INVESTIGATING ENGLISH WRITING PROBLEMS AMONG HIGH ACHIEVER POST-UPSR LEARNERS IN SABAH

The purpose of the study was to investigate the writing problems faced by the Post-UPSR learners during their primary school years. The data was obtained from 217 high achiever learners who scored an A on the UPSR. These learners, who had completed primary schools and taken the UPSR exam, are now enrolled in secondary schools as Form 1 learners. The method used is a quantitative study. A questionnaire was used as the instrument in the study. The analysis of the study uses SPSS which involves frequency and percentage. The data revealed that Malaysian ESL primary school learners struggle with writing tasks, particularly due to insufficient of vocabulary knowledge. The findings of the study will be valuable to ESL researchers and educators in assisting learners with their writing difficulties. Teachers or researchers can develop appropriate solutions to the issues once the writing issue has been identified.

Motivasi Belajar Dan Manajemen Waktu Untuk Anak Panti Yayasan Mutiara Ibu Nusantara (Yasmin)

Dalam era globalisasi seperti sekarang ini, pendidikan merupakan hal terpenting dan suatu kebutuhan bagi setiap orang, karena melalui pendidikanlah seseorang dapat memperoleh ilmu pengetahuan. Motivasi memegang peranan yang penting dalam proses belajar. Apabila guru dan orang tua dapat memberikan motivasi yang baik pada siswa atau anaknya, maka dalam diri siswa atau anak akan timbul dorongan dan hasrat untuk belajar lebih baik. Memberikan motivasi yang baik dan sesuai, maka anak dapat menyadari akan manfaat belajar dan tujuan yang hendak dicapai dengan belajar tersebut. Motivasi belajar juga diharapkan mampu menggugah semangat belajar, terutama bagi para siswa yang malas belajar sebagai akibat pengaruh negative dari luar diri siswa. Dan Sekolah merupakan lembaga pendidikan formal sebagai sarana untuk mencapai tujuan pendidikan nasional. Seseorang yang berprestasi tinggi berhasil mengelola dan menerapkan penggunaan waktu mereka dengan sangat baik. Dengan menggunakan teknik manajemen waktu, dapat meningkatkan kemampuan seseorang untuk berfungsi lebih efektif bahkan ketika waktu terbatas dan mendapat tekanan. Manajemen waktu yang baik membutuhkan perubahan penting dalam fokus dari kegiatan untuk mendapatkan hasil nyata karena menjadi sibuk itu tidak sama dengan menjadi produktif.Kata Kunci: Motivasi Belajar, Manajemen WaktuIn this era of globalization, education is the most important thing and a necessity for everyone, because it is through education that one can gain knowledge. Motivation plays an important role in the learning process. If teachers and parents can provide good motivation to students or children, then in the student or child there will be encouragement and desire to learn better. Providing good motivation and appropriate, then the child can realize the benefits of learning and the goals to be achieved by learning. Learning motivation is also expected to encourage learning, especially for students who are lazy to learn as a result of negative influences from outside the students. And the School is a formal educational institution as a means to achieve national educational goals. A high achiever manages and applies their time usage very well. By using time management techniques, it can improve one's ability to function more effectively even when time is limited and under pressure. Good time management requires an important change in focus from activities to get real results because being busy is not the same as being productive.Keywords: Learning Motivation, Time Management

Changes in academic performance in the online, integrated system-based curriculum implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a medical school in Korea

Purpose: This study aims to examine how students' academic performance changed, based on the test results of 16 integrated courses conducted in 3 semesters at Hanyang University College of Medicine that underwent a transition to online learning after COVID-19 in Korea. Methods: For the 16 required courses that included an integrated system-based curriculum that runs for t3 semesters, the major examination's raw scores were collected for each student. Percent-correct scores were used in the subsequent analysis. We used a t-test to compare grades between 2019 and 2020, and Cohen's D was calculated as a measure of effect size. The correlation of scores between courses was calculated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient.Results: There was a significant decrease in scores in 2020 for 10 courses (62.5%). While most of the integrated system-based curriculum test scores showed strong correlation, with a coefficient of 0.6 or higher in both 2019 and 2020, the correlation coefficient was generally higher in 2020. When students were divided into low, middle, and high achiever groups, low achievers consistently showed declining test scores in all three semesters. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the transition to online classes due to COVID-19 has led to an overall decline in academic performance. This overall decline, which may occur when the curriculum is centered on recorded lectures, needs to be addressed. Further, medical schools need to consider establishing a support system for the academic development of low achievers.

