Abstract This research inquiry was conducted to probe the consequence of test anxiety on students’ academic performance. The research design was descriptive, while the quantitative research approach adopted for the purpose of collecting and interpreting the desired information. 504 students (252 male and 252 female students) of the 10th class were selected as sample from nine cities of Punjab. The Westside Test Anxiety Scale for measuring test anxiety which was prepared by Richard Driscoll, Ph.D. available on the American Test Anxiety Association web was used to gauge the test anxiety of the students. For statistical investigation and interpretation, Pearson r was exercised. The findings of the study supported the research hypothesis as a significant correlation (r= -.072*) in students with higher anxiety and their academic performance and in students with low anxiety with their academic performance (r= -.083*) was found. The study also hypothesized that as the degree of anxiety raisin the level of academic performance would decline and vice versa. The value of Pearson r showed a significant connection between test anxiety and academic achievement/ performance as p< .05. Thus the null hypotheses of the study were rejected.

This paper describes socio-economic and demographic impacts of TVET provision for women empowerment in rural and urban areas of Baluchistan. Different economic factors and demographic attributes are examined with TVET programs on empirical counts for policy analysis. The analysis is descriptive and questionnaire based data from 178 TVET qualified women by using three stage stratified sampling technique are traced out in rural and urban areas of Baluchistan.The factors like, self-employed status of women, parents’ education, ethnicity, household head characteristics, rural and urban set ups, institutional affiliation, and self-choice for a specific TVET trade contribute to socio-economic and demographic empowerment of women. Rural women are found to get less economic benefits of jobs and income earnings as compared to urban counterparts.The tentative findings suggest for socio-economic and demographic impacts of TVET for women to support to the consensus of development for TVET contributions into human capital theory. The findings guide towards the profound contribution of TVET in theory of human capital formation and its socio-economic and demographic impacts specifically to women empowerment studies in the un-developed regions.

Handwriting is an essential of school activities for the school going children. Good or legible handwriting remained a constant task for the teachers and students during the whole day. The teachers recognize the legible handwriting at a gland due to their routine work in the schools. The teacher’s criterion that lies behind their decision of good handwriting was a question to answer in this study. The purpose of this study was to identify the components of legibility from the teachers’ perspective. Referencing handwriting experts and a literature review, key variables were categorized and organized onto a 5-point Likert Scale questionnaire. Teachers’ responses to the various legibility criteria were then tallied with regards to primary school students. Mean, standard deviation, exploratory factor analysis and path diagram statistics were applied to the ordinal data. It was concluded that twelve components were important for the legibility of handwriting of primary school students. These include Readability, Margin, Similarity, Line, Space, Size, Shape, Roundness, Form, Slant, Alignment and Recognition.

General science textbooks due to integrated contents of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and; Earth and Space, need special attention of curriculum developers. The contents in general science textbooks can be evaluated through different methods and curriculum analysis taxonomy (CAT) is one of these. This research paper explores the contents of general science textbook of 8th grade taught in all government schools and in some private schools of Punjab province. The contents of textbook were broken down in term of Piagetian developmental levels by using Curriculum Analysis Taxonomy (CAT). The findings show that majority of contents of General science textbook were at Concrete Operational level while a small number of contents demands Formal Operational level. This uneven distribution of contents at different Piagetian developmental levels were also observed when contents of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and; Earth and Space were separately studied. It is recommended that the distribution of contents should follow model based on Piagetian development levels and the selection of contents should be on the basis of breadth and depth of the concepts.

Based on the dynamic model of supervisory management styles this research focused on the empirical verification of the preferred supervisory management styles and their associated baseline characteristics of supervisors and supervisees. The study used a mixed-methods research approach and conducted in two phases. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted from 30 supervisors from different disciplines to get an overview of the context specific supervision problems faced by supervisors and their approaches to solve them during the different research stages. These interviews helped to develop items of supervisory management styles questionnaire (SMSQ). This questionnaire was based on 12 different situations. In the second phase, supervisors and supervisees from the 13 different universities of Punjab were selected purposively to respond the supervisory management styles questionnaire. The chi-square tests were performed to analyze the preferred supervisory management styles and their association with personal, academic and institutional characteristics of supervisors and supervisees. The results showed significant influence of the supervisees’ background profile characteristics and supervisors’ administrative position on the adoption of a particular supervisory management style at postgraduate level. The study identified the baseline characteristics associated with different supervision styles that may help to resolve possible supervisory alignment conflicts

