Over the past decade or more, a surge of the idea of spirituality has overcome the population. This surge is apparent in our everyday lives as we watch TV, read books, surf the Internet and even in our work as companies advertise their ‘spirited workplaces.’ This paper explores the definitions of contemporary spirituality as it relates to training and the adult education field. One of the main goals addressed is to show a clear distinction between the terms spirituality and religion – that spirituality is not religion and vice versa. The paper discusses the discoveries of a spiritual consciousness at work and what society thinks of it. It also give a clear understanding of why the field of training and development is moving towards spirituality, and what types of spiritually-infused training is taking place at work and in other adult education venues. Finally, the disadvantages of this emergent paradigm are discussed with cautions and suggestions on the future of spirituality in training and adult education.

The text presents selected results of a questionnaire investigation focused on identification of several factors in the work of basic school teachers aged over 50, particularly subjectively perceived changes in the selected factors forming self-concept – in the sense of security, responsibility, usefulness, success and satisfaction. Attention is paid also to the reflection of the changes in relationships and motivation for continuance in the profession from the point of view of the addressed teachers.

This comparative study presents two different higher education accreditation systems, which are carried out by the Yemeni Accreditation Council (YAC) and the German Accreditation Council (GAC) in the two countries, Yemen and Germany. After an examination of the Yemeni Accreditation Council and the German Accreditation Council's literature, their recently developmental accreditation systems and practical methods are subject to entirely detailed analysis. As a result, the findings of the two councils' literature analysis reveal that there is a large gap between the Yemeni and the German Higher Education Systems in the implementation of accreditation. Accordingly, it is strongly recommended that the Yemeni Accreditation Council should benefit from the positive elements of the German Accreditation Council for example, appointments of accreditation agencies, expert groups and the German accreditation system procedures, the accreditation of accreditation agencies, the internal review and the external review which may help the YAC to create the necessary mechanisms for the quality assessment improvement within the Yemeni higher education institutions.

The Universal Basic Education Programme (UBE) which encompasses primary and junior secondary education for all children (covering the first nine years of schooling), nomadic education and literacy and non-formal education in Nigeria have adopted the “collaborative/partnership approach”. In Ogun State, the UBE Act was passed into law in 2005 after that of the Federal government in 2004, hence, the demonstration of the intention to make the UBE free, compulsory and universal. The aspects of the policy which is capital intensive require the government to provide adequately for basic education in the area of organization, funding, staff development, facilities, among others. With the commencement of the scheme in 1999/2000 until-date, Ogun State, especially in the area of facility provision, has joined in the collaborative effort with the Federal government through counter-part funding to provide some facilities to schools in the State, especially at the Primary level. These facilities include textbooks (in core subjects’ areas- Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Primary Science), blocks of classrooms, furniture, laboratories/library, teachers, etc. This study attempts to assess the level of articulation by the Ogun State Government of its UBE policy within the general framework of the scheme in providing facilities to schools at the primary level. It shows that there is the need for a more deliberate and aggressive provision of these facilities with a view to influencing positively on school performance. The study also looks at the level of fund commitment, as well as the effective utilization of such funds by the State Government in providing these facilities with the aim of achieving the objective of providing ‘education for all” by the year 2015.

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ opinions about student-centered instructions, as well as to study effective factors in their instructional beliefs. Six important components of student-centered pedagogy examined in this study that were, educational objectives, content, teaching strategies, and instructional assessment, educational technology and learning environment. The methodology of this study was a quantitative research. An inventory to measure teachers’ beliefs about student-centered pedagogy employed to gather data. SPSS 15 was used to produce the mean, standard deviations, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r), T-test, Bonferroni Post Hoc test and ANOVA. Results showed that the components of studentcentered pedagogy have a high influence on their instructional beliefs and also there was a relatively high positive correlation between components of student-centered pedagogy. The analysis some variables such as gender, age, school level and teaching experience indicated, some those had an impact on student-centered beliefs. There was no significant difference between the male and female teachers’ beliefs on overall studentcentered pedagogy. The analysis also showed overall means of the student-centered pedagogy was statistically significant for elementary, middle and secondary school teachers, age groups and teaching experience.

