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IJHSS.NET

Vol. 9 , No. 5

October 2017

International Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences

e-ISSN: p-ISSN:

1694-2639 1694-2620

AAJHSS.ORG Vol 9, No 5 - October 2017 Table of Contents The untold story: A language teacher’s experience in a blog-assisted writing classroom Dr. Ming Huei Lin

Skills acquisition in Cameroon: How well does the secondary school curriculum equip school leavers for employment? Ernest Nkamta

Female postgraduate students’ perceptions of active learning methods Dr. Amel Thafer Alshehry

Orienteering: motivation, multidisciplinary and skills. A project in a secondary school in the province of Salerno. Prof. Rosanna Tammaro, Dott. Anna D’Alessio and Dott. Annamaria Petolicchio

International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences p-ISSN: 1694-2620 e-ISSN: 1694-2639 Vol. 9, No. 5, 2017, pp. 1-6, ©IJHSS

The untold story: A language teacher’s experience in a blog-assisted writing classroom Dr. Ming Huei Lin English Department, Tamkang University New Taipei City, Taiwan Abstract Classroom blogging has been in use for more than a decade. A great number of research papers have been conducted to investigate its effects on student learning or students‟ attitudes towards it. However, the understanding of teachers‟ experience in a blog-supported classroom is rather limited. This paper is thus given the aim to expose teachers‟ teaching experience in a blogassisted teaching setting. The participant involved in this paper was a teacher-researcher who had one-year experience teaching English writing to ESL undergraduates using blogs for a year. The teacher-researcher‟s weekly journal regarding this teaching approach throughout the year was collected for data analysis. The result show that teaching with the use of blog was rather timeconsuming, which was mainly caused by technical issues rather than the teaching itself. More importantly, the teacher-researcher conceded that he failed to see his efforts being paid off by students‟ learning output, which left him in great disappointment about blog use in class. Keywords: classroom blogging, ESL writing, blog assisted language learning (BALL) Introduction For the past decades, classroom blogging has been very popular in educational settings (Chen, 2016). Many educators (for example, Richardson, 2010) have published books to advocate the use of blogs and a great number of researchers have also shared their students‟ successful stories in terms of enhanced learning outcomes, such as improved learning motivation, self-confidence and the ability to write better (Arslan & Şahin-Kızıl, 2010; Challob, Bakar, & Latif, 2016; Chen, Liu, Shih, Wu & Yuan, 2011; Fellner & Apple, 2006; Grami, 2012; Hu & Wu, 2012; Kuimova & Zvekov, 2016; Kang, Bonk, & Kim, 2011; Lin, 2014; Lin, Li, Hung, & Huang, 2014; Miyazoe & Anderson, 2012; Nguyen, 2012; Noytim, 2010; Sun, 2010; Sun & Chang, 2012; Taki & Fardafshari, 2012; Vurdien, 2013; Yunus, Salehi, & Chenzi, 2012). Many researchers also believe that the use of blogs successfully augments the interaction between teachers and students (Trajtemberg & Yiakoumetti, 2011) and takes it beyond the classroom setting (Richardson, 2010). Moreover, the use of blogs is often described as an easy and convenient tool for teachers to master and thus it facilitates their teaching. Some also use the usefulness of blogs in assessing language learners‟ speaking performance (Hung & Huang, 2016) and in developing their speaking skills (Hsu, 2016). However, most of the studies on blogging thus far concern how and what students perceive; but it overlooks the experience for teachers in blog-supported classrooms (Lin, 2012). Although a

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very small number of blog researchers (Wu, 2008) did concede their negative feelings as feeling disappointed with students‟ inactive blogging patterns and some others (Churchill, 2009; Lai & Chen, 2011; Levy, 2009; Hourigan & Murray, 2010) have suggest that classroom blogging can be time-consuming and increase teachers‟ workload, no explicit or detailed accounts of the experience of blogging for teachers have been readily accessible yet. What, then, do teachers feel the experience of teaching with blogs is like? It is this question that the author proposes to answer in terms of exposing his own experience in teaching writing in an English as a second language (ESL) classroom with the use of blogs. Method In this section, the author will report on the blogging project in which he himself was involved and illustrate why his experience can be of any interest to researchers in the field of blog studies or even be of any help to the understanding of teachers‟ blogging experience. The author will then introduce how the data were collected and analyzed for writing up this paper. The blogging project Impelled by the overwhelmingly promising features and advantages which were reported to result from the use of blogs, the teacher-researcher (namely, the author of this paper), implemented a program entitled Blog Assisted Language Learning (BALL) in one of his ESL writing classes. The main purpose of this program was to use blogging to assist the teacher-researcher to teach writing and students to write in English. A total of 25 ESL student writers participated in the project. Each week on Friday morning, they received two 50-minute lessons, a pattern which lasted for 36 weeks. Before the program started, the teacher-researcher set up his own tutor blog and prepared the curriculum online. After the program was launched, he guided the students to establish their own student blogs and from time to time he instructed them how to use certain blog functions. To ensure that the student bloggers were exposed to a blog-supported learning environment, the participants were required to post journal-style articles and assignments on their own blogs. This in turn allowed the teacher-researcher greater opportunity to engage with the experience of teaching with blog use, such as marking students‟ entries online, leaving comments and feedback in their blogs and interacting with students by taking the questions which they had included in their blogs. To achieve the purpose of integrating blog use in the writing classroom to its fullest extent, all the learning material was uploaded online throughout the program. The teacher-researcher also published class announcements online, archived students‟ blog articles, and shared words of encouragement with the students in blogs. It is anticipated that his experience of teaching with such substantial involvement in the blogging approach, in terms of both time and activities, makes him a case worth discussion. Data collection and data analysis The data collected for analysis were comprised of journal entries that the teacher-researcher kept to monitor his teaching of the BALL project mentioned. As this is a paper where an individual teacher attempts to share his own teaching experience, no specific scientific analysis approach will be adopted. Rather, a simple approach that is commonly used in analyzing descriptive counts in the field of qualitative inquiries in general will be used. This includes: (1) listing every expression or comment (the participants‟ responses to the experience) relevant to the targeting experience and reducing and eliminating those are less directly relevant, (2) clustering similar

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constituents and thematizing core themes of the experience, and (3) constructing a texturalstructural description. Results Just as Levy (2009) suggests, classroom blogging was truly a very labor-intensive and timeconsuming approach to the teacher-researcher, as he often repeated in his journals: “once again, it took more time than planned today!” or “I am tired of coping with those seemingly endless tasks.” Indeed, although the teacher-researcher always managed to upload material for students ahead of the course, to maintain his tutor blog and to comment on students‟ entries and questions without undue delay, this was a result of many late nights. Specifically, apart from imparting writing skills to the students, some class time was used to show them how to use certain features. For example, the teacher-researcher recorded that he “spent about 15 minutes showing students how to revise their posts,” which delayed his schedule of teaching that day. Additionally, while teachers in a traditional classroom probably need only print out handouts and distribute them to students, in this case he had to spend extra time in waiting for the file to be completely uploaded online. The completion of the task became even more difficult and prolonged when it involved the uploading of text with pictures or with formatted bullet points. Unlike the MS Word system (for example), with which a wide variety of applications are equipped to allow users to play with text easily, most blog hosts offer only basic tools, so adjusting a blog entry with pictures or numbering in the way that the teacher-researcher planned sometimes consumed more time than he had expected. Because the editing interface of blog is rather different from that of MS Word, pasting and copying a text with pictures between the two systems also created extra workload. An even more slow and unexpected step ensued when the technology failed for no reason! There were times when the teacher-researcher had to re-write his comments and posts because they went missing before he had time to post them. In addition to the issues of technical support and content management which took more time of the teacher-researcher than he expected, helping students with their learning development also ended up as a time-consuming and distracting activity for this BALL teacher-researcher as well. For example, “the commenting function is not really ideal, as its functionality is not flexible enough. I can only leave comments line by line in fixed order in a small „commenting window‟ inserted below students‟ entries. This causes me to spend more time than I would spend when I teach in a traditional classroom of low-tech pens and paper,” as pens and paper allow teachers to mark compositions freely and even to draw a few lines/arrows between the comments made and the content referred to. More detailed comments need to be done in written language while they could be done using pens and paper. This increased the already labor-intense assessing task. Additionally, to ensure ordered and in-time feedback in ways which perceptibly benefit student bloggers, both in and after class, the teacher had from time to time to keep a lookout for the upload of students‟ entries and questions. Not only was this protracted, but it „invaded‟ the time set aside for his private life and chopped it into fragments. Unfortunately, the pressure on time associated with learner support activities was not entirely the worst part for the teacher-researcher to overcome, although it did leave him feeling irritated now and again. The most troubled moments were when the researcher observed that his students showed low blogging involvement both in and out of class. Doubts would often rise at this point: “whether or not the time and effort that I have put into the blogging project and my student bloggers would ever pay off?” Throughout the project of 36 weeks, the students produced a total of 408 entries, that is, an average of only around 17 pieces of writing each. On average, the student writers produced only one journal every other week and most of the entries

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were required by the teacher. Since low blogging involvement was the norm, it is not surprising to see that the teacher-researcher‟s doubts accumulated to such a level that he started to resent the whole blogging approach, though he managed to keep these feelings to himself and see the project to completion. Discussion and conclusion It seems clear from the results above that the teacher-researcher‟s experience of teaching with blogs is rather negative and failed to make blogging seem an attractive approach for facilitating teachers‟ teaching or improving their workload, in particular when compared to previous researchers‟ positive reports about students‟ learning achievements. This teacher-researcher seemed to be trapped by the pressure on time and effort created by ensuring a functioning class blog and the concern grew greater when students‟ performance failed to meet his expectations. Such concerns echo the blogging experience of Wu (2008), namely, the feeling of disappointment, and the observations of Levy (2009) and Hourigan and Murray (2010), that is, labor-intensive and time-consuming. This in turn confirms that the experience of the author of this paper is objectively justified, even though it is the experience of only one individual teacher. In addition, this result once again raises an important question that have been touched on but have not been fully studied yet (Levy, 2009; Lin, Lin, & Hsu, 2011): would it be the case that the overwhelmingly positive effects of classroom blogging on language students‟ learning performance as have been reported in previous studies achieved at the expense of the time and effort of language teachers or moderators rather than the blogging approach itself? This could be a fruitful line of inquiry for future BALL research to pursue. However, it should also be noted that more investigations are urgently needed into teachers with different teaching styles or teaching philosophies, before a more comprehensive and objective understanding can be reached of blogging teachers‟ experience as a whole. This is suggested because it is possible that teachers who believe in the value of making great sacrifices (such as time) for students or who enjoy engaging in technology-supported settings may perceive their teaching experience with blogs differently. It is also worth mentioning that, to improve blogging teachers‟ experience, it is recommended that future blogging projects recruit assistants to share the workload of sustaining the blogging approach. Last but not least, although this is not the main concern of this study, it may be better for teachers to take students‟ learning styles into consideration when blog use is introduced into classrooms. It is possible that the blogging approach may be more suitable for students of some learning styles than others and thus students‟ low engagement in blogging activities, as deplored by the teacher-researcher in the present study, may increase. Acknowledgements This article was written with funding support from Taiwan‟s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 104-2410-H-032-051). I also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers of International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences for their many insightful comments on earlier versions of this article.

