Effects of Hindu Civilization on Muslim Culture and Civilization: A Review from Pakistan’s Context

مسلم تہذیب و تمدن پر ہندؤ تہذیب کے اثرات: پاکستانی تناظر میں جائزہ Islam provides a complete and comprehensive concept of civilization that includes all aspects of human life and provides a complete philosophy of life. Generally speaking a civilization is the expression of any philosophy or belief that develops into the political, social, economical and cultural norms. Main focus of the present research is the impact of Hindu civilization on our society, we see that by living with the Hindu society, their beliefs, casteism, rituals, have influenced the people around them. Pakistan is and always has been an amalgam of a diverse culture. Pakistan has a rich culture without a doubt, but this culture is in the line of fire in association to powerful Indian culture. From birth to death, there are small rituals that were normally associated with Hindus, have also slowly mixed with Islamic culture and have become inseparable. Change in the social life of Muslims of subcontinent is due to conversion of a large number of Hindus to Islam. They accepted the preaching of Islam but did not give up their practices and rituals. Consequently, their rituals and practices were incorporated into the Muslim society. Some social ceremonies associated with births, deaths, and marriages were influenced by Hindu culture. It is a fact that media played a great role in propagating Hindu culture. Therefore, in this article, efforts are made to analyze all the factors due to which we are facing challenges of Hindu civilization and how we can get rid of its impacts on Muslims thoughts, culture and society. Allah Almighty says: O people, who believe in Allah, enter the whole circle of Islam. So, to address all above-mentioned challenges, a comparative and analytical research methodology with qualitative paradigm has been conducted in this research paper. At the end, solutions have been provided.

Using Questioning for Formative Assessment in a Lower Secondary Class in a Community School in Pakistan

This study set out to help one secondary school, science teacher on the use of questioning for formative assessment in the class. During the data collection period, I worked very closely with him, working in a community school, to introduce the use of questioning for formative assessment in chemistry in class eight. I collected data for this study over a period of seven weeks. I gathered the data through classroom observation, unstructured interviews and informal discussions. I also kept a journal throughout the period of data collection where I noted important points, my feelings, and new questions that emerged concerning questioning for formative assessment. I reflected deeply on my role as a teacher educator, change agent, and learner. The dissertation contains thick descriptions of planning, teaching and post teaching interactions that highlight the delicate relationship the researcher had with the research participant. Findings of the study show improvement in questioning skills for formative assessment of my research participant. He improved on question distribution, seeking opinions from other students, probing, sharing learning intentions with his students at the beginning of the sessions and providing feedback to the students. Also, the findings show numerous possible challenges that a teacher might face during the use of questioning for formative assessment. The challenges were time, the number of students in the classroom, a noisy class, the problem of students cramming (rote memorization), and practical knowledge of the teacher. Likewise, the researcher faced a number of challenges that ranged from a lack of expertise in co-planning, co-teaching and lack of competence for conducting action research.