In 2009 the National professional standards were introduced for teachersin Pakistan to determine a nationwide quality of teaching. Thesestandards focus on the quality of teacher preparation from this timeonwards; the present study was initiated to determine the needs of theworkforce who are already in the practical field and how they mayachieve the established standard. Therefore, in the light of the prescribedstandard “Instructional Planning and Strategies (IPS)”this articleinvestigated the levels of content knowledge of IPS possessed by theteachers in secondary schools; it further determined the difference in thecontent knowledge levels of urban & rural, male& female teachersregarding IPS. It was a survey type quantitative study with a populationspread of secondary school teachers (SSTs) working in the fourprovinces and Federal Capital. A multistage sampling procedure wasadopted to collect data from 400 SSTs belonging to the population area.The need of the in-service teachers for acquiring content knowledge ofIPS was gauged through a questionnaire based on seven indicators ofcontent knowledge given in the professional standards; the teachersfurther prioritized their training needs in these defined areas. Moreover,data triangulation was done to ensure the validity of the study. The indepthanalysis revealed that SSTs possessed different levels on eachindicator of content knowledge of IPS but a meager number wascompetent in it. Independent sample “t-test” was applied to calculate thedifference between content knowledge of IPS possessed by the male&female, urban& rural SSTs.

Private sector higher education institutions (HEIs) play a significant rolein advancement of sustainability. In Pakistan still this concept is in stageof infancy and has received little research attention. Moreover, HEIs inprivate sector are facing a lot of barriers and challenges in itsimplementation. In this backdrop, the purpose of this exploratory study isto determine the roles, barriers and challenges for development ofsustainable private sector HEIs in Punjab using semi-structuredinterviews form 11 faculty members working in private sector HEIs inPunjab, thematic analysis was carried out using NVivo 12. In general, allthe participants agreed that private sector HEIs are the knowledgecreating institutes and they can actively promote the sustainabledevelopment in Pakistan through faculty training and active involvementof all the stakeholders and action oriented research. Major barriers werefound to be lack of finance, poor research culture, faculty incompetencyand inadequate management support. It is suggested that HEIs must usethe resources in an optimal manner and develop appropriate class roomenvironment, effective curriculum, right technology usage, solutionbased research and well developed infrastructure to generate theinnovative solutions for sustainable development.

ABSTRACTThis study explores the effectiveness of professional development program of public and private sector at the elementary level. A survey was conducted by involving elementary teachers from the public and private sector, who were involved in teacher training program. A questionnaire` was developed targeting the four key factors of the training programs: suitability of the resources, quality of the content and management, competency of the trainers, and usefulness of the training program. Simple random sampling technique was applied to collect the data from the trainee elementary teachers of the public and the private sector. 750 trainee teachers from the public sector and 600 elementary teachers from the private sector were selected from the five districts of the Punjab province. The data was analyzed on the basis of four factors in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and t-test were calculated to analyze the data. The findings discovered a significant difference in the opinion of trainees in both public and private sector in view of the “usefulness for trainees” (p-value= 0.041).The rest of the three factors were insignificant which means trainees from both public and private sector having the same opinion about the training program. The possible reasons for these insignificant findings and implications were discussed.

Pakistan Journal of Education, PJE is an open access peer reviewed research journal which provides a platform for the researchers, academicians, professional, practitioners and students to impart and share knowledge in the form of high quality empirical and theoretical research papers, case studies, literature reviews and book reviews.

This descriptive study explored the quality of teachers’ performanceevaluation process used in schools of Karachi city. The sample of thisstudy included 50 principals and 250 teachers from public and privateschools. Using structured, closed-ended questionnaire, data wereanalyzed by descriptive statistics and Independent t test. The results ofthe study indicate that both private and public secondary schools inKarachi have a proper system of teachers’ performance evaluation but asignificant difference exists in terms of quality. Unlike private schools,the performance of teachers in public schools is not monitored regularly,the results of performance evaluation do not accurately reflect a teacher’sability, and the rating system used to evaluate teachers is not useful forthe growth of teachers and principals. The results concluded that bothpublic and private secondary schools in Karachi have a trustworthysystem of teachers’ performance evaluation. The study also revealed thatthe quality of teachers’ performance evaluation in private secondaryschools is better than public secondary schools in Karachi. The privateschools have a formative system of teachers’ performance evaluation thatis reflected through regular informal visits by their principal to check theperformance of teachers. In contrast the public schools have a summativeevaluation system to check the performance of teachers which wasreflected through lack of regular visits by principal to check theperformance of teachers.