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References Arslan, R. Ş., & Şahin-Kızıl, A. (2010). How can the use of blog software facilitate the writing process of English language learners? Computer Assisted Language Learning, 23(3), 183-197. Challob, A. A. I., Bakar, N. A., & Latif, H. (2016). Collaborative Blended Learning Writing Environment: Effects on EFL Students‟ Writing Apprehension and Writing Performance. English Language Teaching, 9(6), 229. Chen, P. J. (2016). Learners' metalinguistic and affective performance in blogging to write. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29(4), 790-814. Chen, Y. L., Liu, E. Z. E., Shih, R. C., Wu, C. T., & Yuan, S. M. (2011). Use of peer feedback to enhance elementary students‟ writing through blogging. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42, 1, E1-E4. Churchill, D. (2009). Educational applications of Web 2.0: Using blogs to support teaching and learning. British journal of Educational Technology, 40(1), 179-183. Fellner, T., & Apple, M. (2006). Developing writing fluency and lexical complexity with blogs. JALT CALL Journal, 2(1), 15-26. Grami, G. M. A. (2012). Online collaborative writing for ESL learners using blogs and feedback checklists. English Language Teaching, 5(10), 43-48. Hourigan, T., & Murray, L. (2010). Using blogs to help language students‟ to develop reflective learning strategies: Towards a pedagogical framework. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(2), 209225. Hsu, H. C. (2016). Voice blogging and L2 speaking performance. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 29(5), 968-983. Hu, H., & Wu, H. (2012). Writing-research on vocational college English-teaching based on web-blog. Education and Educational Technology, 108, 715-718. Hung, S. T. A., & Huang, H. T. D. (2016). Blogs as a learning and assessment instrument for Englishspeaking performance. Interactive Learning Environments, 24(8), 1881-1894. Kang, I., Bonk, C. J., & Kim, M. (2011). A case study of blog-based learning in Korea: Technology becomes pedagogy. Internet and Higher Education, 14(4), 227-235. Kuimova, M. V., & Zvekov, O. D. (2016). Blogs as a Means to Enhance Writing Skills in EFL Classes. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 11(4), 157-160. Lai, H. M., & Chen, C. P. (2011). Factors influencing secondary school teachers‟ adoption of teaching blogs. Computers & Education, 56(4), 948-960. Levy, M. (2009). Technologies in use for second language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 93, Focus Issue, 769-782. Lin, M. H. (2012). Blog assisted language learning inthe EFL writing classroom: An experimental study. Unpublished Doctoraldissertation. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. Lin, M. H. (2014). Effects of classroom blogging on ESL student writers: An Empirical reassessment. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 23(3), 577-590. Lin, M. H., Li, J. J., Hung, P. Y., & Huang, H. W. (2014). Blogging a journal: Changing students‟ writing skills and perceptions. ELT journal, 68(4), 422-431. Lin, M. H. (2015). Learner-centered blogging: A preliminary investigation of EFL student writers‟ experience. Educational Technology & Society, 18(4), 446-458. Lin, M. H., Lin, C. Y., & Hsu, P. Y. (2011). The unrealistic claims for the effects of classroom blogging on English as a second language, students‟ writing performance. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(6). E148-E151. Miyazoe, T., & Anderson, T. (2012). Discuss, reflect, and collaborate: A qualitative analysis of forum, blog, and wiki use in an EFL blended learning course. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 34, 146-152. Nguyen, P. T. (2012). Peer feedback on second language writing through blogs: The Case of a Vietnamese EFL classroom. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching (IJCALLT), 2(1), 13–23. Noytim, U. (2010). Weblogs enhancing EFL students‟ English language learning. Procedia Social Behavioral Sciences, 2, 1127-1132. Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms (3 rd ed). California: Corwin Press. Sun, Y. C. (2010). Extensive writing in foreign-language classrooms: a blogging approach. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 47, 3, 327-339. Sun, Y. C., & Chang, Y. J. (2012). Blogging to learn: Becoming EFL academic writers through

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collaborative dialogues. Language Learning & Technology, 16(1), 43-61. Taki, S., & Fardafshari, E. (2012). Weblog-based collaborative learning: Iranian EFL learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x; writing skills and motivation. International Journal of Linguistics, 4(2), 412-429. Trajtemberg, C., & Yiakoumetti, A. (2011). Weblogs: a tool for EFL interaction, expression, and selfevaluation. ELT Journal, 65(4), 437-445. Vurdien, R. (2013). Enhancing writing skills through blogging in an advanced English as a Foreign Language class in Spain. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 26(2), 126-143. Wu, W. S. (2008). Using blogs in an EFL writing class. In S. Priya (Ed.), Netlingo: The metamorphosis of language (pp. 86-99). Hyderabad, India: The Icfai University Press. Yunus, M. M., Salehi, H., & Chenzi, C. (2012). Integrating social networking tools into ESL writing classroom: Strengths and weaknesses. English Language Teaching, 5(8), 42.

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International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences p-ISSN: 1694-2620 e-ISSN: 1694-2639 Vol. 9, No. 5, 2017, pp. 7-24, ÂŠIJHSS

Skills acquisition in Cameroon: How well does the secondary school curriculum equip school leavers for employment? Ernest Nkamta Nottingham Trent University Nottinghamshire, England Abstract. The growing need for the secondary education system to produce school leavers with capabilities in terms of skills and attitudes useful for solving youth unemployment challenges has prompted education reforms in Cameroon. Many school leavers, especially those from the secondary general education sector in the country after completing various levels are not easily integrated into the job market due to their lack of employable skills that were not imbibed into them during their training (Esongo, 2017). Despite the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x;s efforts at restructuring the educational system and redefine its goals to address youth unemployment and social development, recent evidence suggests that Cameroon has achieved little success (Ibid). The ways in which vocational education can be incorporated in the curriculum of schools have been under-researched in Cameroon and stands as the need for vocational education, rather than a constitutive part of the curriculum development process. My research aims to fill the gap by exploring the perceptions of stakeholders in education for developing a broad-based curriculum that incorporates employability skills at the secondary school level. A qualitative case study approach through interviews and questionnaires was applied in this study. The findings indicated that there is a significant relationship between curriculum development, employability skills acquisition, youth unemployment and the efficiency of the school system. It is thus recommended that the government and education authorities should further refine their focus on needed skills to strengthen and enhance youth unemployment; and thus, provide additional positive outcomes for students by enhancing future curriculum development grounded in practice. Keywords: Employability Skills; Curriculum Development; vocational education.

Introduction The purpose of this study was to get an in-depth understanding of the relationship between curriculum development and employability skills acquisition in the context of Cameroon. This included exploring the perceptions of stakeholders in education for developing a broad-based curriculum that incorporates vocational studies at the secondary school level. Since 1990, the government of Cameroon, backed by the IMF/World Bank-led economic recovery programme, restructured the educational system and redefined its goals to address unemployment and social development. Additionally, Vision 2035, known as the Strategy for Growth and Employment

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Paper (GESP), published in 2010 sets the Government of Cameroon‟s goals for the country‟s growth and development; the main aim being for Cameroon to become an emerging economy by 2035. Among other aspects, the GESP identifies youth unemployment and weak productivity as key challenges for the country‟s development. There is thus the need to review the education received in secondary schools in Cameroon from its traditional content-based approach to the adoption of a pedagogic paradigm relating to the more pragmatic and functional CompetencyBased Teaching Approaches (CBTAs) in line with the goals of the 2010 Growth and Employment Strategy Paper (GESP). However, although education stakeholders in Cameroon claim that the education system is competency-based, there is no clear evidence from research which indicates the extent of the implementation of this policy or factors that militate against its smooth implementation (Esongo, 2017). The curriculum in school is skewed towards academic preparation as evident in widespread unemployment among youths (ILO, 2013). Besides, research has demonstrated that employers want employees who possess interpersonal skills, effective communications skills, problem solving and critical thinking skills as well as the ability to work well within a team (Billing, 2003). A similar result from a study of employers‟ needs from new employees in the workplace was reported by Shivpuri and Kim (2004). Further, in its report on Global Employment Trends for Youths, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) maintained that youth unemployment is widespread throughout the globe because of a shortfall in young people‟s skills, job experience, job search skills as well as the lack of the financial resources to find work (ILO 2009). This challenge, the report noted, is compounded in developing countries by the competitive economic and social pressures brought about by the ever-growing pool of people available for work. Despite the recognition that unemployment is a global phenomenon, unemployment and underemployment amongst young people in Cameroon is high. According to the International Labour Organization‟s (ILO, 2013) report, the unemployment rate in Cameroon is 30% and that of underemployment is 75%. The report showed that, there are about 4-6 million, able and ready to work young people who are currently unemployed in Cameroon. Cameroon remains strategic in terms of institutional arrangement, which involves issues of the younger age group, yet the lack of adequate technical and professional education for youth especially those completing secondary education continues to be a major concern and is one of the main causes for the high rate of youth unemployment in Cameroon (Penn, 2016). Additionally, Mbangwana (1996), observed parents as being keen to ensure the productivity of their children by acquiring vocational skills that will enable them to bring income into the family or make them better-off and independent. Households rely on the income from labour; hence productivity is largely determined by the acquisition of employability skills (Ibid). There is however, a mismatch between training and employment and the lack of training for selfemployment (Ibid). The ways in which vocational education can be incorporated in the curriculum of schools have been under-researched in Cameroon and stands as the need for vocational education, rather than a constitutive part of the curriculum development process. This research aimed to get an in-depth understanding into whether if young people are given sufficient opportunities through secondary education to raise their skills, they would be qualified for available jobs (Winch., 2000, Unwin and Wellington., 2001 and Pring, R. et al., 2009). This means that the educational system should be the driving force for any meaningful development. There is need for the curriculum at secondary school level to be developed such that children in schools can take advantage of the wide range of opportunities that would equip them with employability skills. This study seeks to suggest appropriate solutions and recommendations to stakeholders in the Ministry of secondary education on how to improve on the future curriculum that will make secondary education able to serve as a basis with which students can start life.

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Aims of Research This study explored the perspectives of stakeholders in education for developing a broad-based curriculum which incorporates employability skills at the secondary school level. The research aimed: 1.

To find out about the causes of the high level of youth unemployment in Cameroon.

To identify the types of knowledge and skills that students need from the curriculum to enhance their working life.

To examine the perception of educational administrators and curriculum planners on the responses received and the implications for revising the curriculum.

To present a contribution to knowledge through the development of a conceptual framework of the relationship between curriculum development and employability skills to inform future curriculum design in Cameroon.

To propose recommendations for curriculum review in Cameroon.

The following three research questions were devised to fulfil the research aim and objectives outlined above: Research Questions 1. What is the perception of current school pupils (Form 5, 15-16-year olds) on the types of knowledge and skills they need from the curriculum to gain employment? 2. What is the relationship between curriculum development and vocational education from participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x; perspectives? 3. How can employability skills be integrated in the curriculum of schools in Cameroon to improve employability skills for students? Relationship between the Study and Existing Empirical Evidence To develop a conceptual framework and subsequent methodology for understanding how the secondary school curriculum equip school leavers for employment, I critically reviewed the literature on: Employability skills and prerequisite for vocational education, curriculum development and the structure of curriculum development in Cameroon. Oni (2007) maintains that vocational education is the type of education which equips the individual for gainful employment in recognised careers as semi-skilled workers, technicians or sub-professionals. In relation to the focus of my study, it is connected to workplace vocational education, which focuses on the knowledge and skills required for workplace performance. In the work place, vocational skills are referred to as the procedures, techniques of carrying out specialised or practical tasks that can easily be measured and quantified. These skills are easily transferred to young students. They are much more easily trained in such skills than in employability skills which are usually referred to as generic or core skills or non-technical skills (Audu et al, 2013). According to Shakir (2009), these skills are not usually taught in schools even though they are highly desired by employers. Dacre and Sewell (2007) define employability skills as the skills, knowledge, understanding and personal attributes that enable an individual to gain employment, thrive in their job and gain satisfaction in their chosen profession. Employability skills can be grouped into three main categories such as interpersonal skills, problem solving skills and decision-making skills (Audu et al, 2013). According to research findings by Bennet, Dunne and Carre (2000), generic skills can be presented in four broad areas of management skills namely: management of self, management of others, management of task and management of information. Vocational skills and employability skills so complement each other that Spencer http://ijhss.net/index.php/ijhss/

