Competency Needs of Postgraduate Students of STEM Education in Research Writing in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The study identified research competency needs of postgraduate students of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in research writing in Nigerian Universities. The study adopted a survey research design and was carried out in SouthEastern Nigeria. Two research questions and a hypothesis guided the study. The population for the study was 372 comprising 222 master and 150 PhD students of STEM Education in nine Universities in southeastern Nigeria. Proportionate simple random sampling techniques were used to select 50% of the population, which gave a sample size of 186 (111 master and 75 PhD students). Structured questionnaire developed from the literature which was reviewed by the researchers was used to collect data. Each item in the instrument had two columns of needed and difficult with each of the columns assigned a four response options with values 4, 3, 2 and 1. The instrument was validated by specialists. Cronbach alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the items and a coefficient of 0.85 was obtained. Data collected were analyzed using mean while the null hypothesis was tested using t-test. The findings revealed that postgraduate students needed 32 competencies in research writing; 25 of the competencies were difficult to employ by the students. The hypothesis tested revealed that there was no significant difference in the responses of the two groups of students on the difficult competencies. It was recommended that lecturers should utilize the 32 competencies while emphasizing the 25 difficult ones to make students competent in producing a quality research work.

Factors contributing to slow completion rate among postgraduate students of the Information Studies Programme at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

“…These findings, however, are not peculiar to this study only, as other prior studies have observed the same (e.g. Ugwu et al, 2015). Deficiencies in these competencies, as noted in the current study and other previous studies, tend to compromise the quality of research as the findings of the study may be invalid, unreliable and not useful.…”

The Place of Makerspace of Stem Education in Nigeria

“…It is established from research that STEM education in Nigeria is not a new phenomenon but has different nomenclature as it evolved before Nigeria got her independence when the British curriculum was used in our education system. Ugwu et al (2011) elucidated that STEM education reform in Nigeria can be traced back to the period of the Second World War with the school system changing from the British curriculum to our traditional curriculum; he observed that despite the change in curriculum, STEM education is yet to find its rightful place in the curriculum and STEM subjects that are taught individually in our schools without integration which makes STEM education to have lost its purpose, this is because STEM educators are not involved in curriculum planning and development in Nigeria, they work with curriculum developed by others to teach in class which does not project the purpose of STEM education. He advocates for the training of STEM educators and that they should be allowed to actively participate in curriculum planning and development of STEM education to be well projected and achieve its purpose and for the overall success of STEM education.…”

In vitro antibacterial activity of Bersama abyssinica Fresen crude extract against representative Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacterial isolates

“…Plant extracts produce primary and secondary bioactive molecules that act as a chemical defence against infection (Sinan et al., 2020 ). The bioactive molecules are stored in roots, leaves, stems, fruits and seeds (Dhankhar et al., 2013 ; Ugwu et al., 2015 ). Many phytochemicals, including phenols, phenolic glycosides, alkaloids, tannins, terpenoids, cyanogenic glycosides, saponins and glucosinolates, which have antibacterial and antioxidant qualities, are found in medicinal plants (Lemilemu et al., 2020 ; Sinan et al., 2020 ; Tungmunnithum et al., 2018 ).…”