Assessment,Grade Level and Learning

Researchers have identified assessment as a very crucial influence on the learning strategies adopted by students. The present study carried out on Secondary 2, Secondary 4, and Junior College 2/Pre-University 3 students shows that the Singapore students did not favour the Surface Approach in their learning of English and Mathematics. The nature of the discipline and the cognitive demands of the examinations carried considerable importance for students in their choice of learning strategies. Despite the heavy emphasis on excelling in examinations, students did not rely solely on surface and achieving strategies to attain their goals.     

Research on Educational Media: Half a Century of Doing Things Right Rather Than the Right Thing

This paper critically examines research on the influence of educational media on learning. It argues that much of the supposed benefits of media such as greater concreteness, improved learning performance, more efficient learning and increased retention, among others, are not supported by the evidence thus far. Comparative research on different forms of media, and on media attributes have likewise proved inconclusive. The paper goes on to explore reasons for these findings and urges that future studies should focus on studies with media rather than on media.     

Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Education Division Competition 2010 Winner: The Organic Price Tag

Abstract: One of the core competencies in the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Education standards is for students to achieve competency in communication skills (that is, oral and written communication, listening, interviewing, and so on). According to the IFT guidelines, by the time students graduate, they should not only be able to search for and condense information, but also be able to “communicate technical information to a nontechnical audience.” The Education Division of IFT sponsors a writing competition for undergraduate students to bring attention to and promote the development of communication skills. It has been shown that employees/entry‐level scientists who can communicate technical and nontechnical concepts succinctly will be in a better position to achieve management status after entering the work force. Monetary prizes are awarded to the authors of the top three papers. A revised version of the winning entry is published in the Journal of Food Science Education for dissemination to a world‐wide audience.     

Experiential learning in doctoral training programmes: fostering personal epistemology through collaboration

There has been increasing recognition for the need to reform doctoral training practices to foster students’ personal epistemology. This study describes the design and evaluation of a learning experience designed to help students understand the scholarly publication process. Firstly, this study discusses the design of the learning experience, describing the collaborative process of writing an interdisciplinary publication using both online and face-to-face learning. Secondly, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the learning experience by examining students’ reflections. We show that participation in the learning experience helped students to develop their academic writing proficiency, collaboration and teamwork, intercultural competence, and ability to engage in reflective practice. Importantly, we show that each student also created more individualised knowledge, gaining insight into how they and others think. This study, therefore, demonstrates that personal epistemology can be fostered through collaboration in a doctoral writing group context.     

H∞ tracking control for nonlinear multivariable systems using wavelet-type TSK fuzzy brain emotional learning with particle swarm optimization

This paper studies the ${\mathit{H}}_{\infty }$ tracking control for uncertain nonlinear multivariable systems. We propose a control strategy, which combines the adaptive wavelet-type Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy brain emotional learning controller (WTFBELC) and the $H_{\infty }$ robust tracking compensator. As for the adaptive WTFBELC, it is a main controller designed to mimic the ideal controller. The proposed WTFBELC is to obtain much better ability of handling nonlinearities and uncertainties, but the proposed $H_{\infty }$ robust tracking compensator is to compensate the residual error between the adaptive WTFBELC and the ideal controller. Furthermore, the optimal learning rates of the adaptive WTFBELC are searched quickly by using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, and the parameter updated laws are derived based on the steepest descent gradient method. The robust tracking performance of this novel control scheme is guaranteed based on Lyapunov stability theory. The mass-spring-damper mechanical system and the three-link robot manipulator, are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive PSO-WTFBELC $H_{\infty }$ control scheme.     

Dynamics and manipulation of ferroelectric domain walls in bismuth ferrite thin films

Ferroelectric domain walls differ from domains not only in their crystalline and discrete symmetry, but also in their electronic, magnetic, and mechanical properties. Although domain walls provide a degree of freedom to regulate the physical properties at the nanoscale, the relatively lower controllability prevents their practical applications in nano-devices. In this work, with the advantages of 3D domain configuration detection based on piezoresponse force microscopy, we find that the mobility of three types of domain walls (tail-to-tail, head-to-tail, head-to-head) in (001) BiFeO₃ films varies with the applied electrical field. Under low voltages, head-to-tail domain walls are more mobile than other domain walls, while, under high voltages, tail-to-tail domain walls become rather active and possess relatively long average lengths. This is due to the high nucleation energy and relatively low growth energy for charged domain walls. Finally, we demonstrate the manipulation of domain walls through successive electric writings, resulting in well-aligned conduction paths as designed, paving the way for their application in advanced spintronic, memory and communication nano-devices.