The Students’ Opinion on Online Learning

The coronavirus outbreak has impacted all aspects of human life, including the greatest impact is on education. Therefore, the education system that is being carried out conventionally must be converted into online learning to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This article aims to describe (1) the students' opinions regarding English subjects in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, (2) the students' difficulties during online learning in English subjects, (3) the students' opinions about understanding the material in English subjects during online learning. This research used a descriptive qualitative design, by using interviews to get the data. The subjects of this study were 2 female and 1 male high achiever students from the first language class in Senior High School 2 situated in the area of a small town Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia. The research instruments used were mainly personal chats interviews with the subjects of the study. The data collection was conducted in December 2020. The results showed that (1) online learning is less effective, significant, and boring; (2) difficulties that they face are unstable network, difficulty in the delivery of material provided by the teacher, and teacher’s teaching methods; (3) most of them also had difficulty in understanding the materials provided by the teacher.

Exploring the source of well-being for high achiever students

Characteristics of high achiever students are different from middle and low achiever students. Teachers and schools need to understand the unique characteristics of high achiever students in terms of their wellbeing. Aim of this research is to describe source of wellbeing for high achiever students. The research was conducted through survey using questionnaire adapted from Huebner’s Multidimensional Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). The questionnaire filled by 428 students in grade IV-VI in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, which are at top ten rank of their class. Data then analyzed by performing exploratory factor analysis. This research found that there are two factors as source of wellbeing for high achiever students, that are physical and psychological safety and the availability of support for student personal growth. Physical and psychological safety refers to school environment that protects students from psychological and physical threats. Whereas the availability of support for personal growth refers to how schools provide environment in order to facilitate students’ cognitive and social development. This research suggest that high achiever students call for teachers and school personnel to create school environment by considering students opportunities to develop their potentials without feeling threatened.

COMPARING THE HIGH AND LOW ACHIEVER STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING WRITING DURING REMOTE LEARNING

Writing in English is very important for every student who learns English as a foreign language (EFL). With good writing skills, information can be conveyed well to readers. Yet, EFL students often find difficulties in writing by using English as a target language, especially during the pandemic of COVID 19. This paper aims to investigate some problems faced by the students in their learning of writing during the pandemic of COVD 19. The design of the study is a case study. The instruments to obtain the data were interviews and documents. The subjects of the study were three high achiever students and three low achiever students who joined the writing course in the English Education Study Program in the University of PGRI Wiranegara. They were chosen based on their writing achievements. The finding shows that the high achiever students’ problems are more on the technical problems (the internet connection, bad signals, and family distractions during online learning). For them the technical problems would lead to other issues such as materials comprehension and task accomplishment. The low achievers have more problems in generating ideas for all type of writing. The study also reveals that the low achievers have more time management problems and more language problems. Interestingly, they share the same solutions. The solutions are 1) to read more sources to get ideas and to help them write; 2) to boost moods before writing by reading a lot, listening to music, and watching movies; 3) to ask friends and lecturers to help understand the materials and tasks; and 3) to use writing tools application to solve the writing problems particularly in vocabulary and grammar.

Deliberative Systems Theory and Citizens’ Use of Online Media: Testing a Critical Theory of Democracy on a High Achiever

Deliberative systems theory is a promising candidate for a normative theory of democracy that combines ideal requirements with feasibility. Yet, recent theoretical elaborations and studies of citizens’ online media use inspired by the theory suffer from an incomplete account of the public sphere’s epistemic function, too rough interpretations of participatory levels, shortcomings in the understanding of online media, and a context-insensitive notion of policy reform. Addressing these weaknesses, the article argues for a refined version of deliberative systems theory. Particular attention is given to feasibility considerations. Reviewing studies of online democracy in Norway, the article shows that the theoretical critique has practical significance. It is also argued that the amended version of the deliberative systems approach produces a diagnosis of Norwegian online democracy more in line with reasonable expectations to a high achiever. This is taken as a prima facie indicator of feasibility.

High Achievers

This paper reports on language learning strategies to develop speaking skill employed by university students categorized as high achiever students. It also focuses on the reasons why they employed those strategies. The study focuses on the above topics because the research concerning language learning strategies to develop speaking skill still receives a little attention in Indonesian EFL context. Some researchers, such as Chamot (1993), affirm that language learning strategy has primarily benefit for developing speaking skill. Two university students were participating in this study. They were studying in the eighth semester at a university in Bandung. They were taking a three-month English for Job Seekers Program supported by the university. In selecting the participants, this study made use of purposeful sampling to gain the important information from the participants (Alwasilah, 2002: 146). The instruments used were questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires were adapted from Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) Version7.0 as well as Background Questionnaire developed by Oxford (1990). The interview was an open-ended interview. The study then revealed several findings, among others, is that the high achiever students employed meta-cognitive strategies the most. Concerning the reasons why they employed those strategies were presented in this research.