Degree Of Disappointment Research Articles

Nigerian Open and Distance Learning Students and the Mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme

The principal means of accessing admission into higher educational institutions in Nigeria is the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) carried out by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). The total number of candidates looking for admission into the different Nigerian institutions of higher learning has been on the increase over the years. The main motivation behind setting up any Open Distance Learning (ODL) institutions in Nigeria is to give a scope of chance to admittance to advanced education to students who, for one explanation or the other, really like to have their schooling in a more adaptable way. Moreover, the low admission limit of Nigerian universities for full time studies places a limit on the number of prospective learners who can be admitted into universities thereby making a monstrous hole between the people who want higher education and the framework accessible to cater for their necessities. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme is an obligatory programme set up by the Nigerian government to include graduates of Nigerian educational tertiary institutions who are 30 years and below with the aim of promoting national unity and integration as well as to contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy. However, graduates of open and distance learning institutions in the country do not take part in the NYSC programme. An attempt is made in this paper to investigate the level of preparedness and interests of ODL students and their disappointment in their exclusion from the programme. To achieve this, a descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study with a random sample of 201 respondents comprising 114 male and 87 female distant learners within the stipulated age for the NYSC scheme. A researcher-developed questionnaire was used to gather data from respondents. Four research questions were raised and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data gathered were analyzed and presented using figures, simple percentages, frequency tables and the Independent T-test. The findings revealed that 98% of respondents believe that they are prepared for the NYSC scheme, while 2% of respondents are not prepared. 99% are interested and 97% are disappointed at their exclusion from the scheme. No significant gender difference was observed in the level of preparedness, extent of interest and degree of disappointment in exclusion from the scheme among respondents. The study recommends a collaborative effort of ODL institutions and their counselling units in addressing anxieties and disappointments among students. The study also advocates a review of government’s policy on the NYSC scheme for possible inclusion of young graduates of ODL institutions in the scheme.

A Model for the Selection of Active Learning While Taking into Account Modern Student Behavior Styles

This paper solves the complex scientific and practical problem of developing the critical thinking skills of the modern student. The solution of the indicated problem was accomplished by generalizing contemporary scientific works and conducting an empirical study (survey) of university students. The conducted research made it possible to distinguish students’ behavior styles according to seven criteria: the student’s level of trust in the higher education system; the student’s tendency to cheat the education system; the student’s degree of self-reliance and self-confidence; the student’s degree of disappointment with the education system; the student’s degree of involvement in the education process; the student’s degree of social inclusion; and the student’s degree of dependence on formal learning results. In this research, we determined the effectiveness of different teaching methods and proved that the student’s preference of teaching methods depends on their behavior styles. This means that in order to increase the effectiveness of the educational process, the academic teacher must select teaching methods while taking into account the behavior styles of the students. To this end, the article develops a model for the selection of active learning methods, taking into account the behavior styles of modern students, and conducts an approval of this model.

S3 and Recovery and Resilience Funds: A Case Study Built on the Experience of 10 Spanish Regions.

The EU's response to the COVID-19 crisis, namely the approval of the Next Generation package, provides an opportunity to explore to what extent the existing Smart Specialisation regional strategies and related ecosystems have been taken into account in the highly relevant territorial context in which the national Recovery Plans have been designed. According to our results the potential of the Smart Specialisation approach (S3) in relation with its place-based strategic prioritisation may have been overlooked in the process. The research is based on a desk review of relevant documents and recent literature in this field; followed by semi-structured interviews with regional planners and practitioners from 10 Spanish regions (autonomous communities); complemented, in a second phase, by the organisation of a focus group to validate the initial results. During our research we identified the main contributions that the Smart Specialisation approach has so far made to the regions (mainly in terms of participative governance and creation of regional ecosystems); and the unanimous perception shared by all the practitioners interviewed that the S3 approach has led to a change of vision in public intervention. However, all of the interviewed regions have confirmed that the drafting of the national recovery and resilience plan lacked an ex-ante alignment with the regional S3 strategies, and failed to consider the existing regional S3 ecosystems. The separation of the recovery logic (based on the operation of public consultations at national level to identify strategic projects) from the S3 logic (based on a strategic prioritisation exercise conducted by each regional ecosystem) confirms that an opportunity may have been missed in the recovery planning process to consolidate the multi-actor, multilevel and place-based S3 approach. Although there is a certain degree of disappointment among regional practitioners as a result of this misalignment, the majority of them believe in the possibility of an ex-post alignment between the two processes, that can protect existing regional shared visions. However, without clear recognition of the S3 ecosystems and the S3 managing bodies, the significant role that Smart Specialisation could play in the recovery process may be at risk.

