PhD holders put into perspective the future of education

Makerere University has been holding its 71st graduation ceremony that will end today. Daily Monitor’s Damali Mukhaye explores what some of the PhD graduands in education said on Tuesday.

What they say

Harriet Ludigo, PhD in Education
“My study analysed the relationship between student-centered, teacher-centered and teacher-student pedagogical strategies with academic achievement of students. The main findings of the study revealed that student-centered strategy had a positive and significant influence on academic achievement of students as opposed to teacher-centered and teacher-student interaction strategies. It was concluded that the student-centered pedagogical strategy is essential for academic achievement of students.”

Martha Kyoshaba,  PhD in Education
“I examined student satisfaction in universities in Uganda, anchored on the European Customer Satisfaction Index model. The model suggests that student satisfaction is predicted by image, expectations, quality of infrastructure, quality of staff and service delivery and value of investment and that the consequence of student satisfaction is student loyalty. The study revealed that except for the quality of infrastructure, student satisfaction depended on the image of a university, expectations of a student, quality of staff and service delivery. It also revealed that student satisfaction enhanced student loyalty.”

Henry Kasasa, PhD  in Education
 “I studied the role played by denominational philosophy and school leadership in enhancing school performance in Uganda. It was found out that though the relationship between the school leadership, denominational philosophy and school performance is inseparable, many school stakeholders seem not to fully understand let alone know this philosophy, though they practise it in their day-to-day school/class activities."

Enoch Kimanje, PhD in Education
 “I explored the perception of performance appraisal held by the academic staff of a chartered private university in Uganda. This was instigated by the persistent complaints by the university’s employees over how their work performances were appraised. With the use of qualitative approach, the study findings revealed; among others, that the academic staff of the university investigated differently perceived how their performances were appraised."

Abdu Kisige, PhD in Education
“I investigated teacher preparation by universities. I sought to explore the perceptions of the academic staff and student teachers about the teacher education curriculum in Makerere and Kyambogo Universities. The findings of the study revealed that the teacher education curriculum was positively perceived as enabling teacher trainees to be equipped with specialised teaching skills essentially directed towards the teaching profession. Continuous teacher education curriculum is needed regularly to weed out outdated content.”

Geoffrey Hiire, PhD in Education and Human Development
“I investigated the backgrounds of research productivity among academic staff in chartered private universities in Uganda. The study was instigated by reportedly persistent decline in the research productivity of academic staff in those institutions. The results showed; among others, that certain organisational factors, especially technological progress and computer skills, were strong positive predictors of academic staff research productivity, unlike research funding and human resource factors.”

Rose Atugonza, PhD in Education
“I examined the predictive influence of intra and extra-organisational factors and stress among academic staff. The findings revealed that there was a significant relationship between workload, responsibility for people, socio-economic status and stress among academic staff. I recommended that the university should expand on the establishment so that more academic staff can be recruited to reduce workload.”

Julius Mbulankende,  PhD in Education
“I studied why new teachers found difficulty to integrate ICT in teaching, despite the intensive training undertaken during the teacher training programme. Using a case study of National Teachers College-Kaliro, I found that through ICT training, teachers greatly met their expectations in teaching and the trainees developed advanced skills to use various ICT tools and services after the training but the school teaching and learning environment was yet to support the ICT integration.”

David Kakeeto, PhD in Education
 “I studied the utilisation of the social constructivist approach to cultivate Teacher-educators and trainees in digital competence at Makerere University, taking School of Education as a case. I found out that social constructivism greatly improves teacher educators’ and trainees’ technology knowledge and skills necessary for the 21st Century teaching.”

Alfred Buluma, Phd in Education
 “I studied the role of teacher education pedagogical practices in nurturing the development of 21st Century competences among teacher trainees in Uganda. Using a representative case study of Kyambogo University, I found out that the utilised instructional and assessment practices in teacher education pedagogy in Uganda to a less extent develops 21st Century competences among teacher trainees.”

Nancy Rosemary Nabiryo, PhD in Education
“I studied the worth of classroom cultures in writing instruction among lower secondary school learners. I selected three schools using the purposive sampling method. The findings revealed that most of the aspects of the physical classroom environment were beyond the control of the participants. Findings also revealed that the value of the learner-learner interaction and teacher- learner interaction largely depended on the available time and the attitude of the participants.”

Kulthum Nabunya, PhD in Education
“I investigated the relationship between professional development practices and service delivery of academic staff in Kampala International and Kyambogo Universities. This followed a continued outcry of low academic staff service delivery from these two universities. The study found that professional development practices significantly related with teaching, research and community service delivery of academic staff in Kyambogo University, among other institutions."

Agnes Mamaganda, PhD in Education
“I examined the effectiveness of Makerere University Anti-sexual Harassment Policy (2006). I established that sexual harassment was caused by unequal gender relations and the irregular power relations between faculty and students. It further revealed that the policy distributed burdens to female students and diminished attention to the problem.”

Charles Kyasanku, PhD in Education
“I studied the role of school-based teacher professional development in enhancing teacher competences. Using a case study of Mpigi District, I established that several practices for school-based teacher professional development enhanced teacher competence in the areas of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes and professional ethics. However, these practices were sporadic and not uniformly implemented across public primary schools. There is need for an improvement of the teacher professional development policy to incorporate school–based teacher professional development.”

Rogers Kategaya, PhD in Education
“I studied the internal efficiency of private Universal Secondary Education (USE) schools under the public-private partnership framework in Central Uganda. Using a representative sample of private USE schools from Wakiso, Mpigi and Mukono Districts, I found out that private USE schools have impressively increased equitable access to secondary education, especially with regard to gender equity. He established that more students are graduating from private USE schools although with dismissal learning achievements.”

Jerry Bagaya, Phdin Education
“I examined inspection practices in secondary schools in western Uganda and how they influence lesson planning and instruction. The study found that inspection practices were ineffective and did not influence lesson planning. However, inspection had a moderate influence on instruction, albeit with some unintended negative effects.”

Godfrey Bagonza,  Phd in Education
“I investigated the relationship between internal efficiency and the quality of university education in Uganda. The study found a positive and statistically significant relationship between the competence of university lecturers and the quality of university education. Secondly, the study found a strong relationship between university facilities and the quality of education.”