Cardboard Cities,Real Mathematics: Employing Quantitative Literacy to Study Gentrification in NYC

Abstract

Gentrification is a complex issue with very real repercussions for urban youth. Games make learning fun and provide a way for students to explore complex systems through recursive play. We describe a board game designed to help students explore ratios and proportional reasoning while simultaneously engaging the causes and effects of gentrification. Situated within a multidisciplinary first-semester learning community course, the game provides a model for later experiential learning opportunities as students are asked to study the effects of gentrification in one New York City neighborhood.     

Navigating the Realities of the Induction Years: Exploring Approaches for Supporting Beginning Physical Education Teachers

Because significant challenges continue to exist in the retention of teachers, the need for an infusion of proactive assimilation strategies, especially related to the induction phase, has become a mandate in physical education. Beginning teachers face countless potential hurdles. From marginalization, role conflict, and teaching diverse student populations, to reality shock and limited resources, the effects of organizational socialization and the realities of the day-to-day workload can be powerful influences on a teacher’s effectiveness and desire to persist. Creating meaningful mentoring relationships, opportunities for purposeful professional development, and timely feedback can serve to help propel teachers through their transition into the field. Acquiring skills to navigate the school culture and provide effective instruction benefits all educational stakeholders. The purpose of this article is to examine the factors that enhance or constrain beginning teachers’ induction processes and offer recommendations for supporting physical educators as they assimilate into the field.     

Quantitative analysis of approaches to group marking

Abstract

Group work, where students work on projects to overcome challenges together, has numerous advantages, including learning of important transferable skills, better learning experience and increased motivation. However, in many academic systems the advantages of group projects clash with the need to assign individualised marks to students. A number of different schemes have been proposed to individualise group project marks, these include marking of individual reflexive accounts of the group work and peer assessment. Here, we explore a number of these schemes in computational experiments with an artificial student population. Our analysis highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each scheme and particularly reveals the power of a new scheme proposed here that we call pseudoinverse marking.

Abbreviations

SOPP: Self organised peer assessment; RA: Reflexive accounts; MRA: Mark-adjusted reflexive accounts; NPA: Normalised peer assessment; PR: Peer ranking; PiM: Pseudoinverse marking     

Making Valid and Consistent Inferences About School Effectiveness From Multiple Measures

This study explores the use of multiple measures to enhance the validity and reliability of inferences about school and district effectiveness. Using data from the state of Ohio, a framework for combining measures is applied to examine the individual and collective impact of multiple measures on both the federal AYP designations and state ratings. Implications for the use of multiple measures to broaden the construct of district and school effectiveness, improve the acceptance and legitimacy of accountability programs, and promote desired outcomes are discussed.     

Learning by pigeons playing against tit-for-tat in an operant prisoner’s dilemma

Each of four pigeons was exposed to a single random-ratio schedule of reinforcement in which the probability of reinforcement for a peck on either of two keys was 1/25. Reinforcer amounts were determined by an iterated prisoner’s dilemma (IPD) matrix in which the “other player” (a computer) playedtit-for-tat. One key served as thecooperation(C) key; the other served as thedefection(D) key. If a peck was scheduled to be reinforced and the D-key was pecked, the immediate reinforcer of that peck was always higher than it would have been had the C-key been pecked. However, if the C-key was pecked and thefollowing peck was scheduled to be reinforced, reinforcement amount for pecks on either key were higher than they would have been if the previous peck had been on the D-key. Although immediate reinforcement was always higher for D-pecks, the overall reinforcement rate increased linearly with the proportion of C-pecks. C-pecks thus constituted a form of self-control. All the pigeons initially defected with this procedure. However, when feedback signals were introduced that indicated which key had last been pecked,cooperation (relative rate of C-pecks)—hence, self-control—increased for all the pigeons.     

略论远程开放教育辅导教师素质的提高

随着“人才培养模式改革和开放教育试点”工作的进行,广播电视大学将成为现代远程开放教育的主力军。但是,许多电大辅导员在新的教育形式下却感到力不从心。本文论述了远程开放教育对教师的影响和新形式下电大辅导教师的定位,同时提出了提高电大辅导教师自身素质的基本途径。