Journal articles on the topic 'National Senior Certificate'

Higher education institutions have an obligation to provide graduates with the necessary knowledge and skills to enter the workforce and contribute effectively to the financial and economic development of the country. After 1994, the South African educational system was redesigned. One of the major events in this process was the replacement of the Senior Certificate (NATED 550) by the National Senior Certificate, awarded for the first time in 2008. Questions have been raised as to whether the National Senior Certificate curriculum prepares learners adequately for success in university studies. The purpose of the exploratory research reported on in this article was to investigate the perceptions of students on the skills acquired in the National Senior Certificate, as well as the skills required to succeed in their university studies. The study was conducted amongst the first-year B.Com (Finance) students during the 2009 academic year at a South African higher education institution. The results of the study indicate that these students felt that they lacked some of the critical skills required for academic success at university.

In recent years Learning Languages has become a learning area in its own right in the New Zealand curriculum, and there have been initiatives to facilitate more language learning in primary and intermediate schools. Less has been done to increase the number of students in senior secondary classes. This article outlines the findings of a study into the number of students studying international languages at National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Level 3, both nationally and in individual schools, and examines contributing policies and practices.

A new education curriculum for a new democratic dispensation was welcomed and unavoidable in South Africa after the first democratic election in 1994. The main reason for this radical change within education was that policymakers needed to move away from the apartheid curriculum with all its attendant political baggage and address the laudable outcomes of skills, knowledge and values for purposes of achieving social justice, equality and development. Within this curriculum, the South African Schools Act (Act 84 of 1996) recognises two broad categories of schools public and independent schools. All public schools follow the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and independent schools have the freedom to choose which curriculum and which examination body they want their learners to write, as long as the examining body is recognised by Umalusi. This article will reflect on the quality of education provided in schools by analysing the roles and impact of public and independent schools writing the National Senior Certificate in South Africa. It is important, in this context, to provide a historical overview of the background of examination bodies that have impacted on the South African school system. It is also deemed necessary to reflect on and discuss the public and independent school sector by focussing on factors influencing the logistical orientation of these sectors as well as reflecting on indicators influencing the Grade 12 examination. After analysing these factors and reflecting on issues that influence quality education in South Africa, recommendations will be made in an effort to contribute to the improvement of the standard of education in South Africa.

Assessment as classroom activities is a fundamental process required to determine the extent to which intended learning outcomes has been achieved. Whatever form of assessment is employed to measure students’ learning, they should include tasks that are authentic, relevant and approximate skills students will need in real-life situations. These skills are well accentuated in the advocacy of the current reforms in science education to develop students’ higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) through question-asking, critical thinking and problem solving. Therefore, this research analyzes chemistry questions of senior school certificate examination conducted by the National Examination Council (NECO) within the framework of Bloom’s revised taxonomy of cognitive objectives. The source of data consisted of 257 questions drawn from 5 years examination, from 2010 – 2014. The results from this research indicated that about 80% and 44% of the questions require lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS) and factual knowledge respectively. The results further revealed that there was no question in the evaluate category of the HOCS, and none of the questions required students to apply metacognitive knowledge. The research concludes that the chemistry questions were not as cognitively demanding as they should be, and it is recommended that, examination should ensure that examination questions reflect the dual perspective of the Bloom’s revised taxonomy of cognitive process skills and the knowledge dimensions.Keywords: higher-order cognitive skills, Bloom’s revised taxonomy, cognitive process skills, knowledge dimension, chemistry questions.

Background: Selection criteria used to admit students to a radiography programme at the Central University of Technology (CUT) included academic criteria, as well as the General Scholastic Aptitude Test (GSAT) and Self-directed Search (SDS) Questionnaire.Aims and objectives: The aim of the study was to identify which selection criteria were predictors of academic success in the first year of study. As a four year Bachelor's degree in Radiography (480 credits) was to replace the three year National Diploma (NDip) in Radiography (360 credits), selection criteria would come under review.Design and method: Data from 130 students were gathered in a retrospective quantitative study. Data were edited, categorised and summarised. A statistical analysis was undertaken to identify which selection criteria predicted academic success in the first year of study.Results: Statistics showed that the matriculation Admission Points Score (National Senior Certificate/NCS APS) and core matriculation subject results in Mathematics, Physical Sciences and English were adequate predictors for first-year academic success, and the subjects Life Sciences for the NSC and Biology for the Senior Certificate (SC), showed strong predictive values for first-year academic success. According to the statistical analysis, the GSAT and SDS Questionnaire did not contribute any significant information which could predict academic success.Conclusion: Matriculation marks and NSC APS were adequate predictors for academic success, with a focus on Life Sciences or Biology marks as the strongest predictor. The usefulness of the GSAT and SDS Questionnaire could be questioned, and a recommendation was made to replace these tests with alternative student selection methods.

Born on 1962 at Kamaladi, Kathmandu, Prof Ishwar Lohani completed School Leaving Certificate from St. Xavier’s School. Lalitpur. followed by Senior Cambridge ‘O’ Level from Cambridge University 1980 and Proficiency Certificate Level from Amrit Science Campus. 1984. He did B. Muse. (Sangeet Prabhakar) in Tabala from Kalanidhi Sangit Manavidyalaya under Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad. 1983. He completed M.B.B.S Degree from Madurai Medical College under Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, Tamilnadu, India. 1991 and MS General Surgery from PGIMER, Chandigarh, India. 1994. After completion of M.Ch. Plastic Surgery from PGIMER, Chandigarh, India in 1997, he worked initially as a Senior Medical Officer for few months and later as Senior Resident in the Dept. of Surgery, Chandigarh Medical College. He completed fellowship in Plastic Surgery as PSEF International fellow from University of Southern California, Los Angeles and California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco May 2001 to Feb 2002 under Dr. Randy Sherman and Dr. Bryant Toth. He later did fellowship in Plastic Surgery through the Scottish Foundation for Surgery in Nepal at St. John’s Hospital, Livingstone and Canniesburn Hospital Glasgow, England from Jan 17, 2003 to Feb 28, 2003 under Dr. Auf Quaba and Dr. David Soutar. Presently working as Professor and Head of Department, Dept. of Plastic Surgery and Burns at the T.U. Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal. He has been involved in the training of MBBS, MS (General Surgery) and MCh Plastic surgery graduates at the Maharajgung Medical Campus. He served as the President of the International College of Surgeons (ICS) Nepal Section; General Secretary of Association of Plastic Surgeons of Nepal (APSON). He has been member of Society of Surgeons of Nepal since 1996 and has contributed a lot in the activities of the society. He has presented in numerous National and International conferences and has numerous publications in international and national journals as well. He served as the Chief Editor of the Journal of Society of Surgeons of Nepal 2008 – 2014.

The study determined the parameter estimate of the Senior School Certificate Mathematics items of June/July 2017 NECO examinations and testlet effect under Multilevel Measurement Modeling with the aim of providing information on the psychometric properties and quality of the items. The research design was an ex-post facto, The examinees response were the multiple – choice items of the National Examinations Council Mathematics paper two for June/July 2017 which consisted the data for the study group. The targeted population consisted of 26,086 senior secondary three examinees who registered for Mathematics Senior School Certificate (NECO) in June/July 2017 in Osun State. A total of 318 private schools and 179 public schools registered for the paper. The results revealed the following items to be good which implied that such items functioned well, these were: items 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60 whereas items that were considered to be bad included 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 13, 16, 19, 24, 25, 30, 38, 39, 41, 49, 53, 55 and 56. Furthermore, investigating an average bundle of item statistics under the measurement framework indicated that the Item Discrimination Means value and Standard Deviation under IRT approach were 1.26 and 0.60 respectively while the Mean value difference was 1.26. Although, item difficulty Mean value and the Standard Deviation were 0.26 and 4.26, respectively, whereas the Mean value difference was 0.26. Similarly, the guessing Mean value and the Standard Deviation were 0.15 and 0.19, respectively, whereas the Mean value difference stood at 0.15. The study concluded that any standardized examination, especially from an examining body in charge of certificate examination, if issues like differential testlet effect is not taking into consideration, it could harm the validity of the items and also alter the ability estimates of the examinees The validity of the test would be strengthened when issues like differential testlet effect is adequately taken care of.

This paper set out to assess the performance of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS I) in Nigeria in relation to its educational goals. These goals include; increasing enrolment in primary and secondary schools, improving the quality of education, and increasing funding to this critical sector. Several economic reform programmes in Nigeria have been abandoned not because they had no accomplishments, but largely as a result of paucity of studies assessing them. No paper in the Nigerian literature has appraised the NEEDS I vis-Ã -vis its stated educational objectives. This paper therefore fills this void. In realizing the objective of this study, I adopted the before and after approach, which involves comparing educational performance indicators before the initiation of the NEEDSI and during the programme. The findings revealed improved performance of educational indicators such as female enrolment in primary schools, adult literacy rate, primary school completion rate, and Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations during the NEEDS programme, although achievements were modest. Budgetary allocation to the sector as a proportion of total budget was below 10 per cent and less than the 25 per cent UNESCO recommendation. Funding to this sector should be increased and monitored in order to achieve sustainable improvements in educational outcomes. Completion rate in secondary school was also low. This paper therefore suggests the extension of the universal basic education scheme to the senior secondary level to reduce drop-out rates.

