The Development of Historical Thinking Assessment to Examine Students’ Skills in Analyzing the Causality of Historical Events

<p style="text-align: justify;">This research aimed to develop a historical thinking assessment for students' skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The development process of Gall and colleagues and Rasch analysis models were used to develop an assessment instrument consisting of two processes, including the analysis of the framework of cause and consequence, the validity, reliability, and difficultness test. This research involved 150 senior high school students, with data collected using the validation sheet, tests, and scoring rubric. The results were in the form of an essay test consisting of six indicators of analyzing cause and consequence. The instruments were valid, reliable, and suitable for assessing students’ skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The developed instruments were paired with a historical thinking skills assessment to improve the accuracy of the information about students' level of historical thinking skills in the learning history.</p>

Senior High School Students' Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Information on Their Health in the Kumasi Metropolis

The study examines senior high school students' understanding and attitudes toward information on their health in the Kumasi Metropolis. Multiple sampling techniques (convenient and simple random sampling techniques) were used in the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 391 respondents for the study. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the sociodemographic data. Again, the study used Pearson's correlation coefficient to show the degree of relationship between the level of knowledge of health information and attitudes toward seeking and sharing health information. The study found students' knowledge of the causes and symptoms of malaria, cholera, and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) to be appreciably high as a result of readings from textbooks and health professionals. Again, the study found that the students preferred sharing their health information with friends than their parents and schools' authorities. The study further found that the major sources of students' health information included health professionals and textbooks. Lastly, even though some of the students claimed internet sources to their health information, it was not a major source to the student body at large. The study recommends strong health systems on the campuses of senior high schools as they have become communities on their own as a result of the emergence of the free senior high school program. The monitored positive peer-counseling group should also be encouraged by the schools' management and by extension the counseling units for the students to share views on themselves, particularly on health issues where they deem fit.

Senior high school students’ understanding of mathematical inequality

Mathematics inequality is an essential concept that students should fully understand since it is required in mathematical modeling and linear programming. However, students tend to perceive the solution of the inequalities problem without considering what the solution of inequality means. This study aims to describe students’ mistakes variations in solving mathematical inequality. It is necessary since solving inequality is a necessity for students to solve everyday problems modeled in mathematics. Thirty-eight female and male students of 12th-grade who have studied inequalities are involved in this study. They are given three inequality problems which are designed to find out students’ mistakes related to the change of inequality sign, determine the solution, and involve absolute value. All student work documents were analyzed for errors and misconceptions that emerged and then categorized based on the type of error, namely errors in applying inequality rules, errors in algebraic operations, or errors in determining the solution set, then described. The result shows that there were some errors and misconceptions that students made caused by still bringing the concept of equality when solving the inequalities problem. It made them did not aware of the inequality sign. Students are still less thorough in operating algebra and do not understand the number line concept in solving inequalities. The other factor was giving “fast strategy” to the students without considering the students’ understanding.

STUDENTS ATTITUDE IN LEARNING ENGLISH CONVERSATIONS

English conversation is an important lesson for Senior High School students in order to face the globalization effects. Many students considered English conversation as a controversial lesson through their positive and negative attitudes toward it. This study aimed to investigate the types of attitudes of the Senior High School students in learning English conversation, to describe the realization of the attitudes of Senior High School students in learning English conversations, and to explain the reason of the attitude which Senior High School students realized in the ways they are. The subjects of this study were 20 students consisting 12 females and 8 males at the age of 16-18 years old. The data were collected by observations and interviews then were analyzed using Interactive Models. The result showed that positive and negative attitude in learning English conversations, five types of realizations, and the reasons of the students realized their attitudes i.e. the language loyalty, language pride, and awareness of language norms. It was concluded that the students’ attitude varied as to positive and negative ones and realized in numerous manners affected by several factors. Keywords: Discourse Markers, Students Interactions, Nonformal Education, Conversation

An Analysis of Mood and Modality

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus in 2020, teaching and studying activities commonly conducted in the classrooms were shifted to online, which caused students to adapt and accept without compromising. This study analyzed the dialogue texts expressing students' hopes and views about the future of learning amidst the Covid-19 pandemic written by the Senior High School students of Nanyang Zhi Hui school in Medan, Sumatera Utara. The objectives are to analyze the mood, modality, and modality orientation types; and figure out the dominantly-applied mood, modality, and orientation types in the dialogue texts. This descriptive qualitative research applied the Mood and Modality theory by Halliday and other linguists. The study revealed that 1) three mood types: declarative, interrogative, and imperative, four types of modality: probability, usuality, obligation, and inclination range from low, median, and high degrees; four orientations: subjective-explicit, subjective-implicit, objective-explicit, and objective-implicit occurred in the texts; and 2) the clauses are represented through the extensive use of declarative mood (80,74%), median probability (47%), and implicitly objective modality orientation (45,15%). The study concludes that the students tend to give their insights using statements with median probability and orientation of objective-implicit in the dialogue, which shows a lack of confidence in the utterances.