Exiting Alcoholics Anonymous disappointed: A qualitative analysis of the experiences of ex-members of AA.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an NGO designed to support anyone who identifies as alcoholic to stop drinking alcohol. Existing qualitative research in this field has primarily reflected the experiences of those who have conformed to AA ideology and had positive experiences in AA. To address this, the current study aimed to explore the perspectives and experiences of individuals who have left AA with some degree of disappointment. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 11 ex-members of AA from America, Australia, and England, who were recruited from several private social media platforms. The study used an interactionist conception of social career involving conversion and deconversion, and data were analyzed thematically. Findings included that while participants experienced some genuinely positive aspects of AA, they retrospectively believed that they remained in AA because they had been indoctrinated into a particular way of understanding themselves. Moreover, findings highlighted participants' concerns with the people, ideology and practices within AA that ultimately led to their dissociation from the community. Our findings demonstrate a disparity between the idealistic principles in AA and the actual experiences of participants, and this is discussed in relation to the breadth of possible experiences across varying groups and AA's unregulated peer-to-peer framework.

Expectations versus reality: the case of Liberal Studies in Hong Kong’s new senior secondary reforms

This article reports the findings of a five-year longitudinal study investigating the introduction of Liberal Studies in the context of Hong Kong’s new senior secondary educational reforms. The aim of this empirical research, which adopted diachronic analysis to allow comparisons over time, was to compare teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the Liberal Studies curriculum before and after its introduction. Methodologically speaking, the study was informed by documentary inquiry, with approximately 560 newspaper articles and government reports collected to identify the issues surrounding the curriculum debate. Questionnaire-based surveys conducted in the pre- and post-reform periods revealed a sharp contrast between expectations and reality for both participant groups following the curriculum’s introduction. Whilst the students demonstrated favourable attitudes towards Liberal Studies before studying the subject, a certain degree of disappointment was expressed after the new curriculum came into effect. In follow-up interviews with teachers, they expressed a lack of confidence in teaching such a multi-disciplinary subject and criticised the overly ambitious nature of the curriculum. Liberal Studies, as currently taught, runs the risk of falling out of favour with Hong Kong secondary school teachers, and the question of whether it will play an increasingly important role in promoting patriotic education after the demise of Moral and National Education is deserving of research attention.

El Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte y la crisis de la economía mexicana

Tres fueron las motivaciones de Estados Unidos para promover el libre comercio en las Américas durante la década de los ochenta, a saber: 1. El creciente regionalismo en la Comunidad Europea, área a la que los estadunidenses destinan, en promedio, el 28 por ciento de sus exportaciones; 2. Las deficiencias en el sistema multilateral de comercio y especialmente en el Acuerdo General sobre Aranceles Aduaneros y Comercio (GATT) para liberalizar los intercambios globales; 3. La posibilidad de volver a corregir los déficit en la balanza comercial de Estados Unidos a través del libre comercio con un grupo reducido de países. Hoy en día esos estímulos son insuficientes para la política comercial de Estados Unidos, por lo que ya se percibe un cierto desencanto en tomo a la Empresa para la Iniciativa de la Américas y la Cumbre de las Américas.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

International concern for human rights was in the minds of many who were involved in the drafting of the charter for a new world organization in the closing days of the Second World War. This concern for human rights found its expression in a number of provisions of the United Nations Charter. However, proposals to incorporate in or annex to the Charter a definition or an enumeration of fundamental human rights did not commend themselves to the San Francisco Conference. Similarly, attempts to make provision in the Charter for the implementation of human rights also met with opposition. The Great Powers in particular were afraid that the world organization would actively impose human rights on the individual countries. Consequently, a certain degree of disappointment prevailed among the advocates of effective international protection of human rights. A last-minute move by American non-governmental organizations, whose representatives were attached in an advisory capacity to the United States delegation at the San Francisco Conference, resulted in enlisting the United States' support for an express reference in the Charter to the creation of a commission for the promotion of human rights. The United States, on its part, succeeded in obtaining the backing of the other three Sponsoring Powers (China, UK and USSR) for this idea. As a result, Article 68 of the Charter provides that “The Economic and Social Council shall set up commissions in economic and social fields and for the promotion of human rights, and such other commissions as may be required for the performance of its functions”. Among the functional commissions subsequently created by the Economic and Social Council, the Commission on Human Rights is the only one specifically referred to in the United Nations Charter.

IV. Letters received from the naturalists attached to the transit-of-Venus expedition at Rodriguez

Dear Sir,—I write to give you a short account of my proceedings and success here so far, in my explorations of the Rodriguez bone-caverns. I must confess to a more or less degree of disappointment on my first inspection of the caverns; and you will understand the cause, I think, when I inform you that out of thirteen caves which I found on my arrival, and which I believed till lately to be the only ones, twelve bore evident, and some recent, signs of previous digging. However, I set to work at once, and, with much diligent search, had found five new caves by the time that we had finished the first thirteen.