Learning Comprehensible Theories from Structured Data

This thesis is concerned with the problem of learning comprehensible theories from structured data and covers primarily classification and regression learning. The basic knowledge representation language is set around a polymorphically-typed, higher-order logic. The general setup is closely related to the learning from propositionalized knowledge and learning from interpretations settings in Inductive Logic Programming. Individuals (also called instances) are represented as terms in the logic. A grammar-like construct called a predicate rewrite system is used to define features in the form of predicates that individuals may or may not satisfy. For learning, decision-tree algorithms of various kinds are adopted.¶ The scope of the thesis spans both theory and practice. ..

On Cognitive Preferences and the Plausibility of Rule-based Models

It is conventional wisdom in machine learning and data mining that logical models such as rule sets are more interpretable than other models, and that among such rule-based models, simpler models are more interpretable than more complex ones. In this position paper, we question this latter assumption by focusing on one particular aspect of interpretability, namely the plausibility of models. Roughly speaking, we equate the plausibility of a model with the likeliness that a user accepts it as an explanation for a prediction. In particular, we argue that, all other things being equal, longer explanations may be more convincing than shorter ones, and that the predominant bias for shorter models, which is typically necessary for learning powerful discriminative models, may not be suitable when it comes to user acceptance of the learned models. To that end, we first recapitulate evidence for and against this postulate, and then report the results of an evaluation in a crowd-sourcing study based on about 3.000 judgments. The results do not reveal a strong preference for simple rules, whereas we can observe a weak preference for longer rules in some domains. We then relate these results to well-known cognitive biases such as the conjunction fallacy, the representative heuristic, or the recogition heuristic, and investigate their relation to rule length and plausibility.Comment: V4: Another rewrite of section on interpretability to clarify focus on plausibility and relation to interpretability, comprehensibility, and justifiabilit

The Teaching of Vocabulary through the Multisensory Approach to EFL Third Age Adults in a Public Nursing Home in Pereira, Colombia

El aprendizaje del idioma inglés es un proceso que conlleva beneficios cognitivos, personales, sociales y de crecimiento. Esta investigación cualitativa tuvo como objetivo integrar a una población de adultos mayores en lecciones de vocabulario en inglés basadas en los principios de la teoría de la andragogía

The educational effectiveness of bilingual education

Bilingual education is the use of the native tongue to instruct limited Englishspeaking children. The authors read studies of bilingual education from the earliest period of this literature to the most recent. Of the 300 program evaluations read, only 72 (25%) were methodologically acceptable - that is, they had a treatment and control group and a statistical control for pre-treatment differences where groups were not randomly assigned. Virtually all of the studies in the United States were of elementary or junior high school students and Spanish speakers; The few studies conducted outside the United States were almost all in Canada. The research evidence indicates that, on standardized achievement tests, transitional bilingual education (TBE) is better than regular classroom instruction in only 22% of the methodologically acceptable studies when the outcome is reading, 7% of the studies when the outcome is language, and 9% of the studies when the outcome is math. TBE is never better than structured immersion, a special program for limited English proficient children where the children are in a self-contained classroom composed solely of English learners, but the instruction is in English at a pace they can understand. Thus, the research evidence does not support transitional bilingual education as a superior form of instruction for limited English proficient children

The Teaching of English Vocabulary through the Multisensory Approach to Older Adults in a Private Nursing Home in Pereira, Colombia

El siguiente documento es un proyecto de investigación cualitativo cuyo objetivo es integrar la teoría andragógica y el enfoque multisensorial para facilitar el aprendizaje de vocabulario en inglés a adultos mayores. Adicionalmente, este estudio es una iniciativa para incluir a los adultos mayores en un proceso de educación bilingüe ya que esta población casi no ha sido tomada en cuenta para la realización de proyectos bilingües. Por esta razón, este proyecto propone nuevas oportunidades para futuras investigaciones El presente estudio fue implementado en el hogar del anciano Casa Santa María en Pereira, Colombia. Este proyecto fue llevado a cabo en 10 clases en las cuales las participantes aprendieron 47 palabras relacionadas con su contexto inmediato. Las participantes del proyecto fueron cuatro mujeres, quienes tenían más de 60 años de edad. Las cuatro fueron consideradas como un proceso de muestreo típico intencional para recopilar los datos, los cuales fueron interpretados por los investigadores. Además, durante la implementación del estudio, tres métodos de recolección de datos fueron empleados: observaciones, diarios de campo, y entrevistas. Los datos recogidos fueron analizados aplicando la teoría fundada, y después de este análisis los datos sugirieron que a) las estrategias de aprendizaje autodirigido pueden facilitar el éxito del aprendizaje de vocabulario y b) los sentidos de los adultos mayores tienen diferentes usos dependiendo de la etapa de la clase. Para concluir, el enfoque multisensorial es efectivo para enseñar vocabulario en inglés a adultos mayores junto con los principios andragógicos

The role of input and output tasks in grammar instruction:theoretical, empirical and pedagogical considerations

In this paper, a review of the role of input, output and instruction in second language acquisition is provided. Several pedagogical interventions in grammar instruction (e.g., processing instruction, input enhancement, structured output and collaborative output tasks) are presented and their effectiveness reviewed. A final and overall evaluation is provided at the end of the paper

Blog-based online journals for English As A Second Language learners

The research on the use of blogs as online journals was carried out with a group of twenty five Form Four students in a secondary school in Kuantan, Pahang. The aim of the research is to find out the effects of blogs as a tool in developing writing in English as A Second Language. The instruments include questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and analysis of the blogs content. The research covered students’ perspectives of blogs as the medium for online journals, the effectiveness of blogs as a tool to assist students’ writing skill and to what extent blogs could help students to enhance their writing skills. From the findings, it is discovered that there is a positive impact on the development of students’ writing throughout the research as gained through the instruments. From the research, the students claimed that blogs is an interesting medium for them to write their journals as compared to writing in their log books. Blogs also could help them developed their writing skill in English Language; and through the various features in blogs, students were able to write more effectively

Peer mediation for conflict management: a Singaporean case study

The burgeoning interest in conflict and its management has recently begun to impact on schools and school systems worldwide. Motivated by a concern for increasing levels of violence in schools and student�student conflict, many school administrators are looking at conflict management programs as a means of dealing with the problem. Most of the more widely used programs have their origins in the United States; their appropriateness and effectiveness in other countries and cultures is, at best, unknown, and in some respects open to conjecture. In this paper the cultural appropriateness of a peer mediation program in a primary school in Singapore is the subject of investigation. The study also addresses, in an exploratory manner, the effectiveness of peer mediation as a mechanism for student�student conflict management