The study compared Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT)-estimated item difficulty and item discrimination indices in relation to the ability of examinees in Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) in Mathematics with a view to providing empirical basis for informed decisions on the appropriateness of statistical and psychometric tests. The study adopted ex-post-facto design. A sample of 6,000 students was selected from the population of 35,262 students who sat for the NECO SSCE Mathematics Paper 1 in 2008 in Osun State, Nigeria. An instrument consisting of 60-multiple-choice items, May/June 2008 NECO SSCE Mathematics Paper 1 was used. Three sampling plans: random, gender and ability sampling plans were employed to study the behaviours of the examinees scores under the CTT and IRT measurement frameworks. BILOG-MG 3 was used to estimate the indices of item parameters and SPSS 20 was used to compare CTT- and IRT-based item parameters. The results showed that CTT-based item difficulty estimates and oneparameter IRT item difficulty estimates were comparable (the correlations were generally in the -0.702 to -0.988 range in large sample and -0.622 to - 0.989 range in small sample). Results also indicated that CTT-based and two-parameter IRT-based item discrimination estimates were comparable (the correlations were in the 0.430 to 0.880 ranges in large sample and 0.531 to 0.950 range in small sample). The study concluded that CTT and IRT were comparable in estimating item characteristics of statistical and psychometric tests and thus could be used as complementary procedures in the development of national examinations

The advent of democracy in South Africa triggered notable reforms to the financing of quality education, and curriculum design and innovation. The ulterior motive behind this study was to underscore the correlation between inadequate financial resources and learners’ achievement. School finance reform was found to contribute to learner achievement and was viewed as a building block of every discourse related to equity. In the Eastern Cape (EC) province, the dismal percentage of Grade 12 learners who achieve success in gateway subjects, as reflected in the National Senior Certificate Examination results, was linked to the grossly inequitable distribution of funding and even the defunding of education. The 3 high schools in question were stigmatised as chronic underachievers, having reported a 0% pass rate for 5 successive years. Establishing an intervention programme to finance quality education for schools in poverty-stricken communities was an arduous undertaking. Although the windfall was temporary, it was construed as the dawn of a new age of philanthropy. The project spurred the development of local education finance to motivate South Africa’s Dinaledi (stars).

The outcomes of IEA's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted from 1995 to 2002 confirmed that there was no improvement in the learning outcomes of grade eight learners in Mathematics and Science. Additionally, the failure rate in Mathematics at the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Matriculation examination has increased from 2008 to 2018 in South African schools. It was consequent on this decline in performance that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) Chair in Science and Mathematics Education developed a short learning intervention programme for Mathematics teachers in South Africa in 2013 and 2014. This research reports post-intervention instructional practices of five teachers at Reitz who took part in the intervention programme. The teachers took part in the training workshops that were orgnised for participants at the University of the Free State, implemented the knowledge acquired from the programme in their respective schools, and compiled an evidence portfolios of their post-intervention instructional practices. The portfolios of evidence submitted by the teachers were thus analysed to give voice and meaning to their post-intervention instructional practices and reflections. The analyses provide evidences of which aspects of their instructional delivery worked well while other aspects did not work well. Keywords: evidence portfolios, instructional practices, science education, short learning intervention programme, secondary school teachers

The period 1994-2011 introduced a new historical era for school education in South Africa. Outcomes-based Education (OBE) was introduced and was controversial from the outset for educators and policymakers alike. The reason given for the implementation of OBE was to move away from the apartheid curriculum and to address skills, knowledge and values. However, there were various shortcomings and many implementation problems that had to be addressed. Educators perceived the OBE approach to education as so problematic that it has now, finally, had to be scrapped. At this stage, the National Senior Certificate (NSC) is the exit point for school leavers and serves as a benchmark for tertiary education. Standardization is the tool used to make adjustments to Grade 12 results to correct fluctuations in performance that are the results of factors within the examination processes rather than the knowledge and abilities of candidates but this has a direct impact on the results of candidates. International benchmarking tests (e.g. TIMSS) have been introduced at the end of Grades 3, 6, and 9 to test the competency of learners in Mathematics and Science. Compared to other participating countries, the outcome for South African learners was exceedingly poor and this is seen as a reason for serious concern.

Margaret Isabirye Kyenkya (photo) grew up in Uganda with five bothers and six sisters. Her Bachelor of Arts was in Social Work and Social Administration (Makerere University, Uganda), and was followed by a Masters in Sociology, (Nairobi University), and a Certificate in Mother and Child Health (International Child Health Institute, London). Her PhD focused on Hospital Administration inspired by the WHO/UNICEF Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative. She has worked as a researcher, the founder of Non-Governmental Organizations, a Senior United Nations Officer (New York Headquarters and several regions), a Manager in the United States Agency for International Development-funded National Health and Nutrition Projects, and a governmental Health and Nutrition Adviser. A certified trainer in a number of health and nutrition areas, a breastfeeding counselor, and a retired La Leche League Leader, Dr. Kyenkya has significantly influenced the course of lactation support and promotion globally. She stated, “My most precious and valued occupation is that of a mother [of five] and grandmother [of eight].” Dr. Kyenkya currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. (This interview was conducted in-person and transcribed verbatim. It has been edited for ease of readability. MK refers to Margaret Kyenkya; KM refers to Kathleen Marinelli.)

We began with the premise that South African recent migrants from rural to urban areas experience relatively lower rates of participation in formal labour markets compared to local residents in urban communities, and that these migrants are overrepresented in the informal labour market and in the unemployment sector. This means that rural to urban migrants are less likely than locals to be found in formal employment and more likely to be found in informal employment and among the unemployed. Using perspectives from Development Economics we explore the South African National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) panel datasets of 2008 and 2010, which only provide a perspective on what has happened between 2008 and 2010. We find that while migrants in general experience positive outcomes in informal labour markets, they also experience positive outcomes in formal markets, which is contrary to expectations. We also find that there are strong links between other indicators of performance in the labour market. Earned incomes are closely associated with migration decisions and educational qualifications (e.g. a matric certificate) for respondents between the ages of 30 and 60 years. The youth (15 to 30 years old) and senior respondents (over the age of 60) are the most disadvantaged in the labour market. The disadvantage is further reflected in lower earned incomes. This is the case even though the youth are most likely to migrate. We conclude that migration is motivated by both push (to seek employment) and pull (existing networks or marriage at destination) factors. For public policy, the emerging patterns – indicative and established – are important for informing strategies aimed at creating employment and developing skills for the unemployed, migrants and especially the youth. Similar policy strategies are embodied in the National Development Plan (NDP), the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS), etc.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the levels of the job satisfaction of teachers at historically disadvantaged secondary schools and to determine the correlation effects among job satisfaction dimensions as they relate to these teachers. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative survey design using Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey was used, with 1,035 teachers from 30 secondary schools in the Sedibeng and Johannesburg South districts of the Gauteng Department of Education in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Overall, 738 usable questionnaires were returned. Findings Teachers at well-performing, historically disadvantaged schools experience ambivalent job satisfaction levels. For this reason, they indicate satisfaction with supervision, co-workers and the nature of work; ambivalence with promotion, contingent rewards and communication; and no satisfaction with pay and operating conditions. Correlations between job satisfaction dimensions are significant. Their correlations indicate relationships that range between moderate and strong. While mostly indicating relationships of no practical effect, most of Herzberg’s hygiene factors are projected as strong moderating factors of job dissatisfaction as seen in relationships between dimensions reflecting hygiene factors and total job satisfaction. Originality/value This study pioneers the discourse on teacher job satisfaction at historically disadvantaged secondary schools, which still experience apartheid legacies: poor socio-economic conditions of their communities in South Africa. Strikingly, they consistently perform well in the National Senior Certificate – the basic education exit point. Lessons for educational management and policy practice can be learnt from these secondary schools, including lessons for underperforming schools’ leadership.

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The lagging performance of students in science and mathematics in West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) points to a serious challenge requiring the intervention of the government, as we know; education is the bedrock of any nation. The application of ICT tools in teaching science and mathematics in Nigeria can be said to have minimally improved student performance in recent times. Though the government of Nigeria has made a laudable effort in these regards; it has little or no impact in teaching science and mathematics in Nigeria secondary education. Thus, this study aimed at examining the perception of teachers towards the use of ICT as an instructional tool in science and mathematics within Nigeria secondary education. The research employs a quantitative research design in which a sample of sixty-three (63) science and forty (40) mathematics teachers from government secondary schools in Abuja, Nigeria were interviewed. The instrument for data collection was a semi-structured questionnaire titled “Teacher’s Perception on ICT Use Model (TPIUM)” based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by Davis, 1989. Statistical analysis of the data obtained showed that Perceived usefulness (PU) had the strongest impact on Behavioral intention (BI) and Attitude toward use (AT) of ICT tools by teachers. The findings of this study also revealed that outdated government policies to support ICT use in science and mathematics posed a big challenge and more consequential is the inadequate skills of teachers in using ICT tools. The study therefore recommends that the government should endeavor to put in place adequate training and retraining of teachers on how to effectively fuse and use ICT tools in teaching mathematics and other science subjects in Nigeria. Ebire F. A. | Department of Global ICT Policy, Pusan National University, Busan South Korea.

The Education White Paper 3 on Higher Education aimed to transform the higher education system. Change within tertiary education included adjusting the size and shape of institutions, the meaning of autonomy and accountability, the nature of higher education, the character of student demographic distribution, management and governance, roles of student politics, models of delivery, the notion of higher education in terms of the relationship between free trade and public good, programme changes and the nature of the academic workplace. At this stage, transformation in higher education is leaping outwards to fulfil the criteria set by international competitiveness and related efficiency criteria that can be attributed to globalisation pressures and to deeper factors inherent in the nature of higher education, especially in terms of its resistance to change and modernization. In this regard, the tertiary higher education system in South Africa is faced with many multi-dimensional challenges that need to be addressed in this article. This includes stating whether Grade 12 results as the outcome of this exit point at school level are, internationally speaking, a reasonable predictor of first-year academic success at university. In South Africa, there is no benchmarking of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination; therefore, first-year students have difficulty in adapting to the university environment as they find themselves devoid of indispensable bases for the pursuit of their studies and the weakness of the level of education given at school level in a large number of instances. Furthermore, five universities were placed under administration in the 2011-2012 period because of appallingly poor levels of management, which adds extra layers of suspicion to the notion of the impact of higher education in South Africa. Many other challenges are facing the South African tertiary education system, which will be analysed and recommendations arrived at that will attempt to contribute to an enhancement of tertiary education in South Africa.

IGCSE is the short term of International General Certificate of Secondary Education. This is one of the most popular Certificates for secondary school seniors before they come to the next levels such as A-level or pre-university. This article introduces about IGCSE chemistry program of the United Kingdom, one of the best educations in the world, and focuses on analyzing the differences between chemistry exercises in Vietnamese grade 9 students’ exams and the ones of the IGCSE program. From the comparison, the research also gives some comments about the chemistry exercises in IGCSE exams like strong points or limitations when we apply it in Vietnam. The object of this research is the comparison between the IGCSE program and the Vietnamese program in terms of chemistry exams, apply to Vietnamese grade 9 students, except the ones who take the national\international exams for outstanding students. The experiences of building up diverse and practical chemistry exercises, focusing on the chemical nature of Cambridge are valuable lessons for Chemistry teachers in Vietnam.

