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This paper investigates the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new agricultural technology in Ghana. We use unique data on farmers' communication patterns to define each individual's information neighborhood. Conditional on many potentially confounding variables, we find evidence that farmers adjust their inputs to align with those of their information neighbors who were surprisingly successful in previous periods. The relationship of these input adjustments to experience further...

This paper investigates the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new agricultural technology in Ghana. We use unique data on farmers' communication patterns to define each individual's information neighborhood. Conditional on many potentially confounding variables, we find evidence that farmers adjust their inputs to align with those of their information neighbors who were surprisingly successful in previous periods. The relationship of these input adjustments to experience further...

This paper investigates the role of social learning in the diffusion of a new agricultural technology in Ghana. We use unique data on farmers' communication patterns to define each individual's information neighborhood. Conditional on many potentially confounding variables, we find evidence that farmers adjust their inputs to align with those of their information neighbors who were surprisingly successful in previous periods. The relationship of these input adjustments to experience further...

The purpose of this study is to analyze the musical tastes of secondayr school students in terms of cultural origin, in the Spanish city of Melilla, a North African enclave bordered by Morocco and characterized by its cultural diversity. The study also examines the musical environment of the students since, as different studies have shown (Frith, 2004; Hargreaves, Marshall & North, 2003; Lundquist, 2002; Pitts, 2007), there is no direct relationship between music studied formally in...

I explore the ways in which RE teachers understand and implement a multi-faith Religious Education curriculum in Botswana junior secondary schools. The multi-faith RE curriculum came about as a result of an educational policy change in 1994. The study is based on case studies and draws its data from classroom observations, interviews and documents such as the RE teaching syllabus, and the schemes of work. In highlighting the teachers' understanding and classroom practices, I adopted the...

Frequent droughts and sub-optimal crop management have been identified as the principal constraints on agricultural intensifcation in the Sahel. A new model, the Crop Model for Sahelian Adaptation Studies (CROMSAS), was developed to examine the influence of climatic variability, climate change and crop management strategies on millet yields. To improve the simulation of environmental stresses, several original features were implemented including a new leaf expansion methodology,...

Abstract What are the similarities and differences between the concepts ‘language attitudes’ (LAs) and ‘language ideologies’ (LIs)? The need to answer this question arose from a study done by Abongdia in Cameroon with Francophone high school students of English to determine their attitudes towards English as well as their motivation for learning the language. The study revealed much deeper ideological positions towards English and the Anglophone community in Cameroon than what could be...

This article comments on the problem of driver impairment due to khat and the resulting road traffic injuries in Ethiopia. The authors maintain that research into traffic accidents has been dominated by issues of concern to high-income countries while issues of primary concern to developing countries have been neglected. One of these is the stimulant effect of the leaf khat (Catha edulis, also spelled qat or kat), commonly chewed by drivers in Ethiopia and other countries in eastern Africa...

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a serious disorder particularly in low resource settings. It can lead to disabling hearing impairment and sometimes life-threatening infective complications.The aim of the present study was to describe the characteristics of hearing impairment associated with CSOM in Yemeni children.A case-control study of 75 children with CSOM and 74 healthy controls. Hearing was assessed by behavioural testing and audiometry.Cases had lower academic performance...

This study describes the profile of 100 cases of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at a teaching hospital in 1 Benghazi, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. DKA was more frequent in young women with type 1 diabetes and mostly due to preventable causes, e.g., disrupted insulin treatment and/or infection. DKA also occurred in type 2 diabetics, with a higher mortality rate, as they were older patients with co-morbidity. Polyurea, fatigue, abdominal pain and vomiting were the most common clinical features, while...

The study was designed to find out the relationship between students personal variables such attitude andacademic ability and their achievement in English Language: Four Research Questions were generated for the Study inLagos State. The instruments used were Questionnaire on Students’ Attitude to English (QSAE) and Students’ AcademicAbility Test (SAAT), four hundred 400) senior Secondary II (SSII) Students randomly selected from five (5) secondaryschools were involved in the study. A...

The aims of this study were to examine whether use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs predicts dropout among secondary school students in Cape Town, South Africa. A self-report instrument was administered to 1,470 Grade 8 students. The proportion of students that dropped out of school between the onset of the study and 4 years later was 54.9%. After adjusting for a range of confounders, dropout was significantly predicted by absenteeism, poverty (as assessed by a possession index), and...

In the present article, I report on my experience in teaching and learning physiology in the first year of a new modular curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine of the National University of Rwanda. With self-reported questionnaires, I collected learning experience perceptions from 112 students who attended the module of physiology in 2008. The results showed satisfaction with active learning methods but complaints about the limited contact hours allocated to classroom lectures and practical...

Abstract : From marginal access to school before 1960, African modern education systems expanded steadily during the 1960s and 1970s, prompted by high priority given to education. The 1980s experienced stagnation and decline due to a drastic decrease in education financing further to the balance of payment and budget deficits, and the ensuing structural adjustment programmes. Since 1990, there have been intensified efforts to reverse the trend through national and international efforts. The...

This study is interested in the relationship between accent and hearers’ perception of the speaker. It investigates the kinds of stereotypes related to phonological features of the speaker’s language. Specifically this thesis focused on the perceptions that high school girls have of their Mathematics teachers who speak English with a non-standard accent. The general aims of the study were to establish whether high school girls perceived non-standard English speaking Mathematics teachers...

The launch of the Journal of African American Males in Educationis significant for several reasons, not the least of which is that it offers an intellectual venue for the engagement of critical issues concerning a population that is continually underserved by the majority of American schools, colleges, and universities. I am honored to have been invited to serve on the JAAME advisory board and author this preface for the inaugural issue. Indeed, J. Luke Wood, T. Kenyatta Jones, and their...