An Intelligent Coaching Prototype for Elderly Care

The world ageing problem is prompting new sustainable ways to support elderly people. As such, it is important to promote personalized and intelligent ways to assure the active and healthy ageing of the population. Technological breakthroughs have led to the development of personalized healthcare systems, capable of monitoring and providing feedback on different aspects that can improve the health of the elderly person. Furthermore, defining motivational strategies to persuade the elderly person to be healthier and stay connected to such systems is also fundamental. In this work, a coaching system is presented, especially designed to support elderly people and motivate them to pursue healthier ways of living. To do this, a coaching application is developed using both a cognitive virtual assistant to directly interact with the elderly person and provide feedback on his/her current health condition, and several gamification techniques to motivate the elderly person to stay engaged with the application. Additionally, a set of simulations were performed to validate the proposed system in terms of the support and feedback provided to the user according to his progress, and through interactions with the cognitive assistant.The work presented in this paper has been developed under the EUREKA—ITEA3 Project PHE (PHE-16040), and by National Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) under the under the project UIDP/00760/2020 and by NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-033275 (AIRDOC—“Aplicação móvel Inteligente para suporte individualizado e monitorização da função e sons Respiratórios de Doentes Obstrutivos Crónicos ”) by NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A conceptual approach to enhance the well-being of elderly people

The number of elderly people living alone is increasing. Consequently, a lot of research works have been addressing this issue in order to propose solutions that can enhance the quality of life of elderly people. Most of them have been concerned in dealing with objective issues such as forgetfulness or detecting falls. In this paper, we propose a conceptual approach of a system that intends to enhance the daily sense of user’s well-being. For that, our proposal consists in a system that works as a social network and a smartwatch application that works unobtrusively and collects the user’s physiological data. In addition, we debate how important features such as to detect user’s affective states and to potentiate user’s memory could be implemented. Our study shows that there are still some important limitations which affect the success of applications built in the context of elderly care and which are mostly related with accuracy and usability of this kind of system. However, we believe that with our approach we will be able to address some of those limitations and define a system that can enhance the well-being of elderly people and improve their cognitive capabilities.The work presented in this paper has been developed under the EUREKA - ITEA3 Project PHE (PHE-16040), and by National Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) under the projects UID/EEA/00760/2019 and UID/CEC/00319/2019 and by NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-033275 (AIRDOC - “Aplicação móvel Inteligente para suporte individualizado e monitorização da função e sons Respiratórios de Doentes Obstrutivos Crónicos ”) by NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte)

Features of teacher reflection: Connection with personal and professional value orientations

