The Development of Historical Thinking Assessment to Examine Students’ Skills in Analyzing the Causality of Historical Events

<p style="text-align: justify;">This research aimed to develop a historical thinking assessment for students' skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The development process of Gall and colleagues and Rasch analysis models were used to develop an assessment instrument consisting of two processes, including the analysis of the framework of cause and consequence, the validity, reliability, and difficultness test. This research involved 150 senior high school students, with data collected using the validation sheet, tests, and scoring rubric. The results were in the form of an essay test consisting of six indicators of analyzing cause and consequence. The instruments were valid, reliable, and suitable for assessing students’ skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The developed instruments were paired with a historical thinking skills assessment to improve the accuracy of the information about students' level of historical thinking skills in the learning history.</p>

Opportunities and challenges in the analysis of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN)

The development of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) has no doubt contributed to prompting a renewed interest in children’s narratives. This carefully controlled test of narrative abilities elicits a rich set of measures spanning multiple linguistic domains and their interaction, including lexis, morphosyntax, discourse-pragmatics, as well as various aspects of narrative structure, communicative competence, and language use (such as code-switching). It is particularly well suited to the study of discourse cohesion, referential adequacy and informativeness, and of course to the study of narrative structure and richness, and the acquisition of a more formal or literary register. In this commentary article, I reflect on the five empirical papers included in the special issue. I focus on methodological challenges for the analysis of narratives and identify outstanding questions.

Development of Affective Self-Assessment Instrument of Chemistry for High School Student as the Daily Assessment Guideline

<p style="text-align: justify;">The study objectives were (1) developing a valid and reliable Affective Self-assessment Instrument of Chemistry for High School Student and (2) discovering the chemistry affective domain ability trend of high school students based on gender. The current development study utilized 10 non-test instrument development procedures from Mardapi. The study population was all high school students in Yogyakarta Special Region. The sample size was 405 students categorized into two stages and sampling techniques, i.e., the trial stage using cluster random sampling and the measurement stage using simple random sampling. The data analysis techniques were validity test using the Aiken index and construct validity and reliability using the second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis model. The study findings were (1) the Affective Self-assessment Instrument of Chemistry for High School Student had 15 valid and reliable items and 15 available items to be utilized by teachers to measure students’ affective in the learning process and (2) the chemistry affective domain ability trend of male high school students was dominated by the “good” category and “very good” category for female students.</p>

Content Comparison of Long-Term Care Instruments Based On The International Classification of Functioning, Disability And Health (ICF)

Background: Aging crisis is proposing a huge challenge to the whole Chinese social welfare system, however a national Long-term Care (LTC) Instrument has not established yet. The objective of this study was to analyze and compare the content of six selected LTCs based on the linkage of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), so as to provide insights for the development of Chinese national LTC instrument in the future. Methods: Two trained health professionals performed the linkage according to the refined ICF linking rules. The main concepts included in the items of three international LTC instruments, namely Minimum Data Set 3.0 (MDS 3.0), Initial Assessment Instrument(IAI), and New Assessment Tool for Determining Dependency on Nursing Care (NBA), as well as three Chinese instruments, namely Disability Assessment of Long-Term Care (DA-LTC), Specification for Elderly Care Unified Need Assessment in Shanghai Version 2.0 (SEC-UNA 2.0), and pictorial-based Longshi Scale (LS) were selected and linked to the ICF categories. The six selected LTC instruments were analyzed and compared at the levels of ICF components, chapters, and categories. Results: The main concepts of 340 valid items of the six LTC instruments were linked to 112 different ICF categories. Within the ICF framework, the “Activities and Participation” component was most frequently addressed in the LTC instruments followed by the “Body functions” component, and the percentages were 0.52 and 0.38, respectively. At the ICF chapters level, “b1 mental functions,” “d4 mobility,” and “d5 self-care” were the core of the LTC instruments. In addition, the contents of the six selected LTC instruments differed greatly. Conclusions: The ICF provides a useful external reference for the analysis and comparison of different LTC instruments. The findings suggest that key elements to determine eligibility for LTC in China need to be further identified. It is anticipated that this study will provide new insights for the development of Chinese national LTC instruments.

