Mini-languages: a way to learn programming principles

Mini-languages are a visually intuitive, simple and powerful way to introduce students to programming. They are a good foundation for general computer science instruction, provide insight into programming for the general population, and teach algorithmic thinking. The goal of the paper is to provide an extensive review of the mini-language approach to teaching programming. For different audiences and in different countries, the authors have extensive experience in design and application of mini-languages. We outline the problems that motivate the application of this approach, present a brief history, review several existing mini-languages, and provide discussion of lessons learned. In particular, we discuss how to choose a mini-language for a particular group of students and list some requirements for a successful application of a mini- language. We conclude with a discussion of possible future directions of the mini-language approach development     

Debt: the reality of student life

During the 1980s, a political consensus developed concerning the need to increase participation in higher education (Walker and Wright, 1990). How to finance this increase, however, was a matter of contention. While successive Conservative governments demonstrated a commitment to increasing the number of students, this aim was subordinate to their central concern of controlling public expenditure, which meant they were not prepared to meet the cost of expansion totally from the public purse. As a consequence, alternative ways of financing students were introduced which, as this paper will demonstrate, have led to a higher education system subsidized by student debt.     

Correlation: From Picture to Formula

Correlation is introduced intuitively early in the school curriculum by considering patterns in scatter diagrams. Later on, various formulae are used for calculating correlation coefficients. This article suggests ways in which the formulae can be related to the scatter diagrams.     

Teaching physics to prospective elementary teachers: Bridging gaps or widening chasms

The education of prospective Elementary and Early Childhood (E&EC) teachers to teach science has been an on-going challenge for science teacher educators. Accordingly, a course in physical science was planned and implemented especially for prospective E&EC teachers. The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of the enacted curriculum and about the forces which constrained its evolution. Miller, the teacher of the course, had no prior experience in teaching prospective E&EC teachers and many of his experiences as a university level teacher were based on his teaching of physics majors. These experiences shaped his approach to teaching the course as did his years as a basketball coach. Miller was an expert in physics and constructed his role as teaching students significant scientific truths. Miller saw the purpose of the course as being to educate the students in science, not to prepare them to teach science. He was unwilling to address the goals of students that were oriented strongly toward becoming better teachers. The beliefs of the teacher constrained the enacted curriculum to an extent that gaps between the needs of students and the enacted curriculum were wider at the end of the course than they were at the beginning. Armstrong College In my opinion I think I failed completely, but I am quite happy with what I am trying to do. I just don't think I executed it well. So I was pretty unhappy with the whole experience in terms of the results, but I was not unhappy with the experience in terms of whether it was worth doing. I think it is important in science to develop free-thinking and being able to come to conclusions. Science is being able to reflect on the human condition, and being able to think about things you don't know about. (Miller)     

Infant joint attention, temperament, and social competence in preschool children

Infant joint attention has been observed to be related to social-emotional outcomes in at-risk children. To address whether this relation is also evident in typically developing children, 52 children were tested at 12, 15, 24, and 30 months to examine associations between infant joint attention and social outcomes. Twelve-month initiating and responding to joint attention were related to 30-month social competence and externalizing behavior, even when accounting for 15-month temperament ratings, 24-month cognition and language, and demographic variables. These results suggest that, in addition to associations with language and cognition, infant joint attention reflects robust aspects of development that are related to individual differences in the emergence of social and behavioral competence in childhood.     

Language and theory of mind: a study of deaf children

Theory-of-mind (ToM) abilities were studied in 176 deaf children aged 3 years 11 months to 8 years 3 months who use either American Sign Language (ASL) or oral English, with hearing parents or deaf parents. A battery of tasks tapping understanding of false belief and knowledge state and language skills, ASL or English, was given to each child. There was a significant delay on ToM tasks in deaf children of hearing parents, who typically demonstrate language delays, regardless of whether they used spoken English or ASL. In contrast, deaf children from deaf families performed identically to same-aged hearing controls (N=42). Both vocabulary and understanding syntactic complements were significant independent predictors of success on verbal and low-verbal ToM tasks.     

DISCUSSION, COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE WORK AND EPISTEMIC FLUENCY

ABSTRACT:   This paper argues for an action-oriented conception of learning in higher education: one which marries higher order learning (coming to understand) with apprenticeship in knowledge work. It introduces epistemic tasks, forms and fluency as constructs that are useful in giving a more precise meaning to ideas about collaboration in knowledge construction. Discussion is seen as central to collaborative knowledge work and we examine the role of discussion in supporting weaker and stronger interpretations of collaborative knowledge construction.