The tipping point: F-score as a function of the number of retrieved items

One of the best known measures of information retrieval (IR) performance is the F-score, the harmonic mean of precision and recall. In this article we show that the curve of the F-score as a function of the number of retrieved items is always of the same shape: a fast concave increase to a maximum, followed by a slow decrease. In other words, there exists a single maximum, referred to as the tipping point, where the retrieval situation is ‘ideal’ in terms of the F-score. The tipping point thus indicates the optimal number of items to be retrieved, with more or less items resulting in a lower F-score. This empirical result is found in IR and link prediction experiments and can be partially explained theoretically, expanding on earlier results by Egghe. We discuss the implications and argue that, when comparing F-scores, one should compare the F-score curves’ tipping points.     

Dewey's Transactional Constructivism

Constructivism is very influential in education. However, its underlying ideas and assumptions have not yet been critically analysed sufficiently. In this paper, I argue that John Dewey's analyses of the transaction of organism and environment can be read as an account of the construction processes that lie beneath all human activity. Dewey's work anticipates, if it does not explicitly articulate, much of what is important and interesting about constructivist epistemology and constructivist pedagogy. The paper is devoted to a reconstruction of the formulation of this transactional constructivism, and to an analysis of its consequences for a constructivist understanding of communication and education.     

The Autonomy of Communication and the Structure of Education

Traditional analyses of education are subject centered. Education is either viewed from the perspective of the educator (teaching, parenting) or from that of the pupil (learning, child development). These analyses do not facilitate the study of education as a social phenomenon. This paper aims for the clarification of the 'conditio socialis' of education. It highlights the autonomy of social systems vis-à-vis their environment. Communication is described as the constitutive element of social systems. Education is analyzed as a process within which a double system-reference comes into play, viz. to social systems and to human beings. The structure of education is analyzed in the context of this interaction between social systems and human beings. In this context, the improbability of successful education comes to the fore.     

HOW IS EDUCATION POSSIBLE? PRAGMATISM, COMMUNICATION AND THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF EDUCATION

ABSTRACT:  Education cannot mean that the young are the product of the activities of their teachers. At the same time, we do not speak of education if students would simply learn something irrespective of the ac­tivities of their teachers. In this paper we focus on the question: How is education possible? Our aim is to contribute to a social theory of education, a theory that does not reduce our understanding of educational processes and practices to underlying 'constituting elements' but rather tries to understand the social nature of education as a reality sui generis.     

Cultural Values and Social Differentiation: The Catholic pillar and its education system in Belgium and the Netherlands

According to research on 'pillarization', some European countries (such as Belgium and the Netherlands) are internally divided into blocs of different religious and political persuasions. In this article, it is indicated that the success of the pillars has never been unambiguous. In domains of professional services, like education and health care, the pillars were successful. Other societal sectors, which function more impersonally, could escape from their influence. Pillars could flourish in societal sectors, whose functioning depends on face-to-face contacts. This explains why 'religious virtuosos' were able to fulfil such a prominent role in the Catholic pillar, and especially in Catholic education.     

How is Education Possible? Preliminary investigations for a theory of education

The following text is the result of our ongoing discussions about the notion of intersubjectivity and its significance for an understanding of the process of education.Rather than merging our sometimes diverging ideas into one single line of argument, we decided to try if we could make the movement of divergence and convergence of our thoughts visible in the text itself.
Although we definitely explore different pathways, these pathways lead to a similar insight.This is, that it is not the educator who educates, but that it is the educational 'situation'—a situation constituted though not determined by the interaction between the educator and the student—which educates.This educational situation, which one of us describes as an 'in between space', emerges from the interaction between the educator and the student.In this respect we can say that it results from the difference between the partners in education.The in-between space of education is an emerging reality, which not only comes into existence as a result of the difference between the partners in education but in fact only exists in this difference.
It is precisely in this respect that the form of the following article provides an example of what we want to say about the process of education.The point is, to put it briefly, that this article contains or expresses a meaning that results from the difference between the two texts, but this meaning is neither something that can be attributed to the two texts as such (in this sense this emerging meaning is constituted though not determined by the two texts), nor—and this is crucial—is it something that can be articulated in any positive way in a third text.The interaction between our two texts therefore creates a reality that results from the difference between the texts and only exists in this difference.The order of authorship expresses the fact that the first author wrote the left column and the second author the right column.     

Disciplinary Networks and Bounding: Scientific Communication Between Science and Technology Studies and the History of Science

This article examines the communication networks within and between science and technology studies (STS) and the history of science. In particular, journal relatedness data are used to analyze some of the structural features of their disciplinary identities and relationships. The results first show that, although the history of science is more than half a century older than STS, the size of the STS network is more than twice that of the history of science network. Further, while a majority of the journals in the STS network are connected by weak ties, about half of the history of science network consists of strong ties. The history of science network is thus more cohesive than the STS network. The relatively strong cohesion within the history of science network is associated with comparatively high degrees of intra-disciplinary communication, but comparatively weak ties to only a few related disciplines. The analysis also shows that very few members of the history of science cliques are situated on the shortest path between both specialties. Moreover, given the relatively impermeable nature of the history of science network, the latter partially depends on STS to reach some of the neighboring disciplines.