and Spencer in (Ali et al, 2012) stated that superior performers in the workplace possess both specialised vocational skills as well as generic employability skills. Employability skills complement the vocational skills to fulfil a vital role of shaping an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x;s life (Schulz, 2008). Despite the importance of these skills, it has been noted that schools do not incorporate them in to the curriculum; favouring the learning of information (Robinson 2011). Besides, although varying educational establishments pay much attention to employability skills, Barrie (2005) points out that evidence show that teachers do not include these skills into their teaching, learning and assessment strategies especially in the African context. For example, Boahin, Kamphorst, and Hofman (2010), in their survey of employers in Ghana about skills new employees have when interviewed or recruited indicated that they offered frail employability skills. This was evident in their problem-solving, organisational, communication, teamwork and ICT abilities (Ibid). In the literature, four main curriculum development models are usually identified: 1) Curriculum as a body of knowledge that focuses on content; curriculum is what is contained in the different subjects (Kelly, 2009). Emphasis is on the syllabus of the various subjects whose contents are transmitted to students and later evaluated. 2) Curriculum as a product, also known as the objective model. This aims to achieve a certain pre-planned and prescriptive end-product. The main features of this model comprise of situation analysis, identifying aims and objectives, choosing and organising content, selecting and organising learning activities and undertaking assessment. 3) Curriculum as a process; compared to the product model, the process model is more open-ended as it emphasises on a continuous process in which the result is the development of potential skills such as critical thinking (Sheehan, 1986). 4) Curriculum as praxis: This model emphasises on a broader view of educational practice in the society. Curriculum built on the curriculum as praxis model does not only include well-articulated plans; it also involves informed and committed action Grundy (1987). In this model, the focus is on continuous social processes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; considered as human interactions, values and attitudes; put into practice by educators. This model, however, should not only be viewed as a set of plans to be implemented but should involve a thorough and active process in which acting, planning, and assessment exist in reciprocal and integrative relationship (Yek and Penny, 2006). Curriculum as praxis model advocates for the production and application of knowledge within student groups; undertaken by members of the group, addressing real problems in real contexts by thinking and reflecting as well as developing constructive skills. The result of this interactive learning process is the understanding of their individual pedagogical responsibilities and what they are expected to achieve. Grundy sums-up as follows: Curriculum as praxis is a conceptualisation of curriculum derived from an orientation towards human well-being and which makes an explicit commitment to emancipation of the human spirit. It is a process which takes the experiences of both the learner and the teacher and, through dialogue and negotiation, recognises them both as problematicâ&#x20AC;? (1985:115). The praxis model further informs this study as it reflects a more dynamic interaction and reflection where action is not only informed; it is committed. The praxis model provides a situation where students can deal efficiently with contemporary world issues. It emphasises on hands-on problem solving, experimenting, projects, having students working in groups, bringing disciplines together and emphasises solving problems in an interdisciplinary way. These inherent qualities of the model are not only important, but also help to acknowledge the way curriculum is viewed and organised and how these impact teaching and learning. The literature on curriculum development models shows that curriculum development models are useful in guiding teachers and education administrators to check whether an institution is implementing or meeting the needs of the students (Ornstein and Hunkins, 2009). The approach to curriculum development and delivery in Cameroon is top-down. As a result of the top-down curricula approach, to understand how it is structured and operated, it is

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important to examine how the structures of the Ministry of Secondary Education extend to regional, sub-regional and school levels. In the ministry are a trained cadre of inspectors to whom the minister appoints to undertake any curriculum initiative. The trained inspectors ensure the effective running of schools by regularly inspecting schools through visits. The inspectors convey ministerial policies to regional delegates who in turn pass them on the sub-regional delegates. Head teachers are directly answerable to sub-regional delegates who also ensure that any issues affecting schools are relayed to the regional delegates. The minister takes full control of the acts of the ministry, the public and politicians (Forzie, 1990). The implication of this authoritarian approach is that any change can only be carried out through the directives of the minister and as such, any changes are likely to become political. Consequently, the Minister of Secondary Education has full responsibility for curriculum development, curriculum control and the running of schools. Hence, curriculum implementation is often a one-sided process and any classroom feedback or teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x; input is unlikely to be incorporated in the curriculum development process (Ibid). Conceptual Framework The conceptual framework for the study shows the interdependent relationship between curriculum development, employability skills and youth unemployment. It posits that employability skills are concerned with increasing individualsâ&#x20AC;&#x; skill sets to enhance their attractiveness to prospective employers. While most studies argue that vocational education provides useful skills to prepare young people to gain employment (Quintini and Martin 2006, OECD 2012), others focus on the problem of skills mismatch; often considered as the main cause of high unemployment rates particularly in developing countries (Almeida, Behrman, Robalino 2012). Educational Factors -Employability skills

Causes of unemployment

Curriculum Development

Curriculum delivery

Employment

Non-educational factors -Infrastructure - Didactic Materials

Figure 1.0 An analytical framework for linking employability skills curriculum development.

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Existing studies particularly in Cameroon have however, failed to establish the relationship between curriculum development and employability skills. The conceptual framework thus maintains that there is a direct relationship between curriculum development and employability skills acquisition. It argues that curriculum development is associated with youth unemployment. The soaring unemployment rates amidst young people in Cameroon is essentially because of lack of employable skills. Students are expected to acquire skills and knowledge from the curriculum, which should be reflected in their employment. Yet these expectations are not realised in the country. The major cause of this problem could not be disassociated with poor curriculum structures and reforms. Hence, to study how well the secondary school curriculum prepares students for employment, a qualitative analysis of students‟, teachers‟ and administrators perceptions as stakeholders of education offered useful insights; ways in which the secondary school curriculum could be developed to incorporate skills useful for the labour market. Research Methodology The research approach adopted for this study was qualitative case research with the aim to provide the depth required to understand the participants‟ perceptions of their experiences (Scott and Morrison 2007). To meet the first and second objective of my study, I undertook an extensive review of literature relating to employability skills, vocational education and curriculum development. The literature review involved a review of literature from both developing countries (including Cameroon) and the developed world that illustrate how youth unemployment has resulted in the need to enhance students‟ employability skills and how this is linked to curriculum development. To meet the third and fourth aims of the research, I employed an approach that enabled the generation of varying perspectives of stakeholders (education administrators) on the relationship between curriculum development and employability skills. Semi-structured interviews were considered most appropriate in such situations because they enabled me to focus the interview within a framework where all the areas I intended to probe were covered, while giving the interviewee the opportunity to respond fully to issues being discussed or following a line of thought I may not have envisaged (Newby, 2010). Nonetheless, it was crucial to consider and address some of the shortcomings inherent in this approach. Denscombe (2007) examines research that demonstrates how varying responses can be obtained depending on how participants view the interviewer. However, this issue depends on the nature of the topics under discussion and I was satisfied that the methods chosen were appropriate for the study. Alongside the semi-structured interviews, the semi-structured questionnaire format was adopted for my investigation. My choice of format was influenced by Cohen on the advantages inherent in this design. ‘There is a clear structure, sequence, focus, but the format is open-ended, enabling the respondent to respond in his/her own terms (2011, p.248). Sampling Strategy To meet the objectives of this study, purposive sampling was used (Cohen, et al., 2011) based on the presumption that there are individuals in the country who are knowledgeable in curriculum development issues in the country. I focussed on two specific regions; the South West and Central regions of Cameroon shown in Figure 1.1 below.

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Figure 1.1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Map of Cameroon showing the 10 administrative regions Secondary schools across the country follow the same curriculum and students take the same national examinations; consideration was given to balancing the one Anglophone region (English is the predominant language) and the other from the Francophone region (French is the predominant language). Selection of the research sites for this study was challenging, as there are ten geographical regions in Cameroon as shown on the map with; eight being French speaking while two are English speaking. For this reason, a multistage approach was used to select two regions out of the ten in order minimise the cost and resources of surveying samples from all regions (Scott and Morrison, 2007 and Cohen et al., 2007). A purposive sampling of 202 form five students (usually 15-16-year-old) and 26 teachers was done and questionnaires were administered. The choice of form five students was found appropriate since at this stage of their education, it is expected that they have experienced the curriculum and are about to leave school. Teachers were sampled because I assumed that they understand the curriculum they are responsible for delivering. Cohen et al., (2007) suggest that there is no clear-cut answer to the issue of correct sample size since it depends on the objectives of the study as well as the population under examination. The selected sample was for this study was considered adequate. The Case Study Approach Case study was considered appropriate for this study. Yin (2014) maintains that research questions in a case study are investigated in context, from the direct experiences of those whose social actions are highly contextual and of interest. Additionally, a case study requires detailed information from the participants that would not be obtained through other designs (Denscombe, 2014). A case study of four schools and the Ministry of secondary education were used to explore issues relating to curriculum development that addressed the research questions as well as offered a flexible opportunity to obtain a holistic understanding of the phenomena through varying perspectives of participants and stakeholders in education (Yin, 2014).

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Furthermore, Yin observed that an inherent characteristics of case study is its ability to deal with varying methods of data such as interviews and document reviews. The implication of this characteristic is that, data is collected from participants and institutions in their day-to-day experiences rather than the „controlled confines of a laboratory, the sanctity of a library…‟ (Yin, 2014 p.88). Participant Interviews Participants working at the Ministry of Secondary Education and schools were interviewed. The participants were chosen because they have the capacity to give considered responses, as well as provide some examples of emerging good or interesting policies and practices at national and regional levels. An interview schedule was sent to participants prior to fieldwork describing the purpose of the research and to ensure that all interviewees were given the opportunity to address all issues. The aim of the semi – structured interview format used in this study was to focus the interview within a framework where all areas I intended to probe were covered, while giving the participants the opportunity to respond fully to issues being discussed or following a line of thought I may not have envisaged (Newby, 2010). Interviews were held in the participants‟ offices and lasted between 35 to 50 minutes each. All interviews were carried out individually to allow participants to address the same questions to enable comparison of their responses (Clough and Nutbrown, 2012) while recording was done using a tape recorder (Kvale, 2007) to enable the conversation to flow better without diversions. Questionnaires The questionnaire was intended to capture the opinions of teachers and students on some important issues concerning the types of knowledge and skills current students and school leavers need from the curriculum to enhance their working life. To meet the aims of the study, the questionnaires intended to: (i) Collect information about teachers‟ and students‟ knowledge of what is meant by „employability skills‟; (ii) To determine those skills which are considered most important to meet the needs of employers and the aspirations of learners; (iii) To find out about teachers‟ initiative at incorporating employability skills in their teaching. Questionnaires were self-administered and I made personal contact (with the support of informal contacts in Cameroon) with the schools and administrators in advance to seek permission. I booked an appointment with the head teacher of the schools and the teachers who in turn informed students about the date to complete questionnaires. Participants were provided with a participant information sheet to understand the nature and purpose of the research. Prior to the completion of questionnaires, a consent form was handed to participants to give consent. The participants retained a copy of the consent form and the information sheet. Further, participants were assured of confidentiality throughout the project by using code numbers for the participants and none of the participants was quoted by name in all documents. All the information I collected – consent forms and recordings were stored carefully.

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Pilot Study As part of my investigation into how well the secondary school curriculum of Cameroon equips school leavers for employment, a pilot study of questionnaires was carried out. The purpose of the pilot study was twofold: 1) To identify weaknesses in the instrument (Newby, 2010). 2) To further develop my research objective. The pilot study of students‟ and teachers‟ questionnaires was conducted in spring in 2014 with 20 secondary school students and 15 teachers at a secondary school in the South West Region, Cameroon. The conclusions drawn from the students‟ responses revealed that, at the secondary school level, learners are not adequately exposed to work or given the opportunity to acquire job skills to help them gain employment. There was however, a mismatch between the students‟ responses and the teachers‟ job skills initiatives and positive feedback. While the result of the teachers‟ questionnaires revealed that teachers teach with respect to the prescribed syllables which stress on practicability of subjects, they give advice to students on job related issues, most students demonstrated limited understanding of the type of skills they need from the curriculum to enable them to gain employment. It was also noted that most students had no work experience (voluntary or paid). The implication of this is that, the secondary school curriculum is not preparing students for the world of work as one would expect. This helped to shape and confirm my research question and merits further investigation on the reliability of the teachers‟ claim and how the secondary school curriculum could be developed to include skills that prepare school leavers for work. Although the data from the administered questionnaires was crucial and informed the research tools and methods employed in this study, sequencing of questions and topics, organisation of data and strategies for data analysis; it was not used to inform the content of the final study. Outline of Analysis Methods Data analysis was carried out alongside the data collection process given that these inform each other. The data analysis process involved three main stages: Stage 1 involved Verbatim (Kvale, 2007) transcription of interviews. This process involved transcribing the interview recordings and identifying key issues in the transcript which were noted and put together across the data segment. These were assembled and compared in order to design suitable codes. The codes were grouped under themes and subheadings which gave an indication of the theoretical direction of the project. Table 1.0: An example of coding data in the interview analysis N o

Relevant Text (Data immersion)

„….So, I think if there is unemployment, there are, as I say, many Youth reasons: first, they need competence, and the second, is skills…‟. unemploym ent is caused „…there is a high rate of unemployment in Cameroon is because by lack of the curriculum or call it syllabuses (syllabus make up the skills and curriculum) the syllabuses which have been there for more than outdated thirty years are already obsolete…‟. curriculum „For now, those who design the curriculum are the pedagogic Curriculum inspectors.. Developme

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Coding

„…we‟ve sat in some pedagogic meetings even at the level of the pedagogic inspectorate and we were given the opportunity to make proposals after their presentations and I don‟t know but it seems as though the come to those meetings to tell us what to do and not to listen to us…‟.

nt Process in Cameroon is „top-down

Table 1.1: An Example of generating themes from interviews No.

