Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences

In today’s keen competitive global environment, schools and institutions of higher learning are entrusted to produce quality human capital that is able to participate and cope with the ever changing market demands in various sectors of the economy such as education, business and commerce, and technology. The quality of education that students receive is inextricably linked to the knowledge, intelligence, professional skills and competencies of teachers. Teachers are the major in – school influence on student achievement and the most influential profession in the society that make huge differences to children’s lives. The professional roles and qualities of the teacher are blended to make him/her an effective teacher. With teacher preparation issues becoming a major concern for many societies today, it is therefore crucial to shed more light on pre-service teachers teaching practice program aimed at positively influencing the quality level of our student teacher preparation to assist them in carrying out their core mandate as and when they become fully grown teachers. The issues in focus are; the concept of teaching practice, why the need for teaching practice for student teachers, supervisors and supervision, supervisions and feedback, and challenges in supervision.

Aims: The study was conducted to explore the factors that influence the acceptance of Moodle (VLE) among students and to study the behavioral intention of students to use VLE in Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) based on modified technology acceptance model (TAM).

Study Design: This exploratory research incorporated a quantitative approach.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in nine constituent colleges under Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) in the period of one year (2019-2020).

Sample: A total of 384 samples were drawn from population size of 9590 students under RUB colleges proportionately by using Yamane (1967) formula of sample determination. 

Methodology: The research used the modified TAM model to study the factors that influence the acceptance of virtual learning environment (VLE) and the behavioral intention of students to use VLE. This study mainly used primary data collected through a self-report online questionnaire adopted from context-based literature.

Results: The study observed that while the facilitating condition (FC) has a weak positive effect on perceived usefulness (PU) of VLE, the users’ experience (E) has a very strong positive influence over it. However, self-efficacy (SE) and subjective norms (SN) do not affect PU. Similarly, SE, E and SN have a positive effect on perceived ease of use (PEU), but the effect of SE is observed to be very strong. However, FC does not affect PEU. PEU has a very strong positive effect on PU, and both PEU and PU strongly affect the behavioral intention (BI) to use VLE. BI also has a strong positive affect on actual system use (SU). The study also observed that students in RUB demonstrate a high degree of behavioral intention to use VLE which appears to be a strong indicator of actual system use.

Conclusion: The study concludes that the students’ experience in using VLE is comparatively more important determinant of perceived usefulness than the technical and infrastructural support that enables them to use VLE; the better the experience of using VLE the more useful it appears. Similarly, students’ ability and the perceive social pressure to use VLE do not influence the students’ perception about the usefulness of it. However, if students are confident in their ability to use VLE, it appears easy to them, and if they perceive VLE to be user friendly, they consider it very useful. Students intend to use VLE when they are convinced that the system is useful and easy to use.

Beauty consumers are currently promised to satisfy their needs by interpolating capitalist ideology in The Body Shop's advertising discourse on digital media, which can eliminate Reason in fulfilling requirements. This research was conducted to examine the interpellation of capitalist ideology in exploiting consumers' beauty needs, consumers to process the interpellation of capitalist ideologies to fulfill apparent beauty needs, and the emancipation process to free these consumers. The research found that the interpellation of capitalist ideology in The Body Shop's advertising discourse on digital media to exploit consumers through preconditions of pleasure, exploitation of instincts, alienation, and sublimation of concern, sublimation for transformation, separation, and discrimination of real needs; in the way of shaking logic, manipulative messages, promising the pleasures of beauty necessities. Each consumer responds to the interpellation of capitalist ideology in different dimensions: 1) Two-dimensional consumers maintain rational and irrational reasoning to meet their real needs, 2) One-dimensional consumers only use illogical reasoning to fulfill apparent needs, 3) Consumers with metamorphosis dimensions with superficial needs. For this reason, a new size is needed in the digital communication era, namely "Three Dimensional Consumers: Combine rational reasoning, irrational reasoning, humanist communication media, so that consumers meet their true humanist and transcendent needs.

Background and Objectives: The current whistleblowing system has not been proven to help limit unethical behavior in organizations. This study examines the influence of the whistleblowing system in the Ministry of Health's civil servants on organizational commitment, organizational culture, whistleblower protection, professional attitudes, internal reporting, external reporting, anonymity, and use of hotlines.

Methodology: This research was conducted at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia. This study used a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design. Sampling was carried out using probability sampling techniques with proportional random sampling. The sample population consisted of 98 people at the Directorate General of Health Development, Human Resources Development and Empowerment of the Ministry of Health, the Directorate General of Disease Control and Prevention, and the Directorate General of Pharmacy and Health. Data analysis was performed using chi-square and logistic regression.

Results: The results obtained indicate that the intentions of State Civil Servants within the Ministry of Health are related to their perceptions of professionalism and internal reporting.

Conclusion: The employees' perceptions of external and anonymous reporting are not related to the purpose of the whistleblowing system for employees of the Ministry of Health's State Civil Apparatus.

Suggestion: It is recommended that the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Health move the reporting mechanism into the Ministry of Health Whistleblowing System application for easy access so that the Inspectorate General establishes standard operating procedures on legal protection and clarification for whistleblowers.

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) against women is one of the most known public health concerns. The depth of the problem varies across regions and different settings. The purpose of this scooping review is to assess the overall prevalence and risk factors of IPV in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Methods: The review was conducted based on 24 articles selected from PubMed and google search. The selection considered only those conducted in SSA based on a representative sample size of women of reproductive age (15-49), published in peer-reviewed journals in the last ten years, and those having resemblance in study design and conceptualization of IPV.

Results: While slight methodological variations exist among the individual studies, nearly all the reported prevalence of IPV were unacceptably high. The lifetime experience of IPV ranged from about 20% in some societies to more than 75% in other settings. Physical and emotional violence were the most frequently reported type of IPV. One common feature of all studies reviewed is that they all recognized the important role of women’s attitude (acceptance) towards their experience of IPV. Good proportion (ranging between 33-57%) of women justified IPV more often than men do. The studies further documented a wide range of risk factors associated with IPV, more importantly, low maternal and paternal education, partner's alcohol drinking behavior, childhood experience of domestic violence, and certain household and community/cultural factors.

Conclusion: Given considerable proportion of women experienced one or more forms of IPV in most settings in SSA, national and local governments have a long way to go in preventing or reducing its occurrence in their geographic areas if they must meet SDG 3 (i.e., better health of children and women). Since IPV is embedded in most cultures; concerned authorities should establish appropriate norms, enhance women's status, and ensure proper implementation of policies and laws on abuse. Community reflections, mass education/ behavioral change communications are essential in this endeavor.