Pelatihan Pengembangan Instrumen Penilaian Numerasi untuk Peningkatan Kompetensi Guru Matematika SMP

Asesmen Kompetensi Minimum (AKM) or Minimum Competency Assessment has different objectives and formats compared to Ujian Nasional (National Exam), therefore teachers need to upgrade their knowledge of assessment instruments that measure students’ numeracy skills. This training aims to develop teachers' professionalism and competence in developing numeracy assessment instruments. The training was carried out online through a Zoom Meeting with participants of 29 junior high school mathematics teachers in Bogor Regency, West Java. The training was delivered in 2 sessions by 2 mathematics education lecturers from Universitas Negeri Jakarta. The first session with topics of AKM discussed the material domain, cognitive level, and the form of the questions on the AKM questions. The second session was with topics of numeracy skills discussed the benefits and the definition of numeracy skills. At the end of the training, participants were assigned to make a numeracy assessment instrument within 1 week. Participants and presenters join WhatsApp groups as a forum for discussion in the process of doing assignments. This training activity produces an output in the form of a numeracy assessment instrument that is developed based on the AKM question format. Participants are motivated and have ideas to develop numeracy assessment instruments.

Development of Authentic Assessment Instruments Oriented Reading Skills Based Language Literacy through the Scaffolding Model

This research aims to develop an authentic assessment instrument product based on language literacy with a scaffolding model that is oriented towards reading skills. This research method uses research and development methods. The research results show that the preliminary research phase describes the results of curriculum analysis and student analysis. At the product development stage and validation by experts, the percentage of authenticity instrument eligibility consisting of three indicators is 82%. It can be concluded that the instrument is suitable for use in learning activities. The practicality stage given to 20 students in one of the Manyak Payed Public High Schools, Aceh Tamiang District, consisted of four alternative answers, 25% were declared practical. Thus, high school teachers are advised to use the scaffolding model as a solution to improve reading comprehension and language literacy skills.

Predictors of Higher Quality of Systematic Reviews Addressing Nutrition and Cancer Prevention

Systematic reviews/meta-analyses (SR/MAs) are considered a reliable source of information in healthcare. We aimed to explore the association of several characteristics of SR/MAs addressing nutrition in cancer prevention and their quality/risk of bias (using assessments from AMSTAR-2 and ROBIS tools). The analysis included 101 SR/MAs identified in a systematic survey. Associations of each specified characteristic (e.g., information about the protocol, publication year, reported use of GRADE, or other methods for assessing overall certainty of evidence) with the number of AMSTAR-2 not met (‘No’ responses) and the number of ROBIS items met (‘Probably Yes’ or “Yes’ responses) were examined. Poisson regression was used to identify predictors of the number of ‘No’ answers (indicating lower quality) for all AMSTAR-2 items and the number of ‘Yes’ or ‘Probably Yes’ answers (indicating higher quality/lower concern for bias) for all ROBIS items. Logistic regression was used to identify variables associated with at least one domain assessed as ‘low concern for bias’ in the ROBIS tool. In multivariable analysis, SR/MAs not reporting use of any quality/risk of bias assessment instrument for primary studies were associated with a higher number of ‘No’ answers for all AMSTAR-2 items (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09–1.45), and a lower number of ‘Yes’ or ‘Probably Yes’ answers for all ROBIS items (IRR 0.76, 95% CI 0.66–0.87). Providing information about the protocol and search for unpublished studies was associated with a lower number of ‘No’ answers (IRR 0.73, 95% CI 0.56–0.97 and IRR 0.75, 95% CI 0.59–0.95, respectively) and a higher number of ‘Yes’ or ‘Probably Yes’ answers (IRR 1.43, 95% CI 1.17–1.74 and IRR 1.28, 95% CI 1.07–1.52, respectively). Not using at least one quality/risk of bias assessment tool for primary studies within an SR/MA was associated with lower odds that a study would be assessed as ‘low concern for bias’ in at least one ROBIS domain (odds ratio 0.061, 95% CI 0.007–0.527). Adherence to methodological standards in the development of SR/MAs was associated with a higher overall quality of SR/MAs addressing nutrition for cancer prevention.

