1,091 research outputs found
Deconstructing Reo
AbstractCoordination in Reo emerges from the composition of the behavioural constraints of the primitives, such as channels, in a component connector. Understanding and implementing Reo, however, has been challenging due to interaction of the channel metaphor, which is an inherently local notion, and the non-local nature of constraint propagation imposed by composition. In this paper, the channel metaphor takes a back seat, and we focus on the behavioural constraints imposed by the composition of primitives, and phrase the semantics of Reo as a constraint satisfaction problem. Not only does this provide a clear intensional description of the behaviour of Reo connectors in terms of synchronisation and data flow constraints, it also paves the way for new implementation techniques based on constraint propagation and satisfaction. In fact, decomposing Reo into constraints provides a new computational model for connectors, which we extend to model interaction with an unknown external world beyond what is currently possible in Reo
Coordination via Interaction Constraints I: Local Logic
Wegner describes coordination as constrained interaction. We take this
approach literally and define a coordination model based on interaction
constraints and partial, iterative and interactive constraint satisfaction. Our
model captures behaviour described in terms of synchronisation and data flow
constraints, plus various modes of interaction with the outside world provided
by external constraint symbols, on-the-fly constraint generation, and
coordination variables. Underlying our approach is an engine performing
(partial) constraint satisfaction of the sets of constraints. Our model extends
previous work on three counts: firstly, a more advanced notion of external
interaction is offered; secondly, our approach enables local satisfaction of
constraints with appropriate partial solutions, avoiding global synchronisation
over the entire constraints set; and, as a consequence, constraint satisfaction
can finally occur concurrently, and multiple parts of a set of constraints can
be solved and interact with the outside world in an asynchronous manner, unless
synchronisation is required by the constraints. This paper describes the
underlying logic, which enables a notion of local solution, and relates this
logic to the more global approach of our previous work based on classical
logic
Enabling conditions for professional development of te reo MÄori teachers
The paper outlines a professional development programme for secondary school teachers of te reo MÄori (under the auspices of Te Hiringa i te Mahara) conducted by a language teacher educator and an expert in MÄori bilingualism and biliteracy. While the principles underpinning the programme reflect a strong task-based
orientation, the programme approached development needs for the teachers from the point of view of understanding âenabling conditionsâ (Franken, Rau, Ngata & Parata, n.d.) for effective language learning and teaching (see also Ellis, 2005),
rather than understanding task based learning and teaching per se. The programme drew on the current practices of the teachers and made use of epistemology of MÄori language and MÄori language learning. The paper presents observations from monitoring data collected during the programme supporting the claim that such an approach to the professional development of language teachers promotes a strong knowledge base and pedagogical reasoning skills (Richards, 1998), and in particular for te reo MÄori teachers, fosters a sense of their own professional identity
Bilingual/immersion education in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Setting the context.
Introduction to a special issue of IJBEB, focusing on recent developments in bilingual/
immersion education in Aotearoa/New Zealand, particularly, but not solely,
Maori-medium education
"It's the controlling still". Power effects in the implementation of the bicultural/bilingual early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Racism is an undelying current within educational practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This paper discusses some of the data from a doctoral study that explored a particular teacher education context. In Aotearoa, the early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, has a bicultural paradigm that requires a degree of bicultural and bilingual competence on the part of educators. This paper explores some of the issues around preparing teachers to deliver this curriculum, with a particular focus on racism
Deconstructing the instrumental/identity divide in language policy debates
Debates about language and literacy policies are increasingly constructed at national levels in relation to their potential contribution to the âknowledge economyâ, and to the ability of nation-states to compete economically in an increasingly globalised world. Invariably, this instrumental approach to language privileges the role of English as the current world language. Thus, in contexts where English is not spoken as a first language, English is increasingly viewed as the most important and/or useful additional language. In English-dominant contexts, monolingualism in English is seen as being a sufficient, even an ideal language model, while literacy in English comes to
stand for literacy (and related social mobility) per se. Where other languages are countenanced at all in these latter contexts, the instrumentalist approach continues to dominate, with so-called international and/or trading languages being constructed as the languages other than English most worth learning, or perhaps even as the only other languages worth learning.