Introduction. The development of professional reflection is determined by the nature of the activity in relation to which it is carried out. At the same time, teacher professional reflection is an effective resource for the development of educational activities. At the present stage, there is a wide variety of education models. Each educational model is characterised by its special values; reflection has its own special meaning, purpose, and result in a specific educational model. Aim. The current research aims to present the authors’ model for studying the features of teacher professional reflection; to discuss the results of testing this research model, which made it possible to draw a number of conclusions about the presence and nature of the relationship between the level of teacher professional reflection and their personal and professional values. Methodology and research methods. The present research is based on the activity approach, theoretical provisions on the structure and functions of reflection of activity, the meaning of reflection in various models of education, the types of professional pedagogical reflection. The research model is developed through the questionnaire method and the case method. The study involved primary and secondary school teachers of three educational complexes in Moscow (N = 63). Results. It has been established that the values of the life and professional plan of the subjects are consistent with each other, and professional actions are generally not related to the declared professional values. The authors confirmed the hypothesis that the reflection of positional type has a significant positive relationship between the degree of congruence between the values declared in the survey and those manifested in solving problematic professional situations and the level of development of reflection of these types. Scientific novelty lies in the development of a model for studying the features of professional reflection associated with the personal and professional values of the teacher. The results obtained in the course of its approbation can serve as a basis for understanding the mechanisms for the development of professional reflection of teachers in various models of education. Practical significance. The developed methodology for studying the features of professional reflection of teachers can be used for the further creation of the set of tools for self-assessment and the development of professional pedagogical competence, the core of which is pedagogical reflection.Введение. Развитие профессиональной рефлексии обусловлено характером той деятельности, по отношению к которой она осуществляется. Вместе с тем профессиональная рефлексия педагога является эффективным ресурсом развития образовательной деятельности. На современном этапе существует большое разнообразие моделей образования, для каждой из которых характерны свои ценности, и в каждой из этих моделей рефлексия имеет свой особый смысл, цель, результат. Целью статьи является представление разработанной авторами модели исследования особенностей профессиональной рефлексии педагога, а также обсуждение результатов, полученных в процессе апробации данной исследовательской модели, позволивших сделать ряд выводов о наличии и характере связи между уровнем развития профессиональной рефлексии педагогов и их личностно-профессиональными ценностями. Методология, методы и методики. Исследование базировалось на методологии деятельностного подхода, с опорой на теоретические положения о структуре и функциях рефлексии деятельности, о смысле рефлексии в различных моделях образования, о типах профессиональной педагогической рефлексии. Модель исследования профессиональной рефлексии педагогов разработана на основе применения опросного метода и метода кейсов. В исследовании приняли участие учителя из трех образовательных комплексов г. Москвы (N = 63). Результаты. Установлено, что ценности жизненного и профессионального плана у испытуемых согласованы между собой, а профессиональные действия в основном не связаны с декларируемыми профессиональными ценностями. Гипотеза о наличии значимой положительной связи между степенью конгруэнтности декларируемых в опросе и проявляемых при решении проблемных профессиональных ситуаций ценностей и уровнем развития рефлексии названных типов получила подтверждение для рефлексии позиционного типа. Научная новизна заключается в разработке модели исследования особенностей профессиональной рефлексии, связанных с личностными и профессиональными ценностями педагога. Результаты, полученные в ходе ее апробации, могут служить основой для понимания механизмов развития профессиональной рефлексии педагогов в различных моделях образования. Практическая значимость заключается в использовании разработанной методики исследования особенностей профессиональной рефлексии педагогов для дальнейшего создания комплекса инструментов самооценки и развития профессиональной педагогической компетентности, ядром которой является педагогическая рефлексия.The reported study was performed within the state assignment for the 2020–2021 academic year: “Designing the Practice of Mastering Reflexive Competence by Teachers” at the Moscow City University. The authors are grateful to V.A. Lvovsky, Head of the Laboratory of Activity-based Education Design of the Research Institute of Urban Studies and Global Education of the Moscow City University, for assistance in data collection.Исследование выполнено в рамках государственного задания ГАОУ ВПО города Москвы «Московский городской педагогический университет» на 2020–2021 учебный год по теме: «Проектирование практик освоения учителями рефлексивной компетентности». Авторы благодарны за помощь в сборе данных заведующему лабораторией проектирования деятельностного содержания образования НИИ урбанистики и глобального образования ГАОУ ВПО МГПУ В.А. Львовскому

Promoting Sustainable Mobility Beliefs with Persuasive and Anthropomorphic Design: Insights from an Experiment with a Conversational Agent

Sustainable mobility behavior is increasingly relevant due to the vast environmental impact of current transportation systems. With the growing variety of transportation modes, individual decisions for or against specific mobility options become more and more important and salient beliefs regarding the environmental impact of different modes influence this decision process. While information systems have been recognized for their potential to shape individual beliefs and behavior, design-oriented studies that explore their impact, in particular on environmental beliefs, remain scarce. In this study, we contribute to closing this research gap by designing and evaluating a new type of artifact, a persuasive and human-like conversational agent, in a 2x2 experiment with 225 participants. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Response Theory, we find empirical support for the influence of persuasive design elements on individual environmental beliefs and discover that anthropomorphic design can contribute to increasing the persuasiveness of artifacts