From Jihad to Salam in Pursuit of Political Change: A Perspective based on Qur’ānic Sources

The political reality of many countries in the Muslim World is untenable and reforms and change is absolutely necessary. This article argues that use of force and violence for political change is making things worse as one can witness in Syria and Iraq. The article advances a Qur’ānic perspective on the desirability of peace as a goal and peaceful means as instruments of change. The article acknowledges that the Qur’ānic sanction for use of force to defend religious freedom prcludes the advocacy of pacifism but nevertheless the article does make a strong case for privileging peace over use of force.

Effect of Synectics Model of Teaching on Understanding of Mathematical Concepts of Students of Grade Eight

Mathematics education faces a lot of problems all over the world. Students often consider it a dull and a bore subject and their achievement in this subject is often poor.They only rely on memorization without paying attention to underlying concepts. Without learning concepts there is no comprehension and no cognitive development. Present study is an attempt to utilize and apply Synectics Model of teaching for mathematical concept understanding of students of grade eight. It was a type of quasi experimental study and Nonequivalent Control Group design was used. It was eleven-week long study. The subjects were two intact groups of 8th class, Control group (N=35) and experimental group (N=33) taken from two typical public high schools of district Haripur, KP, during session 2016-17. The instrument used in the study was a self-developed achievement test, developed on the idea of Constructed Response Questions (CRQ) from three units of 8th class mathematics textbook of KP Textbook Board Peshawar.A parallel form of the instrument from unit one was also constructed on the above mentioned pattern. The data was collected and analyzed using appropriate software. The statistical techniques as mean, standard deviation, t-test for independent and paired samples and repeated measure ANOVA were used. The results of the study revealed that after analogy integrated lessons students were able to: (i) redefine the concept in new way using their own words, (ii) relate learnt knowledge to their daily life, (iii) apply learnt knowledge in daily life, (iv) analyze and synthesize the concept, and (v) comprehend abstract concepts.