Prioritization of ecosystem services related to the natural heritage of Bulgaria

Natural heritage (NH) is an important element of the natural capital of each country, and as such, represents key assets that deliver various benefits to the citizens. The rich and diverse NH of Bulgaria is a prerequisite for the development of various activities such as recreation and tourism, but these activities have also negative impact on some of the NH’s elements. The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has the potential for bridging the gap between the conservation and exploitation needs. In this paper, we propose an approach to prioritizing the ES provided by the natural heritage of Bulgaria for the needs of recreation and tourism. The approach is designed for the mapping of the NH but it can also support the overall process of mapping and assessment of ES. It is based on application of ES prioritization matrix (ESPM) and a five-step algorithm designed to differentiate ES into priority levels according to their significance to recreation and tourism. Through the application of the proposed approach we were able to sort out the ES into three groups (high, medium and low priority) according to their importance to recreation and tourism. The first group contains obligatory ES for each mapping and assessment activity from national to local level. The second group contains optional ES recommended for studies at regional level, while the services can be selected according to the specifics of the study. The low priority ES are recommended for local level studies in cases where the assessment requires high details and accuracy. The mapping of high priority ES at national level shows that the products of the approach can be easily adapted for various studies for assessment of NH and sustainable tourism practices using the conventional mapping methods.

Studi Fenomenologi: Penilaian Membaca dalam Pembelajaran Bahasa Indonesia di Sekolah Menengah Atas Pekanbaru

Reading assessment is a form of assessment activity carried out by educators in assessing students' reading. This study uses a phenomenological approach to explore teachers' experiences as participants in learning to read stories, read poetry and read descriptive texts in developing reading assessments. This study involved 15 Indonesian language teachers and conducted in-depth interviews about reading assessments in schools. The theories used in this research are Setiadi (2016), Abdul (2003), Tarigan (1994), Yunus (2012), Tampubolon (2015), Razak (2001), Nurhayati (2009), Djiwandono (2011), and the theory of Burhan Nurgiyantoro (2014). In-depth interview analysis in this study shows that the assessment of reading saga pays attention to the assessment of speech sounds, words, sentences, letters, language, readings, pays attention to reading pauses, sentence breaks, paragraph breaks, sentence content, letter content, punctuation marks, appreciates the content. In contrast, the construction of poetry reading assessment includes the assessment of diction sounds, sounds, letters, sentences, rhymes, rhythms, stanzas, the figure of speech, confidence, language style, appreciation. Descriptive text-based assessment is to assess the accuracy of diction (use of vocabulary, conjunctions between sentences, clarity of language sounds); the assessment of the accuracy of the sentence structure of the reading pays attention to 3 assessments, namely the arrangement of sentence patterns, stringing sentences and the form of sentences used; and assessing the spelling and writing used including the assessment of punctuation, use of capital letters. Educators can use this research recommendation on the construction of reading assessment in high school in the concept of reading assessment in schools.

Survey Use to Validate Engineering Methodology and Enhance System Safety

Surveys and the resulting data provide powerful insights to an item or concept being assessed. Not only do they garner feedback that can be used to enhance the item, but, in the instance of this article, they can enhance the validity of positive change via novel concepts prior to spending the time and money in incorporating these concepts and running the risk of negligible meaningful return. In an effort to ensure the validity of proposed novel methods in a design engineering context, a survey was developed and administered to engineering subject matter experts. This was done to not only ensure that the proposed methods would be viable if implemented but gave confidence in the results of the research that drove the method development. This assessment activity served as a risk reduction activity to ensure smooth implementation of the methods from both an efficiency standpoint and, most importantly, as part of maximizing system safety. This paper discusses the composition and considerations of the survey administered in the research study, in addition to the survey results with the intention of providing a format for others in a similar context to glean from and, if practical, replicate the method.

Conceptual Frameworks and Theoretical Models for the Psychological Selection of Future Officers

The objective of this paper is to present the approaches to the elaboration of psychological profiles of military forces and specialties and the choice of the theoretical model that underlies the elaboration/selection of psychological assessment tools. The theoretical models underpinning the psychological assessment activity have been extensively studied and conclusive scientific data and evidence have been obtained in empirical studies conducted over several years. For example, the multiple intelligences model, which accepts that people have different and distinct cognitive strengths and styles, highlights and takes into account the most representative psychological characteristics of the person being assessed in order to propose the most optimal match with the requirements of the military branch/specialty in which he/she can develop.

