An Analysis of Sociocultural Barriers on Social Empowerment of Women in Sahiwal Division

The paper sets out to discuss impact of socio-cultural barriers on social empowerment of rural women in term of decision making related to their personal as well as social life in Sahiwal division. Pakistan is a patriarchal society characterized by patri-local residence and exclusion of women from the right of inheritance and succession, which pave ways for male-headed society. In addition, socio-cultural factors strongly favour male-dominance and an inferior status of females in all walks of life. A quantitative approach was adopted for carrying out current study. A survey instrument was designed and employed for data collection from 384 respondents from rural areas of Sahiwal division. The findings of the study revealed that less than one third (31.25%) of the respondents were consulted in decision-making about domestic matters. Likewise, more than half (51.8%) of the respondents were not independent in moving out of home for meeting any social need. Similarly, more than one third (41.4%) of the respondents were not free to visit their friends in the neighborhood. The study concludes that women in the rural areas are less empowered and still suffering socially, economically and psychologically in their day to day life. The study provides an insight for professional social workers, policy makers and stakeholders in public and private sectors for influencing policy-making and planning for revisiting and redesigning existing policies and plans intended for empowerment of rural women in Pakistan

Effective Chemistry Teaching at Secondary Level Through Modular Instructional Design

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of modular instruction in 10th grade chemistry by employing Gagne's events of instruction. The researcher developed modules of chapter 11th and 12th of 10th —grade chemistry. The instruments developed were validated by pilot study and professional experts. The instrument was based on three cognition levels. The three sections i.e. A, B and C of 10th grade chemistry students constituted the population of the study. Sections B and C were randomly taken as sample of the study and each consisted of 28 students. Both the sections were randomly assigned as modular and traditional group. Section C was assigned the modular group while the section B was traditional group. The modular group was taught by modular instruction and the traditional group was taught by the traditional instruction/lecture method. At the outset of the experiment the students were pre-tested. The experiment lasted for 12 weeks i.e. September 2006 to December 2006.Post-test was administered at the end of the experiment for the achievement purpose. To judge the stability of the independent variable a retention test was administered in mid January 2007. The design selected was pre-test-post-test control group design. A 2x2 factorial design was used to analyze the data. Level of significance chosen was 0.05 for the t-test and the ANOVA test. The analysis of data favored the modular approach and a significant difference was found between the modular and the traditional group. The analysis of the data further revealed the usefulness of the modular instruction and proved its effectiveness within the teaching of chemistry and facilitated student learning. The data analysis further revealed that the modular instruction was not specific to the specific levels of the achievement variable but was generalizable across all levels of the achievement variable i.e. the treatment was not dependent on learner type. No interaction was observed and the modular instruction was found beneficial for both low performers as well as high performers.