IoT systems based on collaborative sensor networks are becoming increasingly common in various industries owing to the increased availability of low-cost sensors. The quality of the data provided by these sensors may be unknown. For these reasons, advanced data processing and sensor network self-calibration methods have become popular research topics. In terms of metrology, the self-calibration methods lack the traceability to the established measurement standards of National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) through an unbroken chain-link of calibration. This problem can be solved by the ongoing digitalization of the metrology infrastructure. We propose a conceptual solution based on Digital Calibration Certificates (DCCs), Digital SI (D-SI), and cryptographic digital identifiers, for validation of data quality and trustworthiness. The data that enable validation and traceability can be used to improve analytics, decision-making, and security in industrial applications. We discuss the applicability and benefits of our solutions in a selection of industrial use cases, where collaborative sensing has already been introduced. We present the remaining challenges in the digitization and standardization processes regarding digital metrology and the future work required to address them.

This study examined the concurrent validity of the teacher-made tests taken by 1794 Grade 12 students using raw scores on an external examination conducted by the Kenya National Examinations Council. Although internal examination scores were significantly correlated with scores on the standardized achievement test, the Kenya Certificate of Education, there were significant mean differences among schools. The data provide evidence for the validity of the internal examination as a measure of the same abilities as the Kenya Certificate of Education examination. Implications of this concurrent validity with respect to the quality of the school and the objectivity of the teachers' evaluation were discussed.

The present study, which was designed as a cross-sectional research investigated the role of personal attributes (age, education, job position, organizational tenure) and the perceived glass ceiling on organizational commitment of senior level female employees in public sector organizations. One hundred and fifty-two female workers with a mean age of 36.6 (s.d. = 9.03) were conveniently sampled from eight public sector organizations in southwest Nigeria. Job position was categorized into three: supervisor (33.6%), middle management (51.3%) and senior management (15.1%). Their educational status ranged from national diploma to post-graduate certificates. Each respondent completed a questionnaire that contained standardized scales that measured perceived glass ceiling, organizational commitment, age, education, job position and organizational tenure. Results showed significant joint influence of age, education, job position, organizational tenure and perceived glass ceiling on organizational commitment. Perceived glass ceiling and age contributed most to organizational commitment. It was concluded that personal attributes influenced organizational commitment but perceived glass ceiling and age contributed significantly to organizational commitment.

BackgroundWith Canada’s senior population increasing, there is greater demand for family physicians with enhanced skills in Care of the Elderly (COE). The College of Family Physicians Canada (CFPC) has introduced Certificates of Added Competence (CACs), one being in COE. Our objective is to summarize the process used to determine the Priority Topics for the assessment of competence in COE.MethodsA modified Delphi technique was used, with online surveys and face-to-face meetings. The Working Group (WG) of six physicians acted as the nominal group, and a larger group of randomly selected practitioners from across Canada acted as the Validation Group (VG). The WG, and then the VG, completed electronic write-in surveys that asked them to identify the Priority Topics. Responses were compiled, coded, and tabulated to identify the topics and to calculate the frequencies of their selection. The WG used face-to-face meetings and iterative discussion to decide on the final topic names.ResultsThe correlation between the initial Priority Topic list identified by the VG and that identified by the WG is 0.6793. The final list has 18 Priority Topics.ConclusionDefining the required competencies is a first step to establishing national standards in COE.

Teacher certification is one form of implementation of Law Number 14 of 2005 concerning Teachers and Lecturers by providing teacher certificates to teachers who have met certain requirements, namely having academic qualifications, competence, being physically and mentally healthy, and having the ability to realize national educational goals, followed by an increase in decent welfare. Teacher certification aims to increase knowledge, performance, creativity, and be able to carry out other main tasks and functions related to the teaching and learning process . Based on the background of the problem above, researchers are interested in revealing this phenomenon in a study. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of teacher certification on teacher performance in schools, especially at SMAN 5 Jambi City. This type of research is field research using a qualitative- naturalistic approach . Through this qualitative approach, it is hoped that a picture of the quality, social reality and perceptions of the research objectives will be lifted without being contaminated by formal measurements . The subjects in this study were 60 certified teachers in State Senior High School 5 Jambi City. The required data is obtained through interviews, observation and documentation.

Different accident patterns for golf equipment were noted for adults and children. Children are more likely than adults to be hit by a golf club as bystanders who entered the swing zone of a golf club. Previous publications investigating accidents involving golf clubs and over 2000 incidents involving emergency room treatment of children injured by golf clubs were reviewed. Most injuries occurred when unsupervised children played with golf clubs at home. When studies limit their focus to accident victims, who are currently being treated in the emergency room, hospital, or outpatient facility, no deaths are reported. A separate analysis of death certificates of children between the ages of 4 and 14 years also identified death as a possible consequence as 19 deaths have been reported to the National Injury Information Clearinghouse. Based on these three sources of data, golf clubs should not be used by children unsupervised given the potential for serious and permanent head injury and death. Recommendations for parents and manufacturers regarding the safety of golf clubs are provided.

The renowned scientist and teacher of the Chief Scientific Officer of the Laboratory of the Animal Genetic Resources Bank of the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics nd. a. M.V.Zubets of National Academy of Agrarian Science Svitlana Voitenko turned 60 on November 12, 2019. Svitlana Voitenko was born on November 12, 1959 in Poltava. She graduated from the 24 th high school and zoo-engineering faculty of the Poltava Agricultural Institute.From 1977 to 2006 she worked at the Institute of Pig Breeding of the UAAS. During 1990–1993 she went to graduate school of the same scientific institution. Since 2006 he has been working as a leading researcher, since 2008 – chief researcher at the gene pool laboratory of the breeds of the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics of UAAS. In 2008, Svitlana Voitenko was appointed head of the genetic resources sector in the pig breeding of this institution. Since February 2010, Svitlana Voitenko begins her pedagogical activity as the head of the breeding and genetics of agricultural animals department of the Poltava State Agrarian Academy. From September 2019 to the present time he has been working as the Chief Scientific Officer of the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics nd. a. M.V.Zubets of NAAS. The degree of Candidate of Agricultural Sciences in the specialty "Breeding and Breeding of Animals" on the basis of the defense (1994) of the dissertation on the topic "Selection and genetic characteristics of pigs of Myrhorod breed and their use in combination with boars of the parental form". The senior scientist was awarded the academic title in 2001. In 2008 she defended her dissertation for a scientific degree on "Methods of improvement of pigs of the Myrhorod breed and preservation of her gene pool". Professor she was awarded the academic title in 2013. Professor S. Voytenko's research is aimed at developing breeding and genetic methods for improving the productivity of farm animals and controlling product quality, as well as maintaining the gene pool of small local pigs of Ukraine. Under the methodological guidance of S. Voitenko new lines and families in the Myrhorod breed were created and tested. She participated in the development of the State Standards of Ukraine.She has published about 250 scientific papers. She is active in inventing activities, has 11 patents and copyright certificates for inventions. Under the methodical guidance of S. Voitenko, 7 PhD theses are defended and another 1 graduate student is being trained. She was awarded with certificates of honor from the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, the Department of Education and Science of the Poltava Regional State Administration. The staff of the Institute sincerely congratulates dear Svitlana and wishes her good health, happiness, inexhaustible energy, relentless movement forward to new achievements and impressions!

