A Study on the Guarantee Mechanism for the Professional Development of Rural Elementary School Teachers in the Context of Rural Revitalization: Based on Contiguous Poverty-stricken Guangxi Border Areas

Due to the lack of professional development time and awareness, well-directed training content, respect for teachers and value for education, the professional development of rural border elementary school teachers is a problem that needs to be solved urgently. The study suggests that the teaching faculty should be complemented and strengthened, the contents of teacher training should be “localized,” the internal drive of teachers should be stimulated, the respect for teachers and education should be promoted, thus improving the overall quality of the teaching faculty and promoting the balanced development of compulsory education.

Examination and Redesign of Inclusive Special Education Service Delivery in a Rural School

In this article, we describe the self-directed change made by a rural elementary school in response to a data-based examination of its service-delivery model that revealed its lowest performing students were spending most of their time with the school’s least qualified staff. This mixed-method case study describes (a) why and how the school shifted personnel deployment and utilization, (b) factors that facilitated the shifts in service delivery, and (c) perceived effects of the changes. Findings demonstrate how implementing data-based decision-making through strong collaborative leadership led to recognizing, exploring, and modifying the school’s overreliance on paraprofessionals by increasing the availability of more highly skilled personnel to facilitate more inclusive instruction and collaboration. Participants also described challenges and perceived negative aspects related to change. We conclude with implications for practice, including how this study could inform similar change efforts in small rural schools, and suggestions for future research.

Problems and Improvement Strategies of Chinese Rural Elementary School Students’ Extracurricular Practice

Extracurricular practice is an activity that promotes the overall development of students and continues the content of classroom teaching. How to realize the effective development of extracurricular practice is a complex educational problem. When students face a boring and single classroom form, extracurricular practice will play a vital role in realizing the comprehensive development of students’ morality, intelligence, physical education, and art. According to observation and literature analysis, it is found that rural elementary school students participate in less extracurricular practice and are closely related to students, parents, and schools. Teachers’ and parents’ excessive demands on academic performance have become the main reason for less extracurricular practice. Further analysis of the reasons, including the low salary of teachers, limited teaching and training opportunities; the effect of extracurricular practice is not proportional to the investment; the practice results are difficult to unify the standard; the rural extracurricular practice lacks sufficient financial support. Based on this, we suggest trying to put forward some suggestions to promote the development of extracurricular practice from the aspects of understanding of extracurricular practice, course structure, homework form, feedback results, urban and rural resources, etc.

Peningkatan Kompetensi Menyusun dan Mengajarkan Soal Cerita Matematika bagi Guru SD Pedesaan