MOVEMENT ASSESSMENT BATTERY FOR CHILDREN-SECOND EDITION: THEORETICAL ADEQUACY OF A MOTOR ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the adequacy of the theoretical model of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (MABC-2) instrument. Methods: 582 children, of both sexes, aged between 3 and 5 years and residents in the city of Maringá (state of Paraná, Southern Brazil) participated in the study. Data were collected from May/2014 to June/2015 and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The evidence obtained from exploratory factor analysis indicated the presence of two factors, which was the option that best fitted the explanatory model. Hence, it was necessary to regroup the motor tasks of the dimensions “Aiming & catching” and “Balance” into only one dimension. It is noteworthy that the “Bicycle trail” motor task did not fit the model, as it presented a low and negative factor load in the analyzed dimensions. In the confirmatory factor analysis, adequate adjustment indices were observed for the tested model, which confirmed the non-classification of the “Bicycle trail” motor task in the original dimension. Conclusions: After removing the “Bicycle trail” motor task, the adjusted two-factor model seems to be the most appropriate to assess the motor performance of children participating in the study.

Methodology for Developing a Usability Assessment Questionnaire in Spanish as a Bilingual Strategy for Software Improvement

Usability is the characteristic of a software product of being effective and efficient and producing satisfaction for users and traditionally is assessed through questionnaires but most of them are only available in English. A software usability assessment questionnaire (SUAQ) is proposed in two languages: Spanish and English. The methodology comprises four stages: 1) questionnaire development, 2) administration, 3) statistical validation, and 4) sample size determination. Twenty items were evaluated in terms of clarity, consistency, and relevancy. Then, the SUAQ was administered to 95 respondents. Overall, reliability values were acceptable in Spanish and English version, respectively. The factor analysis was feasible since the KMO index, and the Bartlett sphericity test was statistically significant. Both versions of SUAQ were tested to determine their validity. The findings show that the proposed methodology is an effective usability assessment instrument and thus an effective software improvement tool from a bilingual approach.

Ergonomic Risk-prone Activities toward Nurses in the Intensive Care and Emergency Room

BACKGROUND: Nurses have the risk of ergonomic hazards in providing nursing care, especially with increasingly dynamic health services such as during Coronavirus disease-19 pandemic like today. AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate activities prone to produce ergonomic risks during the implementation of nursing care in intensive care and emergency room (ER) of a hospital in Riau, Indonesia. METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted by observing the routine activities conducted by the nurses and using similar task group techniques equipped with Rapid Entire Body Assessment instrument. Those observed activities were obtained from 17 intensive care room nurses and ten ER nurses. There were six activities observed in the intensive care room: Bathing, transferring the patient, wounds dressing, taking blood samples for the AGDA examinations, as well as inserting the intravenous needle and electrocardiograms. Meanwhile, there were two activities observed in the ER: Transferring the patient and inserting the intravenous needle. RESULTS: The highest ergonomic risks activity in the intensive care room was bathing the patient with a total score of 13. At the ER, the highest risk score was transferring the patient with a total score of 12. Both activities were at level 4, indicating a high-risk condition. Thus, examinations and changes should be immediately initiated. CONCLUSION: The results are significant to be paid attention by the related parties at the hospital to facilitate some improvements immediately. In addition, the ergonomic approaches that can be suggested to the nurses are regular stretching, physical exercises, and applying ergonomic principles while working.