Creating categories

Sub-themes

1. Lack of cohesion (skills) or Educational Factors match between education and labour market demands. Employability Skills and youth unemployment

1.Outdated Curriculum

1.Lack or insufficient level of Non-educational Factors infrastructure

Theme



Curriculum development The Causes of and youth unemployment the high level 2.Inappropriate link between of youth curriculum and employment unemployment

Stage 2 of the analytical process involved the segmentation of the data in to groups using developed codes from stage one. The coded data was then checked for irregularities and anomalies. This procedure ensured that emerging concepts or theories were established with firm evidence in the actual findings. This was followed by a detailed analysis of the coded data as individual narratives and as coded segments, to interpret data on varying levels. Stage 3 of the analytical procedure comprised of examining links between the analytical elements of in stage two. It involved refining any emerging theoretical concepts. Gathered data through questionnaires was checked through as they were handed in by students and teachers for errors such as omitted answers and failure to follow instructions (Cohen, et al., 2011). The task of checking questionnaires was intended to eliminate mistakes made by participants (Ibid). Data from the questionnaires was manually keyed in Microsoft Word and Spreadsheet documents to provide a summary of participants‟ responses as well as to enable easy access of the data and to answer the research questions (Sapsford and Jupp, 2008). The responses from each school were allocated a row, with each column representing a separate topic to enable sorting, cutting, pasting and allocation of categories. The closed questions formed were tabulated to provide descriptive data while the open-ended questions had to be reduced to a suitable form to enable the analysis (Sapsford and Jupp, 2008). Keyed in answers were used for illustrative purposes and were extended where necessary by including answers from a larger

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sample of the questionnaires (Ibid). consideration and care was taken when eliciting themes to utilise them as evidence to support research questions.

Table 1.3 An Example of Tabulated Questionnaire Responses School A

School B

Response

School C

No. of Respondents

Yes

None response Total

Ethical Considerations Qualitative study involves the researcher interacting with people in their social world. This implies an intrusion into the lives of participants in this research (Cohen et al., 2007). The interaction entails entering in the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x; personal domains to gather data and as such raises several ethical issues that needed to be addressed during and after the process of research. As recommended by BERA guidelines (2011), the informed consent of participants was sought throughout the research process. This means a participant consent form and information sheet was produced (handed to participants) explaining the research aims and objectives prior to completing questionnaires or being interviewed as well as their right to decline any question(s) and to terminate the interview if they wished to. In addition, the participant information sheet detailed all the necessary steps to ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of the study participants. I endeavoured to be open and honest throughout the study by clarifying the research aims and objectives to participants. The participants were assured that any quotes included in the final thesis will be anonymised and their names will not be mentioned. Ethical approval was sought and obtained from the College Research Ethics Committee (Nottingham Trent University) and an authorisation to conduct research in Cameroon was obtained from the Ministry of Secondary Education in Cameroon. Access Issues Prior to undertaking fieldwork in Cameroon, I sought and obtained authorisation from GLOBE Programme Cameroon, which is the body responsible for global learning programmes in the Ministry of Secondary Education and Basic Education. Authorisation to commence fieldwork took about six weeks; however, the difficulties encountered in gaining access for field research were minimal because of the support of informal contacts. Due to the lack of information and contact details on the Ministry of Secondary Education website in Cameroon, the role of informal contacts was vital in facilitating access to research sites. As a Cameroonian and having worked in the country, I have maintained continuous relationships (Walford, 2001) with three key informal contacts in the selected regions who were very helpful in the pilot study and instrumental in obtaining permission to conduct research in schools and the Ministry of Secondary Education. The following are some of the key roles of the 3 informal contacts:

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Contact 1 – an administrator at the Ministry of secondary Education was instrumental in identifying the administrators to interview and in conveying the authorisation letter to conduct research, participant information sheet and interview schedule. Contact 2- The head of Department of English at a secondary school in Buea (South West Region) identified and facilitated permission to administer questionnaires in two schools. Contact 3 – identified and secured permission to administer questionnaires in two schools in the Centre Region. Validity and Reliability Silverman, (2011, p289) defines validity as „the extent to which an account accurately represents the social phenomena to which it refers‟. Validity denotes that the data collection process reflects accurately the aspects that they are supposed to measure (Newby, 2010). One way of achieving validity is ensure that data is representative of the issue under investigation. This means that attention needs to be paid to the sampling process as well as choosing examples (Ibid). For my study, participants were carefully selected based on the presumption that there are individuals in the country who are knowledgeable in curriculum development issues in the country and consideration was given to balancing the one Anglophone region and the other from the Francophone region (discussed in the “sampling” section above). Further, to minimise threats to validity, qualitative data through interviews and questionnaires was collected by myself. Qualitative data through interviews and questionnaire data has been presented to give as much information about the findings to the readers to allow them to evaluate its credibility. Newby (2010) advises that validity can be maximised if our “argument and the evidence that supports it is as complete as we specify it needs to be” (P.17). During the data analysis process, the transcripts were read back and forth many times to ensure that the recorded evidence was correctly and accurately recorded. Two friends were also asked to listen and proofread interview transcripts to ensure that they were a correct version of the recorded interviews (Kvale and Brinkman, 2008). The data analysis relied on the study participants‟ perceptions and the data collected from them was interpreted and themes drawn. Notwithstanding, Cohen et al., (2011), maintain that ‘threats to validity... can never be erased completely; rather the effects of these threats can be attenuated by attention to validity … throughout a piece of research‟ (p.179). Analysis and Discussion of Emerging Themes This analysis of data obtained from interviews and questionnaires was aimed to determine how well the secondary school curriculum equips school leavers for employment. The results reveal the main reasons why the current school system in Cameroon does not prepare young people for employment as one would expect of a national educational system. To substantiate this claim, the framework developed for the study was used to analyse the data. Three main factors were noted as responsible for the current high level of youth unemployment in the country. These include educational factors - employability skills and youth unemployment; the curriculum and youth unemployment; and non-educational factors such as inadequate infrastructure. The preceding discussion is indicative of some of the emergent results. Causes of the high level of youth unemployment The causes of youth unemployment were found to be linked to educational, noneducational factors and curriculum development. The evidence from the data suggest that youth unemployment in Cameroon is grossly attributed to the lack of cohesion or match between education and labour market demands. Participants overwhelmingly attributed this to the mismatch between education and labour market demands. Three main factors were identified as

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responsible for the current high level of youth unemployment in the country. These include educational factors - employability skills and youth unemployment; the curriculum and youth unemployment; and non-educational factors such as inadequate infrastructure. McQuaid et al., (2006) argued that possessing a range of skills such as adaptability, interpersonal and communication skills increases the probability of an individual to secure and sustain employment, and to progress in the workplace. This means that there is a direct relationship between curriculum development and employability skills acquisition. A matter of primary concern is the association of the curriculum to main cause of youth unemployment since it has not been revised for thirty years suggesting it is not responsive to the needs of the people as maintained study participants. A key aspect of a curriculum development according to Van Rooy, (2005) is the need to meet the challenges of the 21st century by continuously directing efforts towards the understanding of what works well in education and how education in schools can be improved in a rapidly changing world. However, one of the main obstacles is that the curriculum has failed to adapt to changes and as such does not adequately empower students to cope with the work demands for the 21st century. Further, youth unemployment is also associated with inadequate or lack of infrastructure. Many participants highlighted that the dire situation caused by the lack or insufficient level of infrastructure exacerbates the youth unemployment problem in the country. Insufficient didactic materials, inadequate classroom space and poor ICT facilities impact on any initiatives to facilitate the acquisition of relevant work skills. For education to meet the demands of students, certain infrastructure must be put in place. The implication of inadequate infrastructure and teaching materials means the lack of opportunities for young people to acquire job market skills. The causes of youth unemployment are important because they play important roles in the process of curriculum development and delivery both of which can in turn enhance youth employment. Correspondingly, Youth and Peacebuilding (2013) note that a dominant aspect of the school system failure in Cameroon is to give priority to education which enables young people to prepare for employment after school, resulting in the high unemployment rates among young school leavers as currently observed. Curriculum Development Process in Cameroon Participants unsurprisingly confirmed the curricula approach adopted in Cameroon - topdown curriculum development structure (Forzie, 1990). Pedagogic inspectors at the Ministry of Secondary Education are responsible for curriculum development under the directives and approval of the Minister. This presents a major obstacle to any meaningful change at incorporating employability skills in the curriculum because the process does not solicit input from educators directly involved in delivering the curriculum and students whose lives are influenced by the type of education received. This has contributed largely in determining the outcome of students who experience the system. Curriculum Delivery In terms of curriculum delivery, it has been noted that there are varying initiatives and support mechanisms available from teachers and school counsellors to students to enable them learn employment skills. For example, many teachers claimed that they are committed, from their teaching to give students the best possible chance of gaining employment although there was a mismatch between their job-skills initiatives and studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; work experience. Additionally, it has been noted that delivering the prescribed curriculum poses some challenges for teachers especially with the problem of harmonisation. These acute problems make it challenging to translate the useful knowledge and skills required by employers from young people.

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Employment An increasing important observation is that, because of the failed objective and contentbased curricula approach, there is a shift towards a competence-based curricula approach. Central to the competence-based approach is the aim to equip young people with concrete workrelated skills that is vital in a socially developing world rather than abstract learning (Kitta and Tilya, 2010). For this reason, it is important to underline the perspectives of participants who unanimously favour this approach with a view that it can solve their employment problems by enabling students to find employment when the complete school. Consequently, a solution to the concerns raised about the capability and employability of school leavers as it emphasises the attributes (competencies) to be achieved by learners, hence employment. Contribution to Knowledge and Conclusion The major theoretical contribution to knowledge of this study is that I have developed and applied a framework, which depicts the interdependent relationship between curriculum development and employability skills (Figure 1.0). Previous research has focused on skills mismatch and the need for employability skills acquisition, rather than a constitutive part of the curriculum development process (Penn, 2016, Essongo, 2017). The conceptual framework has been applied to understand why the secondary school curriculum in Cameroon does not equip school leavers for employment and ways in which employability skills can be incorporated in the curriculum. One way of applying the framework is to start by identifying the causes of youth unemployment whilst establishing how these are linked to curriculum development. The case of an African country context (Cameroon) pursued in this project therefore, adds to existing knowledge on the role of country-specific context in our understanding of the mismatch between curriculum development and skills acquisition. Further, the findings have generated new and original data to enable a clear understanding of curriculum development for curriculum planners and teachers in Cameroon to enhance practice. The study could also influence the restructuring of policy on curriculum development and as a starting point for incorporating job skills in the curriculum of schools. Although limited research exist that explore the phenomenon of skills acquisition in Cameroon, the type of research questions pursued in this study is the first of its kind in Cameroon. The combined authorities in the Ministry of Secondary Education, school authorities and secondary school students in Cameroon do not only constitute the research sample, but play a key role in ensuring that the findings from the research generate new knowledge on how the curriculum could be improved to address the unemployment trends in the Cameroon. The study also contributes to the world of literature particularly in developing countries with high youth unemployment rates. The research findings provide directions for enhancing future curriculum development by recommending a curriculum grounded in practice. References Ali, F.A, Y. Long, F.A. Zainol and M. Mansor (2012): Students‟ Self Perceived Importance of Employability Skills needed: A Case Study in University of Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNISZA), Malasia.Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Management held between 11th12th June at Langkawi Kedah, Malaysia. Almeida, R., Behrman, J., and Robalino, D., (2012). “The right skills for the job? Rethinking training policies for workers.” World Bank Publications, World Bank, Washington, DC. Audu R., Yusri Bin Kamin And Muhammed Sukri Bin Saud (2013); Acquisition of Employability Skills in Technical Vocational Education; Necessity For The 21st Century Workforce. Aust Journal Basic and Applied Sci. 7(6):9-14 Barrie, S. 2005. Rethinking Generic Graduate Attributes. HERDSA News: University of Sydney, Australia.

