Providing metrics and automatic enhancement for hierarchical taxonomies

Taxonomies enable organising information in a human–machine understandable form, but constructing them for reuse and maintainability remains difficult. The paper presents a formal underpinning to provide quality metrics for a taxonomy under development. It proposes a methodology for semi-automatic building of maintainable taxonomies and outlines key features of the knowledge engineering context where the metrics and methodology are most suitable. The strength of the approach presented is that it is applied during the actual construction of the taxonomy. Users provide terms to describe different domain elements, as well as their attributes, and methodology uses metrics to assess the quality of this input. Changes according to given quality constraints are then proposed during the actual development of the taxonomy.     

Information-governing dynamics of attacker–defender interactions in youth rugby union

Abstract

Previous work on dynamics of interpersonal interactions in 1 vs. 1 sub-phases of basketball has identified changes in interpersonal distance between an attacker and defender as a potential control parameter for influencing organizational states of attacker–defender dyads. Other studies have reported the constraining effect of relative velocity between an attacker and defender in 1 vs. 1 dyads. To evaluate the relationship between these candidate control parameters, we compared the impact of both interpersonal distance and relative velocity on the pattern-forming dynamics of attacker–defender dyads in the sport of rugby union. Results revealed that when interpersonal distance achieved a critical value of less than 4 m, and relative velocity values increased or were maintained above 1 m · s^?1, a successful outcome (i.e. clean attempt) for an attacker was predicted. Alternatively, when values of relative velocity suddenly decreased below this threshold, at the same critical value of interpersonal distance, a successful outcome for the defender was predicted. Data demonstrated how the coupling of these two potential, nested control parameters moved the dyadic system to phase transitions, characterized as a try or a tackle. Observations suggested that relative velocity increased its influence on the organization of attacker–defender dyads in rugby union over time as spatial proximity to the try line increased.     

Learning design and learning analytics in mobile and ubiquitous learning: A systematic review

Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning (m/u-learning) are finding an increasing adoption in education. They are often distinguished by hybrid learning environments that encompass elements of formal and informal learning, in activities that happen in distributed settings (indoors and outdoors), across physical and virtual spaces. Despite their purported benefits, these environments imply additional complexity in the design, monitoring and evaluation of learning activities. The research literature on learning design (LD) and learning analytics (LA) has started to deal with these issues. This paper presents a systematic literature review of LD and LA, in m/u-learning. Apart from providing an overview of the current research in the field, this review elicits elements of common ground between both communities, as shown by the similar learning contexts and complementary research contributions, and based on the research gaps, proposes to: address m/u-learning beyond higher education settings, reinforce the connection between physical and virtual learning spaces, and more systematically align LD and LA processes.     

Testing and ideology: policy debates about literacy assessments for Colorado’s bilingual students

ABSTRACT

The Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act requires grade-level attainment in literacy in English for students in grades K-3. Its practical outcome, however, has been to pressure schools with bilingual programs to shift their instructional language allocations towards more English in the early grades. Proposed rule revisions debated by the state Board of Education sought to facilitate testing in students’ language of instruction for those in bilingual programs. Analysis of written and verbal opposition to the proposed rule revisions demonstrates the persistence of insidious ethnoculturalist discourses opposing bilingual education as well as the cooptation of liberal multiculturalist discourses that, while framing bilingualism as an asset, argue that it is underdeveloped in bilingual programs that do not include English instruction from the outset. Given that bilingual instruction has demonstrated time and again that it benefits students acquiring English in schools, such new discursive turns pose a threat that must be recognized to fend off further legislative and regulatory attempts against bilingual education.     

Mid-life career changing to teaching profession: a study of secondary school teachers in a rural community

There are many research projects focused on pre-service teachers’ professional development programmes but only a few focus on mid-life career-changing teachers’ career decision. This paper worked with data collected from semi-structured interviews with 11 mid-life career-changing secondary school teachers. The aim was to understand the career decisions of these participants and how they made sense of their new profession during their mature adulthood in Indiana, USA. 11 mid-life career-changing secondary school teachers referred to ‘changing the next generation with industry experience’, ‘rich life experience’, ‘life-long learning’, ‘knowledge transferring’, and ‘make a difference’ to describe their current occupation as career changing secondary school teachers. The findings also outline how to reform the curriculum and instruction of the pre-service teachers’ professional development programmes.     

On the role of representations and artefacts in knowing and learning

This article provides a critical commentary on the concepts of representation and digital artefacts in Morgan and Kynigos’s article of this Special Issue. To set the context, in the first part, I examine some of the tensions that arose during discussions through the 1980s and 1990s about representation in mathematics education research. Then, I comment on the conceptual differences between Morgan’s and Kynigos’s approaches. These differences point to different epistemological assumptions that lead to different conceptualizations of artefacts in learning processes. In the last part, I argue that Morgan’s and Kynigos’s approaches have the merit of moving the discussion about representations to new theoretical horizons. I suggest, however, that a discussion about representations and digital artefacts requires a thematized account of the manner in which the phenomenological artefact- and representation-mediated knowledge produced by students in the classroom relates to the target cultural mathematical knowledge. Such an account, I contend, requires an explicit ontological conception of knowing and knowledge. I conclude the article with an example in which knowledge is considered as codified movement and knowing as the event of its enactment in concrete practice. Within this Hegelian materialist viewpoint, representations are neither predicated in terms of an adequacy between ideas and their representations nor as heuristic devices in meaning making processes. Representations are rather an integral part of the activity of knowledge presentation.     

Design and environmental technologies: Does ‘green-matching’ actually help?

This paper investigates whether a green kind of design helps firms increase their capabilities for inventing in the environmental domain and whether it does so more than ‘standard’ design. It also investigates whether the effect of ‘green-matching’ between new design and technologies is conditional on firms’ innovative capabilities, as reflected by their R&D expenditure. We address these research questions with respect to the world's top R&D investors, looking at their intellectual property rights at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and proposing an original textual identification of green designs and trademarks. We find that green design increases environmental inventions by top R&D investors, and to a greater extent than non-environmental ones. Standard design also stimulates environmental inventions, but to a lesser extent than green design. The ‘green-matching’ actually helps, but internal innovative capabilities are required to make it effective: a green-tech ‘prize’ emerges from green design, but only once a minimum threshold of R&D expenditure has been reached.     

Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno’s Textbooks: Audiences, Teaching Practices and Chemical Revolution

Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno wrote two editions of a chemistry textbook between 1788 and 1802. The paper offers a comparative view of both editions taking into account Gutiérrez Bueno’s biography, his intended audience and the changes related to the so-called chemical revolution. Some conclusions are at odds with common images about scientific revolutions and the role of textbooks in science. The analysis aims to shed some light on the multiple historical forces shaping textbooks and the way in which scientific change is assimilated by their writers. This research was partially supported by the program BHA2002-04611-CO3-02     

Telematics for Teacher Education: issues from a European conference

ABSTRACT

The world Information Superhighway is under discussion in many countries. Within Europe the discussion is also very active as is the promotion of the use of telematics for trans‐European communication and co‐operation in various areas. For education and training, representatives of European teacher trainers, teachers, students, parents, policy and decision makers discussed their needs and views on a trans‐European network at a conference held in May 1994 in Luxembourg. This paper presents a selection of various issues raised at the conference regarding the use of telematics for teacher education and illustrates the discussion and the method of discussion. It also describes and discusses the conference programme model, as it offered innovative on‐line activities to facilitate appreciation of telematics. The case is argued that teacher education can benefit greatly from telematics and some points are put forward for further discussion.