Science, Mathematics and Technology Education

Some Nigerian universities have adopted computer-based test (CBT) for their courses/examinations and means of testing students. The perceptions of students on CBT in Nigerian universities have not been established and very few studies have focused on determining students’ perceptions of CBT. Thus, there was a need for this study to investigate students’ perceptions of CBT. The objective of this study was to investigate students’ perceptions of the usefulness; ease of use and credibility of CBT in Nigerian universities. The study adopted survey method of descriptive research. Sample was drawn from students from four Nigerian universities: Covenant University; Kogi State University; University of Ibadan; and University of Ilorin. A total of 1506 students’ represent the sample for the study. Data was analysed using percentage and mean to answer the research questions. The study revealed that students also had positive rating on perceived usefulness (64.3%), ease of use (66.1%), and credibility (67%) of CBT. The study concluded that students perceived CBT as useful, easy to use and credible. The implication is that the perception of the usefulness, ease of use and credibility of CBT will lead to increase in use of CBT in Nigerian universities. It was recommended among others that Nigerian universities should improve the efficiency of computer-based test to increase its credibility.
Key words: Computer-based test, Credibility, ease of use, Students’ perception

Test developments are critical in measurement of learning attainment. Its precision and accuracy is a major task in academic setting in Nigeria. The scales employed for achievement test are often based on classical test theory (CTT) approach with a drawback of variability of result in different samples of the same population or from the same pool of items. This work explores method of Rasch model and 2-PL model of Item Response Theory (IRT) to develop and validate Mathematics Aptitude Test (MAT). A 120 items instrument with a reliability value of 0.86 was developed by the researcher. MNSQ and ZSTD of fitness of Winsteps and 2-PL model of Bilog-Mg3 were used to investigate how well the Mathematics fit the Rasch Model and discriminate among the testees under 2-parameter logistic model of IRT. Eventually, thirty-three (33) items whose parameters are known scaled through the 1-parameter logistic model of IRT (Rasch) and were confirmed to measure the same construct (uni-dimensionality).These items are banked for future use and reference. This paper recommends the employment of Rasch principles of test construction for Mathematics Aptitude Test to Nigerian schools and Examination bodies to measure ability.

There has been widespread concern about the provision of quality education (QE) for all learners in all contexts, but research evidence to inform this debate is quite divergent and in most of cases the question about achieving this desire seems to be full of myths. This paper examines a selection of embedded myths about QE in Tanzanian education sector. The paper specifically aims at identifying the myths, their effects in education practice, and the appropriate ways to address them. The researcher's own experiences and voices from secondary school teachers, parents, and students were merged to inform the study. Merging of these voices helped this paper to have a major contribution towards a better understanding of myths and their adverse influence in education practice, and spotting some alternative modes of practice towards addressing them.

Recent advances towards Sustainable Development in developing countries call for concrete
Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) education is key facets to inventions and industrial revolutions, hence the need to
study the extent to which innovation and entrepreneurship are useful in the aforementioned
areas. Entrepreneurship is the willingness and the ability to create wealth through
innovation of goods and services. Many useful outputs of science, technology, engineering
and mathematics are lying unused by the industrial sector of the economies. This revises
revealed that, with entrepreneurship, this wealth of knowledge can be converted to useful
innovation for industrial development that will lead to provision of more goods and services
for economic advancement of the developing nations and whole world in general. There is
therefore a sincere need to integrate innovation and entrepreneurship into the concepts of
STEM education for global industrial revolution and economics advancement to enhance
sustainable development. This study highlights the integration of entrepreneurship in to the
teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. The
benefits of integration of innovation and entrepreneurship were also discussed. It was
concluded that, there is need to allow innovation even in the teaching strategies adopt in
teaching, especially in the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering and
mathematics education. Then the teaching must inculcate entrepreneurship, to relate with
useful things in life that the individual can benefit from.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, STEM, Industrial revolution