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Bennet, Dunne and Carre (2000): Skills Development in Higher Education and Employment. Journal of Higher Education. Volume 42 (1): 141-142 Billing, D., 2003. Generic cognitive abilities in higher education: An international analysis of skills sought by stakeholders. Compare, 33(3), 335-350. Boahin, P., Kamphorst, J.C. & Hofman, W.H.A. (2010). Tracer study outcomes in Ghana. Accra: NCTE. Clough, P. and Nutbrown, C., (2012). A student's guide to methodology. London: Sage Publications. Cohen, L., Manion, L., and Morrison, K., (2011). Research methods in education (7th Edition). London: Routledge. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K., (2007). Research methods in education (6th Edition). London: Routledge. Dacre Pool, L., & Sewell, P. (2007). The key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability. Education and Training, 49(4), 227-289. DOI: 10.1108/00400910710754435 Denscombe, M., (2014). The good research guide for small scale social research projects, (5th ed), Mc Graw Hill, Berkshire. Denscombe, M., 3rd Edn. 2007. The Good Research Guide: For Small-scale Social Research. Buckingham: Open University Press. Esongo, N, M., (2017). Correlation between the Availability of Resources and Efficiency of the School System within the Framework of the Implementation of Competency-Based Teaching Approaches in Cameroon. Journal of Education and Practice, available at: file:///C:/Users/zoouser/Desktop/research%20documents%20employability/35076-38083-1PB.pdf, accessed on 20/07/2016. Forzie, G., (1990). The Effect of English and French colonial policies on the development of technical and vocational education in Cameroon. M.Ed. School of Education, Bolton Institute of Higher Education. Grundy, S. (1987) Curriculum: product or praxis? Lewes: Falmer Press. Heckman, J. J., & Kautz, T., 2012. Hard evidence on soft skills. Labour Economics, 19(4), 451–464. International Labour Organisation, ILO (2013). Global employment trends 2013: Recovering from a second jobs dip / International Labour Office. Geneva: ILO, 2013 International Labour Office ILO, 2009b ILO issues revised global unemployment projections; unemployment in Asia Pacific could top 100 million people. Geneva, ILO,http://www.ilo.org/asia/info/public/pr/langen/WCMS_106532/index.htm. Retrieved on 7 October 2014. Kelly, A. V. (2009) Curriculum: Theory and Practice, University of London: Sage. Kitta, S., & Tilya, F. N. (2010). The status of learner-centred learning and assessment in Tanzania in the context of the competence-based curriculum. Papers in Education and Development, 29, 77-91. Kvale S., (2007). Doing interviews. London: SAGE Publications. Kvale, S. and Brinkmann S. (2008), Interviews, learning the craft of qualitative Research Interviewing, Sage Publication, London Mbangwana, L., (1996). The Development of Technical and Vocational Education in Africa. "TVE in Cameroon" UNESCO Office Dakar, Senegal. Mcquaid, R., Green A. AND Danson M., (2006). „The Concept of Employability‟ in mcquaid R., Green A. And Danson M. (eds.) Employability and Local Labour Market Policy, Routledge, Abingdon. Newby, P., (2010). Research Methods for Education. United Kingdom. PEARSON: London. OECD. (2012). Employment Outlook, United Kingdom, OECD Publishing, Paris. Oni, C.S., (2007): Globalization and its implication for Vocational Education in Nigeria. Essays in Education: 21(1): 30-34. Ornstein A.C. & Hunkins, F.P. (2009). Curriculum foundations, principles and issues. (5th ed). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Penn. T. P., (2016). Skills Oriented Higher Education and Graduate Employability in Cameroon: The Case of the National Employment Fund International Journal of New Technology and Research (IJNTR) ISSN:2454-4116, Volume-2, Issue-5, May 2016 Pages 26-29

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Pring, R., (2009). Education for All: The Future of Education and Training for 14-19 Year Olds. London: Routledge, Print. Quintini, G., and Sebastien M., (2006). “Starting well or losing their way? The position of youth in the labour market in OECD countries.” OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 39, Paris. Robinson, K., (2011). Out of our minds: Learning to be creative. Chichester: Capstone. Sapsford, R., and JUPP, V., 2008. Data collection and analysis, Sage Publication Scott, D., and Morrison, M., 2007. Key ideas in educational research. London: Continuum. Schulz B. (2008): The Importance of Soft Skills: Education beyond Academic Knowledge. Nawa Journal of Communication; 2(1): 146-154 Shakir R. (2009): Soft Skills at Malaysian Institute of Higher Learning. Asia Pacific Education Review 10 (3): 309-315 Sheehan, J. (1986) „Curriculum models: product versus process‟ in Journal of Advanced Nursing, v1 p671678. Retrieved on 20/10/2013 from http://www .hci.sg/admin/uwa/MEd7_8678/ Curriculum_modelsproduct_versus_process.pdf Shivpuri, S., and Kim, B., (2004). Do employers and colleges see eye-to-eye? College student development and assessment. NIACE Journal, 65(1), 37-44 Silverman, D., (2011). Interpreting qualitative data, 4th Edition, London, Sage Publications Ltd. Unwin, L. AND Wellington, J., (2001). Young People’s Perspectives on Education, Training and Employment. London: Kogan Page. Van Rooy, W. S., (2005). Curriculum Reform in the secondary school – the voices of experienced biology teachers. Retrieved on 20/09/16 from http://www.aare.edu.au/data /publications/2005/van05628.pdf Walford, G., (2001). Doing Qualitative Educational Research. London: Continuum. Winch, C. (2000). Impact No. 4 New Labour and the future of training: Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. Yek, T. M. and Dawn Penney (2006) „Curriculum as Praxis: Ensuring Quality Technical Education in Singapore for the 21st Century.‟ In Education policy analysis archives: A peer-reviewed scholarly journal v14n26 October Yin, R. K., (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

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Appendix 1: Thematic areas for exploration include: Q1. What in your view is the cause for the high youth unemployment rate in the country? Q2. What skills do you think school leavers need from the curriculum to help them find and stay employment? Q3. How can arrangements be improved between the Ministry of Secondary Education to create effective mechanisms for employers to connect with schools? Q4. Do you know who is responsible for curriculum development in the Ministry of Secondary Education? Q5. Please explain how you ensure that the curriculum is implemented? Q6. Do curriculum developers get some input from your: • Students; • Teachers; • Careers advisers; • School Governors/Parents‟-Teachers‟ Association; • Head teachers/Principals? Q7. Do you or your teacher encounter any challenges in implementing the prescribed curriculum? Other additional comments or observations...... Appendix 2 SKILLS ACQUISITION IN CAMEROON: HOW WELL DOES THE SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM EQUIP SCHOOL LEAVERS FOR EMPLOYMENT? INVESTIGATOR: Ernest Nkamta, PhD Student, School of Education, Ada Byron King Building, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Nottingham, NG11 8NS, UK, Tel: ..........., Email:N0324143@ntu.ac.uk. CONSENT FORM Organisation/Department: …………………… Respondent No. …………..

I have read the Information Sheet dated, 9

April 2016 for the above study. I have had the opportunity to consider the information and ask questions and I understand the nature and purpose of the research.

I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time, without giving any reason.

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I understand that the interview will be audio taped I understand that information gained during the study will be presented in an academic thesis, journal article and conference presentations and will include the use of anonymous direct quotations. I understand I will not be identified and my personal details will remain confidential

I

understand that Ernest Nkamta, supervisors and PhD examiners at the School of Education at Nottingham Trent University, UK will have access to the recordings and transcripts without their being edited confidentiality. I understand that in all circumstances administrative and research staff seeing the data will do so under strict confidentiality conditions

I agree to take part in the above study

Name of Participant: ……………………………………………………………. Signature ………………………………………..

Date ………………………

Name of Principal Investigator: ………………………………………………… Signature ………………………………………..

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Date ………………………

International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences p-ISSN: 1694-2620 e-ISSN: 1694-2639 Vol. 9, No. 5, 2017, pp. 25-33, ©IJHSS

Female postgraduate students’ perceptions of active learning methods Dr. Amel Thafer Alshehry Najran University, Najran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of postgraduate students‟ on active learning at a university after taking a "Glossaries in Curriculum and Instruction" course in the master's program. The views of the eight master students were based on responses to questions administered. This study used the semi-structured interview with open-ended techniques for data collection. The interview form consisted of four open-ended questions. Based on data analysis, students reported that active learning support from individual learning increased their selfefficacy and confidence in studying and learning on their own, enabling them to investigate with greater confidence. Keyword: postgraduate, interactive learning, thinking skills, curriculum instructions. Introduction The aim of the study was to explore the learning experience and attitudes of graduate students toward self-efficacy by using a small case study project as an assessment process to enable students to interact, promoting greater self-dependence and learning, skills needed to activated students active learning more appropriately. With the development of new teaching strategies, different concepts related to teaching and learning have entered into educational terminology (Emlek et al, 2017). Some of these concepts can be categorized as self-efficacy or active learning. The use of teaching methods by lecturers is based on aspirations of higher education institutions to be student-centered. Here, these methods were developed to broaden students‟ skills during their master's program to further embed informational content and influence teaching and learning objectives, further enabling students‟ methods of searching for resources and information related to their subjects. These methods were used to strengthen higher education in Saudi Arabia through self-confidence, efficacy, and interaction, which have previously been found to affect educational practices for postgraduate teaching qualifications (Badghish, 2016). Using of visual aids during the teaching and learning were supported by the instructional technologies, that facilitate learning when they are designed to help the postgraduate learners to select, integrate and organize learning experiences and information to strongly designed a meaningful interaction and enhance learning (Mayer, 2001). This exploration has the potential to promote new learning systems regarding how elearning resources and facilities supported their learning and identify obstacles related to selflearning resources that hinder students learning (Pathak & Rahman, 2013). For the purpose of this study, self-learning and presented resources outside of the classroom provided nowadays

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such as supported multimedia and instructional technologies that were compared to available higher educational materials that allowed readers to navigate content utilizing embedded features and search for external resources and multimedia objects. A theoretical lens consisting of supporting learning theories, self-independent, and informational processes related to the constructive learning approach was used to analyze the results and provide insight on the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; learning experience. This study also showed how these methods enhanced the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; motivation and confidence in learning. Teaching masters students is not about applying rules and traditional teaching procedures; rather, it is about engaging students as active participants through discussion and collaboration in teaching and learning. Literature Review In this type of learning process, students combine cooperative learning with their teachers to promote deep understanding (Henson and Eller, 2012). In addition, learning how to search promotes personal growth. Students can achieve better grades in subjects that require critical thinking and can achieve an integrated, self-dependent process (Shimazoa and Aldrich, 2010). Hannafin and Land (1997) found that students could to learn how to learn and allow interaction to become integrated into their learning approaches.

Successful active learning approach among higher education

To achieve an affective learning process in teaching in educational institutions, students should be given opportunities to communicate, interact, and develop self-confidence. Bonwell and Eison (1991) defined active learning as "instructional strategies, including [a] wide range of activities that share the common elements of involving students in doing things and thinking about the things they are doing.â&#x20AC;? However, one of the ways this can be done is through interactive learning in which students become "more engaged and retain more materials, with or without a form of technology, interactive learning helps students strengthen problem solving and critical thinking skills"(Hatten, 2017). Many studies have shown that interactive learning can improve students' performance over time and can increase positive attitudes toward learning, self-efficacy, and social skills. Additional opportunities should be provided for discussion, problems-solving, creating solutions, and working with peers. Several educators in the field of teaching have conducted studies using interactive learning and have found an increase in student achievement (Tarim, 2009). Self-reliance, efficacy, and confidence with creativity are considered the main components of mental activity. Often, most activation processes among students are reduced either in an attempt to transfer the same information through training aids, computer information, and capabilities of the mind. Interactive learning also enables them to search for sources of knowledge (Panina and Vavilova, 2008).

