In this thesis, the researcher engages in emerging work in music in worship to deepen contemporary conversations about musical styles in worship. This thesis critically examines the missional character of music in worship in seven selected evangelical churches in the metropolitan city of Abeokuta, Nigeria in order to propose a sustainable model for promoting God’s missions. . The selected churches are The Assemblies of God Church, Four Square Church, The Baptist Church, The Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, The Redeemed Christian Church of God, The Apostolic Faith, and The Gospel Faith Mission International. The thesis has investigated how missional and to what extent these churches have effectively sought to implement the missionary mandate in the area of music in worship. The following specific objectives underpin the study: to establish the Biblical perspective of the missional character of music in worship in the life of the church, to study and outline the Theological perspective of the missional character of music in worship in the life of the church, to study the origin/history of music in the missional context, and outline the nature and emerging trends with regard to missional character of music in worship in the selected churches in Abeokuta, Nigeria, and to propose a sustainable model that can be adopted by churches to promote the missional character of music in worship effectively in Abeokuta, Nigeria. The following methods were used to achieve the objectives of the study: an exegetical study of relevant passages in the Scripture were engaged, relevant literature review on the Theological perspective of the missional character of music in worship in the life of the church were outlined, one-on-one interviews were carried out and self-administered interview questionnaires were served on the major leaders, worship leaders/choir members and key lay members of those selected churches in order to explore the origin/history of music in the missional context, its impact for good on the believers and non- believers, as well as the role, qualities and influence of the missional character of Music in Worship in seven different denominations and all the information gathered from questionnaires served was evaluated and logical conclusions drawn as appropriate to formulate a sustainable model that can be adopted by churches to promote the missional character of music in worship effectively in the city of Abeokuta, Nigeria, in the final instance. In closing, recommendations and conclusions are made to reassess and reconsider their missionary approaches, with a view to enhancing their ways of engaging music in their worship as the thesis goal explores the implications this work might have for Church leaders, pastors, worship leaders, musicians, liturgists and missionaries in their work of preparing music for worship across Christian denominations. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

For the past few years, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Chief Examiners’ reports on students’ performance in mathematics have indicated that some topics (e.g. concepts of latitude and longitude) have posed a major problem for students at the senior secondary school level. This poor achievement of students in understanding the topic may be associated with the traditional “chalk and talk” method that teachers use in teaching the concept. Education reforms in recent years, have advocated for a student-centred method of teaching; a method that allows individualstudent towork at his own pace or in groups. Various researchers have encouraged the use of different forms of ICT, such as computer-assisted instruction (CAI), in the teaching of mathematics to improve students’ learning of topics in mathematics perceived to be difficult. With all the efforts concentrated on improving students’ performance in mathematics, no research studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of CAI on students’ achievement and attitude towards the learning of the concepts of latitude and longitude in Nigerian secondary schools. The study employed pre-test, post-test non-equivalent control group, quasi-experimental design involving two groups: experimental group (162) and control group (158) research design to investigate the effect of the CAI method of teaching on 2nd year senior secondary school students’ achievement and attitude to latitude and longitude.Instruments for the research study were Achievement test in latitude and longitude (ATLL); questionnaire on students’ attitude to latitude and longitude (QSALL); semi-structured interview and class observations protocol. The instruments were validated, and found reliable via a pilot study before they were employed for the main study. Datacollectedwere analysed using both the descriptive and inferential statistics to answer the research questions and to test the stated null hypotheses. Results showed a statistically significant difference in the post-test mean scores of the experimental and the control groups, whereas there was no statistally significant difference in the pre-test mean scores of these two groups. In addition, the results revealed non- significant difference between the mean scores of girls and boys in the post-test. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between science students’ post-test mean scores and their counterparts in the arts and commercial classes, and there was no interactive effect related to treatment, gender and students’ subject area in the post-test. Specifically, the knowledge in this study has added another dimension to everyday experiences of students in mathematics when the software was used to teach the perceived difficult topics, and they were actively involved in the learning process through the use of CAI techniques. The study concludes with recommendations for future research, because even though it is limited to Ogun State, it has potential for future research to be undertaken by expanding its scope to cover many other states in Nigeria. This study also recommends that efforts be made to integrate the philosophy of CAI to the teaching curriculum in Nigeiran secondary schools. Furthermore, applications of the recommendations would be appropriate for the improvement to the teaching methodology of mathematics and other science-related subjects in Nigerian secondary schools / Mathematics Education / Ph. D. (MSTE)