In this issue of Journal of Disaster Research, we introduce nine papers on societal responses to recent catastrophic disasters with special focus on long-term recovery processes in Japan and the United States. As disaster impacts increase, we also find that recovery times take longer and the processes for recovery become more complicated. On January 17th of 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the Hanshin and Awaji regions of Japan, resulting in the largest disaster in Japan in 50 years. In this disaster which we call the Kobe earthquake hereafter, over 6,000 people were killed and the damage and losses totaled more than 100 billion US dollars. The long-term recovery from the Kobe earthquake disaster took more than ten years to complete. One of the most important responsibilities of disaster researchers has been to scientifically monitor and record the long-term recovery process following this unprecedented disaster and discern the lessons that can be applied to future disasters. The first seven papers in this issue present some of the key lessons our research team learned from the studying the long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake disaster. We have two additional papers that deal with two recent disasters in the United States – the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York on September 11 of 2001 and the devastation of New Orleans by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee failures. These disasters have raised a number of new research questions about long-term recovery that US researchers are studying because of the unprecedented size and nature of these disasters’ impacts. Mr. Mammen’s paper reviews the long-term recovery processes observed at and around the World Trade Center site over the last six years. Ms. Johnson’s paper provides a detailed account of the protracted reconstruction planning efforts in the city of New Orleans to illustrate a set of sufficient and necessary conditions for successful recovery. All nine papers in this issue share a theoretical framework for long-term recovery processes which we developed based first upon the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake and later expanded through observations made following other recent disasters in the world. The following sections provide a brief description of each paper as an introduction to this special issue. 1. The Need for Multiple Recovery Goals After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the long-term recovery process began with the formulation of disaster recovery plans by the City of Kobe – the most severely impacted municipality – and an overarching plan by Hyogo Prefecture which coordinated 20 impacted municipalities; this planning effort took six months. Before the Kobe earthquake, as indicated in Mr. Maki’s paper in this issue, Japanese theories about, and approaches to, recovery focused mainly on physical recovery, particularly: the redevelopment plans for destroyed areas; the location and standards for housing and building reconstruction; and, the repair and rehabilitation of utility systems. But the lingering problems of some of the recent catastrophes in Japan and elsewhere indicate that there are multiple dimensions of recovery that must be considered. We propose that two other key dimensions are economic recovery and life recovery. The goal of economic recovery is the revitalization of the local disaster impacted economy, including both major industries and small businesses. The goal of life recovery is the restoration of the livelihoods of disaster victims. The recovery plans formulated following the 1995 Kobe earthquake, including the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s plans, all stressed these two dimensions in addition to physical recovery. The basic structure of both the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans are summarized in Fig. 1. Each plan has three elements that work simultaneously. The first and most basic element of recovery is the restoration of damaged infrastructure. This helps both physical recovery and economic recovery. Once homes and work places are recovered, Life recovery of the impacted people can be achieved as the final goal of recovery. Figure 2 provides a “recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006 – 11 years into Kobe’s recovery. Infrastructure was restored in two years, which was probably the fastest infrastructure restoration ever, after such a major disaster; it astonished the world. Within five years, more than 140,000 housing units were constructed using a variety of financial means and ownership patterns, and exceeding the number of demolished housing units. Governments at all levels – municipal, prefectural, and national – provided affordable public rental apartments. Private developers, both local and national, also built condominiums and apartments. Disaster victims themselves also invested a lot to reconstruct their homes. Eleven major redevelopment projects were undertaken and all were completed in 10 years. In sum, the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake was extensive and has been viewed as a major success. In contrast, economic recovery and life recovery are still underway more than 13 years later. Before the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s policy approaches to recovery assumed that economic recovery and life recovery would be achieved by infusing ample amounts of public funding for physical recovery into the disaster area. Even though the City of Kobe’s and Hyogo Prefecture’s recovery plans set economic recovery and life recovery as key goals, there was not clear policy guidance to accomplish them. Without a clear articulation of the desired end-state, economic recovery programs for both large and small businesses were ill-timed and ill-matched to the needs of these businesses trying to recover amidst a prolonged slump in the overall Japanese economy that began in 1997. “Life recovery” programs implemented as part of Kobe’s recovery were essentially social welfare programs for low-income and/or senior citizens. 2. Requirements for Successful Physical Recovery Why was the physical recovery following the 1995 Kobe earthquake so successful in terms of infrastructure restoration, the replacement of damaged housing units, and completion of urban redevelopment projects? There are at least three key success factors that can be applied to other disaster recovery efforts: 1) citizen participation in recovery planning efforts, 2) strong local leadership, and 3) the establishment of numerical targets for recovery. Citizen participation As pointed out in the three papers on recovery planning processes by Mr. Maki, Mr. Mammen, and Ms. Johnson, citizen participation is one of the indispensable factors for successful recovery plans. Thousands of citizens participated in planning workshops organized by America Speaks as part of both the World Trade Center and City of New Orleans recovery planning efforts. Although no such workshops were held as part of the City of Kobe’s recovery planning process, citizen participation had been part of the City of Kobe’s general plan update that had occurred shortly before the earthquake. The City of Kobe’s recovery plan is, in large part, an adaptation of the 1995-2005 general plan. On January 13 of 1995, the City of Kobe formally approved its new, 1995-2005 general plan which had been developed over the course of three years with full of citizen participation. City officials, responsible for drafting the City of Kobe’s recovery plan, have later admitted that they were able to prepare the city’s recovery plan in six months because they had the preceding three years of planning for the new general plan with citizen participation. Based on this lesson, Odiya City compiled its recovery plan based on the recommendations obtained from a series of five stakeholder workshops after the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake. <strong>Fig. 1. </strong> Basic structure of recovery plans from the 1995 Kobe earthquake. <strong>Fig. 2. </strong> “Disaster recovery report card” of the progress made by 2006. Strong leadership In the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake, local leadership had a defining role in the recovery process. Kobe’s former Mayor, Mr. Yukitoshi Sasayama, was hired to work in Kobe City government as an urban planner, rebuilding Kobe following World War II. He knew the city intimately. When he saw damage in one area on his way to the City Hall right after the earthquake, he knew what levels of damage to expect in other parts of the city. It was he who called for the two-month moratorium on rebuilding in Kobe city on the day of the earthquake. The moratorium provided time for the city to formulate a vision and policies to guide the various levels of government, private investors, and residents in rebuilding. It was a quite unpopular policy when Mayor Sasayama announced it. Citizens expected the city to be focusing on shelters and mass care, not a ban on reconstruction. Based on his experience in rebuilding Kobe following WWII, he was determined not to allow haphazard reconstruction in the city. It took several years before Kobe citizens appreciated the moratorium. Numerical targets Former Governor Mr. Toshitami Kaihara provided some key numerical targets for recovery which were announced in the prefecture and municipal recovery plans. They were: 1) Hyogo Prefecture would rebuild all the damaged housing units in three years, 2) all the temporary housing would be removed within five years, and 3) physical recovery would be completed in ten years. All of these numerical targets were achieved. Having numerical targets was critical to directing and motivating all the stakeholders including the national government’s investment, and it proved to be the foundation for Japan’s fundamental approach to recovery following the 1995 earthquake. 3. Economic Recovery as the Prime Goal of Disaster Recovery In Japan, it is the responsibility of the national government to supply the financial support to restore damaged infrastructure and public facilities in the impacted area as soon as possible. The long-term recovery following the Kobe earthquake is the first time, in Japan’s modern history, that a major rebuilding effort occurred during a time when there was not also strong national economic growth. In contrast, between 1945 and 1990, Japan enjoyed a high level of national economic growth which helped facilitate the recoveries following WWII and other large fires. In the first year after the Kobe earthquake, Japan’s national government invested more than US$ 80 billion in recovery. These funds went mainly towards the repair and reconstruction of infrastructure and public facilities. Now, looking back, we can also see that these investments also nearly crushed the local economy. Too much money flowed into the local economy over too short a period of time and it also did not have the “trickle-down” effect that might have been intended. To accomplish numerical targets for physical recovery, the national government awarded contracts to large companies from Osaka and Tokyo. But, these large out-of-town contractors also tended to have their own labor and supply chains already intact, and did not use local resources and labor, as might have been expected. Essentially, ten years of housing supply was completed in less than three years, which led to a significant local economic slump. Large amounts of public investment for recovery are not necessarily a panacea for local businesses, and local economic recovery, as shown in the following two examples from the Kobe earthquake. A significant national investment was made to rebuild the Port of Kobe to a higher seismic standard, but both its foreign export and import trade never recovered to pre-disaster levels. While the Kobe Port was out of business, both the Yokohama Port and the Osaka Port increased their business, even though many economists initially predicted that the Kaohsiung Port in Chinese Taipei or the Pusan Port in Korea would capture this business. Business stayed at all of these ports even after the reopening of the Kobe Port. Similarly, the Hanshin Railway was severely damaged and it took half a year to resume its operation, but it never regained its pre-disaster readership. In this case, two other local railway services, the JR and Hankyu lines, maintained their increased readership even after the Hanshin railway resumed operation. As illustrated by these examples, pre-disaster customers who relied on previous economic output could not necessarily afford to wait for local industries to recover and may have had to take their business elsewhere. Our research suggests that the significant recovery investment made by Japan’s national government may have been a disincentive for new economic development in the impacted area. Government may have been the only significant financial risk-taker in the impacted area during the national economic slow-down. But, its focus was on restoring what had been lost rather than promoting new or emerging economic development. Thus, there may have been a missed opportunity to provide incentives or put pressure on major businesses and industries to develop new businesses and attract new customers in return for the public investment. The significant recovery investment by Japan’s national government may have also created an over-reliance of individuals on public spending and government support. As indicated in Ms. Karatani’s paper, individual savings of Kobe’s residents has continued to rise since the earthquake and the number of individuals on social welfare has also decreased below pre-disaster levels. Based on our research on economic recovery from the Kobe earthquake, at least two lessons emerge: 1) Successful economic recovery requires coordination among all three recovery goals – Economic, Physical and Life Recovery, and 2) “Recovery indices” are needed to better chart recovery progress in real-time and help ensure that the recovery investments are being used effectively. Economic recovery as the prime goal of recovery Physical recovery, especially the restoration of infrastructure and public facilities, may be the most direct and socially accepted provision of outside financial assistance into an impacted area. However, lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake suggest that the sheer amount of such assistance may not be effective as it should be. Thus, as shown in Fig. 3, economic recovery should be the top priority goal for recovery among the three goals and serve as a guiding force for physical recovery and life recovery. Physical recovery can be a powerful facilitator of post-disaster economic development by upgrading social infrastructure and public facilities in compliance with economic recovery plans. In this way, it is possible to turn a disaster into an opportunity for future sustainable development. Life recovery may also be achieved with a healthy economic recovery that increases tax revenue in the impacted area. In order to achieve this coordination among all three recovery goals, municipalities in the impacted areas should have access to flexible forms of post-disaster financing. The community development block grant program that has been used after several large disasters in the United States, provide impacted municipalities with a more flexible form of funding and the ability to better determine what to do and when. The participation of key stakeholders is also an indispensable element of success that enables block grant programs to transform local needs into concrete businesses. In sum, an effective economic recovery combines good coordination of national support to restore infrastructure and public facilities and local initiatives that promote community recovery. Developing Recovery Indices Long-term recovery takes time. As Mr. Tatsuki’s paper explains, periodical social survey data indicates that it took ten years before the initial impacts of the Kobe earthquake were no longer affecting the well-being of disaster victims and the recovery was completed. In order to manage this long-term recovery process effectively, it is important to have some indices to visualize the recovery processes. In this issue, three papers by Mr. Takashima, Ms. Karatani, and Mr. Kimura define three different kinds of recovery indices that can be used to continually monitor the progress of the recovery. Mr. Takashima focuses on electric power consumption in the impacted area as an index for impact and recovery. Chronological change in electric power consumption can be obtained from the monthly reports of power company branches. Daily estimates can also be made by tracking changes in city lights using a satellite called DMSP. Changes in city lights can be a very useful recovery measure especially at the early stages since it can be updated daily for anywhere in the world. Ms. Karatani focuses on the chronological patterns of monthly macro-statistics that prefecture and city governments collect as part of their routine monitoring of services and operations. For researchers, it is extremely costly and virtually impossible to launch post-disaster projects that collect recovery data continuously for ten years. It is more practical for researchers to utilize data that is already being collected by local governments or other agencies and use this data to create disaster impact and recovery indices. Ms. Karatani found three basic patterns of disaster impact and recovery in the local government data that she studied: 1) Some activities increased soon after the disaster event and then slumped, such as housing construction; 2) Some activities reduced sharply for a period of time after the disaster and then rebounded to previous levels, such as grocery consumption; and 3) Some activities reduced sharply for a while and never returned to previous levels, such as the Kobe Port and Hanshin Railway. Mr. Kimura focuses on the psychology of disaster victims. He developed a “recovery and reconstruction calendar” that clarifies the process that disaster victims undergo in rebuilding their shattered lives. His work is based on the results of random surveys. Despite differences in disaster size and locality, survey data from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake indicate that the recovery and reconstruction calendar is highly reliable and stable in clarifying the recovery and reconstruction process. <strong>Fig. 3.</strong> Integrated plan of disaster recovery. 4. Life Recovery as the Ultimate Goal of Disaster Recovery Life recovery starts with the identification of the disaster victims. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area issue a “damage certificate” to disaster victims by household, recording the extent of each victim’s housing damage. After the Kobe earthquake, a total of 500,000 certificates were issued. These certificates, in turn, were used by both public and private organizations to determine victim’s eligibility for individual assistance programs. However, about 30% of those victims who received certificates after the Kobe earthquake were dissatisfied with the results of assessment. This caused long and severe disputes for more than three years. Based on the lessons learned from the Kobe earthquake, Mr. Horie’s paper presents (1) a standardized procedure for building damage assessment and (2) an inspector training system. This system has been adopted as the official building damage assessment system for issuing damage certificates to victims of the 2004 Niigata-ken Chuetsu earthquake, the 2007 Noto-Peninsula earthquake, and the 2007 Niigata-ken Chuetsu Oki earthquake. Personal and family recovery, which we term life recovery, was one of the explicit goals of the recovery plan from the Kobe earthquake, but it was unclear in both recovery theory and practice as to how this would be measured and accomplished. Now, after studying the recovery in Kobe and other regions, Ms. Tamura’s paper proposes that there are seven elements that define the meaning of life recovery for disaster victims. She recently tested this model in a workshop with Kobe disaster victims. The seven elements and victims’ rankings are shown in Fig. 4. Regaining housing and restoring social networks were, by far, the top recovery indicators for victims. Restoration of neighborhood character ranked third. Demographic shifts and redevelopment plans implemented following the Kobe earthquake forced significant neighborhood changes upon many victims. Next in line were: having a sense of being better prepared and reducing their vulnerability to future disasters; regaining their physical and mental health; and restoration of their income, job, and the economy. The provision of government assistance also provided victims with a sense of life recovery. Mr. Tatsuki’s paper summarizes the results of four random-sample surveys of residents within the most severely impacted areas of Hyogo Prefecture. These surveys were conducted biannually since 1999,. Based on the results of survey data from 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005, it is our conclusion that life recovery took ten years for victims in the area impacted significantly by the Kobe earthquake. Fig. 5 shows that by comparing the two structural equation models of disaster recovery (from 2003 and 2005), damage caused by the Kobe earthquake was no longer a determinant of life recovery in the 2005 model. It was still one of the major determinants in the 2003 model as it was in 1999 and 2001. This is the first time in the history of disaster research that the entire recovery process has been scientifically described. It can be utilized as a resource and provide benchmarks for monitoring the recovery from future disasters. <strong>Fig. 4.</strong> Ethnographical meaning of “life recovery” obtained from the 5th year review of the Kobe earthquake by the City of Kobe. <strong>Fig. 5.</strong> Life recovery models of 2003 and 2005. 6. The Need for an Integrated Recovery Plan The recovery lessons from Kobe and other regions suggest that we need more integrated recovery plans that use physical recovery as a tool for economic recovery, which in turn helps disaster victims. Furthermore, we believe that economic recovery should be the top priority for recovery, and physical recovery should be regarded as a tool for stimulating economic recovery and upgrading social infrastructure (as shown in Fig. 6). With this approach, disaster recovery can help build the foundation for a long-lasting and sustainable community. Figure 6 proposes a more detailed model for a more holistic recovery process. The ultimate goal of any recovery process should be achieving life recovery for all disaster victims. We believe that to get there, both direct and indirect approaches must be taken. Direct approaches include: the provision of funds and goods for victims, for physical and mental health care, and for housing reconstruction. Indirect approaches for life recovery are those which facilitate economic recovery, which also has both direct and indirect approaches. Direct approaches to economic recovery include: subsidies, loans, and tax exemptions. Indirect approaches to economic recovery include, most significantly, the direct projects to restore infrastructure and public buildings. More subtle approaches include: setting new regulations or deregulations, providing technical support, and creating new businesses. A holistic recovery process needs to strategically combine all of these approaches, and there must be collaborative implementation by all the key stakeholders, including local governments, non-profit and non-governmental organizations (NPOs and NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and the private sector. Therefore, community and stakeholder participation in the planning process is essential to achieve buy-in for the vision and desired outcomes of the recovery plan. Securing the required financial resources is also critical to successful implementation. In thinking of stakeholders, it is important to differentiate between supporting entities and operating agencies. Supporting entities are those organizations that supply the necessary funding for recovery. Both Japan’s national government and the federal government in the U.S. are the prime supporting entities in the recovery from the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the 2001 World Trade Center recovery. In Taiwan, the Buddhist organization and the national government of Taiwan were major supporting entities in the recovery from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake. Operating agencies are those organizations that implement various recovery measures. In Japan, local governments in the impacted area are operating agencies, while the national government is a supporting entity. In the United States, community development block grants provide an opportunity for many operating agencies to implement various recovery measures. As Mr. Mammen’ paper describes, many NPOs, NGOs, and/or CBOs in addition to local governments have had major roles in implementing various kinds programs funded by block grants as part of the World Trade Center recovery. No one, single organization can provide effective help for all kinds of disaster victims individually or collectively. The needs of disaster victims may be conflicting with each other because of their diversity. Their divergent needs can be successfully met by the diversity of operating agencies that have responsibility for implementing recovery measures. In a similar context, block grants made to individual households, such as microfinance, has been a vital recovery mechanism for victims in Thailand who suffered from the 2004 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami disaster. Both disaster victims and government officers at all levels strongly supported the microfinance so that disaster victims themselves would become operating agencies for recovery. Empowering individuals in sustainable life recovery is indeed the ultimate goal of recovery. <strong>Fig. 6.</strong> A holistic recovery policy model.