Instructional technology supporting aids for learning skills

Learning for postgraduate students should promote dialogue with their teachers and other participants in the pedagogical process and promote active participation in cognitive activities, creativity, and search. Graduate students' need to reveal this status of creative opportunities by using of instructional technology in their courses and study program to support and foster their knowledge and experiences in the higher education (Jahnke et al, 2017). Interaction of students in carrying out tasks in pairs and groups can help promote these skills. Khanin (2013) found that these methods could strengthen problem-based training, self-study, and acquiring necessary skills, such as using of computers program (power point), social analytical, practical, and communicative methods (Zaiton, 2004). In the way of enhancing practicing active learning

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process among postgraduate studies, Smirnov (1995) stated that "for new and higher forms of motivation [one should arm] students with new and more effective means...to realize their goals of [mastering] new activities, knowledge and skills" (p. 271). Thus, this kind of learning can provide students with more opportunities to develop their higher-order thinking and increase engagement between students and teachers, students and content, and students and facilitators (Kutbiddinova, 2015).

Interactive learning versus traditional learning process

Active learning approaches breaks down and reduces traditional learning barriers to create a communicative and collegial atmosphere in the classroom, which allows for successful and active learning (Revell and Wainwright, 2009). Therefore, using of of active learning enhanced the using of communications and multimedia through the learning process which raised a new concepts of teaching and learning strategies with a flexible educational program (Emlek et al, 2017). Interactive methods of learning and training promotes studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; active participation in an educational activity that simulates professional situations and engages students to develop strategies for effective behavior in conflict situations (Eromasova, 2014). Study Purpose The purpose of the study in the using of theoretical framework was to determine the views of 2nd year master students at Najran University who took a programming course designed for postgraduate students. To this end, answers were sought to the research questions below: 1) What are your attitudes regarding the benefits of interactive process in students' learning? 2) What are your attitudes toward the means of communication associated with instructions and interaction? 3) What are your views toward the differences and similarities between the traditions teaching methods used for you learning program? Methodology Theoretical framework Qualitative research methods were used multiple methods in this descriptive study so that the researcher could develop a deeper understanding of findings based on the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x; views (Creswell, 2013). Qualitative data collection instruments, such as one-on-one interviews, students observation, and written analysis, were used so the data could be collected in a triangulation and a realistic manner. In this techniques used of triangulation, the researcher ensure that an account is rich, comprehensive and well-developed. During qualitative research interviews, it is important to be sensitive to the natural environment as the researcher acts as a participant, revealing personal perceptions and providing flexibility in research design. The data was categorized under a multiple themes, three of which associated with the designed advantages of using interactive learning process, communication and instructional technologies and new methods approaches with the interactive learning. Data collection This study used a semi-structured interview form. The past experiences of the researcher and the views of the educational experts working in the field of educational science were taken into consideration to prepare the interview form. Draft questions were reviewed by the experts for any necessary changes based on their feedback. Three main interview questions were created with breaking down questions depending on their rich of information to their response. The samples were distributed to ten postgraduate students in one level which were the second level

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who had taken the postgraduate masters programming course. The interview forms were collected from students and presented to them in case they had information to add or delete. Some of the responses were incorporated into the data collection and analysis (Wolcott, 1990). Therefore, the researcher found the various interpretation of responses according to the main categories of theoretical framework provided. Data analysis The data collected for this study were analyzed using descriptive analysis techniques and were interpreted on the basis of previously determined themes, which were coded by the responses to the research questions. Data can also be presented by taking into account the questions on each of the dimensions used during observation (Yildirim and Simsek, 2004). Themes in this course were created for analyses and a comparison was made between various meanings in the responses to the questions. In this case, an attempt was made to obtain more detailed and in depth information from the qualitative analysis (Creswell, 2013). In this case, the interview data was analysed by reading the written note, organizing the data classifying the subcategories, grouping a common and similar treatments to construct thematic categories, and making interpretations. Important segments in the transcription were determined based on the literature review and theoretical framework. Therefore, this study trustworthiness was strengthened by the application of triangulation, member check and peer observation (Merriam, 2009). Results All participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x; statements were compared and coded into forty categories by grouping statements that participants shared in common. Subsequently, these categories were grouped under four major thematic categories related to research questions. These thematic categories pertained to the interactive learning approach and were determined in accordance with the learning theories discussed in the literature, such as the teaching process used, studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; independence, and interactive learning, and a comparison of active learning versus traditional teaching methods. This study, however, uncovered three correspondent subcategories, which were established from the interviews and grouped to represent the major thematic categories. Table 1 delineates the corresponding subcategories which were established the interview data and how they were grouped and represent the three major thematic categories. These categorizations of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x; insights into these categories yielded three themes as follows: 1) Developing a usefulness and positive way of practicing interactive learning 2) Interactive use of instructional technology to ease the communication with teachers and students colleagues 3) Better understanding compared to traditional methods among thematic categories and corresponding subcategories All ten participants stated that interactive learning provided them with valuable opportunities to obtain skills and experience and enabled them to construct their own understanding and learning.

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Table 1. Thematic categories and corresponding subcategories Categories Active learning process

Successful instructional technology and communication

Differentiated between present active learning and method used before

Subcategories More self-learning opportunities Self-efficacy & effective chances confidence technological experiences and skills sharing e-learning process understanding through social interactions advanced search features learning of multimedia Sharing experiences and knowledge

Effectiveness of the interactive learning process

Student S1 stated, "I like the process the teacher [provided] us. I can [use this method to study based on] what I learned.” Another student also said, "[The] process of doing small projects by searching for…resources of related subjects…provided me with more learning [opportunities so] I can learn how to access and search at any time." "I learned how to prepare my reading [and] writing to do a presentation on what I searched for," said S5. Students S3, S4, and S7 also stated that "This process draws [in] our attention more since the teachers [provided] us with…different teaching techniques;" Student 6 was encouraged that "This [method] is more suitable for us as postgraduate students who need to search, interact, [and develop] independent [skills] regarding the learning process". Student 5 said, "It would be easier…to learn difficult issues regarding…subjects…using this [method] of learning [to] contribute to…[a] field that is difficult to understand." S6 pointed out, "It enabled me…to search for…reading references and [enabled] me to [follow] the way the teachers teach to get more experience, in both [the] searching and teaching process…I could [understand] how…teachers prepare their lectures and search for the information they need for their students." Student S5 emphasized this that "The lecturer [provided]…us [with] encouragement and guidance…to learn better."

Communication of using of instructional technology

All ten participants were believed that a useful and better communicating skills were showed after practicing an interactive teaching methods. S3 stated that, "using…multimedia [materials] during…studying helps…introduce [us] to the new way of teaching and learning by doing." S6 said, "I could use graphics and other visual aids during my preparation for the presentation of the research project." S2 pointed out instead that "It provides…better understanding, cooperation, and interaction between us and our teacher during the presentation of the work in the classroom which facilitated learning while we work and present [the] work;” S6 noted, “It also helps us find…other resources…than in…class studying." When asked "Have you ever searched for additional resources while you worked on materials related to your subject?," all participants said they had. S5 said, "Yes sure, I have searched for related references, visual supplies, and additional technology that were very helpful [in] facilitating the content we need and I have searched for additional resources too." S4 provided a similar response: “I look through the internet for…additional information that often ends up [being] very helpful [so that I] use my time more effectively." S3 stated, "It motivated me to learn and [increased my] willingness to [exert] more effort on understanding the content." S1 said, "This assessment [taught] me [to use] key word searching, write notes, and share various ways of using of these multimedia and communication features."

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Traditional methods

This response provided data for the fourth research question regarding the differences between traditional methods of teaching and interactive learning. Most students felt more confident. S7: "We feel more confident and comfortable [when] we [were given] a chance to learn by ourselves [by] searching, interacting, and sharing information.” S2 also said, "Interactive learning makes me…more confident and comfortable; I believe that the use of search capabilities enhances my learning opportunities in a new way." S5 added, "I believe that these searching capabilities empower my learning as compared [to when] we get the instructions only during the lectures, which…limits …time, content of subjects, and the teachers as a presenter of the information." S6: “The use of these active learning elements contributed to [understanding a subject that it difficult to understand which creates a new way of discovering information [independently]." Another participant, S4, said, "This process would draw the attention of student understanding [because] the teacher applied it with different teaching techniques." S3: "Most importantly, the process makes us more active in…learning environments [than the process] used previously." S7 also said, "I could integrate my knowledge and understanding more about the subject." One other student also noted, "We would like to suggest this way of learning [for our] future rather than teaching with…traditional methods…[because] teaching [a] subject in an entertaining manner will facilitate our learning."

Discussion It was thought that interactive learning might replace a useful way of learning strategies among students where recalling their preserve experiences of practicing interaction of instructions upon their reaching. The majority of the participants reflected it in their positive experiences. They indicated that interactive learning process enhance the learning and providing them with a flexible, confidents, shareable and enjoyable use of learning instructions. All participants addressed the advantages of interactive learning to obtain information and construct their own understanding with a greater chances to exchange knowledge and skills of eat tools that students used that are different from each other than with a traditional methods. According to the responses, active learning allowed them to search their own resources of practices and present their creative work independently with self-learning with the using of technologies devices that develop students understanding of learning experiences than older and traditional methods used before. In accordance with results of this study, the use of interactive learning for postgraduate students has resulted in higher achievement than traditional teaching approaches (Kutbiddinova, 2015), possibly due to the students‟ involvement in exploring the way they understand their curriculum, which provided them a chance to work with active learning strategies. This study is consistent with other study who strongly enhance the creative programm for the postgraduate students' to support and foster the higher education positively and successfully (Jahnek et al, 2017, Hutchings, 2017). According to the perceptions of the participants, practicing the active learning processes provides students with more space and opportunities to interact, discuss, self-teach, and learn, providing discussion with each other's ideas as previous study of this case provided internationally (Tarim, 1997; Revell and Wainwrigh, 2009; Bonwell and Eison, 1995). There is a strong need for changing the way the postgraduates taught and learned to enable e them to convoy a new path of learning their required courses and instructions. Further, the finding of the way of instructional technologies used is equal with studies reviewed before in the case of the better using of than traditional methods used before (Alhammad, 2016 & Alshehry, 2009).

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This study shows that traditional teaching methods are more teacher based, therefore, less chances are given to students to discuss, present their opinions, and work with peers. However, Allen and Seaman (2010) and Zaiton (2004) showed that students‟ learning requires the use of educational technology to enhance self-learning and alternative leaning methods encourages research. Furthermore, it emphasizes independent learning, which mostly likely increases self-confidence in learning.

Attitudes toward effective learning

The new learning method emphasizes greater social interaction and relationships among groups of students and their classmates. These findings are consistent with the findings of previous studies (Bonwell and Eison, 1995; Hatten, 2017) and could be discussed in light of important issues regarding students‟ learning approaches consistent with the studies of Tarim (2009) and Hannafin and Land (1997), indicating that students need to learn how to learn, which places interaction and self-efficacy at the center of learning. This approach guides students critical and creative thinking and the learning environment supports constructive learning.

Attitudes toward the use of communication

This study is in agreement with other studies such as (Mayer, 2001; Jahnke et al, 2017 and Kutbiddinova, 2015), which found that searching for resources outside of the classroom allows students to use technological learning and search skills as they use several resources and tools they will need in the future while pursing their doctorate (Alshehry, 2009; Eromasova, 2014). All ten participants indicated that suing instructional computing technology gave them a valuable opportunities to obtain an information at a time convenient and then construct their understanding with more advantages (Emlek et al., 2017).