Masalah yang dihadapi guru sekolah dasar di Kecamatan Cepogo, Kabupaten Boyolali yang termasuk pedesaan adalah siswa sulit memahami isi soal cerita dalam buku Matematika karena bahasa dan konteksnya tidak sesuai dengan kompetensi mereka. Sementara itu, guru kesulitan menyusun soal cerita yang sesuai dengan karakteristik kebahasan siswanya serta mengajarkannya dengan metode komunikatif. Tujuan pengabdian (IbM) ini untuk meningkatkan kompetensi guru dalam (1) menyusun soal cerita yang sesuai dengan karakteristik bahasa dan konteks siswanya serta (2) mengajarkan soal cerita dengan metode komunikatif sehingga membantu siswa untuk memahami isi soal cerita. Yang menjadi subjek (mitra) adalah 30 guru kelas 1, 2, 3. Pendekatan yang diterapkan adalah pendekatan partisipatif dengan teknik modelling, simulasi, dan praktik kelas. Hasil pelatihan dan pendampingan penyusunan soal cerita menunjukkan lebih dari 70% guru dapat membuat soal cerita Matematika yang sesuai kriteria, sedangkan pada guru yang lain, sebagian soal cerita buatannya tidak sesuai kriteria, misalnya kalimat terlalu panjang, tidak menggunakan aktor dan setting, serta tidak memuat nilai karakter positif. Hasil pelatihan dan pendampingan praktik mengajarkan soal cerita menunjukkan lebih dari 60% guru dapat mengajarkan soal cerita buatannya secara komunikatif dengan teknik menerjemahkan (dalam bahasa Jawa) dan menceritakan sehingga siswa dapat memahami isi soal soal dan membuat persamaan Matematika secara benar. Kata kunci: penyusunan dan pengajaran; soal cerita Matematika; sekolah dasar; pedesaanCompetence to Improve Composing and Teaching Math Story Questions for Rural Elementary School TeachersABSTRACT The problem faced by primary school teachers in Cepogo Subdistrict, Boyolali District which is rural area, is that it is difficult for students to understand word problems in the Mathematics book because the language and context are not in line with their competencies. Meanwhile, the teacher has difficulty creating word problem that are appropriate to the students' language characteristics and teaching them using communicative methods. The purpose of this devotion (IbM) is to improve teacher competence in (1) ccomposing word problem that are in accordance with the characteristics of the language and context of the students and (2) teaching word problems with communicative methods so that it helps students to understand the content of problems. The subjects (partners) were 30 teachers in grades 1, 2, 3. The approach applied was a participatory approach with modeling techniques, simulations and classroom practices. The results of the training and mentoring for the preparation of word problems showed that more than 70% of the teachers could compose Mathematics word problems that were in accordance with the criteria, whereas in other teachers, some of the stories they made were not in accordance with the signs, ie the sentences were too long, not use actors and settings, and do not contain positive character. The results of training and practical assistance teaching word problems show that more than 60% of teachers can teach the word problems that she made communicatively by translating techniques (in Javanese) and telling stories so students can make mathematical equations correctly.Keywords: composing and teaching; mathematics word problems; primary school; rural.

Comparison of short-term memory between stunting and non-stunting children in urban and rural elementary school students in Kupang 2019

Background: Inadequate chronic nutrition can cause disruption of bone growth and brain development. Impaired bone growth can cause stunting in children, and a disruption of brain development will affect cognitive function, one of them is short-term memory. This study aimed to compare the short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in urban and rural elementary school students in Kupang.Methods: This research used analytic observational method with cross sectional design conducted on urban and rural elementary school students in Kupang City. One hundred and sixty students who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected using consecutive sampling method. Characteristics data were collected by the interview, while the stunting data was known by measuring height and assessed by WHO anthroplus application, short-term memory data was obtained from digit span test. Stunting is a nominal data scale, while the short-term memory is an ordinal data scale. This study was analyzed bivariately using chi-square test with significant p value ≤ 0.05.Results: Chi-square test results of short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in urban and rural elementary school students obtained p = 0.144, which means there is no significant difference in short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in urban and rural elementary school children in Kupang.Conclusions: There is no significant difference in short-term memory between stunting and non stunting in elementary school children, both in urban and rural areas of Kupang.

Implementation of a Multi-Component School Lunch Environmental Change Intervention to Improve Child Fruit and Vegetable Intake: A Mixed-Methods Study

Nudge interventions are widely used to promote health in schools, yet implementation metrics are seldom used to understand intervention outcomes. A multi-component intervention consisting of cafeteria decorations, creative names, social norming taste tests, and flavor station components was implemented in three rural elementary school cafeterias by school nutrition services (SNS) and extension staff. Selection and consumption of fruits and vegetables at lunch were measured through monthly plate waste assessments over eight months (n = 1255 trays). Interviews were conducted with SNS staff (n = 3) upon completion of the intervention to assess implementation outcomes using validated acceptability and feasibility metrics. Consumption findings were generally inconsistent across schools and time points, yet fruit consumption increased at School 1 (p < 0.05) during the taste test and flavor station intervention months and School 2 (p < 0.001) during the creative names intervention months compared to baseline. Odds of selecting a vegetable at School 3 were three times higher than baseline during the taste test intervention months (odds ratio (OR), 3.0; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.3–6.5). Cafeteria decorations and taste tests had higher reported implementation metrics for acceptability and feasibility than other interventions. Thematic analysis underscored the facilitating role of extension support, as well as systems factors, which served as facilitators and barriers across schools and interventions. These findings suggest that nudge interventions are a promising strategy to improve vegetable selection and fruit consumption in school meal programs.