while awaiting insights on your statement of the problem, significance, scope, purpose, RQ and hypotheses. YOU MUST GRADUATE THIS YEAR OOOO!

...Adult Education students in their Practicum class with Dr Will

It's been quite a while we shared issues such as this with you, but today, it has been strongly laid in the hearts of the admins of this page to do this. We want to do what we do best, which is to TEACH. Yes, we want you to learn some tricks or strategies (however you deem appropriate) that would be of use to you in your thesis, dissertation and even project writing. Remember our faculty rubric is available at the dean's office (guidelines for thesis writing). Read carefully, digest and act accordingly, if you don't already know this.
1. ABSTRACT: This is a true test of your summary and comprehension skills! It does not mean you should copy and paste the entire project/thesis into it. No! Don't start your abstract with recommendations or repeating the title verbatim. Start with what the study is about as your first sentence, not necessarily that you carried it out in a specific area (there is chapter 3 for that!). Next, you tell us how many research questions and/or hypotheses guided the study, plus your scope (e.g. SS1 students of xyz high school). Next, you tell us your population size, then your sample size and which sampling method you used to arrive at it. DO NOT DESCRIBE THE SAMPLING PROCEDURE AND HOW YOU DID A LUCKY DIP!!. After this, tell us the instrument you used and if it was expert validated, then the reliability coefficient (do not describe how you arrived at the internal consistency or give its formula in your abstract. Also don't tell us how you used research assistants). Tell us which statistic you used in answering your research questions and which you used in testing your hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. After this, you tell us your findings and whether or not you rejected or did not reject your hypothesis. You must indicate your decision rule based on the inferential statistic you utilized in analysis (t-test, anova, ancova, chi square, etc). Finally, your recommendations (give at least one, but not all). You may or not tell us that you made suggestions for further studies, but don't bother stating them. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

2. Chapter One: This contains your background to the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, research questions and/or hypotheses. DO NOT INCLUDE LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY OR DEFINITION OF TERMS!
--Background: Start the discussion with either the dependent or independent variable. For example, if your topic is "School environmental conditions as correlates to the academic achievement of secondary school students", start your background with a discourse either about academic achievement or environment. In your first paragraph, it is advised to say what you know about that variable and its importance, then in paragraph two, you begin to cite definitions of that variable (not more than two) but not a full discussion on it. in three paragraphs, you should have dealt with that variable, so you can move to the next one by linking it with the first variable you discussed. How? In your last sentence about the first discussed variable, mention the other variable (dependent or independent), e.g., school environment has been found in studies to be correlated to student achievement (Soterio, 2013). So if you began the discussion with school environment, you will coyly introduce achievement in the next paragraph. Your background should be 7-10 pages. having cited a few studies to back up your claims, you can now state your reason for embarking on the study in the last page of your background.
--Statement of the Problem: This should be at most one and a half pages. Since you have made a case for your study in the background, you may not necessarily cite works here, but state the problem you have noticed (the gap). It can end with a question, though it is not a mandamus for correctness.
--Purpose of the study: State what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it (specific purposes) one after the other.
--Significance of the study: tell us who shall benefit from the study first, then explain how they shall benefit from it, using a paragraph for each beneficiary. People make the mistake of lumping it together, making the write up nebulous.
--Scope of the study: tell us which group of subjects you shall concentrate on, the specific areas in ur topic that you will touch in the course of the study. if it is school environment, are you studying the physical, biological or social environment of the school as it correlates to achievement. This is the specifics of your study, so be careful.
--Research questions: usually these are drawn from the purpose of the study. They must not be drawn eclectically, but from your purpose, please. if your purpose did not categorically indicate that you will investigate gender as a moderator variable in your study, why bring it into your research questions (RQ)?
Hypotheses: Same basic principles in the RQ applies here, just that you will demonstrate your neutrality, not as if you have already decided the results of your research.
***Note: Chapter One to Three is written in futuristic language because it is a thesis proposal (is = will be/will. After the proposal defence, you should ensure to revert to finished work format in your language. TO BE CONTINUED

COMMENT WITH YOUR QUESTIONS......