The Problems Faced by Physiotherapy Students and Their Causes in Completing Reading Comprehension Section of ITP TOEFL

TOEFL is an important English test that should be taken by all university students from all the study programs in Indonesia. Each student needs to know all English skills tested and master those skills as well. This study was conducted to investigate the difficulties faced by non-English students, namely students of physiotherapy study program with section three reading comprehension of International Testing Program (ITP) TOEFL as well as the causes of difficulties encountered. The type of this research was descriptive quantitative. Using total sampling technique, all of 36 physiotherapy students in the University of Fort De Kock Bukittinggi were chosen as the samples. The data were collected through a multiple-choice test consisting of 50 questions with four options and questionnaire. The data were then analyzed using Roger’s 2011 theory on the seven types of questions of reading tested in ITP TOEFL. The results showed that all of the students had problems with main idea (24.0%), factual question (26.1%), inference question (26.3%), vocabularies in-context (29.4%), and negative question (34.4%) (difficult questions, scanning (13.8%) and reference question (18.0%) (the most difficult questions. These problems are caused by a number of factors such as feeling panic to face long passages, limitation of vocabularies, lack of practice, and less motivation. Therefore, English teachers and trainers are strongly encouraged to pay more attention to the reading problems faced by the students in ITP TOEFL as well as the causes of the problems by facilitating and providing more study exercises and practice.

Test Delivery Medium Matters: Cognitive Effort Exertion on Assessment

Integration of e-learning and computerized assessments into many levels of educational programs has been increasing as digital technology progresses. Due to a handful of prominent advantages of computer-based-testing (CBT), a rapid transition in test administration mode from paper-based-testing (PBT) to CBT has emerged. Recently, many national and international testing agencies have been offering an electronic version of some low- and high-stake tests along with their paper versions. In this study, we aim to examine test administration mode effect from a standpoint of cognitive effort exertion. To this end, the results of this experimental study suggest that the cognitive effort exertion rates of CBT and PBT examinees are different. More specifically, the study results suggest empirical evidence that examinees exert higher cognitive effort in a CBT in comparison to its PBT counterpart.

Role of Social Media in English Language Learning to the Adult Learners

Today social media has become part and parcel of adults’ lives. Adult learners use social media much as a key to learn and improve their English as a foreign language (EFL) in academics. Currently, English instructors also encourage their adult learners within the realm of technologies. These learners are too self-motivated to use social media tools to learn English language skills. During texting, chatting, and socializing with friends, family, and global society on Facebook, WhatsApp, Blogs, Wikis, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Telegram, Hangout, and Snapchat, social media are facilitating and enhancing the process for both teachers and the adult learners worldwide. Due to proliferation of advanced technological equipped electronic handy-gadgets, like smartphones, tablets, laptops, and watches, EFL learners (EFLL) with different social media applications (Apps) and tools have become easy, mobile, and flexible. Even spectacular innovation and creation of mobile Apps of international testing agencies and institutes for EFLL are available formally and informally worldwide. Therefore, in this scientific descriptive research article, the critical study investigates the hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations among observed phenomena and personal experience of various websites and social media Apps' interwoven role, creative ways of functioning, and prospects scientifically in the EFLL for adult learners. An adult learner can master a specific skill while using these Apps on social media. Moreover, it is supposed to be handled meticulously and precisely. In that case, social media can prove a boon and panacea for adult learners inside and outside the classroom.

PARTICIPATION OF UKRAINE IN INTERNATIONAL PISA-2018 TESTING AND OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

The relevance of our research is that for the successful development of the country in the nearest future, it is necessary to assess adequately the situation reflecting the level of knowledge of Ukrainian schoolchildren in comparison with other countries. The progress and economy of countries is very dependent on the quality of the educational system and the scientific complex. A competition in education began to exist among the traditional forms of competitions among the states. Developed countries make attempts to attract the best youth from other countries that’s why the purpose of the study is to investigate the problem of pedagogical measuring. The objective of our study is to analyze and compare students’ educational achievements in international measurements. There are many reasons to determine the importance of qualitative and quantitative measuring of educational systems and for this purpose, developed countries have organized the international testing of pupils of all ages. The article focuses on reading skills among pupils of elementary school (PIRLS testing), knowledge of pupils of the 4th and 8th forms in mathematics and sciences of nature (TIMSS testing), and a complex measuring of the «readiness for life – XXI» of 15-year-old students (PISA) – Programme for International Student Assessment). Ukraine took part for the first time in the international PISA-2018 test – a comprehensive measurement of the readiness for life of Generation-Z students born in 2002. We offer an analysis of the reaction of Ukrainian educational administrators and experts to the results of intensive two-hour measurements of knowledge and abilities of many hundreds of our adolescents from secondary and vocational schools posted on the Internet. We provide data for all tests 2000-2018 years for the first time in the pedagogical press of Ukraine. They will allow readers to evaluate their own evolution of the results of all tests. So you can find ways to improve their professional activities based on a combination of administratively recommended and own conclusions. We point to the beginning of changes in higher education and in the content of university quality ratings. The new rating (Impact Rankings 2020) also focuses on protecting humanity and environmental problems.

