Logic, self-awareness and self-improvement: The metacognitive loop and the problem of brittleness

This essay describes a general approach to building perturbation-tolerant autonomous systems, based on the conviction that artificial agents should be able notice when something is amiss, assess the anomaly, and guide a solution into place. We call this basic strategy of self-guided learning the metacognitive loop; it involves the system monitoring, reasoning about, and, when necessary, altering its own decision-making components. In this essay, we (a) argue that equipping agents with a metacognitive loop can help to overcome the brittleness problem, (b) detail the metacognitive loop and its relation to our ongoing work on time-sensitive commonsense reasoning, (c) describe specific, implemented systems whose perturbation tolerance was improved by adding a metacognitive loop, and (d) outline both short-term and long-term research agendas

Interactive task design: Metachat and the whole learner

In this chapter the focus is on conversations about language between adult learners online, in synchronous and asynchronous postings. Socio-affective and social-semiotic perspectives are used, thus distancing the work somewhat from cognitive ways of looking at tasks. Because adults come to the task with diverse knowledge of both L2 and L1, the expectation is that metalinguistic interaction will enable them to swap expert and novice roles with each other within the constantly changing dynamics of the classroom. This if shown to be the case would advance an educational agenda favouring learner-directedness. Secondly, as metalinguistic conversations develop in directions that the learners feel like following, a greater degree of contingency can arise. This is considered in this paper as motivational for adults, and also as progressive, following van Lier (1996: 180) for whom in a contingent conversation "the agenda is shared by all participants and educational reality may be transformed". However, in seeking to satisfy his condition of contingency, the problem of designing tasks for greater spontaneity proves difficult. Therefore this study provide an ethnographic account of metalinguistic conversations by learners engaged in an online task, Simuligne, designed to address this difficulty. After studying data from the project forums, chat rooms and emails, we introduce a new perspective on the function of these conversations, which holds pointers for task design

Self-access learning programme: analysing students' language learning needs and evaluating learning metarials

Today's job market does not only demand for graduates who are knowledgeable but who are also skilful and versatile. To help students to be equipped with the necessary skills, the Department of Modern Languages has incorporated Self-Access Learning(SAL) programme into its English proficiency courses. Since the Self-Access Learning programme is still quite new to the Malaysian student, a research was carried out to: i) to investigate and gauge students attitude towards Self-Access learning programme, materials used and Self-Access Learning laboratories, including the ways in which it affects students learning, and ii) to identify areas where the programmes’ design and execution can be improved. About 1200 participants who took part in the programme were asked to fill up the questionnaires, needs analysis and learning contract for the self-access learning programme that they went through. Analysis on the feedbacks received from the students showed that the self-access programme was beneficial and have helped them developed interests in learning English and encouraged them to be active learners. The feedback also revealed several areas which need further improvement. With regard to the self-access learning materials, the feedback given was not very positive as they suggested that the materials should be more attractive and interesting with more attractive designs for the future. These feedbacks were essential because they provide useful information that reflect i) the overall quality of the programme, ii) the effectiveness of the Self-Access Learning, and iii) the areas that need improvement as well as loopholes or weaknesses. Besides that, it also proved the students readiness for autonomous learning and this readiness can be optimised for the benefit of both the students and lecturers

‘My work is bleeding’: exploring students’ emotional responses to first-year assignment feedback

This paper explores the emotional responses that assignment feedback can provoke in first-year undergraduates. The literature on the link between emotions and learning is well established, but surprisingly research on the relationship between emotions and feedback is still relatively scarce. This article aims to make an additional contribution to this emerging field. Semi-structured interviews with 24 first-year undergraduate students from the Humanities and Social Sciences department in a post-1992 institution were conducted. The interview narratives identified how the emotional impact of feedback was related to: prior experiences of education, the significance participants attached to the feedback received on their first assignment and how their interpretations of feedback comments were linked to beliefs about themselves as learners. The implications of these experiences on student ‘belonging’ and learning are discussed. The underlying themes that emerged from the findings are the polarised emotions of anxiety and confidence. Based on the findings, the paper concludes by making recommendations for reconceptualising feedback on first-year assignments. It suggests that a holistic assessment approach, which incorporates timely feedback indicating if students are ‘on the right lines’ with low-stakes assignments, is a practice that may both reduce anxiety and increase confidence to support students

Fostering medical students' lifelong learning skills with a dashboard, coaching and learning planning.

IntroductionTo develop lifelong learning skills, students need feedback, access to performance data, and coaching. A new medical curriculum incorporated infrastructural supports based on self-regulated learning theory and the Master Adaptive Learner framework to engage students in reflection and learning planning. This study examines students' experience with a performance dashboard, longitudinal coaching, and structured time for goal-setting.MethodsFocus groups with first-year medical students explored performance dashboard usage, coaching and learning planning. We analyzed findings using thematic analysis. Results informed development of a 29-item survey rated strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) to investigate experience with the dashboard, coaching and learning goals program. The survey was distributed to one first-year medical student class. We performed descriptive statistics and factor analysis.ResultsIn three focus groups with 21 participants, students endorsed using the dashboard to access performance information but had trouble interpreting and integrating information. They valued coaches as sources of advice but varied in their perceptions of the value of discussing learning planning. Of 152 students, 114 (75%) completed the survey. Exploratory factor analysis yielded 5 factors explaining 57% of the variance: learning goals development (α = 0.88; mean 3.25 (standard deviation 0.91)), dashboard usage (α = 0.82; 3.36 (0.64)), coaching (α = 0.71; 3.72 (0.64)), employment of learning strategies (α = 0.81; 3.67 (0.79)), and reflection (α = 0.63; 3.68 (0.64)).DiscussionThe student performance dashboard provides efficient feedback access, yet students' use of this information to guide learning is variable. These results can inform other programs seeking to foster lifelong learning skills