Indo-Afghan Relations: Challenges and Options for Pakistan in Post 9/11 Era

The Indian soft power image in Afghanistan and strategic partnership between the two countries has become a great challenge for Pakistan political and security forces. India wants to prevent Pakistan from regaining “preponderant” influence in present day Afghanistan, and in this context, the paper discusses the history of troubled Pakistan-Afghanistan and Pakistan-India relations. The paper will present a comprehensive analysis on why Afghanistan is strategically important for Pakistan, how it affects Pak-Afghan relations, and how it provided India an opportunity to limit Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan? India’s idea of encircling Pakistan from east and west is a factor the importance of which India understood and used to her gain in 1971 East Pakistani crisis. Pakistan’s idea of ‘strategic depth’ can be understood as a lesson learnt from India’s two-frontier strategy against Pakistan. The paper suggests that Pakistan does not need strategic depth any more. On the contrary, it needs stable, mature and good neighbors so that both countries can come out of standoff. In this way Pakistan could become a partner in a wide range of areas from security to economic and social sectors.

A Study of Effectiveness of Dimensions of Learning Model for Science Teaching at Elementary Level

This research was an experimental study based on pre-test post-test equivalent group design. The population of the study was comprised of all the students (boys and girls) of 7th class studying at elementary level in district Abbottabad. Sample of the study was comprised of 240 students (120 each from both genders). Both the samples were further divided into two equal groups. One served as control while the other as experimental group. The researcher under the guidance of supervisor, after thorough and comprehensive review of test construction techniques, developed pre-test, post-test and an attitude scale. Pre-test was administered to the sample of study in order to formulate two equivalent groups- the experimental and the control group. Then both the groups were taught by dimensions of learning model and prevailing rote learning model respectively. After the completion of one hundred and twenty days teaching, post-test and the attitude scale were administered to both the groups. At the end, data was collected and analyzed. The analysis of data showed that there was a significant difference between the achievement of experimental and the control group. Experimental group showed better performance in post-test as well as on attitude scale and achieved high scores as compared to the control group. This reflected that by applying modern approaches like Dimensions of Learning Model for teaching science at elementary level, we can attain better results.