This edition of NIU Journal of Humanities touches on Development Administration, Educational Psychology, Social Philosophy as well as Language and Literary Studies.
The first part of the Journal focuses on Development Administration. Analysing the impact of Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria from 1980 to 2018, one of the papers in this section indicates that FDI is a significant measure of growth and that the determinants of foreign direct investment include infrastructural facilities, openness to trade, and exchange rate which are positively related and statistically significant to economic growth. The paper therefore, recommends that the government improve infrastructural facilities such as stable electricity supply, good roads, and a conducive environment to assure foreign expatriates about their safety and investment. This will boost investment inflow into society and reduce local investors’ emigration.
One of the papers, in the second section on Educational Psychology, proves that cooperative learning, peer tutoring exerts a significant influence on students’ achievement in Mathematics lastly, the joint effect of students’ use of cooperative learning and peer tutoring towards Mathematics was significant on their academic achievement, when such effect accounted for 27.6% of the variance in the students’ academic achievement; such significant effect emanated from the individual significant contribution or influence which the culture of using peer tutoring had on academic achievement, while the culture of using cooperative learning had no significant effect on academic achievement.. It is therefore, recommended among others that the Nigerian Government, Ministry of Education and all well-meaning education stakeholders should encourage the school teachers with financial aids or incentives in order to attend seminars and capacity building workshop in relation to best practices of using cooperative learning and peer tutoring to impart knowledge in mathematics, and that curriculum planners should replicate this research in order to authenticate the findings obtained.
In the third section on Social Philosophy, one of the papers reveals the influence of western culture has caused certain customs and beliefs to be discarded or modified, at the same time, it has caused others to be retained by one level of society while on another level new alternatives are being accepted and concludes that knowledge is crucial to human survival and flourishing, African culture is embedded in strong epistemic considerations. African epistemology is an important component of culture.
Papers in the last section deals with issues in Language and Literary Studies. Several literary works are examined in order to provide a useful contribution to how different worldview unites and differs in the human search to unravel 'truth'. Using Dell Hyme's Ethnography of Communication which explores the use of various means of communication among particular people, one of the papers in this section, examines the sociocultural elements of Yoruba traditional wedding songs and performance which has been neglected in earlier works.
On the whole, this edition of NIU Journal of Humanities features many empirical and theoretical based articles which can be of great benefit to every reader.
