Interrogating the Teaching and Learning of Chemistry in Nigerian Private Universities: Matters Arising

The indispensability and vast career possibilities associated with Chemistry notwithstanding, there is a palpable growing decline enrollment in Chemistry in Nigerian universities, particularly the private universities. The paper interrogated the teaching and learning of Chemistry in Nigerian private universities with a view to re-awakening the students’ interest for effective mastery of the subject. It relied on secondary sources and critical analysis and found out that major inhibiting factors include: Students’ faulty foundation in Chemistry, syndrome of area of concentration, absence of competitiveness in the admission process, poor attitude of students and lecturers as well as the ambience for effective scholarship. The paper concluded that the current downturn in the students enrolment in Chemistry and the seemingly poor interest in the subject portend sufficient threat to the future of Chemistry, chemical-related industries and the replacement of ageing Chemistry lecturers in Nigeria. It recommended the following strategies to mitigate the vicious cycle: targeted tutorial system, adoption of digital modes of teaching and learning, problem-based learning, capacity building initiatives for Chemistry lecturers, quality assurance mechanism, overhauling science education at the primary and secondary school levels, need-based assessment and provision of quality materials as well as adequate funding.

COLLABORATIVE TUTORING: A MULTI-TUTOR APPROACH

An Intelligent Tutorial System (ITS) is a learning computer environment. Many ITSs do not integrate human tutor since they are designed to use in autonomy by the learner. One of the reasons to increase the rate of desertion in a distance training framework compared to that of a face-to-face course is the absence of the human killer. Besides, the existing ITSs are dedicated to a single learning object based on domain-dependent modelling. Our contribution consists in proposing an ITS, independent of the learning domain, capable of initiating learning, of managing an articulation between machine tutoring and human tutoring (teaching and peers) to offer an individualized and personalized follow-up, and ensure certification of the learner’s assessment.

The Status Quo of Chinese Medicine Education in Higher Vocational Colleges and Practice and Application of the Training Model of "Teacher Leading Apprentice" Tutorial System

“Teacher succession” has always been a traditional way of inheritance of Chinese medicine. Through the succession of teachers, the valuable experience accumulated by previous generations of doctors in long-term clinical practice can be passed on from generation to generation. The advantage of this inheritance model is that it can carry out practice to the greatest extent, learn theory in practice, and better combine theory with practice, which is more in line with the characteristics of Chinese medicine education.