The growing dominance of economistic, instrumental approaches to language policy, and the valorisation of English that is associated with them, clearly militate against ongoing individual and societal multilingualism. The languages most at risk here are so-called minority languages, particularly indigenous languages. In the new globalised world dominated by English, and where the perceived âusefulnessâ of language is elided with language value, such languages are increasingly constructed as having neither. This paper deconstructs and critiques this positioning of indigenous and other minority languages, along with the wider instrumentality of much language
and literacy policy of which it forms a part. In light of this, it also explores how such languages can be actively, justifiably and effectively maintained and promoted, particularly in English-dominant contexts
Maori-medium education: current issues and challenges.
This paper summarises the key issues and challenges that have emerged from a
recent major report by the authors on Maori-medium education in Aotearoa/New
Zealand. The discussion is situated within a wider international analysis of
bilingual/immersion programmes, including heritage language programmes for
indigenous peoples. Key issues explored in the paper include the negotiation of,
and occasional tension between, the wider goals of indigenous Maori language
revitalisation and the successful achievement of bilingualism and biliteracy in
Maori-medium educational contexts. Issues to do with current pedagogy, staffing
and resourcing of Maori-medium programmes are also examined. The paper
concludes with suggestions for the ongoing development and extension of Maori-medium education
Challenges to psychology in Aotearoa
Maori people are putting up with a lot right now. If governments can transfer 150 million theyâve transferred to our people that have endured so much for 150 years. The big issue is still the Treaty, and the need to re-negotiate this nationâs management. The challenge is to design a political system that is based on Maori ways of doing things rather than Pakeha ways of doing things. To achieve this requires relinquishing colonial patterns of thinking and the certainty that pakeha people and their ways are superior to Maori. For psychologists the issue is their role in maintaining Pakeha economic and political power. It may well be that psychologists provide lousy value for money from the Maori point of view, but provide excellent value for money from the governmentâs point of view
Accommodating multiculturalism and biculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand: implication for language education.
The field of language education in Aotearoa New Zealand, as elsewhere, has developed significantly since its early and almost exclusive focus on the acquisition of English literacy in schools. As the field has expanded, so too has the range of language education sectors addressed and the theoretical approaches and understandings employed in relation to language and literacy education. Both developments have resulted in a more coordinated literacy education policy - exemplified to date most clearly in the New Zealand Literacy Taskforce - and a more situated, less monolithic understanding of the widely different literacies available to learners. Despite these developments, however, one area still remains noticeably under-theorised and marginalized in relation to the ongoing development of language and literacy education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand - the place of second language learners within it. This paper explores this lacuna and the potential policy implications of addressing and integrating first and second language educational concerns within an evolving national literacy education policy. This has particular implications for the further development of bilingual education - both for Maori and, possibly, other minority groups - and for the related possibilities of multicultural education. It also requires a wider and clearer recognition of minority language education rights, as developed within both international law and political theory, in order to apply these rights appropriately to an Aotearoa New Zealand context which is currently witnessing rapid and extensive demographic (and linguistic) change
Extended Connectors: Structuring Glue Operators in BIP
Based on a variation of the BIP operational semantics using the offer
predicate introduced in our previous work, we extend the algebras used to model
glue operators in BIP to encompass priorities. This extension uses the Algebra
of Causal Interaction Trees, T(P), as a pivot: existing transformations
automatically provide the extensions for the Algebra of Connectors. We then
extend the axiomatisation of T(P), since the equivalence induced by the new
operational semantics is weaker than that induced by the interaction semantics.
This extension leads to canonical normal forms for all structures and to a
simplification of the algorithm for the synthesis of connectors from Boolean
coordination constraints.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2013, arXiv:1310.401
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