Attitudes toward the use of nontraditional methods

In this study, methods were used to support students and were centered on them, implementing an active learning method to improve educational quality. Overall, the study recommens that methods of teaching that teachers used previously with their students' needs to change upon students' perceptions of learning practices, this were supported by the study practices of Alshehry, 2009 which were applied on the academic staff of science colleges. Conclusions In conclusion, this study indicates that student-centered learning had a positive effect on students and provided them with an active, investigative, and exploring role, increasing students‟ high-order cognitive activities. It improved self-confidence by providing them with a web environment and active learning to enable them to use their critical thinking skills more extensively and gave them a greater opportunity for reflection and discussion in learning environments. The majority of students‟ responses to the interview questions indicated their use of the active learning method, which included advanced search features, self-effective interaction, and active ability. However, this study contributed knowledge on students views on their learning process as a postgraduate students. Finally, limitations to the study were that the study focused on the postgraduate students‟ preparations. It would be beneficial to consider the views of course instructors on the use of the interactive learning approach. It is more appropriates if further studies in the future were done on the academic member of post graduate studies perceptions and attitudes.

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References Allen, E., and Seaman, J. (2010). Learning on demand: Online education in the United States, 2009. Needham, Mass.: Sloan-C. Alshehry, A. T. (2009). Perceptions of science education for girls in Saudi Arabia higher education: a case study of female biology teachers. PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Badghish, S. (2016). Measuring values importance of Saudi consumer. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 8 (6), 116-127. Bonwell, C. C., and Eison, J. A. (1991). Active learning: creating excitement in the classroom . Washington. Creswell, J. W., (2013). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publication, London. Emlek, B. and Akturk, A. O. (2017). Student views with regard to the web-based problem solving method. International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 3 (1), 180-192. Eromasova, A.A., 2014. A fragment of the research activity of students (based on the materials of study of the image of hero). Proceedings of the Institute of Continuous Professional Education, 3(3): 124-129. Hannfin. M, J., and Land, S.M., (1997). The foundations and assumptions of technology-enhanced student-centered learning environments. Instructional Science, 25, (3), 167–202. Hatten, L. (2017). What is interactive learning? Overview and Tools. Http://study.com/academy/lesson/whatis-interactive-learning-overview-tools.html cited in chapter 3 lesson 22. Henson K. & Eller B. (2012). Educational psychology for effective teaching: 2ndedition, Kendall Hunt Publishing co., 5-10. Hutchings, M. (2017). Improving doctoral support through group supervision: analysing face-to-face and technology-mediated strategies for nurturing and sustaining scholarship. Studies in Higher Education, 42 (3), 533-550. Jahnke, I., Haertel, T. and Wildt, J., (2017). Teachers‟ conceptions of student creativity in higher education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 54, (1), 87–95. Kanin, S.V., 2013. Using the case method as a method of interactive training in teaching the course "History of the internal affairs authorities". Bulletin of the Nizhny Novgorod Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, 24, 177-180. Kutbiddinova, R.A., (2015). Activation of educational activity of students through interactive methods. Bulletin of the University, 3, 210-214. Mayer, E. R (2001). The promise of multimedia learning. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Bridge. Merriam, S. B., (2009). Qualitative Research: a guide to design and interpretation (2nd ). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Pannina, T.S and L.N. Vavilova, 2008. Modern methods of activization of training. Moscow, Academy. Pathak, T. & Rahman, A. (2013). Perception of Students and Teachers towards Semester System: A Study in Some Selected Degree Colleges in Nagaon town of Nagaon District of Assam. Journal of Education and Practice, 4 (1), 84-91. Revell A., and Wainwright, E. (2009). What Makes Lectures „Unmissable‟? Insights into Teaching Excellence and Active Learning. Journal of Geography in Higher Education , 33 (2), 209-223. Shimazoe, J. and Aldrich H. ( 2010). Group work can be gratifying: Understanding and overcoming resistance to cooperative learning. Coll. Teach., 58: 52-57. DOI: 10.1080/ 87567550903418594. Simsek, H. and Yıldırım, A. (2004). Turkey: innovation and tradition. In: I. Rothberg, ed. Smirnov, S.D., (1995). Pedagogy and psychology of higher education: from activity to personality. Study guide for the students of the departments and institutes of advanced training of higher education teachers and graduate students. Moscow: Aspekt Press, 271.

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Tarim, K., (2009). The effects of cooperative learning on preschoolersâ&#x20AC;&#x; mathematics problem solving ability. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 72, 325-340. Wolcott, H., (1990). Transforming Qualitative Data: Description, Analysis, and Interpretation. Sage publication, London. Zaiton, A. (2004). Methods of Teaching Science. Amman: Shorok publication.

Appendix 1) What are your attitudes regarding the benefits of interactive learning? - How these active learning approach would enhance you self-learning? 2) What are your attitudes regarding the skills you developed using interactive learning? - How students' could interact according to their knowledge and background of learning? 3) What are your attitudes regarding how interactive learning affects self-learning? - How do think the way of you learning skills are enough for their interactive learning? 4) What are your attitudes toward the means of communication associated with instructions and interaction? - How you find the way you use the instructional technology tools interesting for you learning? 5) What are your views toward the differences and similarities between teaching methods in the course? - How you think the opportunities of active learning process are useful that traditional methods approaches?

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International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences p-ISSN: 1694-2620 e-ISSN: 1694-2639 Vol. 9, No. 5, 2017, pp. 34-40, ©IJHSS

Orienteering: motivation, multidisciplinary and skills. A project in a secondary school in the province of Salerno. Prof. Rosanna Tammaro Università degli Studi Salerno, Italia Dott. Anna D’Alessio Università degli Studi Salerno, Italia Dott. Annamaria Petolicchio Università degli Studi Salerno, Italia Abstact The main objectives of Orienteering methodology are: developing interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, diversifying methods and forms of teaching, using the territory as a classroom and school gym, stimulating a new relationship among man - nature- territory. From the perspective of teaching skills, Orienteering gives students the chance to develop dynamic knowledge and abilities to solve problem situations. Orienteering combined with practice is definitely a fun and sporty structure, which allows an interdisciplinary approach involving the subject through a training course and a new relationship among man-nature-territory. The interdisciplinary nature of Orienteering, leads to: the versatility and interdisciplinary didactics (art, physical education, environmental education, education for health, road safety education, geography, study of the territory represented: as local history); the game as training moment involving the student in his entirety (thought, corporeality, feeling, emotions); the relationships, easily activated during the game (students, teachers); consistent territorial geopolitical choices as this activity promotes the knowledge of natural environments and their problems. This paper discusses about the Orienteering project carried out in the classes of the first two years of the High School “A. Gatto” in the province of Salerno. Key words: learning plan, Orienteering, environmental education, interdisciplinarity, skills. Introduction In a complex society undergoing rapid cultural, science, technology changes, it is essential that young people have not only theoretical knowledge and technical skills, but above all an attitude of openness to change, readiness for continuous learning, taking initiatives, accountability and flexibility. The school must promote amongst young generations competence, understood as the ability to mobilize knowledge and skills in a given context, to solve problem situations. A passive knowledge replaces a dynamic one, which can be used in situation, which leaves out of the static classroom. The school should activate teaching strategies to get competence, so that students can learn in a right, autonomous and responsible way. Teaching skills are based on authentic tasks that, unlike traditional tests, are not algorithmic and focus on process rather than on product. Being authentic tasks, their interdisciplinary nature is another essential prerequisite. Students

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must be at the centre of educational action. They should have responsibility and autonomy in the construction of their own learning. But how can we really promote the development of skills at school? Which activities can be used to obtain a teaching skill? From these considerations comes the activity that took place in a state high school Alfonso Gatto in Agropoli in the school year 2016/2017. Maths, science, physical education, drawing and art history teachers of some classes of the first biennium found in the practice of Orienteering, one of the possible responses to an effective and efficient development of competence in their students. Today, with the aim of teaching skills, Orienteering activities allow to: strengthen the way to go from concrete thinking to formal thinking through adequate control of spatio-temporal relations; enhance geographical thinking open to meet environmental diversity, to promote the educational tourism in natural and cultural environments; promote the development of a critical mind to guide knowledge through interdisciplinary research. Orienteering promotes the development of basic skills, crosscurricular and strategic ones. The project starts from the idea that the practice of Orienteering, due to its interdisciplinary value, may provide a practical response to the spread of a teachingskills. Orienteering, through its constant practice, helps to promote contact with the nature and the environment, improving self-control, to develop a sense of order and accuracy, to raise awareness of its own means, to strengthen self-esteem, to improve the habit of respect of things and people, also, and especially, in subjects with SEN (special educational need), to foster collaboration and social relations. The reform of upper secondary school, in Italy, has introduced, among other things, skills certification at the end of the first biennium. Benchmark, in the granting of the certification, referred to the article 4 of the Decree of the Minister of education August 22, 2007, n. 139, knowledge, skills and competences set out in the annex to the Decree. This Decree uses the definitions listed in the European Union's Recommendation September 2006 containing the European Qualifications Framework. In this context, therefore, the competences appear as the ability to use knowledge and skills acquired but also innate abilities (personal) and methodological and social skills. To understand the meaning of this definition it is necessary, firstly, to clarify the relationship between skill and ability. The ability, in fact, is purely the capacity to apply knowledge in an operational context. It cannot be understood as a do but as a can do. A competence, therefore, is acquired only if knowledge can be applied or if it gives rise to other abilities. The latter involve a make whose possibility depends on the acquisition of knowledge and skills. The deal provided for ability is that it can be detected through specific tests. The ability, in other words, involves an elementary do quite easily verifiable through the use of traditional structured tests. What combines competence and ability is just the common operational feature of both these dimensions of learning. Also competence involves a do but, unlike the skill, is a difficult one. A skill, in other words, involves the integrated use of various abilities and knowledge and therefore, the acquisition of a certain level of proficiency. These benefits, however, as opposed to mere ability, do not involve the application of individual knowledge but of an entire complex of knowledge and skills. Skills assessment, therefore, must be accomplished by placing the student in front of a complex task that he can carry out only if he acquired a certain mastery of concepts, methods and tools that make a discipline scientific. Within school debate emerges, then, a new class of multidisciplinary skills, based on the idea that learning becomes significant (Ausebel, 1968), only if knowledge is connected not only inside the discipline but also among the different disciplines. It is needed to create activities that put students in a position to mobilize their knowledge and skills; to plan situations in which knowledge from static becomes dynamic. Orienteering combines disciplinary knowledge and metacognitive, multidisciplinary and motivational skills. So students can get unusual mind linked to their needs (Iervolino, 2015, p.187). The educational scope of Orienteering It is easy to guess what is the educational value of the Orienteering activity. Primarily, it affects the existence of physical and intellectual engagement; subsequently, the focus moves to the

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environment in which we practice the “wood sport”, allowing the rapprochement of man to nature. The inclusion of environmental education in school curricula denotes the attention paid to the issue, conceived not as a new discipline but as interdisciplinary approach, which crosses all levels of education. In the guidelines on environmental education, prepared by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Environment, we read that “education for sustainable development is set to become the project in which to promote the skills needed to question the existing models, to improve them and to build new ones. Educating the Italians, our children and ourselves, towards sustainability means to enable total change in behaviour and lifestyles. A new approach to the environment based on values and cognitive elements (Guidelines p. 7 ). Orienteering is one the activities which promotes the ecological sense to contribute to environmental, ecological, civic learnings. Obviously this kind of education will be essential to show the level of civic cohesion. (Malvasi, 2008). The educational scope of orienteering does not end with environmental education, in fact this activity contributes to the development of the students personality, stimulating them to autonomy and decisiveness. Orienteering sports promote intellectual development, for example, the athlete who needs to understand the spatial relationships among the references of a map, or to assess what is the most convenient route. We are talking about authentic tasks, which enhance the mobilization of knowledge and skill to overcome a problem situation, which are not algorithmic and that evaluate the process and not the product (Castoldi, 2012). Riding in the woods helps the motor – physical development through a prolonged effort, but also the coordinative abilities such as jumping ditches, keeping balance on the trunks, proceeding on a rugged terrain. Moeover, we have to think that, being in an effort situation, exercise becomes more challenging and meaningful for the student. Orienteering promotes in learners skills needed in everyday life: to navigate in unfamiliar places requires the use of maps, which must be read and understood. Navigating with maps and compass in unfamiliar places is part of the cultural background of modern man. The interdisciplinary value of Orienteering at school The school of competences is expected to start from a precise and concrete problem situation, which, as regards orienteering, comes true in how to use map and compass to find a way around. The school, the main educational agency that deals with the development of the person, is in the practice of orienteering a good tool to implement its institutional aims. The school tends to promote a unified knowledge and interdisciplinarity. It aims at implementing the synthesis among the various disciplines, so that each of them, with its own language and method, can contribute to the comprehensive analysis of a phenomenon, considered from multiple viewpoints. There is no doubt about the interdisciplinary nature of orienteering, not only regarding the two disciplines that, clearly, are associated with its practice: geography and physical education; but also design and information technology when learners are asked to make maps. The scale calculation for evaluating distances will involve, however, math, while, for the study of terrestrial magnetism, of North and magnetic north will see concerned Sciences. We could go on with examples: understanding contour lines will start from the study of the shapes of the land and so we will see involved different disciplines such as geography, drawing and science. The Orienteering activity in upper secondary school Analyzing a planning of Orienteering activities for high school, regarding the educational values, orienteering favors an appropriate relationship between man and nature; develops decision making, autonomy, reflection, planning, reasoning; aims at the education to competition considered as improvement of abilities compared to others. The disciplines involved are: geography, science, maths, disegn, physical education. When a teacher has to plan orienteering activities it is essential to have clear objectives; interdisciplinary and specific objectives.

