4,605 research outputs found

    Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

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    Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

    Conceptual roles of data in program: analyses and applications

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    Program comprehension is the prerequisite for many software evolution and maintenance tasks. Currently, the research falls short in addressing how to build tools that can use domain-specific knowledge to provide powerful capabilities for extracting valuable information for facilitating program comprehension. Such capabilities are critical for working with large and complex program where program comprehension often is not possible without the help of domain-specific knowledge.;Our research advances the state-of-art in program analysis techniques based on domain-specific knowledge. The program artifacts including variables and methods are carriers of domain concepts that provide the key to understand programs. Our program analysis is directed by domain knowledge stored as domain-specific rules. Our analysis is iterative and interactive. It is based on flexible inference rules and inter-exchangeable and extensible information storage. We designed and developed a comprehensive software environment SeeCORE based on our knowledge-centric analysis methodology. The SeeCORE tool provides multiple views and abstractions to assist in understanding complex programs. The case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. We demonstrate the flexibility of our approach by analyzing two legacy programs in distinct domains

    Bridging the gap between textual and formal business process representations

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    Tesi en modalitat de compendi de publicacionsIn the era of digital transformation, an increasing number of organizations are start ing to think in terms of business processes. Processes are at the very heart of each business, and must be understood and carried out by a wide range of actors, from both technical and non-technical backgrounds alike. When embracing digital transformation practices, there is a need for all involved parties to be aware of the underlying business processes in an organization. However, the representational complexity and biases of the state-of-the-art modeling notations pose a challenge in understandability. On the other hand, plain language representations, accessible by nature and easily understood by everyone, are often frowned upon by technical specialists due to their ambiguity. The aim of this thesis is precisely to bridge this gap: Between the world of the techni cal, formal languages and the world of simpler, accessible natural languages. Structured as an article compendium, in this thesis we present four main contributions to address specific problems in the intersection between the fields of natural language processing and business process management.A l’era de la transformació digital, cada vegada més organitzacions comencen a pensar en termes de processos de negoci. Els processos són el nucli principal de tota empresa i, com a tals, han de ser fàcilment comprensibles per un ampli ventall de rols, tant perfils tècnics com no-tècnics. Quan s’adopta la transformació digital, és necessari que totes les parts involucrades estiguin ben informades sobre els protocols implantats com a part del procés de digitalització. Tot i això, la complexitat i biaixos de representació dels llenguatges de modelització que actualment conformen l’estat de l’art sovint en dificulten la seva com prensió. D’altra banda, les representacions basades en documentació usant llenguatge natural, accessibles per naturalesa i fàcilment comprensibles per tothom, moltes vegades són vistes com un problema pels perfils més tècnics a causa de la presència d’ambigüitats en els textos. L’objectiu d’aquesta tesi és precisament el de superar aquesta distància: La distància entre el món dels llenguatges tècnics i formals amb el dels llenguatges naturals, més accessibles i senzills. Amb una estructura de compendi d’articles, en aquesta tesi presentem quatre grans línies de recerca per adreçar problemes específics en aquesta intersecció entre les tecnologies d’anàlisi de llenguatge natural i la gestió dels processos de negoci.Postprint (published version

    Music information retrieval: conceptuel framework, annotation and user behaviour

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    Understanding music is a process both based on and influenced by the knowledge and experience of the listener. Although content-based music retrieval has been given increasing attention in recent years, much of the research still focuses on bottom-up retrieval techniques. In order to make a music information retrieval system appealing and useful to the user, more effort should be spent on constructing systems that both operate directly on the encoding of the physical energy of music and are flexible with respect to users’ experiences. This thesis is based on a user-centred approach, taking into account the mutual relationship between music as an acoustic phenomenon and as an expressive phenomenon. The issues it addresses are: the lack of a conceptual framework, the shortage of annotated musical audio databases, the lack of understanding of the behaviour of system users and shortage of user-dependent knowledge with respect to high-level features of music. In the theoretical part of this thesis, a conceptual framework for content-based music information retrieval is defined. The proposed conceptual framework - the first of its kind - is conceived as a coordinating structure between the automatic description of low-level music content, and the description of high-level content by the system users. A general framework for the manual annotation of musical audio is outlined as well. A new methodology for the manual annotation of musical audio is introduced and tested in case studies. The results from these studies show that manually annotated music files can be of great help in the development of accurate analysis tools for music information retrieval. Empirical investigation is the foundation on which the aforementioned theoretical framework is built. Two elaborate studies involving different experimental issues are presented. In the first study, elements of signification related to spontaneous user behaviour are clarified. In the second study, a global profile of music information retrieval system users is given and their description of high-level content is discussed. This study has uncovered relationships between the users’ demographical background and their perception of expressive and structural features of music. Such a multi-level approach is exceptional as it included a large sample of the population of real users of interactive music systems. Tests have shown that the findings of this study are representative of the targeted population. Finally, the multi-purpose material provided by the theoretical background and the results from empirical investigations are put into practice in three music information retrieval applications: a prototype of a user interface based on a taxonomy, an annotated database of experimental findings and a prototype semantic user recommender system. Results are presented and discussed for all methods used. They show that, if reliably generated, the use of knowledge on users can significantly improve the quality of music content analysis. This thesis demonstrates that an informed knowledge of human approaches to music information retrieval provides valuable insights, which may be of particular assistance in the development of user-friendly, content-based access to digital music collections

    A rapid prototyping/artificial intelligence approach to space station-era information management and access

