USING PICTURE SERIES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING ABILITY (A Classroom Action Research at the Third Grade Students of MTS NW I Kembang Kerang in the Academic Year of 2010/2011)

English as the first foreign language in Indonesia is taught starting from the elementary school level up to university level. The general objective of teaching English in Indonesia, based on the school based curriculum (KTSP), is to develop students’ communicative competence of the four language skills or aspects of teaching and learning; reading, speaking, listening, and writing. Richard (1992: 189) states that the teaching of language skills (reading speaking, listening, and writing) are related to each other, when a lesson involves activities that relate listening and speaking, reading and writing, it means that listening activity is related to spoken or oral language, and reading is related to written language. The purpose of learning English language in Junior High School is to achieve the functional level. In this, the students can develop their competences in oral or written to resolve daily problems. They are conscious of the importance and essential of English in the global era. They can develop their comprehension about language and culture (Depdiknas, 2006: 278)

Scholarship voyage

The Merdeka Award Lecture covers the various stages of development in the voyage of scholarship of Zaini Ujang; from childhood to professorship, from personal experience to philosophical maturity, from uncertainties to idealism, and from pure chemistry to professional insights on water sustainability. The focus of the talk is on traits of scholarship and inlellectual development as well as university and intellectual idealism. The role of academia in value creation, innovation and creativity will be highlighted, focusing on the strategy and initiative towards an innovation ecosystem and dynamic intellectual climate which Zaini believes should thrive if the academia wants to remain relevant and competitive. Important milestones in the academic pursuit and scholastic excellence expounded by Zaini are also highlighted in his strive towards creating a vibrant knowledge culture and fertile intellectual ecosystem in UTM where he leads as the Vice Chancellor. Special reference to his academic venture in water sciences and sustainability is also included

Degradation of reactive red 195 by selected bacteria from textile wastewater

Four selected bacterial strains coded R1, R2, Rc and Rd were successfully isolated from raw textile wastewater. They were screened for their ability to degrade an azo dye of Reactive Red 195 on solid and in liquid dye-containing media. Screening showed that decolourization was best performed under anaerobic condition with the highest colour removal (˜70%) showed by bacterium R2. The partial 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (16S rRNA) sequence of bacterium R2 shared 98% sequence similarity to Paenibacillus sp.. Decolourization by this bacterium in a chemically defined medium containing (gL-1) of glucose (1), NH4Cl (0.5), K2HPO4 (7), KH2PO4 (2), MgSO4.7H2O (0.1), CaCl2 (0.02), and Reactive red 195 (0.1), adjusted to pH7 and with (10% v/v) inoculum occurred under partial anaerobic condition at temperature of 37°C. Under optimized condition, bacterium R2 successfully removed more than 95% colour and up to 50% of total organic carbon. No significant change in pH was observed (pH from 7.21 to 7.25) though the anaerobiosis was found to be developed throughout the experiment (redox potential reduced from 2.5 to 0.5 mV). This bacterium produced intracellular (0.033 U/mL) and extracellular (0.026 U/mL) azoreductase enzymes which were found to be stable at pH from 6 to 8 and temperature ranging from 30 ºC to 40ºC. High performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed that biodegradation of Reactive Red 195 under partial anaerobic condition produced at least three types of sulfonated amines which were 4-aminobenzenesulphonic acid (sulphanilic acid), 4-amino-3- hydronapthalenesulphonic acid and 4-amino-5-hydronapthalene-2,7disulphonic acid. The sulphanilic acid can be further degraded to a-ketoglutaric acid, a common Krebs cycle’s intermediate in most aerobic microorganism. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Paenibacillus sp. is of good potential use for the treatment of azo dye-containing wastewater based on its ability to remove colour

Konsep keislaman dalam rekabentuk kurikulum pelancongan di sebuah Politeknik Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia

Perkembangan yang pesat industri peiancongan di negara ini teiah dibuktikan melalui sumbangannya yang besar terhadap pendapatan negara. Industri ini turut menyediakan peluang pekerjaan dalam kuantiti yang cukup besar kepada rakyat. Menyedari bahawa tenaga kerja yang terlatih diperlukan untuk memngkatkan tahap kualiti perkhidmatan dalam bidang pelancongan negara, banyak institusi pengajian termasuk Politeknik Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia telah menawarkan kursus khusus datam bidang pelancongan. Bidang pelancongan ini seringkali dikaitkan dengan unsur-unsur negatif yang bertentangan dengan budaya dan agama Islam. Tujuan kajian ini dijalankan ialah untuk melihat konsep keislaman dalam rekabentuk kurikulum pelancongan di Politeknik Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. Poputasi kajian ini terdiri daripada pelajar-pelajar semester enam kursus pengurusan pelancongan Politeknik Johor Bharu, Pasir Gudang, Johor. Data dikumpul menggunakan soalsetidik dan dianatisis menggunakan taburan frekuensi, peratus dan min. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa kemahiran yang diberikan tidak mempunyai penerapan konsep keislaman. Dapatan kajian juga menunjukkan bahawa perubahan sosial yang dialami oleh peiajar mendedahkan mereka kepada perkara yang negatif dan akhir sekali, perubahan diperlukan untuk mengukuhkan kurikulum disamping perlunya menerapkan konsep keislaman dalam kurikulum berkenaan. Oleh itu, dicadangkan agar pelaksanaan kurikulum pelancongan dapat diperhalusi untuk membina graduan yang berwibawa dan mempunyai sahsiah yang tinggi