ABSTRAKKondisi yang dialami oleh banyak guru matematika antara lain yaitu kurangnya inovasi dalam pembelajaran matematika. Guru wajib memiliki kualifikasi akademik, kompetensi, sertifikat pendidik, sehat jasmani, dan rohani, serta memiliki kemampuan untuk mewujudkan tujuan pendidikan nasional.untuk menjamin keterlaksanaan tugasnya secara professional. Untuk meningkatkan kompetensi guru-guru khususnya guru-guru di Sekolah Menengah Atas dan Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan perlu diberikan pelatihan-pelatihan software yang menunjang tugas utamanya sebagai pendidik. Salah satu software yang berguna untuk pembelajaran matematika diantaranya Software R. Software R dapat digunakan untuk menjelaskan banyak topik dalam matematika antara lain: masalah aritmatika, geometri, maupun aljabar. Sofware R juga dapat digunakan guru untuk membantu evaluasi pembelajaran maupun untuk mengolah data penelitian. Melalui pelatihan software R bertujuan agar guru mampu berinovasi untuk meningkatkan kemampuan dan kreativitas mengajar matematika guru- guru di Sekolah Menengah Atas dan Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan di Jakarta Timur. Feedback dari kegiatan pelatihan yang diselenggarakan, peserta memberikan respon positif terhadap pelatihan tentang Software R. ABSTRACTConditions experienced by many teachers of mathematics, among others, the lack of innovation in learning mathematics. Teachers are required to have academic qualifications, competencies, certificates of educators, physically and mentally, and have the ability to realize the goals of national education. To ensure professional execution of their duties. To improve the competence of teachers, especially teachers in Senior High School and Vocational High School need to be given software training that support the main task as educator. One of the software that is useful for learning mathematics such as Software R. Software R can be used to explain many topics in mathematics, among others: the problem of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. Software R also can be used by teacher to assist evaluation of learning and also to process research data. Through software training R aims to enable teachers to innovate to improve the skills and creativity of teaching mathematics teachers in High School and Vocational High School in East Jakarta. Feedback from the training activities held, the participants gave a positive response to the training on Software R.

Le Pr Ravindra Nanda a obtenu une licence et une maîtrise en dentisterie et en orthodontie du King George's Medical College, Lucknow University. En 1967, il a intégré l'Université Catholique de Nimègue, aux Pays-Bas, où il a obtenu un doctorat en philosophie en 1969. Il a rejoint la nouvelle école dentaire de Loyola à Chicago en 1970, après avoir occupé le poste de Professeur assistant en orthodontie dans le service dirigé par Frans van der Linden. En 1972, il fut promu au Département d'Orthodontie de l'Université du Connecticut à Farmington, CT, et y reçu son certificat en orthodontie sous la direction de Charles Burstone. Professeur adjoint, puis professeur titulaire à partir de 1979, il a assumé le poste de Chef du Département d'Orthodontie à partir de 1992 et a été promu pour diriger le Département des Sciences Craniofaciales en 2004, dont les divisions de chirurgie orale et maxillo-faciale, de dentisterie pédiatrique, de l'enseignement supérieur en dentisterie générale et en orthodontie. Il est membre et ancien président de la composante Atlantique Nord de la Edward H. Angle Society of Orthodontists. Il occupe actuellement la fonction de rédacteur en chef de Progress in Orthodontics, de rédacteur associé du Journal of Clinical Orthodontics et est membre du comité éditorial de neuf revues d'orthodontie nationales et internationales. Il est membre de l'Association dentaire américaine, de l'Association dentaire de l'État du Connecticut, de la Hartford Dental Society, de l'Association américaine des orthodontistes, de la Société européenne d'orthodontie, de l'Association internationale de recherche dentaire et du College of Diplomates of American Board of Orthodontists. Il a rédigé et publié sept manuels et plus de 200 articles dans des revues à comité de lecture. Il a donné des conférences magistrales dans plus de 40 pays et a reçu de nombreux prix et honneurs pour ses contributions en dentisterie et en orthodontie, aux États-Unis et de la part d'organisations internationales d'orthodontie. Il est membre d'honneur des Jordan Orthodontic Society, Czech Orthodontic Society, Taiwanese Orthodontic Society, Central American Orthodontics Society et membre d'honneur à vie de l'Indian Orthodontic Society. Ravindra Nanda a été honoré du Life Time Achievement Award (University of Connecticut Foundation), et il est Senior Research Fellow (Japan Promotion for Science, Sendai, Japan − Tohoku University). Il a prononcé de nombreuses conférences d'honneur : la John Taylor Lecture, lors de la réunion annuelle de l'Australian Society of Orthodontics Foundation, la Sheldon Friel Memorial Lecture lors de la réunion annuelle de l'European Orthodontic Society, la Gordon Kirkness Memorial Lecture lors de la réunion annuelle de l'Australian Society of Orthodontics, la John Mershon Memorial Lecture, Boston, Massachusetts lors de la réunion annuelle de l'American Association of Orthodontics et la Wendell L. Wylie Memorial Lecture, à l'Université de San Francisco, Californie.

