سرکاری مناصب و ذرائع کا ذمہ دارانہ استعمال: تعلیمات نبویﷺ کی روشنی میں

Islam is a complete code of life for the humanity. It provides guidance in all aspects of human activity. It guides human being in its economic system, social life, in all worships, in family life and in political set up. State is an institution like others which is a tool for mankind to serve its needs in the best possible ways. Islam does not consider a state designed by Allah and in fact leaves the system open to human intellect, to form a mechanism according to the teachings of the scriptures and needs of the time. The guiding principles of Islam stress on proper utilizations of state machinery and authority to the satisfaction of people and to fulfill dictates of Allah’s directions. Islam forbids utilization of public offices for personal benefits. Islamic traditions instructed that the state officials must learn  from the principle of Islam as exemplified in the state at the city of Medina; it additionaly shaped its characters as well. The present article is an attempt to highlight the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) that he gave from time to time and ensured its applications letter and spirit.

Facilitating Teachers Understanding and Practice of Constructivist Notion of Teaching and Learning: A Focus on Soliciting Students Prior Knowledge

This small-scale action research seeks to explore possibilities and challenges in facilitating a teacher to elicit students' prior knowledge for classroom teaching and learning processes. This effort is based on the rationale, informed by the constructivist notion of teaching and learning, that is students' are not blank slates' or empty vessels', they do bring prior knowledge, experiences and attitudes to the classroom context and are active constructors' of their own knowledge. For this, I as an action researcher worked with one lower-secondary level social studies teacher in a community based school of Karachi. In this respect, the study explores the existing perceptions and practices of the participant teacher with reference to focus this research. Subsequently, a general action plan was devised to facilitate the teacher's understanding about the constructivist notion of teaching and learning in general, and the solicitation of students' prior knowledge in particular. This action plan was implemented being sensitive to filed situation and participant teacher' needs. In this regard, data for reconnaissance and observation of action implementation stages were collected through classroom observations (through taking running notes), semi-structured interviews, researcher' reflective diary and document analysis. The gathered data was analyzed at each stage throughout the process. The study reports some possible strategies to facilitate teacher in developing understanding about constructivist teaching and learning, and soliciting students' prior knowledge. These are: a) input' through relevant literature to develop participant' conceptual understanding of the topic under question b) sharing reflection from classroom practice episodes c) brainstorming, concept mapping, Know, Want to know, and Learnt (KWL), and students' analogies (as some strategies). The report concludes by presenting some key learnings as I experienced as a teacher educator and action researcher during the process, and possible focus for further research.