Supervised and Unsupervised Transfer Learning for Question Answering

Although transfer learning has been shown to be successful for tasks like object and speech recognition, its applicability to question answering (QA) has yet to be well-studied. In this paper, we conduct extensive experiments to investigate the transferability of knowledge learned from a source QA dataset to a target dataset using two QA models. The performance of both models on a TOEFL listening comprehension test (Tseng et al., 2016) and MCTest (Richardson et al., 2013) is significantly improved via a simple transfer learning technique from MovieQA (Tapaswi et al., 2016). In particular, one of the models achieves the state-of-the-art on all target datasets; for the TOEFL listening comprehension test, it outperforms the previous best model by 7%. Finally, we show that transfer learning is helpful even in unsupervised scenarios when correct answers for target QA dataset examples are not available.Comment: To appear in NAACL HLT 2018 (long paper

A Narrative Inquiry Into Chinese Pre-Service Teacher Education and Induction in Southwest China Through Cross-Cultural Teacher Development

This study was founded upon my 5-year intensive fieldwork as a graduate assistant in Dr. Shijing Xu’s Pre-service Teacher Education Reciprocal Learning Program (Xu, 2011b), a part of Xu and Connelly’s (2013) SSHRC Partnership Grant Project between Canada and China. The study adopted Connelly and Clandinin’s (1988) narrative research tradition to examine 4 participating Chinese teacher candidates’ cross-cultural learning and induction experiences. The investigation revealed transitions in the process of learning to teach via cross-cultural experiences. Through the lens of “three-dimensional inquiry space” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) and “reciprocal learning in teacher education” (Xu, 2014), I explored experiential nuanced facets of participants’ cross-cultural learning experiences in Canada and stories of induction within various educational cultures in Southwest China. Field texts were collected through participant observation, participants’ reflective journals and portfolios submitted to the program during their 3-month stay in Canada, as well as interviews, debriefing notes, and participants’ observations at their schools after their return to China. The study illustrates an effective approach that fuses teacher education with cross-cultural experience. Both the benefits and challenges of this method of teacher education imply that this practice has significant potential in this interconnected world. Particular attention was paid to cross-cultural experiences’ influence on the dissonance of pedagogies, teacher-student relationships, socialization, and beliefs about teaching and learning that interweave global and national curriculum boundaries. Findings revealed that cross-cultural experiences provided beginning teachers with a global perspective that enabled them to reconsider the local situation, become reflective practitioners, and broaden their horizons. Participants’ notion of being good teachers is deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture and is heavily influenced by their cross-cultural experiences in Canada. Findings also revealed how Chinese beginning teachers struggle to find their voice and to socialize among a range past practices, lived experiences, and cross-cultural experiences. In these competing narratives of Chinese and Western views, perspectives of what constitutes good teaching and school practices take on more than one level of meaning. It is important to consider Chinese teachers’ current practices as well as how such practices will continue to change and thus influence teaching reforms in the globalized world. The study also demonstrates features of Chinese teacher induction, such as flexibility of time to reflect, significant mentorship and guidance, and various organizational assistance. There is much to be gained from studying how one becomes a teacher both in Canada and China. Chinese teachers’ dedication to teaching and their efforts to improve socialization contribute to teaching and teacher education in the interconnected world

Creating a Healthy Classroom Environment in Multicultural Counseling Courses

To assist educators in developing transformative learning environments, and effectively engaging in difficult dialogues regarding multicultural counseling topics, we conducted a qualitative study to systemically examine the perceptions and reactions of twenty graduate counselor education students enrolled in a multicultural counseling course. In this particular course, students experienced various learning environments all designed to enhance the topic of the day. Students were instructed to journal their thoughts, which became the raw data that was later, analyzed for themes. Students reported a need to be in an environment where there was trust, an ongoing need to reflect on the content, and difficulty discussing their school experiences with friends/family who are not in the helping profession

Daoist Harmony as a Chinese Philosophy and Psychology

Based on Lee’s prior research on Daoism (Lee, 2003; Lee, 2004; Lee, Han, Byron and Fan, 2008; Lee and Hu, 1993; Lee, Norasakkunkit, Liu, Zhang and Zhou, 2008), this article first introduces Laozi, Dao, De and Daoism in relation to harmony. Then, Daoist harmony is elaborated in the following areas: (1) the yin-yang oneness, (2) the way it is (natural), (3) wei-wu-wei (or nonintervention), (4) water-like characteristics, (5) love for peace, and (6) tolerance and appreciation of differences. The article concludes with a suggestion for harmony with the external world as well as with fellow human beings

Contributions of biotechnology to meeting future food and environmental security needs

Biotechnology, including genetic modifications, can play a vital role in helping to meet future food and environmental security needs for our growing population. The nature and use of biotechnology crops are described and related to aspects of food security. Biotechnological applications for food and animal feed are described, together with trends on global adoption of these crops. The benefits of biotechnology crops through increased yield, reduced pesticide use and decreased environmental damage are discussed. Examples of biotechnology crops which do not involve genetic modification are also described. Applications of biotechnology to drought and salt tolerance, and biofortification in which micronutrient content is enhanced are discussed. Emergent technologies such as RNA spraying technology, use of genome editing in agriculture and future targets for improved food and environmental security are considered

Testing news trustworthiness in an online public sphere: a case study of The Economist\u27s news report covering the riots in Xinjiang, China

This paper explores the news trustworthiness and media credibility of The Economist’s news report on 9 July 2009, and the communicative roles of 846 readers’ responses. Theoretically guided by news translation and cultural resistance and the online public sphere, we applied online field observation and discourse analysis and achieved two main findings: First, although the news report covered the Xinjiang riots with comprehensive and attractive details, it violated the core journalism value of media credibility and journalistic objectivity by providing misleading pictures and significant unreliable and biased coverage. Second, the major communicative roles of the online readers’ responses generally match Dahlberg’s six conditions of an ideal online public sphere, which is still challenging but promising to realize