The following is an interview conducted in May 2019 in the U.K. between Dr Tracy Harkison, a senior lecturer at AUT, and Chris Moore, CEO of The Clink Charity. The interview transcript was edited by Prof Alison McIntosh. Tracy Harkison Can you please explain to me how this initiative came to be established? Chris Moore The challenge was that the reoffending rates in the UK are really high. Forty-eight percent of people that leave prison go back within the first year. The catering manager at one of the prisons in the UK was cooking 3,000 hot meals a day for the prisoners in that prison, using prisoners, and in those days 60% of those prisoners were reoffending and returning back within the first year. He wasn’t happy with this and wanted to do something about it so he trained his staff up as trainers and assessors. They started delivering accredited City and Guilds national vocational qualifications (NVQ) and the prisoners did really well and they got those qualifications. They left with their certificates and skills, very proud, but sadly, it didn’t make any difference to the number returning. So the next step was, he started to introduce employers. He did something called ‘Gourmet Lunches’ where once a month he’d bring in prospective employers and introduce them to prisoners who were qualified and nearing release. They’d have a nice meal, have a chat, get work, and not as many [prisoners] came back. So in 2009 the prison was going through an expansion and he asked if they could turn a new staff mess into a fine dining restaurant. He went out with a whole group of people and raised a lot of money and built a fine dining restaurant, and that’s how it started. Tracy What was the purpose? Chris The whole purpose of it is to reduce reoffending, but the by-product of that is, the hospitality industry in the UK has got a major skills shortage and it’s really hard to find qualified people so you’ve got a really huge untapped workforce of 82,000 men and 4,000 women in England and Wales – Scotland and Northern Ireland are separate – who we can train up and get into work. They’re a credible solution to the skills shortage. Tracy Did the establishment receive good initial support for its development? Chris It was set up by a government employee who was the prisons catering manager. He went out and was introduced to some philanthropic individuals, some grant-maintaining trusts and they raised some money, but he wasn’t allowed to operate the restaurant as a government employee. I suppose, before then, obviously working in a prison they’re very risk-adverse for security reasons and normally you don’t have people coming into the heart of the prison daily. In the year you’d probably have 100 people a year coming through the main gates. The restaurant actually has 100 people a day coming through the main gates at each of its prisons, so that’s quite a big risk. Having operated the prison for six months, a charity was formed and one of the first things they did was find me, so it went from there. Tracy In what ways do you think hospitality is a suitable industry to assist prisoners’ rehabilitation? Chris If you work in the hospitality industry it’s a way of life, not a job, because you’re working anti-social hours, so generally the people you work with you play with as well and they’re a family; you become tight-knit. So it’s really good because, going back to my original statement of “Lots of people are in prison because they’ve no family or the wrong family”, effectively catering is a family so it works really well. There’s a major skills shortage, the industry’s growing – I think it’s 6% a year at the moment – so there’s no problem with finding the jobs at all. Tracy Why do you think hospitality is so important? Chris For the graduates to work in […] because it’s a very unforgiving industry. It’s a family and everyone comes to it with their own unique skills and they can find their place. It’s a very diverse, varied […]. You can be a porter in the background talking to anybody or in a stockroom, or you can be like an actor on stage and running around the restaurant or the reception. So I think it’s good; it’s hard work; it’s long hours; it’s anti-social hours. Again, a lot of crimes happen in anti-social hours so you’re keeping them busy, and there’s a major skills shortage. And I think our model isn’t unique to the hospitality industry. We keep encouraging the government to look at other industries that have got skills shortages, so construction or hairdressing, it doesn’t really matter what it is, but by offering an integrating programme for an industry that has a skills shortage, it will work. Corresponding author Tracy Harkison can be contacted at: tracy.harkison@aut.ac.nz

