M.A. Jinnah: The Outside View by Dr M. Reza Kazimi (Book Reviews)

Keeping track with the growing literature on Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and his role in the modern Indian politics, may be an interesting and stimulating undertaking for the students of history. One thing is quite obvious that with the passage of time both in Pakistan and India—more so in the latter than in the former—the official historiography is being surpassed by historians aspiring to look into the partition afresh. The official historiographies in India and Pakistan had remained in vogue, in both countries, particularly during the initial two decades. This may be attributed to the momentum of respective Muslim and the Indian nationalist movements, which dominated the intellectual horizon in the two countries after independence. The postcolonial states in the two countries also relied heavily on their respective pre-partition nationalist assertions to construct their ideological edifices while aspiring to legitimize the state authorities. It was during the 1970s, that historians amassed courage to question some of the logical inconsistencies enwrapped in the official nationalist historical claims. With this there arose the urge to look into the historical roles of some of the most prominent political figures of pre-partition era. Thus while on the one hand Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Ambedkar, etc, came under new searchlights, on the other, Jinnah’s role was revisited with fresh and objective outlook. The new versions were also subjected to questions and historians have since been involved in responding to points raised by each other.

Developing a Computer Based Instructional Material Model for Teacher Training at Aiou

The objectives of the study were: to review the role of computers as instructional material in teacher-training programmes at AIOU; to identify the role of computers as instructional materials by resource persons/tutors/academicians in classrooms of teacher training programmes at AIOU; to specify the role of computers as instructional material by students of teacher training programme of AIOU Islamabad; to develop a computers based instructional material model for teachers-training programmes of AIOU and to integrate computer instructions and the teacher training programmes at AIOU. The study was descriptive (survey-type) in nature. It was conducted through the offices of the DNFE and Dean of Faculty of Education. Prior to the actual study, pilot study was conducted in May of 2002. Three types of the questionnaire were developed by the researcher and these were piloted on a small sample. The instruments were improved in terms of language, content, format and style. A few of the items were either changed or removed. Questionnaires were sent to the scholars and researchers in the field of education for the purpose of validation. Final study was conducted in the Fall of 2003. viiOut of 750 mailed questionnaires 425 were received back. The respose rate remained percent. Amaster sheet was used to collect data. Each response choice was given a numerical value. Questionnaire for the students contained three parts. First part was to collect demographic data. Second part consisted of 54 closed-ended questions. Questions were formulated in the form of Likert scale. Third part contained open-ended questions in order to find the opinion of the students. Questionnaire consisted of several sections according to various aspects of the computer based instructional material model. The other two questionnaires were formulated for academicians and tutors in order to verify the information collected from student questionnaire. The findings revealed that there was a need to use more computers based instructional material in education. It was found that computer technology plays a pivotal role in teacher training programmes in the distance learning system. The respondents were of the view that in the future age of technology, it is important to prepare teachers who could use computer based instructional material in their classes. It was also considered effective to use email and Internet. To realize importance of computer based instructional materials most of the respondents agreed to have computers in all the classrooms for all the students and stressed to modify curriculum and textbooks according to the use of computer based instructional material. Resource person and instructors were considered to have the power to plan and set time to use computer based instruction material. Experts like academicians, resource persons and tutors need to verify the information gathered from student questionnaires.