Quasi-Experimental Design

Speaking is a fundamental and yet demanding skill to be mastered by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Compared to other language skills, speaking has been given less attention in second language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment. The present study explored the effect of background knowledge or topic familiarity on speaking ability of Iranian students. In so doing, the study carried on a Pre-university class including 10 students. Since there was just one class available, a Quasi-experimental design was employed. First, in two successive class meetings, the subjects were required to talk on the spur of time about topics they were not familiar with. The researcher evaluated their performance as pretests. Then, they were given three topics for the following sessions to work on before attending the class. They could get information about the selected topics through the Internet, magazines, newspapers, books, and the like. In this way, they became familiar with the topics and their background knowledge was activated. Consequently, could talk more easily and for longer periods of time on the familiar topics compared to those topics they were not familiar with. Their performance was regarded as posttests. A statistical analysis of the results obtained from Paired-Samples t test provided some evidence in support of the positive effect of background knowledge on speaking ability of Iranian EFL learners.

Healthy population makes healthy nation and fewer burdens to society. The nurse play an important role in making this possible by educating and creating awareness in the community.  Knee joint pain is the most frequent complaint among the aging population. The present study has been undertaken to study the effect of ‘Warm mustard oil massage’ on the intensity of knee joint pain among population (≥ 60 years of age) residing at selected village of Unai Pallathur, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. Out of the total geriatric population surveyed in the present research 73% had severe knee joint pain. The study subject was selected using purposive sampling technique, the sample size consisted of 30 subjects. A quasi experimental design is adopted. Intensity of knee joint pain was assessed on the 1st and 14th day of intervention to the subjects. ‘warm mustard oil massage” was done at the knee joint two times a day for the study subjects. The results show that intensity of knee joint pain reduced significantly after the intervention. Hence, the use of warm oil massage is recommended for home base management of knee joint pain.

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) have proven to be successful in mobilizing rural populations to utilize primary health services where they can be supported by skilled health workers. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of three CHW models implemented in northern Nigeria.
Method: Using a quasi-experimental design, we compare the costs and health outcomes for communities where CHW models were implemented versus those where no CHW models were implemented. The three CHW models were Community Volunteer (CV), Nigeria Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme for Maternal and Child Health Village Health Worker (VHW), and the Junior Community Health Extension Worker providing community based service delivery (JCHEW-CBSD). The unit costs, consultation patterns, benefit-cost ratios, and cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated for the three CHW models.
Results: Compared to the CVs, the VHWs and the JCHEW-CBSDs had the highest levels of interactions in the community, each helping to educate 120-130 pregnant women each year. JCHEW-CBSDs made the most referrals for antenatal care (220) and facility births (122); however, women who interacted with the VHWs increased their antenatal care visits the most, with 92% of the women having made at least one and 70% having made 4+ ANC visits. The unit cost of the CVs was lowest, compared to the other two models, at $127 versus $3176 for the VHW model and $4443 for the JCHEWCBSD model. The outcomes per unit cost ratios were highest for the VHW model. For every $1000 invested in the VHW, there were 54 ANC 4+ visits and 95.9 deliveries attended by a skilled birth attendant. The Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratios for the VHW model were also lower than for the JCHEW-CBSD model, ranging from a low of an additional $25 per incremental ANC visits to $152 for increments in attended deliveries, the latter amount three times lower than for the JCHEW-CBSD model.
Conclusion: This cost-effectiveness study of CHW models in Northern Nigeria shows that the SURE-P VHW model was most cost-effective. The VHW model, an enhanced volunteer model, promises the greatest return on investment if scaled up in northern Nigeria and settings with similar health care delivery contexts.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of narrative therapy on mental health of addicts' wives treated in the addiction treatment centers in Khomeini Shahr. Methodology: This study was conducted based on the quasi-experimental method with pretest, posttest, and control group. The population of this study was included all the wives of the addicts who were under the therapy of the addiction treatment centers in Khomeini Shahr, Isfahan, Iran. In this study, the addicts' wives were aware that their husbands were under the therapy in addiction treatment centers and were randomly put into the experimental group (15 individuals) and control group (15 individuals). The instrument of the research was General Health Questionnaire of Goldberg (1987). First, a pretest was taken from the experimental group and control group. Then, four sessions, which were 1 h were held for the experimental group. Finally, a posttest was taken from these two groups. Data were analyzed with the analysis of covariance. Result: Findings showed that narrative therapy had a statistically significant effect on the mental health of addicts' wives treated in the addiction treatment centers in Khomeini Shahr and increased their mental health (F = 8.96, P < 0.05). Conclusion: As a result, the narrative therapy approach is a change in their mental health for addressing consumers' wives tales about their position, family, and wife.