There are different apprehensions regarding the contemporary assessment system. Often, I listen to my colleagues saying that multiple-choice questions are seen as easier to score. Why can’t all assessments be multiple-choice tests? Some others would say, whether the tests given reflect what students will need to know as competent professionals? What evidence can be collected to make sure that test content is relevant? Others come up with concerns that there is a perception amongst students that some examiners are harsher than others and some tasks are easier than others. What can be done to evaluate whether this is the case? Sometimes, the students come up with queries that they are concerned about being observed when interacting with patients. They are not sure why this is needed. What rationale is there for using workplace-based assessment? Some of the students worry if the pass marks for the assessments are ‘correct’, and what is the evidence for the cut-off scores? All these questions are important, and I would deliberate upon them with evidence from the literature. Deliberating on the first query of using multiple-choice questions for everything, we know that assessment of a medical student is a complex process as there are multiple domains of learning such as cognition, skills, and behaviors (Norcini and McKinley, 2007)(Boulet and Raymond, 2018). Each of the domains further has multiple levels from simple to complex tasks (Norcini and McKinley, 2007). For example, the cognition is further divided into six levels, starting from recall (Cognition level 1 or C1) up to creativity (Cognition level 6 or C6) (Norcini and McKinley, 2007). Similarly, the skills and behaviors also have levels starting from observation up to performance and practice (Norcini and McKinley, 2007). Moreover, there are different competencies within each domain that further complicates our task as an assessor to appropriately assess a student (Boulet and Raymond, 2018). For instance, within the cognitive domain, it is not just making the learning objectives based on Bloom’s Taxonomy that would simplify our task because the literature suggests that individuals have different thinking mechanisms, such as fast and slow thinking to perform a task (Kahneman, 2011). We as educationalists do not know what sort of cognitive mechanism have we triggered through our exam items (Swanson and Case, 1998). Multiple Choice Questions is one of the assessment instruments to measure competencies related to the cognitive domain. This means that we cannot use multiple-choice questions to measure the skills and behaviors domains, so clearly multiple-choice questions cannot assess all domains of learning (Vleuten et al, 2010). Within the cognitive domain, there are multiple levels and different ways of thinking mechanisms (Kahneman, 2011). Each assessment instrument has its strength and limitations. Multiple-choice questions may be able to assess a few of the competencies, also with some added benefits in terms of marking but there always are limitations. The multiple-choice question is no different when it comes to the strengths and limitations profile of an assessment instrument (Swanson and Case, 1998). There are certain competencies that can be easily assessed using multiple-choice questions (Swanson and Case, 1998). For example, content that requires recall, application, and analysis can be assessed with the help of multiple-choice questions. However, creativity or synthesis which is cognition level six (C6) as per Blooms’ Taxonomy, cannot be assessed with closed-ended questions such as a multiple-choice question. This means that we need some additional assessment instruments to measure the higher levels of cognition within the cognitive domain. For example, asking students to explore an open-ended question as a research project can assess the higher levels of cognition because the students would be gathering information from different sources of literature, and then synthesizing it to answer the question. It is reported that marking and reading the essay questions would be time-consuming for the teachers (McLean and Gale, 2018). Hence, the teacher to student’s ratio in assessing the higher levels of cognition needs to be monitored so that teachers or assessors can give appropriate time to assess the higher levels of cognition of their students. Hence, we have to use other forms of assessment instruments along with multiple-choice questions to assess the cognitive domain. This will help to assess the different levels of cognition and will also incite the different thinking mechanisms. Regarding the concerns, whether the tests given reflect what students will need to know as competent professionals? What evidence can be collected to make sure that test content is relevant? It is one of an important issue for medical education and assessment directors whether the tests that they are taking are reflective of the students being competent practitioners? It is also quite challenging as some of the competencies such as professionalism or professional identity formation are difficult to be measured quantitatively with the traditional assessment instruments (Cruess, Cruess, & Steinert, 2016). Moreover, there is also a question if all the competencies that are required for a medical graduate can be assessed with the assessment instruments presently available? Hence, we as educationalists have to provide evidence for the assessment of required competencies and relevant content. One of the ways that we can opt is to carefully align the required content with their relevant assessment instruments. This can be done with the help of assessment blueprints, or also known as the table of specifications in some of the literature (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). An assessment blueprint enables us to demonstrate our planned curriculum, that is, what are our planned objectives, and how are we going to teach and assess them (Boulet and Raymond, 2018). We can also use the validity construct in addition to the assessment blueprints to provide evidence for testing the relevant content. Validity means that the test is able to measure what it is supposed to measure (Boulet and Raymond, 2018). There are different types of validity but one of the validity that is required in this situation to establish the appropriateness of the content is the Content Validity. Content validity is established by a number of subject experts who comment on the appropriateness and relevance of the content (Lawshe, 1975). The third method by which the relevance of content can be established is through standard-setting. A standard is a single cut-off score to qualitatively declare a student competent or incompetent based on the judgment of subject experts (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). There are different ways of standard-setting for example Angoff, Ebel, Borderline method, etc. (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). Although the main purpose is the establishment and decides the cut-off score during the process, the experts also debate on the appropriateness and relevance of the content. This means that the standard-setting methods also have validity procedures that are in-built in their process of establishing the cut-off score. These are some of the methods by which we can provide evidence of the relevance of the content that is required to produce a competent practitioner. The next issue is the perception amongst students that some examiners are harsher than others and some tasks are easier than others. Both these observations have quite a lot of truth in them and can be evaluated following the contemporary medical education evaluation techniques. The first issue reported is that some examiners are harsher than others. In terms of assessment, it has been reported in the literature as ‘hawk dove effect’ (McManus et al, 2006, Murphy et al, 2009). There are different reasons identified in the literature for some of the examiners to be more stringent than others such as age, ethnic background, behavioral reasons, educational background, and experience in a number of years (McManus et al, 2006). Specifically, those examiners who are from ethnic minorities and have more experience show more stringency (McManus et al, 2006). Interestingly, it has been reported elsewhere how the glucose levels affect the decision making of the pass-fail judgments (Kahneman, 2011). There are psychometric methods reported in the literature, such as Rasch modeling that can help determine the ‘hawk dove effect’ of different examiners, and whether it is too extreme or within a zone of normal deviation (McManus et al, 2006, Murphy, et al, 2009). Moreover, the literature also suggests ways to minimize the hawk-dove effect by identifying and paring such examiners so the strictness of one can be compensated by the leniency of the other examiner (McManus et al, 2006). The other issue in this situation is that the students find some tasks easier than others. This is dependent on the complexity of tasks and also on the competence level of students. For example, a medical student may achieve independent measuring of blood pressure in his/her first year but even a consultant surgeon may not be able to perform complex surgery such as a Whipple procedure. This means that while developing tasks we as educationalists have to consider both the competence level of our students and the complexity of the tasks. One way to theoretically understand it is by taking help from the cognitive load theory (Merrienboer 2013). The cognitive load theory suggests that there are three types of cognitive loads; namely, the Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane loads (Merrienboer 2013). The intrinsic load is associated with the complexity of the task. The extraneous load is added to the working memory of students due to a teacher who does not plan his/her teaching session as per students' needs (Merrienboer 2013). The third load is the germane or the good load that helps the student to understand the task and is added by using teaching methods that helps students understand the task (Merrienboer 2013). The teachers can use different instructional designs such as the 4CID model to plan their teaching session of the complex tasks (Merrienboer 2013). One of the ways to understand the difficulty of the task can be to pilot test the task with few students or junior colleagues. Another way to determine the complexity of the task can be through standard-setting methods where a cut-off score is established after the experts discuss each task and determine its cut-off score based on their judgments (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). However, it is important that the experts who have been called for setting standards have relevant experience so as to make credible judgments (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). A third way to evaluate the complexity of tasks is by applying the post-exam item analysis techniques. The difficulty of the task is evaluated after the performance of students in the exam. Each item’s difficulty in the exam can be measured. The items can be placed from extremely easy (100% students correctly answered the item) to extremely difficult (100% students failed on that specific item). The item analysis enables the teachers to determine which tasks were easier in exams as compared to more difficult tasks. Another concern that comes from students is about their observation when interacting with patients. Health professions training programs require the interaction of students with patients. The student-patient interaction is not very often in initial years of student’s training due to the issues of patient safety, and due to the heavy workload on clinical faculty. However, with the passage of time in the training program, these student patient interactions increase. There is also a strong theoretical basis for better learning when the students are put in a context or a given situation (Wenger, 1998). For example, infection control can be taught through a lecture however the learning can be more effective if the students practically learn it in an operation theatre. Moreover, the undergraduate students or foundation year house job doctors are yet not competent enough to practice independently and require supervision for the obvious reasons of patient safety. Although, some of the students may not like being observed it is one of the requirements for their training. The examiners observing them can give them constructive feedback to further improve their performance (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013). Feedback is one of the essential components of workplace-based assessments, and it is suggested in the literature that the time for feedback to the student should be almost equal to one-third of the procedure or task time (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013), that is, for a fifteen minutes tasks, there should be at least five minutes for the feedback hence having a total of twenty minutes time on the whole. Further, it is important for the examiners and senior colleagues to establish trust in the competence of their students or trainees. The ‘trust’ is one of the behavioral constructs that also starts initially with an observation (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013). Hence, observation of students or house officers by senior colleagues or teachers during clinical encounters is important to establish trust in student’s competence levels. Additionally, in the workplace, there are different skills that are required by the students to demonstrate, and each skill is quite different to others. There are different workplace-based assessment instruments and each of them assesses only certain aspects of student’s performance during clinical practice. For instance, the Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) can primarily assess the history taking and physical examination skills of students (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013). Similarly, the Directly Observed Procedural Skills (DOPS) is required to assess the technical and procedural skills of students (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013). More so, the Case-based Discussion (CBD) is required to assess clinical reasoning skills, decision-making skills, ethics, and professionalism (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013). Further, multi-source feedback (MSF) or 360-degree assessment collects feedback about a student on their performance from multiple sources such as patients, senior and junior colleagues, nursing staff, and administrative staff (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013). All these workplace-based assessments require observation of students so they can be given appropriate feedback on their technical and nontechnical skills (Etheridge and Boursicot, 2013). Hence, clinical encounters at the workplace are quite complex and require training of students from different aspects to fully train them that cannot be accomplished without observation. Some students also worry whether the pass marks for the assessments are ‘correct’, and what is the evidence for the cut-off score in their exams? A standard is a single cut-off score that determines the competence of a student in a particular exam (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). The cut-off score is decided by experts who make a qualitative judgment (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). The purpose is not to establish an absolute truth but to demonstrate the creditability of pass-fail decisions in an exam (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). There are certain variables related to standard setters that may affect the creditability of the standard-setting process; such as age, gender, ethnicity, their understanding of the learners, their educational qualification, and their place of work. Moreover, the definition of competence varies with time, place and person (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). Hence, it is important that the standard setters must know the learners and the competence level expected from them and the standard setters must be called from different places. This is one of the first requirements to have the profile of the standard setters to establish their credibility. Moreover, the selection of the method of standard setting is important, and how familiar are the standard setters with the method of standard-setting. There are many standard-setting methods for different assessment instruments and types of exams (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). It is essential to use the appropriate standard-setting method, and also to train the standard setters on that method of standard setting so they know the procedure. The training can be done by providing them certain data to solve it following the steps of the standard-setting procedure. The record of these exercises is important and can be required at later stages to show the experience of the standard setters. Further, every standard-setter writes a cut-off score for each item (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). The mean score of all the standard setters is calculated to determine the cut-off score for each item (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). The total cut-off score is calculated by adding the pass marks of each individual item (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). The cut-off scores for items would also help in differentiating the hawks from doves, that is, those examiners who are quite strict from those who are lenient (McManus et al, 2006). Hence, it is important to keep the record of these cut-off scores of each item for future records and to have a balanced standard-setting team for future exams (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). Additionally, the meeting minutes is an important document to keep the record for the decisions made during the meeting. Lastly, the exam results and post-exam item analysis is an important document to see the performance of students on each item and to make comparisons with the standard-setting meeting (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). It would be important to document the items that behaved as predicted by the standard setters and those items that would show unexpected responses; for example, the majority of the borderline students either secured quite high marks than the cut-off score or vice versa (Norcini and McKinley, 2013). All the documents mentioned above would ensure the creditability of the standard-setting process and would also improve the quality of exam items. There are many other aspects that could not be discussed in this debate on the contemporary assessment system in medical education. Another area that needs deliberations is the futuristic assessment system and how it would address the limitations of the current system? Disclaimer: This work is derived from one of the assignments of the author submitted for his certificate from Keele University. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- References Boulet, J. and Raymond, M. (2018) ‘Blueprinting: Planning your tests. FAIMER-Keele Master’s in Health Professions Education: Accreditation and Assessment. Module 1, Unit 2.’, FAIMER Centre for Distance Learning, CenMEDIC. 6th edn. London, pp. 7–90. Cruess, R. L., Cruess, S. R., & Steinert, Y. (2016). ‘Amending Miller’s pyramid to include professional identity formation’. Acad Med, 91(2), pp. 180–185. Etheridge, L. and Boursicot, K. (2013) ‘Performance and workplace assessment’, in Dent, J. A. and Harden, R. M. (eds) A practical guide for medical teachers. 4th edn. London: Elsevier Limited. Kahneman, D. (2011) Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Lawshe, CH. (1975) A quantitative approach to content validity. Pers Psychol, 28(4), pp. 563–75. McLean, M. and Gale, R. (2018) Essays and short answer questions. FAIMER-Keele Master’s in Health Professions Education: Accreditation and Assessment. Module 1, Unit 5, 5th edition. FAIMER Centre for Distance Learning, CenMEDIC, London. McManus, IC. Thompson, M. and Mollon, J. (2006) ‘ Assessment of examiner leniency and stringency (‘hawk-dove effect’) in the MRCP(UK) clinical examination (PACES) using multi-facet Rasch modelling’ BMC Med Educ. 42(6) doi:10.1186/1472- 6920-6-42 Merrienboer, J.J.G. (2013) ‘Instructional Design’, in Dent, J. A. and Harden, R. M. (eds) A practical guide for medical teachers. 4th edn. London: Elsevier Limited. Murphy, JM. Seneviratne, R. Remers, O and Davis, M. (2009) ‘Hawks’ and ‘doves’: effect of feedback on grades awarded by supervisors of student selected components, Med Teach, 31(10), e484-e488, DOI: 10.3109/01421590903258670 Norcini, J. and McKinley, D. W. (2007) ‘Assessment methods in medical education’, Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(3), pp. 239–250. doi: 10.1016/j.tate.2006.12.021. Norcini, J. and Troncon, L. (2018) Foundations of assessment. FAIMER-Keele Master’s in Health Professions Education: Accreditation and Assessment. Module 1, Unit 1. 6th edn. London: FAIMER Centre for Distance Learning CenMEDIC. Norcini, J. and McKinley, D. W. (2013) ‘Standard Setting’, in Dent, J. A. and Harden, R. M. (eds) A practical guide for medical teachers. 4th edn. London: Elsevier Limited. Swanson, D. and Case, S. (1998) Constructing written test questions for the basic and clincial sciences. 3rd Ed. National Board of Medical Examiners. 3750 Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104. Van Der Vleuten, C. Schuwirth, L. Scheele, F. Driessen, E. and Hodges, B. (2010) ‘The assessment of professional competence: building blocks for theory development’, Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, pp. 1-17. doi:10.1016/j. bpobgyn.2010.04.001 Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge university press.

The South African accounting profession needs racial transformation. Consequently, students pursuing the chartered accountant (South Africa) (CA(SA)) designation, especially at-risk Black students, require adequate support. To be successful, the support must be driven by factors influencing students’ academic performance. As prior academic performance is one such factor, this study examines the relationship between the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams and the National Benchmark Test (NBT) for students enrolled in an accounting degree at a South African university. Due to numerous moderate and strong correlations between NSC and NBT results, without multicollinearity, it was concluded that both sets of results should be considered as factors contributing to students’ academic performance. The findings highlight the need for further empirical research on NSC and NBT results as determinants of success for accounting students.