This study aims to examine student teachers’ self-efficacy for implementing the constructivist approach in terms of gender, department and grade variables. To achieve this purpose, the study was conducted using 160 student teachers studying in the third and fourth grades in the Departments of Classroom Teacher Education and Science Teacher Education in Celal Bayar University. As a result of assessing the data obtained from the implementations, a significant relationship between the levels of self-efficacy of female and male student teachers regarding lesson planning was found to be in favor of the female student teachers. In the examinations performed considering the department variable, it was observed that the scores of classroom student teachers are much higher than those of science student teachers for the aspects of self-efficacy belief for the assessment-evaluation process and for developing a learning environment. Additionally, as a result of the assessment made considering the grade variable, no significant relationship was found between the selfefficacy beliefs of student teachers studying at third and fourth grades based on subscales and total scores.

This study is an appraisal of the effort made by the management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU)), Ile- Ife at employing Educational Branding as a business strategy to re-brand it selves to becoming the foremost University in Nigeria and the 53rd in Africa. It discussed various branding and Educational Marketing strategies used in spite of the challenges of depressed economy, globalization, desire to meet the MDGs and the achievement of Education for All. It examined students and staff disposition to the branding program and the impact on the image of the university, management and quality of teaching and learning.

Online tests and classes are becoming widely adopted systems in academic institutions. This is quite a recent phenomenon whereby I have had the opportunity to experience the transition of using these online systems in geography classes. From teaching in a traditional classroom setting to using online systems such as ETUDES at the community college level (teaching at two community colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District) or CLE (teaching classes at UCLA) for hybrid as well as online classes within a matter of a couple of years, I have been able to witness the advantages and disadvantages of both systems. Online classes and exams are becoming a prevailing practice in education. Because they are being used more widely, it is imperative to assess student learning behavior based on how they perform on varying test structures in order to improve the system of testing. I discuss the positive effects of using data visualization and specific techniques I used to detect patterns of learning behavior for students taking in-class and online exams.

Broad acceptance of web-based software as a teaching-learning medium for processing information has opened new vistas in education by taking full advantage of learners’ basic senses of learning such as visualizing 3D objects and fundamental concepts with applets. Applets provide animated, interactive and game-like environments in which students learn through exploration. Most of the applets are available on-line cover high school and college science courses. This study focuses on the technical and pedagogical benefits of more advanced-topics-related applets used in physics course. These applets emphasize the connection between reallife phenomena and the underlying science. Also, the effects of physics concept learning with computer simulations and traditional physics learning without computer simulations on students’ achievement and attitude were compared. The study was performed on two groups (total 93 students) during one semester at a public university in the west of the Turkey. When the results obtained from the study were evaluated statistically, it was found that there was a significant difference in conceptual test between groups’ scores in favor of the treatment group. Also, it could be concluded that the courses with computer based-activities have a positive effect on students’ attitude. According to the results of this study, the present study suggests that carefully developed and tested educational applets in conjunction with real-equipments can be engaging and effective in students’ understanding of the physics.

When we speak of a system called education, the first thing we need to do is to widen up the horizons of our mindset so that it will open up new vistas for mankind. Educational System in any country has been evolving for so long and has, over the years, been significantly influenced by the works of a number of philosophers, sociologists, researchers and scientists. In this paper, we shall argue that there should be a discipline scientific in nature which will study the educational system. We cannot reshape our educational system if we do not deal with it professionally. No doubt there is a subject or discipline under the same name Education to look after the education as a field of study but it is so diluted that there is no uniformity and neutrality in its nomenclature and functions as a result, the subject Education has been confined to teacher training programmes only through out the world. Subject Education, in common with other social sciences, suffers from a double lag: slow progress in fundamental research and delay in using research findings. Perhaps the disease is even more pronounced in the subject of Education than in the other social sciences. Certainly it is more devastating in its effects because malfunctioning of education endangers the health of the whole society.

The role and use of L1 in instructed second/foreign language classroom, especially in intensive foreign language programs, has without any doubt been at the crux of a fair extent of controversy, debate, and discussion. Although some research has been conducted on the attitudes of both foreign language instructors and learners towards L1 in the L2 classroom, very few studies have aspired to investigate the impact of L1 use on the proficiency gains of learners and its purpose. In view of the limited research on this issue, this study aims to report the findings of a specific study on the purpose of L1 use by language instructors in the speaking course in an intensive English course at Anadolu University. The results of the study show a judicious and systematic use of L1 by instructors geared towards facilitating communication and relationship between the teacher and students.