International Research Programs for Assessing the Quality of Educational Achievements of Students

This article is devoted to international programs of researching the quality of education - PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, which study the strengths and weaknesses of the education system in each country and providing information. This research is a unique source of data, which way countries prepare their students for the future. The article analyzes the position of Russia in international ratings based on testing. The author also points to the development of international testing and its transition to a digital format and the use of electronic assessment (eTIMSS).

Textile wing fabric for emergency response UAS

The fabrics used to manufacture parachutes and paragliders must have several specific characteristics: the mass of fabric per unit of surface must be low while the other physical-mechanical characteristics (the axial breaking strength load, the relative and absolute elongation, the tear resistance of the fabric and the assemblies, air permeability) must have high values. The paper deals with the analysis of qualitative aspects of several parachute fabrics that are used as a baseline in the development of a novel fabric. The results of experiments have materialized in statistical data, diagrams and graphs and their interpretation leads to the determination of the fabric variant that best meets the requirements of the destination. The destination is a patent pending inflatable wing design that utilizes a single skin construction and solid reinforcements in the sewing for shape stability. It is worth noting that the experimental results were compared with values indicated in specific international testing norms.

THE EFFECT OF PARENTAL EDUCATION AND PARENTAL READING BEHAVIOUR ON FAMILY CULTURAL CAPITAL OF LOWER AND UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

The aim of the research was to analyse the effects of family cultural capital on reading behaviour of the selected group of lower secondary and upper secondary school students in Slovakia. Based on the results of the international testing called PIRLS (2016) and PISA (2018) the school children in Slovakia achieved low results. Therefore, the selected aspects of family cultural capital were analysed to find out the extent of effect it has on the reading behaviour of the selected sample of the students in Slovakia. Specifically, the research was focused on the several selected factors, as follows: family trips, cinema, theatre shows, galleries and concerts attendance, family crafts, parental education, and parental reading behaviour. The sample was selected based on the age of the respondents and their school affiliation. Geographically the random sample was selected from the students of Nitra region in Slovakia. Although the data were collected about both parents of each student, the effect of mother’s reading behaviour appeared to have greater significance. Apparently, the number of books in the family library had some effect on reading behaviour of the children in the family, too. The results presented the importance of family environment in the process of reading behaviour development of the selected groups of students. Keywords: cultural capital, reading behaviour, mimic model, metric invariance.

Global Research on Principal Leadership

Large, sustained, multinational, and collaborative research networks are becoming more popular because of their power to produce findings that generalize across contexts as well as to provide contextually nuanced views of a phenomenon. In educational leadership, four major projects have been initiated since the beginning of the 21st century: The International Successful School Principalship Project; the International Study of the Preparation of Principals; Leadership for Learning; and the International School Leadership Development. These projects cover from seven to more than 20 countries and have run for 5 or more years. The discussion of these projects provides insight into principal effectiveness research and some guidance to those who seek to collaborate with colleagues nationally and internationally. International projects like these bring the interplay of leadership and context into focus and show that context is important in terms of educational success and how leadership is enacted. Despite the complexity in considering leadership and context, a standout feature of the projects is that across different contexts, there are general findings that emerge, either confirming contemporary understandings or proposing new views through the construction of leadership models, and recommendations emerge that can transcend contexts (such as the need for high-quality but contextually relevant leadership preparation programs). These international comparative projects are important works, as they endeavor to counter the blancmange view of education that comes through the pervasiveness of things like international testing programs and the reliance on meta-analyses.

Identification and Estimation of Undetected COVID-19 Cases Using Testing Data from Iceland

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, international testing efforts tended to target individuals whose symptoms and/or jobs placed them at a high presumed risk of infection. Testing regimes of this sort potentially result in a high proportion of cases going undetected. Quantifying this parameter, which we refer to as the undetected rate, is an important contribution to the analysis of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We show that partial identification techniques can credibly deal with the data problems that common COVID-19 testing programs induce (i.e. excluding quarantined individuals from testing and low participation in random screening programs). We use public data from two Icelandic testing regimes during the first month of the outbreak and estimate an identified interval for the undetected rate. Our main approach estimates that the undetected rate was between 89% and 93% before the medical system broadened its eligibility criteria and between 80% and 90% after.