Cost efficiency and profitability in Thailand's life insurance industry: A stochastic cost frontier approach

Liberalized environments brought about by trade agreements and other restructuring of international markets under the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) have increased market opportunities for foreign firms. This opening up of domestic market under GATS will cause the inflow of foreign insurance firm hence heighten competitive pressures. As such, insurance firm in Thailand need to be efficient to ensure their survival. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the cost efficiency and its relationship with profitability in Thailand’s life insurance firms during the period 1997-2002 using the stochastic cost frontier approach. We find that the industry is on average 82 to 140 percent inefficient. There is no significant relationship between inefficiency and age. But, the mean inefficiency is negatively correlated with size suggesting the need for rationalization in the insurance industry in Thailand. Consolidating the large number of smaller insurers should be high on the government’s agenda, and the capital requirements for life insurers need to be increase. We show that inefficiency is negatively correlated with ROE and ROA ratios. This shows that efficient firms, on average, have higher return on equity and on assets. This indicates that inefficiency has substantial effect on the profitability of life insurance companies

Penyelesaian Project dan Pemberian Scaffolding dalam Pembelajaran Project Based Learning (PBL) Di Perguruan Tinggi

Students are people who have been in adolescence/early adulthood who have the ability to think formally, and to regulate their needs and play an active role through social interaction. Learning in higher education needs to cover the development of thinking so that the standard of graduate competence can be achieved. The beginning of project based learning (PBL) was adopted more slowly in higher education and in its development. It was recommended to adopt PBL because PBL has the potential to improve learning and be able to develop optimally academic skills, occupational skills, employ ability. This study is intended to uncover the process of project completion and explain the level of scaffoding that can be given during project completion from students who have low abilities . The research approach used is qualitative researchThe results of the study indicate that the project can be completed even though it takes a long time from the project completion plan.Scaffolding levels include environmental provisions, explaining, reviewing, and restructuring and developing conceptual thinking

Description of Students Thinking on Warshall-Floyd Algorithm

The shortest path continues to be a trend until now that is always discussed and developed. This study focuses on the construction process and description of the students' understanding in deciding the shortest route based on the matrix iteration according to the Floyd-Warshall algorithm. The research approach used is descriptive qualitative research and the data collection technique is a test technique. The research data included problem-solving by four students with different abilities and the result data were analyzed inductively. The results showed that the matrix iteration with the formula for determining the entry of the iteration matrix xn = minimum(dijk-1, dikk-1 + dkjk-1) was followed without any constraints by all students until the 7th iteration. It was found that the inaccuracy of taking entries in the 1st iteration by students with low ability caused calculation errors and failure in finding the shortest route

Penguatan Pendidikan Toleransi Sejak Usia Dini (Menanamkan Nilai-nilai Toleransi dalam Pluralisme Beragama pada Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini (Paud) di Kabupaten Tulungagung Tahun 2010)

Many analysts and observers mention of early "The Golden Age" of the young age is highly effective embedded multi-dimensional education golden times that never happen again on the same occasion throughout human lifetime. What education can be given to children by parents, mother, father and educator will help shape the character and personality of the children. Character and personality are formed on the education of children is fundamental education that the can color the whole nature and lifestyle before it can be influenced by factors other than friends, the environment and conditions in which the child located. The more mature the child will be more complex, also influence which appear later. so that value of awareness and the values of honesty, mutual respect, mutual respect, esprit de corps, mutual giving and helping the others with no view his of the status and color of her dress as a manifestation of the values of tolerance and instilled a decent strengthened since early Childhoo

POLITICAL EFFECT IN MERDEKA BELAJAR EDUCATION ERA OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Political influence in education is like compulsory instruction, while it is difficult to create without astute individuals. Even the brightest individuals have to be framed through school. Education is directly or by implication influenced by government issues. The amalgamation of instructions and governance issues is plural. For a while, teaching can shape people who participate in political life. The reason for the school is to make students mentally minded and have great personalities. The training framework must produce millennial students who can compete in the modern-based 4.0 era. Therefore, the educational framework in Pamekasan continues to improve and change. Changes in schooling began with Nadiem Makarim's discourse, who proposed the development of "Merdeka Belajar". Nadiem's opportunity aims to make independent instructors have an essential meaning for academic units or schools for educators and their students to have the chance to advance, adapt freely, and be creative, especially during this coronavirus pandemic.