Reflection in alignment to professional standards: What did the student teachers highlight?

This study investigates the professional development of elementary student teachers in a teacher education program. Student teaching is a process for pre-service teachers to apply learning in an authentic school context, and one critical aspect of professional development is through reflection. The participants were primarily examined through their weekly reflections on teaching and learning experiences over an eight-week period. Using the state Standards for the Teaching Profession as a framework, the student teachers chose to reflect on topics they were most interested in exploring. Results indicated that the participants gave predominant attention to classroom management; the standards that received the least reflection were organizing curriculum and planning instruction. Analysis of the reflection journals also revealed how the student teachers grew as individuals and in interaction with others in a learning community. Based on the results, implications for teacher education are proposed. Limitations are also discussed.

The Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Replacing Whole Apples with Sliced in the National School Lunch Program

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) serves 29.6 million lunches each day. Schools must offer ½ a cup of fruit for each lunch tray. Much of this fruit may be wasted, leaving the schools in a dilemma. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the consumption of whole vs. sliced apples and determine the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. Researchers weighed apple waste at baseline and three post-intervention time points in one rural Midwest school. The costs of the intervention were collected from the school. The cost-effectiveness analysis estimates how often apples need to be served to offset the costs of the slicing intervention. A total of (n = 313) elementary student students participated. Students consumed significantly more sliced as compared to whole apples in intervention months 3 (β = 21.5, p < 0.001) and 4 (β = 27.7, p < 0.001). The intervention cost was USD 299. The value of wasted apple decreased from USD 0.26 at baseline to USD 0.23 wasted at post-intervention. The school would need to serve 9403 apples during the school year (54 times) to cover the expenses of the intervention. In conclusion, serving sliced apples may be a cost-effective way to improve fruit consumption during school lunch.

THE EFFECT OF MULTICULTURAL APPROACH ON READING AND WRITING FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENT

This study aimed at investigating the effect of multicultural approach on reading comprehension and writing skills of grade V elementary school students in the South of Borneo. This is a quasi experimental research with nonequivalent-groups pretest and postest design. The participants experimental class was student of class VB MI Al-hamid Banjarmasin (n=38) and control class was students of class VA MI Al-Hamid Banjarmasin (n=36). Using reading comprehension and narrative writing test scores of students, multicultural approach questionnaire, and teaching assignment. This study reveals that multicultural approach affects reading comprehension and writing achievement and also becomes the best predictor of their experience and cultural knowledge, such as develops multiple perspectives, cultural counsciousness, increases intercultural competence, combats racism, sexiesm, prejudice, discrimination, and develops social action skills. Furthermore, multicultural approach has a significant effect and better than conventional teaching on students’ reading comprehension skills, and on writing skills are also better than convensional approach of teaching. As conclusion, multicultural approach can be considered as a teaching method in improving students’ reading comprehension and writing skills, from producing main idea and topik sentence, also writing non fiction text based on multicultural knowledge, awareness, skills and action. The research findings imply that teachers need to change their teaching model into multicultural approach and identify multicultural material to encourage students to do and bring up reading and writing activities related to tolerance.

A Four-tier Diagnostic Instrument: An Analysis of Elementary Student Misconceptions in Science Topic

Learning science in elementary schools encourages students to understand the natural environment more deeply, rationally, and scientifically. However, often the scientific concepts they believe about science topics are not in accordance with the scientific concepts they should be. This misconception is difficult for teachers to diagnose. Special instruments to identify and analyze students' misconceptions are needed. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the misconceptions of elementary school students on the topic of energy using a four-tier diagnostic instrument. The purposed-designed survey method was used in this study. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The participants in this study were 20 fourth grade students in an elementary school in Ciamis Regency. A total of 6 questions in the form of a four-tier diagnostic instrument were used to determine the level of students' conceptions. The results showed that the students have misconceptions about the concept of energy. This can be seen from the average percentage of students' misconceptions of 66.67%. This research is expected to contribute to alternative ways to identify and analyze students' misconceptions using the four-tier diagnostic instrument. In addition, it can be used as a reference for teachers and researchers related to the problem of misconceptions of science in elementary school students