Path-turn strategy is anchored from the concept of Scaffolding where teacher initially gives path to solve the problem followed by student's turn to do the task. It is a gradual transition from grounded learning to independent knowledge among students. Correspondingly, it is used in teaching and learning process as it stimulates student's enthusiasm in learning. This study investigated Grade 11 students of Lawang Bato National High School who took up Business Mathematics subject on 1 st semester, School Year 2020-2021. A total of sixty (60) conveniently selected respondents from two different heterogeneous sections handled by the researchers served as the subject of this quasi-experimental research design. This design indicates that one group gets the treatment while the other does not. It assessed the difference of pathturn strategy on the mean, percentage, and score of students. Before the conduct of the study, pretest was personally administered to determine if two groups were on the same achievement level. The researchers used content validated researchers-made posttest with Table of Specifications (TOS) and item analysis as well as a research instrument which is validated by experts in terms of content, structure, and grammar. In the same vein, structured interview guide questions were used to narrate for qualitative analysis from five (5) purposively selected participants. Through t-test paired sample mean, the computed t-value of 5.62, which is higher than the critical value of 1.70 at 5% level of significance, revealed that use of path-turn strategy enhanced the mathematical performance of Grade 11 students. Using Tesch's method and thematic analysis, qualitative findings from interviews merged into three themes in terms of knowledge acquisition, applicability, and satisfaction. Students perceived that the use of pthe ath-turn strategy help them easily understand the lesson, increase interest to solve problems, and sense of fulfillment in learning the subject.

Resumen El objetivo de la presente investigación fue mejorar el nivel literal de comprensión lectora por medio del uso de la técnica "lo que sé, lo que quiero saber, y lo que aprendí". Esta investigación cuali-cuantitativa de diseño cuasi-experimental estuvo conformada por dos grupos de trabajo, un grupo experimental y un grupo de control, ambos grupos con el mismo número de población, treinta estudiantes. Los estudiantes del grupo experimental participaron en una intervención de seis semanas, mientras que los estudiantes del grupo de control desarrollaron sus actividades de clase de manera tradicional, sin el uso de la técnica mencionada. Además, para la intervención se diseñaron doce planes de lección considerando temas incluidos en el Sílabo Institucional para Quinto Nivel, para lo cual se seleccionaron lecturas de diferentes fuentes considerando el nivel A1 del Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para Lenguas. Los instrumentos de evaluación y recolección de datos considerados fueron pre-test y post-test. Con los datos obtenidos de

A teaching-learning sequence on a socio-scientific issue: Analysis and evaluation of its implementation in the classroom) This study investigates the effectiveness of a teaching-learning sequence on mining to improve understanding of the influences and interactions between a technology (mining) and society, also known as interactions between science, technology and society and nature of science. The aim of the study is to show the possibility of teaching and assessing the most innovative issues and aspects of scientific competence on understanding the nature of science, which are addressed in this study. The methodology uses a quasi-experimental, pre-post-test design with control group; the pre-post-test differences are the empirical indicators of improved understanding. The improvements are modest, as the empirical differences (pre-post and experimental-control group) are not large, though experimental group clearly over scores control. Further, the features that display relevant changes are identified. The contributions of the study are the standardized teaching learning sequence and assessment instrument, as they are functional and transferable, to allow researchers and teachers, teaching and assessing the nature of science in the classroom.