تحدت للعالم الإسلامي ودور الشباب في مواجهتها

Youth are the real asset of a nation, nation make progress by channelizing, the energy and effects of youth in the right direction. If youth of a nation go astray, the nation will be bound to fail. This short paper intends to look at the challenges faced by our youth for example, the political, religious and philosophical influence of anti-Islam powers, the use of all resources to attract youth to Islam, the attraction of Muslim youth to philosophy, to look into the influence of west through education which is leading the nation to financial and social way wardenss Indecency, Arabic language is replaced with other language for teaching and understanding of the Qur’ān and Unemployment, poverty and a sense of uselessness of youth is a huge challenge. This factor is leading the youth to stealing, robbery and other moral weaknesses. This short article will try to throw light on the challenges and responsibilities of youth. The history of mankind tells us that it is only the young people, who took the revolutionary measures to change the societies. Youth is the prime time of ones life. It is the time when all energies are at their peak. So one should get advantage of youth before getting old and helth before falling sick. As they say “new broom sweap clean”. Young people can bring great changes in cleaning socieities from evils. Muslim youth has great resficial to whole humanity. Today, youth is facing many challenges in their life. These challenges are in social, moral, educational, intellectual and political fields. To cope with them youth must have the knowledge and awareness. This short article tends to throw light on these challenges and gives ways and remedies to face them successfully.

Teacher Education in Pakistan: Bridging Gaps Between Theoretical Knowledge and Professional Practice

The research study was aimed to find out the application level and gaps between the theoretical knowledge and professional practice of teacher education in Pakistan. The study was designed to meet the following objectives; (1) To find out the level of application of the theoretical knowledge by the student teachers during their teaching practice. (2) To explore the differences among the perceptions of student teachers, teacher educators and the observation records of the researcher. (3) To find out the gaps between theoretical knowledge and professional practice of student teachers. (4) To develop strategies to fill the gaps between theoretical knowledge and professional practice of student teachers. All the student teachers, enrolled in the B.Ed (elementary) one year program, and the teacher educators, in the campuses of the University of Education Lahore as well as in the Government Colleges of Elementary Teachers (GCETs), comprised the population of the study. Multi-stage cluster random sampling technique was used to select the sample. Eight teacher education institutions from both streams of GCETs and UE campuses were selected in equal proportion. 522 student teachers and 100 teacher educators comprised the sample of the study. The mixed method approach was used to collect the data through observation checklist, questionnaires for student teachers and teacher educators, focus group discussion and interview technique. Data triangulation design was used through the cross tabulation on SPSS for analysis of the quantitative data. Mean score, chi-square test and Tukey''s HSD were applied to analyze the quantitative data. Whereas, the qualitative data was analyzed through the thematic analysis. A mixed picture of application of the theoretical concepts, regarding the different categories of pedagogical skills, were found with considerable, significant, moderate and critical gaps. The observation records usually identified the low level of application of the concepts with greater level of gaps as compared to the perceptions of student teachers and teacher educators. It was also found that the student teachers did not succeed to apply the theoretical concepts regarding the innovative methods of teaching as well as the computer applications in the classroom. Different challenges and problems were identified for the application of theoretical concepts during the teaching practice of student teachers. The coordination and collaboration among schools and teacher education institutions, freedom and power for student teachers, availability of resources for technology integration, training of school teachers for helping student teachers, expansion in the duration of teaching practice, feedback and reflective practices and the concept of laboratory schools associated with teacher education institutions were identified as the strategies to fill the gaps between theoretical knowledge and professional practice in teacher education. Close collaboration and coordination, with integrated concept of schools and teacher education institutions, expanded duration of teaching practice, free hands on experience of student teachers, availability of resources and necessary materials as well as the curriculum of teacher education program compatible to the needs of schools were recommended to fill the gaps between theoretical knowledge and professional practice in teacher education.