Introducción: El Junior Secondary Certificate Examination (JSCE, examen estandarizado) es un examen acumulativo que hacen los candidatos al final (tercer curso) del primer ciclo de educación secundaria (Junior Secondary Education) en Nígeria El examen tiene dos versiones: (a) la que realizan las delegaciones de educación de los estados (State Ministries of Education, MOE), y (b) la versión Federal que realiza el Consejo Nacional de Exámenes (National Examinations Council, NECO). Había preocupación creciente entre los implicados sobre la validez predictora de la versión estatal de la JSCE con respecto al Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE, examen paralelo administrado al final del segundo y último ciclo de educación secundaria). Se realizó este estudio para averiguar si hay relación significativa entre el rendimiento global de los estudiantes en el JSCE y su rendimiento en el Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).Método: Los institutos del estado de Osun (de Nigeria) constituyeron la muestra para este estudio. A través de procedimientos de análisis correlacional, se compararon las puntuaciones de los estudiantes en sus exámenes finales del primer curso del segundo ciclo (Senior Secondary School, SSS 1), del segundo curso (SSS 2), y sus puntuaciones en el SSCE en seis asignaturas principales con sus puntuaciones correspondientes del JSCE.Resultados: Se demostró que el JSCE del estado de Osun no predice el rendimiento de los estudiantes en el SSCE. Sin embargo, se encontró que la Lengua y las Matemáticas del JSCE tenían mayor capacidad para predecir el rendimiento en Lengua y Matemáticas del SSCE, en contraste con las demás asignaturas (r =0.32, p<0.05 y r =0.22 p<0.05 respectivamente).Conclusión: Rendimiento global en el JSCE para las seis asignaturas investigadas es mal predictor del rendimiento en el SSCE (con la excepción de Lengua y Matemáticas). Esta tendencia puede deberse a las limitaciones a las que se enfrentan las delegaciones (MOE) que desempeñan el papel de un organismo de exámenes.

This paper backgrounds a number of factors that have influenced proposed changes in New Zealand’s senior secondary assessment system. It documents various moves which have been made over the last 30 years, refers to international practices, reviews and developments, and notes the ongoing reluctance to shift from traditional systems in this country. Research about assessment, changing educational needs, and growing recognition of the pervasive influence of high stakes assessment and the opportunities offered by assessment aligned to learning, are seen as further influencing factors. The article emphasises the need for change, contrasts New Zealand and overseas practice, and observes that while the current NCEA design is an improvement over the old, compromises have led to a model with some deficiencies.

The National Senior Certificate examination is the most important school examination in South Africa. Analysis of learners’ performance in Mathematics in this examination is normally carried out and presented in terms of the percentage of learners who succeeded in the different bands of achievement. In some cases item difficulties are presented – item refers to the subsection of each examination question. Very little attention is paid to other diagnostic statistics, such as the discrimination indices and item difficulties taking into consideration partial scores examinees achieve on items. In this article we report on a study that, in addition to the usual item difficulties, includes a discrimination index of item difficulties taking into account partial scores examinees achieved. The items, considered individually, are analysed in relation to the other items on the test. The focus is on the topic sequences and series and the data were obtained from a stratified sample of the marked scripts of the candidates who wrote the National Senior Certificate examination in Mathematics in November 2010. Rasch procedures were used for the analysis. The findings indicate that learners perform differently on subsections of topics, herein referred to as items, and that focusing on scores for full topics potentially mask these differences. Mathematical explanations are attempted to account for difficulties learners exhibit in these subsections, using a hierarchy of scale. The findings and our analysis indicate that a form of measurement-driven testing could have beneficial results for teaching. Also, for some items the difficulty obtained from the work of examinees runs counter to the commonly perceived wisdom that an examination ought to be structured in such a way that the less difficult items are at the start of a topic. An explanatory device anchored around the construct of ‘familiarity with problem types through repeated productive practice’ is used to account for the manifested hierarchy of difficulty of the items.

School science learning aims to engage students into understanding science concepts, developing procedural understanding, and an understanding of the nature of science. In recent times, teachers of senior science in New Zealand have had to adapt to two significant systemic policy changes that have impacted on their practice. The first was a new curriculum that required the teaching of science investigation and the second, internal assessment of science investigation for National Certificate of Educational Assessment (NCEA). This paper presents findings of research that investigated the case of science investigation from the teachers’ perspective. The data were collected through questionnaire, interviews and classroom observations. The findings suggest that teachers changed their practice of teaching science investigation in response to the change in assessment of policy. The consequence of this change led to students being trained to mostly learning a fair testing type of investigation to gain NCEA credits and grades.

Dr Math was a mobile mathematics tutoring service, used by school learners across South Africa. The wealth of historic data available, with regard to the conversations between tutors and learners, may contain valuable insights as to which mathematics topics are most frequently encountered on the Dr Math service. This alignment may serve as an indicator of the utility of an online tutorial service as a reflection of the curriculum covered by learners, and as an extra avenue of support. This study makes use of automated means to rank the topics discussed on the Dr Math service and to align them with the topics encountered in the South African National Senior Certificate final examinations. The study finds that there is a close alignment with regard to the observations of the Department of Basic Education on factors influencing the performance of the learners. The topics most frequently discussed on the Dr Math service also align closely with the topics with which the learners have most difficulty in their final exams.

This article explores the elements that contribute to the poor performance of grade 12 learners in Accounting. As far as Accounting as a school subject in South Africa is concerned, there is a growing concern about the underperformance of learners, due to both a decrease in learners who enrol for the subject in grade 12 and the low pass rate in the National Senior Certificate examination. Existing research points out that fewer students elect Accounting as a grade 12 subject and that the performance of these students is below the average pass rate when compared to other subjects. This article employed as research methodology a qualitative case study in which interviews were used to collect data. Based on the case study conducted in the Frances Baard District Municipality in the Northern Cape, this article identifies critical factors that contribute to the underperformance of learners in grade 12 Accounting. Addressing these factors may contribute to the improvement of the performance of learners in Accounting. This is relevant for South Africa, which is experiencing a serious shortage of chartered accountants and other financial and auditing professionals.

Abstract Background An electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) is an electronic nicotine delivering system that may be widely used by smokers in Thailand for some reasons, although e-cigarette is an embargo good in Thailand and their benefits are not clear. Moreover, the behaviors of Thai e-cigarettes users remain insufficient and ambiguous. This study aimed to survey behaviors of using e-cigarettes and rationales among Thai e-cigarette users. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study from December 2019 to February 2020 throughout Thailand. The participants were Thais with at least 18 years old and currently using e-cigarette, and they were invited to voluntary participate in the study using an online questionnaire posting on social media. Results Of 1,050 participants, most of participants were men (89.1%); the average age was 31.2±8.4 years old. They were from all regions of Thailand, but most of them (64.5%), were from the central part of Thailand. Of currently Thai e-cigarette users, 43.2%, 23.1%, and 14.9% were private employees, business owners/ freelancers, and students, respectively. Most of the users were graduated with a bachelor's degree (53.8%), and Senior high school or Vocational certificate (25.0%). E-cigarette users reported the top 3 rationales for using e-cigarette were the belief of less harmful of e-cigarette than a conventional cigarette (81.0%), using as a smoking quitting aid (80.6%), and lacking attaching normal cigarette odor (58.2%). Conclusions This study shows that most of the e-cigarette users were males with an average age of 31 years old. Smokers used e-cigarette because of the belief of less harmful of e-cigarette than a conventional cigarette and being a quitting aid. The public health organizations and health care providers should provide accurate information and raise awareness of users about the harm of e-cigarettes and inconclusive evidence of using e-cigarettes as a quitting aid. Key messages The public health organizations should provide accurate information and raise awareness of users about the harm of e-cigarettes and inconclusive evidence of using e-cigarettes as a quitting aid. Most of Thai e-cigarette users were men, at the average age of 31 years old, from the central part of Thailand, work as private company employees and bachelor’s degree graduated.

The high level of student failure, accompanied by an increased drop-out rate, is problematic in higher education. It is especially a concern in programmes with the subjects of Mathematics, Accounting and Science. Over many years, models of student admission and selection have been widely researched both internationally and in South Africa. Research indicates that in the academic domain, underpreparedness results from a combination of a lack of English proficiency, mathematical ability and effective study skills. In view of the above, and government policy directives to broaden access in the scarce skills areas to increase student throughput, foundation provision was introduced for students of Commerce, Information Technology, Business, Mathematics and Informatics courses at the Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of North-West University (NWU) in 2010. The question at that time then arose as to what criteria should be used for placing students in the extended programme. The placement of first-year students in appropriate programmes should be done with sensitivity to enhance academic success but, at the same time, should not ‘label’ students as underprepared. This paper provides perspectives on the selection criteria available for predicting academic success/preparedness, and then reports on students’ own experiences. An action research study was conducted on the academic achievement of two cohorts of first-year students at the VTC of NWU. The quantitative results of the performance of first-year students in their core modules are compared to the results of predictive tests written after admission. The results provide valuable insight into the placement of students.Keywords: Academic preparedness, extended programmes, national senior certificate, national benchmark testDisciplines: Education management studies, higher education studies

The South African education system bears evidence of fluctuations in the final Grade 12 mathematics marks occurring across different learner profiles. This study reflected on the National Senior Certificate (NSC) mathematics results from the Western Cape Education Department for the years 2009 to 2014, the period just after the introduction of the NSC in 2008 and including the updated NSC introduced in 2014. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine the learners’ performance by socio-economic school quintile and education district for the period of 2009 to 2014, for learners in the Western Cape. Instead of the ordinary regression model, we adopted the quantile regression approach to examine the effect of school (national) quintile (NQ) type and education district at different quantiles of learner performance in the mathematics examination. The results showed that there is a significant school quintile type and education district effect on learner performance in NSC mathematics examinations for learners in the Western Cape. In some years, there were no significant performance differences between learners from NQ2 and NQ4 schools in the different quantiles. Similarly, learner performance differences for NQ3 and NQ4 schools were not significant. As we moved from 2009 to 2014, the performance difference between the lower school quintiles and the upper school quintiles narrowed, although the performance differences remained significant. These differences were smallest in 2013. This is a good sign, as it indicates that government efforts and policies, designed to narrow the historical social disparities manifested in the schools, have been somewhat successful. The identification and scrutinising of school quintile type and education district where the gap is wider will assist the government to review policies and interventions to accelerate the transformation.