Learning Mathematics without Limits and All-attainment Grouping in Secondary Schools: Pete's story

This article is about Pete’s story. It is a story about introducing all attainment teaching in a secondary school mathematics department and about espousing and enacting a pedagogy and set of practices to enable learning mathematics without limits

Aster's Hoity Toity Belt

This fictitious story centers on a celestial family of asteroids and their adventures in the "skyborhood." Students will learn about smaller bodies of our solar system and the Dawn mission by identifying some aspects of the story that are true, some that might be true, and some that are false. Educators can choose from three versions, including storyteller, learning notations, or illustrators. The storyteller version can be used to tell the story without comment. The learning version is annotated to provide further explanation to assist in identifying aspects of the story. The illustrator's version contains space for the children to make their own illustrations to accompany the text. Educational levels: Primary elementary, Intermediate elementary

Enhancing the Engagement of Disabled Students with Disability Support Services: A Digital Story Approach

Initiatives that recognise diversity within the student population and understand the range of learner variation have been found to help institutions to better recognise and reduce barriers to learning for disabled people. This paper describes the development of a ‘digital story’ designed to inform all students about the disability support services offered by the University of Hertfordshire. The development and utilisation of a digital story to inform students about disability related issues and services was also designed to foster a more informed and tolerant learning community. The findings of the pilot evaluation study have highlighted the digital story to have increased student understandings of what is recognised as a disability. It was also found to have increased the likelihood of them approaching their disabled student’s coordinator. However, it is notable that a majority of students expressed a desire for an in person talk on disability services. It is concluded that although technology is not necessarily a replacement for the ‘personal touch’, new methods should be found to increase the personal feel of the digital story. It is suggested that the final evaluation questionnaire is modified to capture information about why students want an in person talk and how this can best be achieved in a digital format when personal engagement may not be possible.Peer reviewe

Myths and Legends of the Baldwin Effect

This position paper argues that the Baldwin effect is widely misunderstood by the evolutionary computation community. The misunderstandings appear to fall into two general categories. Firstly, it is commonly believed that the Baldwin effect is concerned with the synergy that results when there is an evolving population of learning individuals. This is only half of the story. The full story is more complicated and more interesting. The Baldwin effect is concerned with the costs and benefits of lifetime learning by individuals in an evolving population. Several researchers have focussed exclusively on the benefits, but there is much to be gained from attention to the costs. This paper explains the two sides of the story and enumerates ten of the costs and benefits of lifetime learning by individuals in an evolving population. Secondly, there is a cluster of misunderstandings about the relationship between the Baldwin effect and Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics. The Baldwin effect is not Lamarckian. A Lamarckian algorithm is not better for most evolutionary computing problems than a Baldwinian algorithm. Finally, Lamarckian inheritance is not a better model of memetic (cultural) evolution than the Baldwin effect

The effect of multiple knowledge sources on learning and teaching

Current paradigms for machine-based learning and teaching tend to perform their task in isolation from a rich context of existing knowledge. In contrast, the research project presented here takes the view that bringing multiple sources of knowledge to bear is of central importance to learning in complex domains. As a consequence teaching must both take advantage of and beware of interactions between new and existing knowledge. The central process which connects learning to its context is reasoning by analogy, a primary concern of this research. In teaching, the connection is provided by the explicit use of a learning model to reason about the choice of teaching actions. In this learning paradigm, new concepts are incrementally refined and integrated into a body of expertise, rather than being evaluated against a static notion of correctness. The domain chosen for this experimentation is that of learning to solve "algebra story problems." A model of acquiring problem solving skills in this domain is described, including: representational structures for background knowledge, a problem solving architecture, learning mechanisms, and the role of analogies in applying existing problem solving abilities to novel problems. Examples of learning are given for representative instances of algebra story problems. After relating our views to the psychological literature, we outline the design of a teaching system. Finally, we insist on the interdependence of learning and teaching and on the synergistic effects of conducting both research efforts in parallel

SHORT STORY LEARNING MODEL BASED ON CREATIVITY DEVELOPMENT

This study aimed to describe: (1) the short story learning conditions of the research setting, (2) the needs of students and lecturers about the short story learning model, (3) the development of the short story learning model based on creativity development, and (4) the effectiveness of the short story learning model based on creativity development. The results showed that 1) the short story learning process was teacher-centered and was theoretical and had not been able to develop student creativity; 2) produce a prototype of a short story learning model based on creativity development that has been validated by experts ; 3) conducting limited and extensive trials; 4) the creativity-based short story learning model was effective in improving students’  short story appreciation ability.

land home place belong - Pamela Croft

In Pamela Croft’s art works within her solo exhibition I hear, see, feel and sense the importance of tradition, recognition of ancestors, respect for uniqueness in spiritual expression, facilitation of an understanding within the contexts of history and culture, a sense of place, connections to family and community, commitment to educational and social transformation that recognizes and empowers the inherent strength of Aboriginal peoples and cultures and the challenges to non-Aboriginal people to truly listen and absorb in order to move to a place of understanding of the Aboriginal world… The ideal purpose of education is to attain knowledge, seek truth, wisdom, completeness and life as seen by self and others. Story is one of the unique ways of Aboriginal education in both teaching and learning. It is in the story that there is made a place for honouring of self, family, community, place, nature and spirituality. In this exhibition Pamela Croft has revealed many things about her own story, her own journeying and the journey of many other Aboriginal peoples. She has then set each idea, concept and event in contexts that are based on history, place, environment and process which intertwine within one larger story of this country and humanity. Aboriginal learning is generally tied to a place environmentally, socially and spiritually. Indigenous teaching and learning are intertwined with the daily lives of the teacher and the learner. Pamela is both her own teacher and her own learner, she learns from the environment, other people, her community and her culture. She has defined history and place in terms to create a place for learning and for the individuals who participate in this solo exhibition of her work. Thus her words as you enter, “Listen, listen with your ears, listen with your eyes, listen with your body, listen with your spirit, listen”

Lesson Plan For Teaching Flannery O\u27Connor\u27s A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Suitable for high school and college and university classes. Developed by a Swarthmore College student, Adriana Obiols Roca, with feedback from Professor Peter Schmidt, as a final assignment in English 71D, The Short Story in the U.S., spring 2014. Learning Objectives. Students will: understand the differences between direct and indirect characterization and be able to identify examples of each; understand the uses of irony and foreshadowing in the story as well as more generally in literature; become acquainted with Flannery O’Connor and her writing style, particularly with her use of the grotesque; explore the complexity of the themes present in the story and the characters O’Connor has created, especially the Misfit and the grandmother; exercise a variety of critical thinking and analytical skills in order to form ideas and opinions about O\u27Connor\u27s story and her writing strategies; practice reading comprehension and summarization; employ and practice writing skills in an essay assignment