ID	Chapters/Headings	Author(s)	Pages	Info
ID	Chapters/Headings	Author(s)	Pages	Info

Contemporary Debate on Peace, Politics and Religion: A Quranic Perspective

In the contemporary era of conspiracy theories and practices through media prejudice, focused scholarship and policy oriented publication, Islam in general and Muslims in specific are being tinted as anti-peace and social prosperity entities. Quran as the primary source of Islamic jurisprudence provides principals for every aspect of society including polity one. This study focuses on basic Quranic injections regarding politics and their role in developing peace in contemporary society. The compatibility of Islam and democracy is one of the hottest debates among researchers of political science are also to be focusedon the study. Applyinghermeneuticsmethod and analyzing thought of key Muslim political thinkers and interpreters, this paper concludes that Quranic injections of polity and state are a vibrant source of developing peace and prosperity in historical perspective and same applicable in contemporary society, but hegemony forces feeling fear of Islamic resurgence state that Islam and democracy are incompatible and these Quranic sources are being used for creating panic in the present world.

Exploring the Strategies Used by English Language Teachers to Teach Paragraph Writing Skill at Grade 4 in a Private School in Karachi

This qualitative study aimed at exploring the strategies used by English language teachers at primary level to teach paragraph writing skill in the context of Karachi, Pakistan. The data were gathered using semi-structured interviews, observations, document analysis and focus group discussions. Analysis of the data showed that paragraph writing is a challenging task for students. However, the teachers are trying their best to make paragraph writing easier by using a variety of teaching strategies. These strategies included brain storming, mind mapping, providing check list, vocabulary lists, reading for writing, using Venn-Diagrams, and modeling. The study participants revealed that professional development has helped them polish their teaching skills, particularly teaching writing skills. However, the participants stated that they faced some challenges on their way to teach paragraph writing like, lack of vocabulary, spelling and punctuation errors, mixed ability students in the class, gap between written and verbal expression of the students, and grammatical errors. These hindrances make writing a difficult task for students. The study also found that teachers opt for a strategy which was mentioned in their pacing guide. On the basis of the strategy mentioned in the pacing guide document, teachers develop their lesson plans. It was found that the students have a sound understanding about the paragraph, its structure and parts. They also try to jot down their ideas with the help of the strategy used by the teachers. However, for struggling students, paragraph writing is a challenging task. This study encourages teachers to find the factors that result in the low motivational level of students towards writing. Also the study suggests teachers to incorporate more innovative and mnemonic strategies for teaching paragraph writing such as the PLEASE strategy.