Browsing by Author "Hailemariam, Fikirte"

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    The Critical Thinking Abilities of College Seniors: The Case of Foreign Languages Students at Addis Ababa University
    (Addis Ababa University, 2005-06) Hailemariam, Fikirte; Sineshaw, Tilahun (PhD)
    The study mainly explored the extent to which th e critical thinking s kill s and dispositions of senior students of the Foreign Languages Department at Addis Ababa University were developed. It a lso examined the inte rrela tionship be tween critical thinking skills, c ritical thinking d is positions, and academic achievement of the students as measured in GPA. An a ttempt was also made to see if academic achievement had any impact on the critical thinking s kills and dispos itions of the students. A total of 70 seniors who h ad been trained to be English language teachers participa ted in the study. The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) and Californi a Cri tical Thinking Dis pos itions Inventory (CCTDl) were used to measure the pa rti cipants' cri tical thinking skills and dispositions respectively. Results provided an evidence of the students' poor cri tical thinking a bilitie s, but their pos itive endorsement toward critical thinking. Moreover, critical thinking skills were founei to hm'e no s ignifi cant relat ionship with critical thinking di s pos itions and academic achievemen t. However, their dis posi tions toward c rit ical thi nking showed s ignifi cant positive relationsh ip with th ei r academic achievement (GPA) . Hi gh " n . ~ 10\\' achievers were also found to differ s ign ificantly in their critical thinking d ispositions. but not in their s kill s. This gave an evidence for the s ignifican t impact academic achievement had on c ritical th in king d is pos itions . The stude nts' weak criti ca l thinking a bil ities, the insignificHnt re lationsh ip between their c riti cal thinking skil ls '1I1e! acad clnic ~lc hi l'\'C ln clll , ; 111<1 the negligible impact achicn:rn cnl hild 011 their criti c
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    The Influences of Social and Pedagogic Factors on the Participation Behaviours of Aau Freshman Students
    (Addis Ababa University, 1996-06) Hailemariam, Fikirte; Banteyerga, Hailom (PhD)
    The purpose of this study was to find out the extent to which social and pedagogic factors influence the participation behaviours of (i) AAU freshman students in general; and (ii) relatively 'high', 'average' and 'low' classroom participators in particular. The sample population of the study were 180 AAU freshman students at the main and Arat Kilo campuses. Out of the 180 students fifteen students were selected randomly from a section and were described as 'high', 'average' and 'low' participators based on their measures of participation calculated from an analysis of lesson transcripts from video recordings. To obtain the necessary information, a questionnaire with thirty items was administered to the students in the study sample. The questionnaire consisted of 3 categories which aimed to find out the influences of (i) social factors; (ii ) pedagogic factors; and (iii) mixed social and pedagogic factors on students' participation behaviours. An interview was also conducted to obtain further information which could either consolidate or refute the information revealed through the questionnaire. The analysis of the students' :::-esponses to the questionnaire and the revelations brou5~~ O ~= by ~he interview seemed to indicate that both s ocial ana ~e~agcg~c :ao=ors have positive influences on the participa~ion oer.avlours of the majority of the students. Moreover, the pcs~tive influences of pedagogic factors were found to be greater than the positive influences of social fact ors. The negative influences of both social and pedagogic factors were reported by below 50% of the students. This study has also showed that the participation behaviours of the majority of the students were influenced by the mixed social and pedagogic factors. An attempt was also made to compare the extent to which social and pedagogic factors influence the participation behaviours of relatively 'high' , 'average' a::d 'low' participators. The study showed that there was no significant difference between the influences of s ocial and pedagogic factors for the 'high' and 'average' ~art~oiFa= o rs. Eowever' Pedagogic factors were found to have greater i ::: l~ences on the participation behaviours of 'low' participa~ors.