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:43:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 10195045 bytes, checksum: 38fa85475a2344ec71b3233773701a90 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The story of St. George, a martyr who was born in Cappadocia, currently a territory belonging to Turkey, moved to various places, translated from different forms in different media. In Portugal settled in Catholic religiosity popular, they recreated continuously in the oral tradition through the holiday Copus Christher and represented by the urban planning castle. During colonization in Brazil, the Holy Warrior comes into contact with Ogun, coming from Africa, generating an Orisha Afro-Brazilian acaboclado the homes of Umbanda. This qualitative research was conducted initially from published references issues involving territorialization and ritualistic performances. Later based on technique of participant observation for two years considering the reality between two terraces of religion african-brasilien and aims to describe the relationship existing cross-cultural religious expression in this hybrid character, was accomplished through data collection unstructured interviews, which showed the complexity of the interactions between different arrays Ethnic shaper of popular piety in João Pessoa. / A história de São Jorge, um mártir que nasceu na Capadócia, território pertencente atualmente à Turquia, se deslocou por vários lugares, traduzido de diferentes formas, em diferentes suportes. Em Portugal se fixou na religiosidade católica popular, que se recriou continuamente na tradição oral, através das festas de Copus christhi e representado urbanisticamente pelo castelo. Durante a colonização no Brasil, o Santo Guerreiro entra em contato com Ogum, vindo da Africa, gerando um Orixá Afro-Brasileiro acaboclado nas casas de Umbanda. Esta pesquisa qualitativa, foi realizada inicialmente a partir de documentação bibliografia envolvendo questões sobre territorializações e performances ritualisticas. Posteriormente com base na técnica de observação participante durante dois anos, considerando a realidade entre dois terreiros de religião afro-brasileiro e com objetivo de descrever as relações interculturais existentes na expressão religiosa deste personagem híbrido, foi realizado coleta de dados através de entrevistas não estruturada, em que se verificou a complexidade das interações entre as diversas matrizes étnicas formadora da religiosidade popular em João Pessoa.

Text in English / Through an in-depth analysis of selected texts, this study engages with the ways in which Ogun is reimagined by recent selected Nigerian playwrights. Early writers from this country, influenced by their modernist education, misrepresented Ogun by presenting only his so-called negative attributes. Contemporary writers are reconceptualising him; it is the task of this thesis to demonstrate how they are doing so from a decolonial perspective. These alleged attributes represent Ogun as a wicked, bloodthirsty, arrogant and hot tempered god who only kills and makes no positive contribution to the Yoruba community. The thesis argues that the notion of an African god should be viewed from an Afrocentric perspective, not a Eurocentric one, which might lead to violence or misrepresentation of him. The dialogue in the plays conveys how the playwrights have constructed their main characters as Ogun representatives in their society. For example, Mojagbe and Morontonu present Balogun, the chief warlord of their different community; both characters exhibit Ogun features of defending their community. The chosen plays for this study are selected based on different notions of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and war, presented by the playwrights. A closer look at the primary materials this thesis explores suggests Ogun’s strong connection with rituals and cultural festivals. These plays exemplify African ritual theatre. Being a member of the Yoruba ethnic group, I have considerable knowledge of how festivals are performed. The Ogun festival is an annual celebration among the Yoruba, where African idioms of puppetry, masquerading, music, dance, mime, invocation, evocation and several elements of drama are incorporated into the performances. The selected plays critiqued in this thesis are Mojagbe (Ahmed Yerima, 2008), Battles of Pleasure (Peter Omoko, 2009), Hard Choice (Sunnie Ododo, 2011), and Morontonu (Alex Roy-Omoni, 2012). No in-depth exploration has previously been undertaken into the kinds of textual and ideological identities that Ogun adopts, especially in the selected plays. Therefore, using a decolonial epistemic perspective, this study offers a critical examination of how the selected Nigerian playwrights between the years 2008 and 2012 have constructed Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron. Such a perspective assists in delinking interpretations from the modernised notions mentioned above, in which Ogun is sometimes a paradoxical god. Coloniality is responsible for such misinterpretation; the employed theoretical framework is used to interrogate these notions. The research project begins with a general introduction locating Ogun in Yoruba mythology, which forms the background to how the god is being constructed in Yorubaland. Also included iii in this first chapter is a discussion on a decolonial perspective, the principles of coloniality, the aims and objective of the study, and the relevant literature review. Thereafter, chapter two focuses on Battles of Pleasure and argues that the play re-imagines Ogun as a god of peace and harvest as opposed to a god of war and destruction. Chapter three discusses how Ododo’s Hard Choice reconceptualises Ogun as a god of justice, in contrast to him being interpreted as a god who engages in reckless devastation of life. Chapter four explores Ogun’s representation in Yerima’s Mojagbe as a reformer who gives human beings ample time to change from their wayward course to a course that he approves. In chapter five, Ogun’s reconception as a remover of obstacles in Roy-Omoni’s Morontonu is examined. The study concludes with a discussion on how Africans should delink themselves from a modernist Eurocentric perspective and think from an Afrocentric locus of enunciation. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)