Education

Islam is a complete code of conduct. Per the obligation of physical prayers, there are other aspects in the form of pillars. All the pillars have been clarified in the light of Quran and Sunnah. As we viewed the fact, that zakat is a financial prayer for fulfilling the economic needs of the poor people. Equally, we can perceive that the Muslim countries including Pakistan have their directions for the gathering of taxes from the Muslims. This study has been carried out to elaborate the concept of zakat and tax in Islam. Furthermore it has found similarities and differences of zakat and tax, and to discover the Islamic concept of tax from muslins in comparison of zakat. Therefore, for this purpose all the available online documents Quran verses and A hady is including articles, blogs, journals' website, ebooks and thesis were brought under consideration. Moreover, interviews were conducted. Responses were got from five prominent Muslim scholars regarding the concept of zakat and tax. Four main questions were asked with some sub questions and relevant critical responses were found. However discourse analyses were followed for finding out whether the terms are similar or different and then themes were drawn for describing the Islamic concept of zakat and tax. Data were analyzed based on the themes. It was recommended that tax money may be utilized only for the welfare of citizens and development of country otherwise it is unlawful in Muslim country to take tax from Muslims.

The world is in the fright condition and facing the threat of COVID-19 and Pakistan is not an exceptional in this situation. By the decision of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), all the universities and institutions were closed for formal academic activities and starting online classes from March, 2020. This was an astounding paradigm for the regular students of the institutions as well as for the faculty. Hence, this study has been conceded to find out what the faculty and students got what they lost individually and scholastically and what are their suggestions for the improvement and uniformity of the online learning system throughout thecountry. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of HEC during COVID-19 to implement the immediate online learning and its impact on students learning. This research was based on qualitative research in which data were collected from the literature available online. Various contemporary articles, papers, reports, blogs, news...

Mobile learning plays a pivotal role in the students’ academic progress.
Main objectives of this article were to examine the effectiveness of
mobile learning in view of students’ academic progress, to describe the
students’ preference for mobile learning, to examine the scope of use
mobile learning by distance learners. The study was qualitative in nature
and descriptive. Population of the study was all distance learners of
International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI). Sample for the study
was MS Education distance learners. The tool used for data collection
was open ended questionnaire. Collected data were then analyzed and
interpreted using thematic method. Findings of the study indicate that
mobile learning is an effective tool used by students of all ages for
improving communication and learning and this device enable students
to take guidance or to get current information regarding their courses and
exams easily but this fact also prove by the study that some students
were unaware of this concept. It is recommended that guidance is needed
for both teachers and students regarding various shapes of mobile
learning along with conducting training sessions to bring awareness in
students and to highlight its importance.

Pakistan teacher preparation programmmes (TE) have been criticised for not producing quality teachers like many developed and developing countries. Recently, a number of reforms have been introduced to improve teacher quality and teacher education by providing professional development to university and college faculties .It is assumed that developing TE faculties would move the TE system away from the tradition ways of teacher training and move toward a broader concept of teachers' professional development (PD)

This article presents the results of a review of current empirical research of effective practices in teacher mentoring. Compiling literature published since 2000 in peer-reviewed journals, we examine arguments for mentoring practices to improve teacher candidate and novice teacher experiences and skills. The emergent "effective" mentoring practices can be grouped into these categories: (a) critical reflection and feedback, (b) modeling, (c) collaboration, and (d) knowledge about the needs of novice teachers. We consider these practices in light of larger arguments made in the literature about mentoring, including the purposes of mentoring and the qualities and professional development of mentors, and situated in our professional roles in teacher education. Finally, we argue the literature does not provide evidence to support mentoring of any sort, and how future research can address that lack of evidence and the divergent perspectives on effective mentoring practices.

Purposeful and effective professional development of teacher mentors is often a proposed solution in many of the present debates about education, including teacher quality, teacher retention, and the student achievement gap. The literature about teacher mentoring suggests that if mentors in teacher education programs do not have significant professional development on mentoring, even a thoughtfully organized formal induction program can be ineffective in preparing good teachers, undermined by an unprepared mentor. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to propose a framework of professional development for veteran teachers who are to become mentors. Our framework will have a threefold effect. The framework is designed to (a) develop or strengthen supportive and collaborative partnerships between schools and teacher education programs; (b) prompt veteran teachers to identify, share, and deconstruct their teaching practices with colleagues and teacher educators; and (c) scaffold teacher learning into research on and best practices in effective mentoring. Ultimately, the framework's aim is to structure the preparation of effective teacher mentors, who will go on to have positive impacts on interns and novice teachers' long-term successes. Notably, based on the research, our Professional Development (PD) framework is situated in schools, about subject area knowledge, and focused on mastery of mentoring skills.