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    Applications of rapid prototyping and Artificial Intelligence techniques to problems associated with Space Station-era information management systems are described. In particular, the work is centered on issues related to: (1) intelligent man-machine interfaces applied to scientific data user support, and (2) the requirement that intelligent information management systems (IIMS) be able to efficiently process metadata updates concerning types of data handled. The advanced IIMS represents functional capabilities driven almost entirely by the needs of potential users. Space Station-era scientific data projected to be generated is likely to be significantly greater than data currently processed and analyzed. Information about scientific data must be presented clearly, concisely, and with support features to allow users at all levels of expertise efficient and cost-effective data access. Additionally, mechanisms for allowing more efficient IIMS metadata update processes must be addressed. The work reported covers the following IIMS design aspects: IIMS data and metadata modeling, including the automatic updating of IIMS-contained metadata, IIMS user-system interface considerations, including significant problems associated with remote access, user profiles, and on-line tutorial capabilities, and development of an IIMS query and browse facility, including the capability to deal with spatial information. A working prototype has been developed and is being enhanced

    Ontological Meta-Analysis and Synthesis

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    We present ontological meta-analysis and synthesis as a method for reviewing, mapping, and visualizing the research literature in a domain cumulatively, logically, systematically, and systemically. The method highlights a domain’s bright spots that have been heavily studied, the light spots that have been lightly studied, the blind spots that have been overlooked, and the blank spots that have not been studied. It highlights the biases in a domain’s research; the research can then be realigned to make it stronger and more effective. We illustrate the method using the emerging domain of public health informatics (PHI). We present an ontological framework for the domain, map the literature onto the framework, and highlight its bright, light, and blind/blank spots. We also present detailed analyses using the ontological maps of dyads and triads. We conclude by discussing how (a) the results can be used to realign PHI research, and (b) the method can be used in other information systems domains

    The Case for Dynamic Models of Learners' Ontologies in Physics

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    In a series of well-known papers, Chi and Slotta (Chi, 1992; Chi & Slotta, 1993; Chi, Slotta & de Leeuw, 1994; Slotta, Chi & Joram, 1995; Chi, 2005; Slotta & Chi, 2006) have contended that a reason for students' difficulties in learning physics is that they think about concepts as things rather than as processes, and that there is a significant barrier between these two ontological categories. We contest this view, arguing that expert and novice reasoning often and productively traverses ontological categories. We cite examples from everyday, classroom, and professional contexts to illustrate this. We agree with Chi and Slotta that instruction should attend to learners' ontologies; but we find these ontologies are better understood as dynamic and context-dependent, rather than as static constraints. To promote one ontological description in physics instruction, as suggested by Slotta and Chi, could undermine novices' access to productive cognitive resources they bring to their studies and inhibit their transition to the dynamic ontological flexibility required of experts.Comment: The Journal of the Learning Sciences (In Press

    Using the Discourse Domain Hypothesis of Interlanguage to Teach Scientific Concepts: Report On a Case Study in Secondary Education

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    This paper reports work-to-date on a particular practical context, applying one approach to interlanguage, the discourse domains approach, merged with the rhetorical-grammatical approach, involving both language and content. The context is an MA course for teacher residents placed in urban schools, and their English language learners (ELLs) in math and science classes, providing content area teachers the linguistic support they need to teach the language of their content, and thus the content itself. We were interested in how exactly learners\u27 interlanguage creation interacts with their understanding of scientific concepts. We primarily look at the rhetorical function definition, with discourse level semantic choices, and attendant grammar, with ELL data gathered by the teacher residents. Correct definitions in expected grammatical form point to an understanding of the scientific concept within the discourse domain, providing evidence that the science or mathematics content has been understood by the student. In our data analysis, we concentrated on the semantics and grammar of this rhetorical function, but other functions kept intruding, especially classification . Cross-language transfer appears not to be a factor, but cross-domain transfer is. Finally, we discuss how the marriage of this view of interlanguage with safe rule rhetorical/grammatical functions can better support teacher preparation, especially given how challenging teaching ELLs is for content area teachers

    Blended Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: An International Perspective

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    Blended learning is not a new topic for educational research in Higher Education (HE). However, before the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, blended learning was studied by a "niche" of researchers and educators interested in technology integration in teaching and learning. It was not difficult to meet HE professionals who had never or only poorly reflected on the topic of how to integrate digital technology in teaching and learning before March 2020. All in all, this special issue provides a deeper understanding of what Blended Learning will be in the near feature, encompassing not the simple combination of online and physical presence, but a combination of delivery tools and media used to provide information and to support interaction, a combination of different methods of instruction and teaching/learning, and a combination of learning contexts

    Achieving Rigor in Literature Reviews: Insights from Qualitative Data Analysis and Tool-Support

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    It is important for researchers to efficiently conduct quality literature studies. Hence, a structured and efficient approach is essential. We overview work that has demonstrated the potential for using software tools in literature reviews. We highlight the untapped opportunities in using an end-to-end tool-supported literature review methodology. Qualitative data-analysis tools such as NVivo are immensely useful as a means to analyze, synthesize, and write up literature reviews. In this paper, we describe how to organize and prepare papers for analysis and provide detailed guidelines for actually coding and analyzing papers, including detailed illustrative strategies to effectively write up and present the results. We present a detailed case study as an illustrative example of the proposed approach put into practice. We discuss the means, value, and also pitfalls of applying tool-supported literature review approaches. We contribute to the literature by proposing a four-phased tool-supported methodology that serves as best practice in conducting literature reviews in IS. By viewing the literature review process as a qualitative study and treating the literature as the “data set”, we address the complex puzzle of how best to extract relevant literature and justify its scope, relevance, and quality. We provide systematic guidelines for novice IS researchers seeking to conduct a robust literature review
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