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For the upper secondary school, the specific objectives can be summarised as follow: - To be able to recognize and understand the travel map orientation (colors and symbols) - To be able to compare a map with the territory - To be able to use conduction lines for orientation - To be able to orientate on short distances - To be able to evaluate and calculate distances - To be able to make a simple choice of location and plan complete routes - To be able to use the compass to orientate the map - To be able to orientate using small references - To Know the symbolism of the description of the points - To understand the shapes of land with contour lines - To orientate using contour lines - To know rules and behave in an orienteering race - To participate in the Championships. The interdisciplinary objectives can be summarised as follow, referring to the disciplines mentioned before: - Geography: to know the difference between North and magnetic north; to be able to define the geographical coordinates: meridians and parallels, latitude and longitude; to be able to describe the azimuth angle; to be able to classify maps and to know their essential symbolism; to recognize the different types of terrain (Alpine, Nordic RiverAlpine, continental, flat, waterfront, glacial, ect. ) and vegetation (montana, hilly, Mediterranean, continental); to recognize the elements of human settlements of the territory by the Cartographic analysis. - Science: to learn about the influence of magnetic field on the compass, magnetic declination and inclination; to orientate with the Sun and the Stars; to recognize the most common forest trees (spruce, larch, pine, beech, oak, chestnut, birch, ash, etc.); to learn about the cardiovascular system and respiratory system, muscular system, nervous and skeletal relating to physical-motor-sports activities. - Maths: to understand the scale as a relationship; to calculate scale: from the distance to the real graphics and vice versa, with different scales and units of measure; to build a multiscale graduated scalebar; to build and populate tables and matrices for calculating and detecting measures (mapping) and times (race), even with simple electronic spreadsheets. - Design: to use primitive tools and methods for surveying (compass, rib, Gruosi, theodolite); to detect and draw in small scale environments with computer graphics systems; to build plastic models from maps and plants; to build learning materials for orienteering (lanterns, punches, control cards, etc.). - Physical education: to master the following basic movement patterns and, thus, to be able to: run uphill, downhill, on coast, on steep terrain and springs, run by overcoming obstacles, jump, dodge and change direction, stop, climb, fall and roll around, climb over, coordinate eye and foot; to learn about the sport of orienteering and its rules; development of social and civic sense. At this point it is necessary to focus on the methodology to be used to develop the objectives listed above. Also in the upper secondary school, the method is global: it uses mainly the game, without providing technical guidance; for orienteering technical learning, the teaching/learning method is analytical, structuring, aimed at the acquisition by each student, of certain technical skills, which are intellectual-conceptual type. Moreover, there are moments of synthesis consisting of classic routes, games, tests and races.

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The methodology for teaching/learning of orienteering technique could be divided in four phases: I. Conceptual Mastery: theoretical understanding of the technique to be learned through the explanation of the reasons that led to that solution. II. Experimental Mastery: practical application through exercise, so as to allow the student to experience the technique acquired conceptually and master it, even if not yet effectively. III. Automatic Mastery: master the technique with high output, efficiency and speed through the repetition of the exercises. IV. Tactics Mastery: application of the technique to the situation within a global context using paths, test of synthesis and races; collective and/or individual discussion about routes and techniques used. The first two phases can be reversed, depending on the choice of favoring the inductive method (from experimentation to conceptualization, whereby the second phase will precede the first) or deductive (from concept to practical application). The evaluation, which, on the basis of its specific dimensions, will be divided into: initial, intermediate, final. The initial evaluation will include, first of all, the mastery of the necessary prerequisites to tackle orienteering technique, which are: the understanding of spatial relations represented graphically and of a scale; intuitive guidance capacity using a simple map or map of a small space. The ability to race (resistance) should be also assessed in order to divide students involved into homogeneous groups for organizing the departures during exercises and for the evaluation of the relationship between technical skills and physical abilities, in the individual assessment of chronometric performance tests and races. At the end of the development of every technical level, it can implement an evaluation with the purpose to ensure the acquisition of technical skills. It may provide three bands of skill:  First band: understanding the symbology, orientation along lines of conduct, guidance on sight over short distances;  second band: simple route choices, march to azimut and precision orientation;  third band: orientation with contour lines. As it is not possible to observe the student during the orientation exercise, the time test or orienteering performance race, cannot be the only criterion. Chronometer time is affected not only by the orientation capacities, but also by physical-athletic ones. The evaluation should therefore be supplemented by an individual interview about the progress of the race/test (error assessment) in order to establish the possession or lack of the techniques required. Project description The didatics offer of the High School “Alfonso Gatto” in Agropoli, in the school year 2016/2017, has been enriched thanks to the project prepared by the Department of sports science “Orienteering ... in the colours of Cilento”. The project, signed by Maria Rosaria Santarsiero and Marina Granato Conte two referents professors, involved all the students of the second biennium, of the different types of liceo: scientific, linguistic, applied sciences, classical, musical and it took place on curricular and extracurricular activities. At the beginning, the number of participants was 228, then, has been substantially reduced, reaching 176 units, including 109 women and 67 girls, divided as follows: - 1^ A Musical course: 12 students - 1^ B Classic course: 21 students - 1^ A Sciences Applied course: 26 students - 1^ C Scientific course : 28 students

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- 1^ B Linguistic course: 30 students - 2^ A Classic course: 16 students - 2^ A Scientific course: 20 students - 2^ A Sciences Applied course: 23 students The project was carrid out by a professor David Pecora, expert, master of Orienteering, tracker, cartographer, technical trainer F.I.S.O. The project stems from the belief that the practice of Orienteering, due to its interdisciplinary value, may provide a practical response to the spread of teaching skills. Orienteering, through its constant practice, helps to promote contact with nature and the environment, improving self-control, developing a sense of order and precision, to raise awareness of its own means, to strengthen the self-esteem, to improve the habit to respect of things and people, especially in SEN students, to foster collaboration and social relations. Finalities of the project were: • acquisition of healthy lifestyles, respecting the body and mind; • to increase and enhance future opportunities with respect for nature. Measurable objectives were: • to be able with the help of paper and compass to orient themselves in environments never visited before; • to be able to calculate the distance between two places indicated in seconds on any scale; • to be able to recognize all the orienteering symbols; • to be able to participate and qualify in a federal race Orienteering; • to be able, to calculate dimension differences from one point to another using a map (level curves). Participating students, with the help of map and compass, learned the first bases of orientation in natural and urban environment. They learned the basics of calculating the distance between two places indicated on any map in scale. They started to recognize the complete orienteering symbols. The activities were carried out in extra-curricular activities, except for the presentation seminar of the project, which took place, both at classic and scientific, and musical and linguistic Liceo, in curricular activities. The students were asked, at the end of the activities, to answer to six questions, using Google forms. To the first question, “What do you think about the course ?”: the 88.9% of participants answered, “very interesting”, the 11,1% “quite interesting”, no one chose the option “no interesting” .The second question: “ Do you think that the course has been helpful to your training?”; the 94,4% of the students answered it was very useful; they had the chance to learn a lot of things in a short period of time (32%); they had to put into practice their knowledge and skills to better face the challenge (42%); %); because it will be useful for orientation in the future and then, like all sports, it has helped to socialize and get to know many interesting people (15,2%); because it allowed to orientate in open spaces, but also to make new friends and experiences (5,2%); 5,6% of students involved answered that the course was not very helpful because, thanks to the technology, it is not essential to learn to navigate with map and compass. To the third question, “What difficulties did you find?”, the 50% answered “no one”; for the 27,8% the difficulties were due to the structure of the project, while for the 16.7% of students activities time highlighted critical issues; for the 5,5%, instead, time was the real difficulty. The project took place in various scenarios and environments, so the fourth question concerned about the environments whicht had better captured their attention. The 72,2% answered “natural environment”, the 16,7% “historic center”; the 11,1% “cluster of houses”. No student chose “in gymn”. The fifth question, linked to the previous one, gave answers consistent with them. To the question “Which activities do you want to deepen?”, the 72,2% answered “in natural environment”, the 22,2% in historic center and the 5,6% in cluster of houses. The last question , “Would you like to participate again in the project next year?”, the 88,9% answered positively

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while the 11,1% negatively. From the analysis of the responses provided by the participants, it is clear that the core of the project was the opportunity to use in a real context knowledge learned at school. Students were able to transform a passive into a useful knowledge to solve a problem situation; the aggregation factor and a healthy competition have also helped to make the experience challenging and exciting. One of the weaknesses, however, was afternoon activities. Many students, especially students of the Musical High School, were unable to participate in the project, being engaged in educational activities in the afternoon. Conclusions The activity was highly motivating and involving, both for teachers and for students, particularly the experience showed its educational and motivational elements during outings. The final assessment activity of the project was the promotional competition held at the Oasis Dunale in Paestum; students had to orientate for the first time in the pine forest, to mark all the checkpoints, lanterns, arriving at the end tired but really happy. The choice of the Oasi Dunale, managed by Legambiente, has allowed students to discuss issues such as environment, landscape, heritage land, which are civic skills and active citizenship. It is important to motivate students, encourage them and give them the chance to discover movement, sport, group actvity, highlightning competition, cooperation, creativity (Moliterni, 2013). The study of literature on the subject showed the great potential of this practice but, also that everything is still entrusted to the good will and personal skills of some “enlighted” teachers. References:

Ausebel, D.P. (1968). Educational Psychology. A cognitive View. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc. Biella, R. (1997). Orienteering nella scuola. Milano: Edi-Ermes. Carlotto, G. (2015). Soft skills. Con-vincere con le competenze trasversali e raggiungere i propri obiettivi. Milano: Franco Angeli. Castoldi, M. (2011). Progettare per competenze. Roma: Carocci. Castoldi, M. (2012). Valutare a scuola. Roma: Carocci. Commissione Europea (2007). Competenze chiave per l’apprendimento permanente. Un quadro di riferimento europeo. Lussemburgo: Ufficio delle pubblicazioni ufficiali delle Comunità europee. Galliani, L. (cur.). (2015). L’agire valutativo. Manuale per docent e formatori. Brescia: Editrice La Scuola. Iervolino, D. (cur.). (2015). E-learning: tra nuova didattica e innovazione tecnologica. Giapeto Editore. Linee Guida Ministero dell’Ambiente. Available: http://www.minambiente.it/sites/default/files/archivio/allegati/LINEE_GUIDA.pdf Liuzzi, M. (2006). La formazione fuori dall’aula. Concetti, metodi e strumenti per un nuovo modello formativo multidimensionale. Milano: Franco Angeli. Maddalena E. (2010). Orienteering. Milano: Hoepli. Malvasi, P. (2008). Pedagogia verde. Educare tra ecologia dell’ambiente ed ecologia umana. Brescia: La Scuola. Moliterni, P. (2013). Didattica e Scienze Motorie. Tra mediatori e integrazione. Roma: Armando Editore. Scelza, A., Maolucci, E., Dalla Palma, M. (2010). Outdoor. Pensare – Agire – Sopravvivere. Milano: Hoepli. Siess, D. (2017). La mente nella scuola. Una teoria costruttivista dell’apprendimento. Roma: Armando Editore.

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