Teacher educators play a significant role in preparing prospective teachers. They are not only responsible for teaching student-centered teaching practices (TPs) to prospective teachers, but also for modeling those practices in their classrooms. Research suggests that teachers who are emotionally intelligent tend to employ student-centered TPs in their classrooms. Using an inferential approach, this study aimed at finding out the influence of teacher educators' emotional intelligence (EI) on their TPs. It was hypothesized that EI has no significant influence on teacher educators' TPs. The data was collected by administrating an EI Questionnaire and TP Questionnaire survey. Using total population sampling technique, all teacher educators were selected as sample of the study from the institutions offering B. Ed (Hons.) Elementary Program in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The regression analysis showed significant influence of EI on TPs' of teacher educators. The paper also discusses the influencing and non-influencing competencies of EI. The study recommends professional development for teacher educators to upgrade and strengthen the knowledge about Emotional Intelligence and the teaching practices which are more student-centered-thus helping teacher educators to bridge the gap between theory and practice through modeling.

With the recent policy developments initiated by the government of Pakistan, the issue of teacher quality has gained much more attention than ever before. In this paper, it is argued that teacher quality should be of concern for policy makers and teacher educators at both pre-service and in-service levels. By analyzing the policy actions stated in Educational Policy of Pakistan 2009 with respect to teacher education, the paper discusses three major issues lack of differentiation between in-service and pre-service teacher education, teacher preparation neglect, and defining and assessing teacher quality. Also taking on an andragogical approach to teacher development and initiation of formal mentoring are suggested as solutions to both professional development of teachers and improvement in teacher quality.

Challenge I worked on a data warehouse project for marketing department. Marketing was using their old DW, it was a black box with no documentation, and vendor support was expired. We needed to follow RFI/RFP process to select the vendor, we received responses from several vendors and we picked four vendors to come in person and give presentation. We rated all the vendors as per the pre defined criteria but we ended up with a tie amongst 2 vendors and that is where the conflicts started among the stakeholders that were involved from the beginning for the vendor selection process.

The local communities and School Councils (SC) play a significant role in supporting the schools for successful and effective learning at the elementary level. This study examines the extent of community-school partnership in improving the functioning of elementary schools, and community development through the agency of SC. The main research question of the study was, how school and community mutually guide, interact and support each other for solving the burning issues faced to primary schools in their effective functioning.  The case study method with survey technique was applied to conduct this study. Thirteen elementary schools located in Union Council (UC) Chountra, a Sub-Tehsil of district Rawalpindi were taken as an integrated case. The quantitative and qualitative data was gathered through a checklist with five point Likert scale, and a semi-structured interview which were corroborated for analysis to draw findings and conclusions. Analysis revealed that schools are not ful...

The objective of this investigation was to uncover the magnitude of unethical promotion practicesemployed by pharmaceutical firms on Otolaryngologists and decide if the acknowledged giftsimpacts their feelings with respect to gifts received. It intends to evaluate the perceptions/attitudeof doctors towards gifts offered by pharmaceutical organizations, and impact of these gifts onprescribing behavior. The purpose is to explore whether attitude toward the behaviorsignificantly affect intention; and whether subjective norm significantly affect intention andwhether perceived behavioral control significantly affect intention. The study explores whetherintention significantly affect prescribing behavior and whether perceived behavioral controldirectly significantly affect prescribing behavior. The “Theory of Planned Behavior” TPB allowssuch appraisal and is utilized for assessing anti-biotic use. After the preliminary analysis,thereview was dispersed amongst doctors in an open private tr...

