Enhancing Children’s Critical and Inquisitive Skills in Culturally Informed Communities of South Africa

ABSTRACT Evidence exists that young learners in culturally inclined communities of South Africa lack critical thinking and inquisitive skills. These learners are assumed to be culturally beguiled into believing that it is an abomination to question elders, and those who did so are tagged rabbles. Therefore, this study used the perspectives of community elites to expose the challenges young children/young one’s face in gaining critical and inquisitive skills along with possible solutions. The study is underpinned by Sociocultural Theory within the transformative paradigm. The study was designed using participatory research and unstructured interview to elicit information from the participants. The data collected were analysed using thematic analysis. The study revealed that children/young ones are being demonised as rebels, and stereotyped as uncultured, untrained and disrespectful, hence deprived of skill development. The study recommends organisational advocacy and curriculum restructuring, alongside strong school advocacy and awareness towards children/young ones’ skill development.

Is there a link between industry involvement in higher education learning and student job creation intention?

This study examines how the constituents of industry involvement in higher education learning (IIHEL) – namely curriculum restructuring, renewed pedagogical approaches and competencies, building linkages between higher education and industry, and career training and mentoring – might impact student job creation intention. The study builds on social cognitive theory (self-efficacy) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (attitude towards behaviour) to assess the mechanisms through which these relationships exist. The researchers used cross-sectional data from 268 final-year undergraduate students of 12 Nigerian public universities to analyse these relationships. Structural equation modelling analysis (SEM-AMOS) was employed to test the direct relationships, and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro 3.5 was used to test the specific indirect effects. The findings show that all the constituents of IIHEL were associated positively with student job creation intention. However, only self-efficacy mediated the relationships between curriculum restructuring, renewed pedagogical approaches and competencies and student job creation intention. The findings provide practical implications for higher education teachers, managers, practitioners, policymakers and students by demonstrating the importance of IIHEL in boosting student job creation intention.

Chaos Theory as Relevance for Engineering Education in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa

In the fourth industrial revolution (4IR)period, an inclusion of Chaos Theory (CT) in Engineering education (EE) and its significant relevance have involved debates from engineering academia and industrial professional over the years. Thus, much has been done to recall relevance for EE, yet EE has not attained Sustainable Development Goal for educational target, in areas of research relevance, curriculum restructuring, and learning materials/instructional platforms redesigning are still lacking in engineering academia and profession in Africa. With much sensitization on inclusion of CT to instil EE relevance in Africa, is still far from addressing EE gaps; hence the crux of this paper. This paper was guided by Chaos theory providing definite perception which involves equilibrium constructs that are crucial in EE. This paper focused on the concept of CT as its relevance in EE in the4IR in Africa. In particular, it explores how CT can enhance relevance in EE; and how the principles of CT can improve the EE relevance, as well as its implications in Africa. Thus, to address these gaps, recommendations such as developing nonchaotic curriculum for EE, adopting Chaos theoretical principles in facilitating staff training and students’ skill development were advocated

Importancia de los foros de egresados en la reestructuración del plan de estudios de la licenciatura en Idiomas de la Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco / The Importance of Forums for Graduates in the Curriculum Restructuring Process of the BA in Modern Languages at Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco

El objetivo de la presente investigación fue conocer, a través de foros presenciales, la opinión de un grupo egresados de la licenciatura en Idiomas de la Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT) sobre las competencias, habilidades y actitudes que tendrían que dominar los futuros profesionales de esa especialidad para desempeñarse con éxito en el mercado laboral. Para elegir a los participantes se realizó una convocatoria, a la cual acudieron 37 egresados que en ese momento se encontraban trabajando en distintas instituciones de la región. Los resultados demuestran que a muchos aún les cuesta dominar los tres idiomas que conforman su área de estudio (inglés, francés e italiano), por lo que consideran que en la carrera se deben diseñar más actividades prácticas y promover la actualización constante de los docentes de las distintas cátedras.

IMPLEMENTASI KURIKULUM 2013 DALAM MEMBENTUK KARAKTER ANAK BANGSA

In the last decade, our conscience has been disturbed by widespread violence that occurred in the society. A various form of vandalism and cruelty became a tragic phenomenon that is very easily seen in our country. Wisdom and magnanimity that had ever been exalted and glorified as the character and identity of our nation has been today fossilized into niche of civilization. Therefore, there is a need for fundamental change in education of all levels, from kindergarten to high schools, for which curriculum restructuring is one option. In this sense, the application of curriculum 2013 has to be tailored to the needs of students and society. Curriculum 2013, which is a further development of competence based curriculum initiated in curriculum 2004 and 2006 (KTSP), includes also attitudes competence, knowledge, and skills simultaneously. This article attempts to examine the application of curriculum 2013 (K13) in school-learning process.Keywords: Kurikulum K13, Pembentukan Karakter, Anak Bangsa.