DEEPER COMPREHENSION OF BASIC ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES THROUGH SERIOUS GAME

During the last three decades we observe growing use of ecodesign, but we observe also misuse of ecodesign methods, leading often to time and financial loss. In coherence with several failure analysis and with our observation, we base our work on a hypothesis: Misuse of ecodesign is often caused by lack of basic comprehension of environmental issues: Non linearity of the processes, their inertia and their excessive costs.Building on this hypothesis, we decided to enhance our education program with an innovative serious game. The goal is to achieve comprehension of the basic environmental issues. Innovation of the game lies in revealing to students at the end of the game, that the fictive initial situation of the game corresponded to a starting point of a real catastrophe. Students can thus not only compare their decisions with those of real leaders, but also to understand how and why bad decisions were taken.Experiments indicate that students who played the game tend to evaluate environmental problems, while those who followed a lecture tend to describe them. This trend (going further than to a description) seems to be useful in decision making and in deployment of ecodesign methods.

BENTUK, ORNAMEN DAN MAKNA PADA CINCIN TAPAK GAJAH TRADISIONAL KARO

<pre><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong></pre><p><em>Forms, ornaments, and meanings </em><em>of creation are interplayed each other as aesthetic elements. These have a load of wisdom, pieces of the civilization history, and culture of a tribe or society. And, these are very important topic to examine about problems that traditional Karo Tapak Gajah ring face. The ring is just a mere historical artifacts now for the Karo culture actor. Even though, the development of the Karo culture has been always based on the their role. Therefore, qualitative research, historical and cultural approaches can fulfill the basic comprehension about form, ornament, and message when literacy about it is hard to find. The historical approach is to find out the diachronic and cultural events that occur in Karo culture, while the cultural approach knows the background of Karo customs. Thus, the aesthetic elements of the ring can be revealed through evidence of a certain time span and cultural aspects.</em></p><p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>: </em><em>form, ornaments, meaning, traditional Karo Tapak Gajah Ring, aesthetic elements</em></p><pre> </pre><p><strong>Abstrak </strong></p><p>Bentuk, ornamen dan makna pada sebuah karya menjadi hal yang saling terikat sebagai elemen estetik dalam sebuah karya. Mereka memiliki muatan memori kearifan, potongan sejarah peradaban dan kebudayaan suatu suku hingga masyarakat. Hal tersebut menjadi penting saat menyangkut permasalahan yang dihadapi oleh cincin Tapak Gajah tradisional Karo yang kini dianggap hanya sebagai artefak sejarah belaka bagi para pelaku budaya Karo. Padahal, sebuah perkembangan budaya tidak lepas dari peran pelaku budaya tersebut. Oleh karena itu, pemahaman mengenai muatan bentuk, ornamen dan makna didalam cincin Tapak Gajah tradisional Karo menjadi kepentingan yang mendasar ketika literasi mengenai hal tersebut sukar ditemukan. Riset kualitatif disertai dengan pendekatan historis dan kultural. Pendekatan historis untuk mengetahui diakronis dan peristiwa-peristiwa budaya yang terjadi dalam budaya Karo, sedangkan pendekatan kultural mengetahui latar belakang adat istiadat Karo. Sehingga, elemen estetik (bentuk, ornamen dan makna) cincin tersebut dapat terungkap melalui bukti rentang waktu tertentu dan aspek kultural.</p><p><strong>Kata kunci: </strong>bentuk, ornamen, makna, cincin Tapak Gajah tradisional Karo, elemen estetik</p><p> </p>

Performance differences by gender in English reading test

Test fairness becomes an aspect that needs to be considered when developing a test instrument. It is highly recommended that the instrument should not be biased for the test takers, by ensuring that the items do not behave differently among male and female test-takers. This study aims to examine the extent to which the items in an English proficiency test function differently across gender. Fifty reading items were examined and analysed using a statistical method for detecting DIF. The items were individually tested for gender DIF using Rasch model analysis with the analysis tool of ConQuest. The results showed that six items were detected for DIF, three of which were basic comprehension items, and the other three were vocabulary questions. Some possible ways of dealing with DIF items were also discussed.

Roaming Students’ Role as Text Analysts: An Analysis of Indonesian Tertiary EFL Students’ Review Paper

Current trend in education has acknowledged the urgency to move students from the role of traditional receiver and echoer of information to the role of critical listener, speaker, reader, and writer. In so doing, the students need to embrace the role of text analysts who continuously question texts that they encounter. This study looked for indices of students’ engagement in text analyst role. The data for the analysis were collected from 25 EFL university students’ reviews which were randomly selected. Using the guidepost developed from Luke and Freebody’s (1999) Four Resources Framework, the study highlighted points of information and/or questions or issues addressed in the students’ writing which indicated students’ role as text analysts. The study revealed that 40 percent of the students failed to practice the text analyst role. Meanwhile, those who addressed the role showcased five major patterns of indices: (1) questioned the trustworthiness of text, (2) recognized bias, (3) uncovered hidden intention/agenda, (4) identified harmed/benefitted party, and (5) provided alternate point of view/way of saying and/or personal standing. This study concludes that the students will be able to engage in text analyst role under two conditions (1) they are not struggling with the basic comprehension and (2) they have reached a state of habituation of mind in terms of questioning text. It is therefore recommended that the students be given sufficient time for familiarization and have continuous practices to make a critical approach to texts.

Head

To fully understand something you must break it down to its simplest form. This is especially true for medicine. In order to appreciate challenging concepts, you need to have a basic comprehension of all components. I completed this piece as a medical student where I was confronted with new information that relied on my prior learning to build a bigger picture. This piece was constructed by adding small strips of paper folded in distinct patterns that as a collection form an overall image.

Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Berbasis Riset pada Mata Kuliah Ekonomi Mikro dalam Meningkatkan Kemampuan Berfikir Kristis Mahasiswa

Micro economy subject is planned to facilitate students with the basic comprehension about scope, problems and the basic concepts of economy. In addition, good understanding and critical thinking about microeconomics is very important for managerial decision making processes, understanding the public policy and knowing the way how modern economy runs. The purpose of this study was to find out how the application of research-based learning models in Microeconomics courses to improve students' critical thinking skills. This study uses a type of lesson study based classroom action research with a qualitative descriptive research approach. The research procedure consists of three cycles in which in each cycles there was one topic to know the result that could be achieved by the research subject as the basis for the improvement in the next cycle. Every cycles consist of three steps; Plan, Do and See.The subject of this research was the students of Economy Education Department who were taking micro economy subject. From the results of the study it can be explained that in the first cycle the average implementation of learning was 2.80 (good enough) and the second and third cycles were 3.20 (good enough) and 3.58 (good) respectively. So it can be concluded that there is an increase in Microeconomics critical thinking skills per cycle by using a research-based learning model.

Adding shared laughter to optimise shared medicine.

43 Background: Most people are familiar with the expression "laughter is the best medicine". By triggering endorphin release and strengthening relationships, it can be considered a perfect holistic care-approach. We explored the occurrence, acceptability, and functions of humor and laughter in patients with incurable cancer. Methods: We performed 16 in-depth interviews with patients with incurable cancer at the day-care unit of a Dutch comprehensive cancer hospital. We further performed and online questionnaire-study among 33 oncologists (41% of 81 approached) about experiences with humour and laughter in breast, lung, head and neck, or urological cancer. Results: Nearly all oncologists reported using humour (97%), and all reported to sometimes laugh during consultations; 83% reported experiencing a positive effect of laughter. These results were in line with patients’ experiences: Patients noted that humor always stayed alive, despite having incurable cancer. Apart from this human aspect, patients also used humor to broach difficult topics and to downplay challenges. Some patients explicated that the appreciation of humor was dependent on the type of humor, since humor is rather personal. Patients and oncologists acknowledged that using humor is delicate, and sometimes inappropriate, partly because they did not always share the same type of humor. Laughter, in contrast, was regarded as ‘lighter’ than humor, and could, accordingly, more easily be implemented. However, both patients and specialists cautioned against patients using laughter to avoid uncertainty or broach difficult topics. Conclusions: Our results suggest that patients and healthcare professionals can benefit from humour or laughter. Many conversations were joyful, even in the midst of medical challenges. Although humor is personal, laughter can be applied more easily. Healthcare professionals therefore need to have a basic comprehension of the impact of laughter to facilitate discussions, improve the doctor-patient relationship, and identify underlying wishes. If applied appropriately, shared laughter will possibly add to optimise shared medicine.

Downy Mildew: A Serious Disease Threat to Rose Health Worldwide

Peronospora sparsa is a downy mildew-causing oomycete that can infect roses, blackberries, and other members of the rose family. During the last 70 years, this disease has become a serious problem for rose growers in the U.S. and worldwide. While much is known about the disease and its treatment, including significant research on molecular identification methods, as well as environmental conditions conducive to disease and the fungicides used to prevent it, significant knowledge gaps remain in our basic comprehension of the pathogen’s biology. For example, the degree of genetic relatedness of pathogen isolates collected from rose, caneberries, and cherry laurel has never been examined, and the natural movement of genotypes from host to host is not known. Further work could be done to determine the differences in pathogen population structure over time (using herbarium specimens and fresh collections) or differences in pathogen population structure and pathogen environmental adaptation for specimens from different geographic regions. The oospore stage of the organism is poorly understood, both as to how it forms and whether it serves as an overwintering structure in nurseries and landscapes. In production greenhouses, the detection of the pathogen using infrared thermographic imaging and possible inhibition by ultraviolet light needs to be explored. Further work needs to be done on breeding using wild roses as new sources for resistance and using new methods such as marker assisted selection and RNAi technologies. As roses are one of the most economically important ornamental crops worldwide, a proper understanding of the disease cycle could allow for better use of cultural and chemical controls to manage rose downy mildew in landscapes and in greenhouse and nursery production areas.

A Case Study of EFL Learners’ Difficulties in Listening Comprehension

This research tries to analyse the students’ level of difficulty in listening comprehension and the factors causing it. This is a case study research. This research revealed that students had many difficulties in listening comprehension. The difficulties from the biggest percentage were understanding organization, pragmatic understanding, and basic comprehension. Then, there were many factors causing students’ difficulties in listening. The factors were from the speaker, the environment, and the speaker itself. The factors causing the difficulties from the biggest percentage were the environment (noisy), poor recording, unfamiliar topics, accent of the speaker, ungrammatical sentences, long listening, concentration or focus, unknown words, uninteresting topic, and recognizing main points. Keyword: listening difficulties, factors causing listening difficulties.

Promoting Content Knowledge of Secondary Students With Learning Disabilities Through Comprehension Strategies

Students with learning disabilities struggle with basic comprehension skills across all content areas. By pairing comprehension strategies with content instruction, secondary content area teachers can strengthen students’ reading skills and content knowledge. This article provides an overview of two comprehension strategies, anticipation guides and double entry journals, that align with research-based recommendations in adolescent literacy and that can be employed across the primary content areas (i.e., English language arts, social/global studies, mathematics, and science).