Learning the principles of simulation using the birthday problem

Using the famous Birthday problem, we present here a practical activity that allows students to perceive the basic reasoning behind simulation and explore its potential. Through a playful approach with probabilities, students are led along a path that illustrates difficulties with intuition and introduces them to theoretical results for sample proportions.     

Superintendent’s leadership: the cultural aspects of the role enactment

This qualitative study seeks to create a better understanding of the work of school superintendents. This study was conducted using ethnographic techniques as a way to describe the practice of a Latino superintendent in a borderland community in south Texas. Guiding questions for this study were: What goes on in the workday life of a superintendent? and how does the superintendent enact his role as superintendent? Field study for this qualitative inquiry occurred over a period of seven months. Data for this study, including transgressive data, were collected primarily through participant observations, semi-structured ethnographic interviews, from artefacts and journal notes.     

Relative Age Effect,Biological Maturation,and Coaches’ Efficacy Expectations in Young Male Soccer Players

Purpose: The talent identification and selection process in young male soccer players is mainly focused on anthropometrics and physical performance, but social factors are also considered in this process. The purpose of this study was to test the existence of the relative age effect and its possible influence on anthropometrics and physical performance and to analyze coaches’ efficacy expectations. Method: Data for 564 young male soccer players (M_age = 13.7 ± 1.5 years; M_weight = 53.7 ± 11.6 kg; M_height = 160.2 ± 11.6 cm) included their birth quartile, maturity status, anthropometrics, a physical test battery, and coaches’ efficacy expectations. Results: Early-born players were overrepresented (p < .05). Early-born players were not statistically taller, heavier, or better at physical performance (p > .05) when maturation and chronological age were controlled as confounding factors. However, coaches expected more from early-born players (p < .05), and the inferential analysis showed likely to very likely worthwhile differences between the coaches’ expectations for players born in the first quartile of the year and those born in the fourth quartile of the year. Conclusions: Anthropometrical and physical performance variables were not affected by birth quartile, and coaches’ efficacy expectations were related to the relative age effect.     

The first steps for adapting an artificial intelligence emotion expression recognition software for emotional management in the educational context

To test the suitability of an automatic system for emotional management in the classroom following the control-value theory of achievement emotions (CVT) framework, the performance of an emotional expression recognition software of our creation is evaluated in an online synchronous context. Sixty students from the Faculty of Education at the University of Alicante participated in 16 educational activities recording close-ups of their faces and completing the AEQ emotional self-report, as well as detailed reports from the subsequent review of their videos. In addition, they completed the VCQ-36 test to measure their volitional competencies and relate their influence on their emotional response. The results indicate a high coherence between the emotional expressions detected by the automatic system and the detailed emotional self-reports, but insufficient precision to meet the CVT requirements. On the other hand, both the AEQ test results and the emotion expression recognition software suggest students' preference for participative activities as opposed to passive ones. Meanwhile, statistical analysis results indicate that volitional competencies seem to influence the emotional response of students in the educational context, although the AI system does not show sufficient sensitivity in this field. Implications and limitations of this study for future work are discussed.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Student motivation and involvement in the learning process are highly related to appropriate emotional regulation, which can be associated with particular educational activities, strategies and methodologies.
• Deep learning technology based on convolutional neural networks feeds automatic systems focused on facial expression recognition from image analysis.

What this paper adds

• There is high coherence between the emotional expressions detected by the AI system and the students' emotional self-reports, but the AI system provides just emotional valences, insufficient to meet the CVT framework.
• Both emotional self-reports and the emotion recognition software suggest students' preference for active educational activities as opposed to passive ones.
• Volitional competencies seem to influence the emotional response of students in the educational context.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• It is possible to use automatic systems to effectively monitor the emotional response of students in the learning process.
• Only if sensitivity improved, a real-time, easy-to-interpret emotional expression recognition software interface could be implemented to assist teachers with the emotional management of their classes within the CVT framework, maximizing their motivation and engagement.

     

The role of letter knowledge acquisition ability on children's decoding and word identification: Evidence from an artificial orthography

Background

Letter knowledge is crucial in the first stages of reading development. It supports learning letter-sound mappings and the identification of the letters that make up words. Previous studies have investigated the longitudinal impact of early letter knowledge on children's further word reading abilities. This study employed an artificial orthography learning paradigm to explore whether the rate of letter learning modulates children's reading and word identification skills.

Methods

In an initial training phase, 8-year-old Spanish children (N = 30) learned nine artificial letters and their corresponding sounds (two vowels and six consonants). The letter learning rate was set according to the number of attempts needed to name at least seven letters (i.e., 80% correct). These ranged from 1 to 4. In a second training phase, children visualized words made up of the trained letters while listening to their pronunciations. Some words included a context-dependent syllable (i.e., leading to grapheme-to-phoneme inconsistency), and others had an inconsistent syllable (i.e., phoneme-to-grapheme inconsistency). The post-test consisted of a reading aloud task and an orthographic-choice task in which the target word was presented with a distractor equal to the target except for the substitution of a letter.

Results

Children showed a high accuracy rate in the post-test tasks, regardless of whether words contained context-dependent or inconsistent syllables. Critically, the letter learning rate predicted both reading aloud and identification accuracy of words in the artificial orthography.

Conclusions

We provide evidence for the vital role of letter knowledge acquisition ability in children's decoding and word identification skills. Training children on this ability facilitates serial letter-sound mapping and word identification skills. Artificial orthography paradigms are optimal for exploring children's potential to achieve specific literacy skills.

     

Post-purchase Federal Financial Aid: How (in)Effective is the IRS’s Student Loan Interest Deduction (SLID) in Reaching Lower-Income Taxpayers and Students?

Research in Higher Education - Federal financial aid policies for higher education may be classified based on their “for-purchase” and “post-purchase” natures. The former...