Formation of metasubject educational achievements of primary schoolchildren in the process of assessment activities

The main mission of modern education - improving the quality, cannot be realized without innovative approaches to the assessment system, without the formation of mechanisms, procedures and technologies for monitoring the educational achievements of students. Federal state educational standards of primary general education of the second generation orient teachers towards the qualitative formation of subject, meta-subject and personal results. Modern teachers successfully diagnose the level of subject and personal achievements of junior schoolchildren, evaluating these universal educational actions. Certain difficulties arise with the assessment of metasubject learning outcomes of schoolchildren. The assessment activity of students, according to the authors, acts as an effective means of forming metasubject competences of younger students, since the mechanisms for diagnosing metasubject educational achievements have not yet been worked out. This scientific work discusses not only modern approaches to assessing metasubject achievements, but also proves that a well-constructed assessment activity can become an effective means of forming metasubject competencies. The authors pay great attention to such methods of assessment activities, which, within the framework of the implementation of the state standard, ensure the flexibility of the educational process, create an opportunity not only for teachers, but also for the students themselves to control and evaluate metasubject results.

Performance-based assessment: Self-efficacy, decision-making, and problem-solving skills in learning science

Performance-based assessment is a purposive-oriented assessment activity in revealing student understanding of unwrapped concepts, skills, and big ideas. This study aimed to determine the effects of performance task assessment on the students' self–efficacy, problem–solving, and decision–making skills in learning science that used the quantitative and correlation methods of research. There were 35 Grade 9 students of the University of San Carlos, Basic Education Department – South Campus in science class as respondents of the study. The assessment was given after the engagement session of the instructional plan to be accomplished after the transfer task session and evaluated using specific rubrics. A modified Albert Bandura's Instrument was used to measure self–efficacy and Mind Tool: Essential Skill for Excellent Career questionnaires for the problem–solving and decision–making skills of the students in learning science. The study's findings indicated that the Performance Assessment developed students' self–efficacy in learning science and had a significant impact on how students think, feel, and behave in the process of learning. Moreover, the assessment conveyed positive influence in developing students' problem–solving and decision–making skills. This assessment encouraged students to apply the scientific processes in evaluating the identified options before deciding the problem's solution.

Feasibility of virtual mock trials as a parallel teaching-assessment activity for student pharmacists at two American pharmacy programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Background: Student-pharmacists forced into remote-learning by the COVID-19 pandemic participated in a Virtual Mock Trial (VMT). Objectives: Feasibility of VMTs was assessed by evaluating student VMT performance, student perceptions on technology and overall experiences. Methods: The VMT was implemented via video conferencing technology in April 2020. Faculty-judges and student-jurors observed/rated student performance using pre-established rubrics. A post-VMT survey was administered electronically. Descriptive analyses were performed, and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests were conducted to compare programmes. Results: Forty-six students from Programme A (East Coast, USA) and 89 from Programme B (West Coast, USA) participated in the VMTs. The faculty-judges’ evaluation scores for student performance ranged from 85.0% to 96.7%, while the student-jurors’ evaluation scores ranged from 68.3% to 100%. Student perceptions on the four categories regarding technology use all had means > 5 on a 7-Point Likert Scale. More than 79.0% of students rated their VMT experience positively (i.e. 6 or 7). Conclusions: VMT is feasible for the current pandemic remote-learning environment, and it could be replicated in other pharmacy or healthcare programmes to enrich students' active learning in virtual education.

Collaborative assessments in Mandarin conversation

The co-production of a sentence is a phenomenon that is widely observed in talk-in-interaction across languages. However, with a few notable exceptions, there is still much room for the investigation of how the co-production of sentences is put to the service of specific actions and activities in different language communities. This paper, using 10 hours of video-recorded data, examines the co-production of assessments (“collaborative assessments”) in Mandarin conversation. It is found that speakers can use syntactic, prosodic, and bodily-visual devices to realize assessment collaboration, and that the functions of collaborative assessment include (1) helping provide a candidate assessment term and facilitating the assessment; (2) articulating/specifying ‘vague’ assessments; (3) helping complete the foreshadowing of a negative assessment term; and (4) co-participation in the assessment activity. This paper also discusses the design features of co-completion and subsequent responses on the basis of the continuum of speakers’ epistemic authority and agency in collaborative assessment sequences and concludes with some implications of this study for grammar as practice.

Perceptions of Students from Northwestern Romania on Online Education during the Pandemic COVID-19

The current spatio-temporal context, in which the didactic activities in our country (Romania) are still carried out, is, beyond its form of social experiment, a form devoid of spiritual content. In the transition from classical to modern, through multimedia technologies, the interactions based on the teaching-learning-assessment activity are severely widowed by the physical lack of those closely involved in the educational system. In such a context, considered to be still cloudy, unsettled, the level of perception of those trained is questioned. Thus, through this study, our emphasis and attention fall on how online education is received, accepted, or not among Romanian students; for the study being interviewed only the students from the third year of study, from various specializations (technical and non-technical), aged over 21-22 years. This study took place between November 2020 and February 2021, on a sample of 463 students. Only students with whom the teachers had contact, who actively participated in online courses, seminars, and laboratories (especially computer-assisted training seminars), participated and were interviewed. The whole debate focused on the students' report on the teaching activity carried out exclusively online. Their answers, under anonymity and voluntary commitment, being an overview, which we decided to present both descriptive (only fragments) and infographics (only a summary of answers).