Incorporating theory into practice is not a simple but rather a dialectical and complex process of observing, scaffolding, reflecting, and coordinating prospective teachers (PT) at teaching practicum. It has been observed that interaction in the form of academic feedback between cooperative teachers (CT) and PTs is poor. The study explores the perception of CTs, PTs and UTs (University teachers) about feedback practices to bridge the theory-practice gap during teaching practicum in the preservice teacher education program (PTEP). It is an exploratory investigation applying the survey method and semi-structured interview to collect data from PTs, CTs, and UTs to answer the investigation inquiries about the role of feedback practices in bridging the theory- practice gap. Purposive and criterion sampling techniques were used, and 98 PTs, 30 CT,s and 15 UTs participated in the study. Findings reveal that CTs are working as mentors without professional training, recognition of their cont...

Incorporating theory into practice is not a simple but rather a dialectical and complex process of observing, scaffolding, reflecting, and coordinating prospective teachers (PT) at teaching practicum. It has been observed that interaction in the form of academic feedback between cooperative teachers (CT) and PTs is poor. The study explores the perception of CTs, PTs and UTs (University teachers) about feedback practices to bridge the theory-practice gap during teaching practicum in the preservice teacher education program (PTEP). It is an exploratory investigation applying the survey method and semi-structured interview to collect data from PTs, CTs, and UTs to answer the investigation inquiries about the role of feedback practices in bridging the theorypractice gap. Purposive and criterion sampling techniques were used, and 98 PTs, 30 CT, s and 15 UTs participated in the study. Findings reveal that CTs are working as mentors without professional training, recognition of their contributions, and professional incentives and contradictory findings by the PTs and CTs about the in-time, targeted, supportive oral-written feedback at teaching practicum.

Instructors’ demographic variables plays an important role in their teaching competencies for quality instruction (Aramide, Ladipo, & Adebayo, 2015). The demographic variables includes instructors’ qualification, age, years of teaching experience, and the number of professional training attended.   The main aim of this research was to identify the influence of demographic variables on the teaching competencies of the instructors, teaching in online learning environment. The ‘online teaching competencies (OTCs) matrix was utilized as theoretical framework for current research. This study was conducted in the three universities of Pakistan those who are offering online programs and courses to their students. The sample of the study consisted of 250 instructors, teaching in online learning environment. Data was collected through a Five-point Likert scale questionnaire developed by Bigatel, Ragan, Kennan, May, & Redmond (2012). Multiple regression analysis was applied to analyze the dat...

Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment is an innovative and verified pedagogical method for mathematics and science instruction using clickers as a tool to achieve learning gains. Question-based instruction, dialogical discourse, formative assessment, and meta-level communication are the four main rules on which this Classroom Response System (clickers) based pedagogy is constructed. An iterative question cycle helps in executing these principles in the classroom. Non-equivalent comparison group quasi-experimental design was applied on a sample of 183 participants. These participants were taken from two urban high schools (i.e., boys and girls). This intervention lasted for eight weeks. The study members comprised 42 females and 47 males in the experimental group. 54 females and 40 males were in the control group of the 8th mathematics class. Multiple choice questions-based achievement test (both Pre and Post-intervention) was administered to both groups at the same time. The resu...

Recently, it is an increasing agreement in social sciences that experiences to violent media enhances violent behavior (Anderson, Shibuya, Ihori, Swing, Bushman, Sakamoto, & Saleem, 2010).The main purpose of the study was to examine and observe the impact of Violent Video Games on learners behavior in the classroom. It is harmfully effecting on the behavior of students at secondary school level. A mixed method research design was adopted for this study. The target population of this study was the secondary schools of Rawalpindi. Sixty eight students were conveniently selected from five secondary schools of Rawalpindi city. A five point Likert scale type questionnaire was used to collect the quantitative data. The questionnaire was consisted of Twenty one items. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Semistructured interviews were conducted with five secondary school teachers. Interview guide consisted of fourteen questions. Quantitative data was analyzed ...

A curriculum is all the experiences that an individual has in the course of living. Television media, the most important component of the societal curriculum has been receiving increasing scholarly attention. It has become an integral part of our lives and portrays our religious, cultural and societal norms and practices. This study explores the effects of television media as a source of informal curriculum on the social and religious value practices in Pakistani society. For the study, mixed methods were utilised whereby the quantitative data was collected through a five point Likert scale questionnaire from 100 students selected purposively from four universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In addition, three focus group discussions were conducted with 15 students (five students each group), yielding the qualitative data. The findings of the study indicate that television has a strong influence, specifically; the way dramas, news and advertisements are presented. This has brought...