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The study sought to establish the kind of computer prior knowledge (CPK) students in a teacher training college
possessed before enrolling with college. It also analyzed the differences in students’ cognitive and affective
outputs in their computer studies between students with CPK and those without it. Participants were 168 students
from a teachers’ college (males = 63; females = 105; average age = 31; SD =6, 74). Data were collected using a
structured survey questionnaire. Data were analyzed statistically using SPSS to determine differences in
students’ perceived computer self–efficacy (CSE) and academic performance in their computer studies between
the two groups. Almost half the students were computer illiterate before joining college. A majority of students
with CPK had little experience in using the computers prior to joining college while very few had computer
qualification. Most of the students with CPK possessed basic computer hardware and software skills and a few
others, higher order computer skills. The computer CSE of students without CPK compared badly with that of
students with CPK. Both the groups of students experienced difficulties in learning advanced computer skills.
Students with CPK displayed better performance in computers than students without it in a statistically
significant manner. Hence results of this study confirm the importance of computer prior knowledge. This has
implications on policy for running computer courses with respect to grouping students, effecting differentiated
instruction and strategies for dealing with students’ learning difficulties in the higher learning institution

A growing need for utilizing school-based HIV/AIDS interventions the world over has been acknowledged as the most cost-effective means for arresting the spread of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic among the vulnerable youth. However, the question on how teachers as educational change agents and cognitive sense-makers of HIV/AIDS curricula situated in a complex web of systemic social interactions are faring in mediating these interventions has not received much attention in curriculum theorization. There seems to be an underrepresentation in the literature, of post-modernistic approaches to the problematizing and explanation of teacher enactment of such complicated yet important curricula. This article sought to highlight the Adaptation Approach to education and Honig's model and teacher cognition as an example of a post-modernistic approach to analysing teachers' enactment of school HIV/AIDS curricula. It sought to enhance our understanding of the interplay of a myriad of factors endogenous and exogenous to teachers in shaping and framing teachers' individual responses to the HIV/AIDS curriculum policy. We thus contend that one of the major reasons why teachers' efforts to effectuate purposive mediations are so elusive is the failure by theoreticians and policy-makers alike, to consider the myriad of human-generated antecedents in different venues and how these impact teachers' adaptation of HIV/AIDS interventions.

Typical job tasks entailed in implementing a college curriculum such as MS Power presentations in lectures, lecture preparation, research as well as teaching students at a distance require college lecturers in Zimbabwe to use ICTs. In most developed countries lecturers can now integrate ICTs in teaching. In Zimbabwe's teacher training colleges not much research-based evidence exists about how lecturers cope with the considerably new technologies in their work. This study sought to obtain information on lecturers' basic use of ICTs as a curriculum innovation that they should embrace in their work. The research employed the mixed-methods research design. I used questionnaires to collect data from a convenience sample of 100 lecturers and conducted interviews with five of the participants. A majority of lecturers indicated that they had irregular access to ICT facilities. They seldom or never used ICTs in their work. Focus group discussions revealed that inadequate ICT facilities including poor internet connectivity contributed to almost non-use of ICTs by most lecturers. Lecturers professed inadequate personal knowledge and skills to use a good number of the technologies. Findings of this study confirm the incidence of unsatisfactory use of basic ICT operations by lecturers at a college with meager functional ICTs. I recommend that the college provides enduring support to enable lecturers to evolve to the stage of proficient use of basic ICT operations for them to ultimately use ICTs for teaching.

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