PENGEMBANGAN VIDEO PEMBELAJARAN ANIMASI 2 DIMENSI MATA PELAJARAN AGAMA HINDU MENGENAI SAD RIPU STUDI KASUS KELAS VI (ENAM) SD NEGERI 1 KALIBUKBUK

The purpose of this study is to determine (1) the design and impementation of the development of a 2-dimentional animation learning video for sad ripu of hindu religion subject for 6th grade at SD Negeri 1 Kalibukbuk. The result of 6th grade response shows that 2-dimentional animation learning video is suitable for learning media of sad ripu of hindu religion subject. Research method used for the development is MDLC (Multimedia Development Life Cycle) approach which contained several steps, they are concept, design, material collecting, assembly, testing, and distribution. Study result shows that the elementary student as user of the learning video gave positive response and very enthusiastic about learning sad ripu of hindu religion subject with learning video. (2) From the result of response test to 10 elementary student as respondent to see the feasibility of learning video obtained result of 85%, which means 2-dimentional animation learning video for sad ripu of hindu religion subject is included in the good category. Keywords: Learning Video, 2D Animation, Hinduism, Sad Ripu, MDLC (Multimedia Development Life Cycle).

Focus on How it Works: A Mechanistic Emphasis Enhances Elementary Student Learning Outcomes

Biologists, lay adults, and children alike value understandings of how biological entities work, prioritizing these mechanistic explanations in learning choices from at least five years of age and onwards. Despite this, formal education of young children has historically lacked mechanistic content, reserving these types of causal explanations for older students. We explored strategies by which mechanistic explanations may be emphasized to learners, identifying asymmetries between teacher intuitions and the influence of a mechanistic focus on young children’s science learning. In Study 1, we contrasted K-12 teacher intuitions about two types of learning goals—mechanistic or labels—in elementary school biology lessons, assessing general preferences and beliefs about which goal would maximize learning. Teachers preferred labels-focused learning goals when considering first and second grade lessons, but increasingly shifted to mechanistic learning goals for third through fifth grade lessons. In Study 2, children ages 6 to 11 were given either a mechanistic or a labels-focused learning goal prior to watching a video lesson about the heart. In Study 3, children ages 6 to 9 heard either a mechanism-focused or labels-focused description of the small intestine prior to viewing the target heart lesson. For both learning studies, children of all sampled age groups guided to focus on mechanism performed better on a learning assessment than those guided to focus on labels. While teachers believe that younger students benefit more from superficial goals such as labels, we find that mechanistic goals enhance learning even among the youngest children. We discuss implications of initial emphasis of mechanistic science content in early elementary school to boost subsequent learning outcomes and science interest.

Using Extension as a Vehicle to Reduce Elementary Student Food Waste

Extension can play a key role in providing food waste education nation-wide. This study is the first to evaluate the effects of environmentally focused lesson plans on elementary student knowledge and perceptions regarding food waste. Herein we provide suggestions on concepts to teach students for the greatest impact on food waste reduction. We also provide avenues to incorporate food waste education into existing Extension programming. We hope the study can inspire and inform further food waste program development, assessment, and implementation through Extension.

Head Size and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in Elementary School Students

Superficially, Intelligence is an ability to planning, thinking, talking, rationalization, comparing, and understand with other. One of many methods to rate for intelligence, is Draw-A-Man test, it’s introduced by Goodenough in 1926 to researching children’s creativity, mental age, and visual and motoric intelligence with some code based on picture that the children drawed. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between head circumference and head length with Intelligence Quotient of the 3rd grade Karang Mekar 1 Banjarmasin elementary school’s student. The methodsof this study used observational analytics with a cross-sectional approach. The sampling technique was total sampling with a sample of 65 students aged 7 to 10 years and fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results of data analysis using the Spearman correlation test showed that the correlation point on the head circumference and head length with IQ were p=0.888 and p=0.985. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that there is no significant correlation between the the head circumference and head length with Intelligence Quotien in elementary student.