Learning programs by learning from failures

We describe an inductive logic programming (ILP) approach called learning from failures. In this approach, an ILP system (the learner) decomposes the learning problem into three separate stages: generate, test, and constrain. In the generate stage, the learner generates a hypothesis (a logic program) that satisfies a set of hypothesis constraints (constraints on the syntactic form of hypotheses). In the test stage, the learner tests the hypothesis against training examples. A hypothesis fails when it does not entail all the positive examples or entails a negative example. If a hypothesis fails, then, in the constrain stage, the learner learns constraints from the failed hypothesis to prune the hypothesis space, i.e. to constrain subsequent hypothesis generation. For instance, if a hypothesis is too general (entails a negative example), the constraints prune generalisations of the hypothesis. If a hypothesis is too specific (does not entail all the positive examples), the constraints prune specialisations of the hypothesis. This loop repeats until either (i) the learner finds a hypothesis that entails all the positive and none of the negative examples, or (ii) there are no more hypotheses to test. We introduce Popper, an ILP system that implements this approach by combining answer set programming and Prolog. Popper supports infinite problem domains, reasoning about lists and numbers, learning textually minimal programs, and learning recursive programs. Our experimental results on three domains (toy game problems, robot strategies, and list transformations) show that (i) constraints drastically improve learning performance, and (ii) Popper can outperform existing ILP systems, both in terms of predictive accuracies and learning times.Comment: Accepted for the machine learning journa

Alternative Delivery Methods: A Reflection on the Semester That Almost Wasn\u27t

As educators we are by our very nature self-reflective practitioners. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forced many of us to reconsider our approaches to remote learning, and this narrative describes my experiences with alternative delivery methods of instruction during the past two months. It is my hope that others can learn from both my successes and my failures. I encourage all educators to thoughtfully examine what they have experienced during this unprecedented time and consider how the lessons learned can positively influence their instructional approaches and readiness moving forward. The narrative begins by contextualizing my background, programs, classes, and institution. It examines the reasons why I chose to approach remote learning using both synchronous and asynchronous methods of instruction, and concludes with questions and concerns that I still have as we transition toward the 2020-2021 academic year

Relationship Between Self-Development, Mentorship, and Senior Military Officer Moral Judgment

Despite a renewed emphasis on ethics programs across the Department of Defense (DOD) since 2007, the number of senior officer ethical failures increased by 13% from 2015 to 2017 (Copp, 2017). If the trend of ethical failures and misconduct continue, the military faces a further decline in public confidence (DoDOIG, 2017). The 2017 DOD Inspector General report noted the trend of senior leader ethical failures might foster negative public perceptions regarding military leader’s overall dedication, sacrifice, ethics, and character (DoDOIG, 2017). A review of military literature revealed the importance of mentorship and self-development in professional development; however, gaps between formal ethics education programs average between 8 to 10 years (Behn, 2016; Air Force Model, 2004; Army leadership, 2012; Navy leader development, 2017). During these lengthy gaps in formal training, self-development and mentorship as part of the service’s overarching leadership development programs, serve as potential ethical development methods in which moral judgment development is a key component. The current study is supported by Bandura’s (1986) social learning theory, Knowles’ (1984) adult learning theory, Rest’s (1986) 4-component model of moral development, and Richard Swanson’s human resource development theory (Swanson & Holton, 2009). The theoretical framework supports the study’s measurement of self-development and mentorship on moral judgment as perceived by senior military officers at one of three military war colleges. Respondents (N = 63) were administered demographic, self-development, and mentorship surveys. Additionally, respondents were administered the Defining Issues Test Version Two (DIT-2) to determine moral judgment score (N2). Multiple linear regression was used to determine the relationship between the perceived influence of self-development, mentorship, and moral judgment among senior military officers (N = 63). Results determined significant relationships between both self-development and moral judgment, and mentorship and moral judgment. Senior military leadership can take advantage of these findings by promoting ethical self-development and mentorship across the force. Future considerations include replicating this study with a larger sample size through random sampling that includes senior military officer war college graduates to enrich validity and provide generalization to the larger military population

Neural Task Programming: Learning to Generalize Across Hierarchical Tasks

In this work, we propose a novel robot learning framework called Neural Task Programming (NTP), which bridges the idea of few-shot learning from demonstration and neural program induction. NTP takes as input a task specification (e.g., video demonstration of a task) and recursively decomposes it into finer sub-task specifications. These specifications are fed to a hierarchical neural program, where bottom-level programs are callable subroutines that interact with the environment. We validate our method in three robot manipulation tasks. NTP achieves strong generalization across sequential tasks that exhibit hierarchal and compositional structures. The experimental results show that NTP learns to generalize well to- wards unseen tasks with increasing lengths, variable topologies, and changing objectives.Comment: ICRA 201

Measuring Employee Perceptions of Organizational Tolerance for Failure

The empirical concept of Organizational Tolerance for Organizational Failure was examined. First, a clear definition of the concept was established and, second, the concept\u27s dimensionality was explored. Based on data collected from 140 participants, four main scale components were identified: Organizational Values and Beliefs, Organizational and Supervisor Support and Motivation, Compensation and Reward Systems, and Recognition. Even though the final scale developed represented a good research base, further development is needed to improve some of the subscale\u27s internal consistencies

The distribution of Mexico's public spending on education

Research shows that education has played a crucial role in raising levels of earnings and that returns to education in Mexico have increased, particularly in higher education and in the upper tail of the conditional earnings distribution. The authors examine patterns of public spending on education in the face of further increases in earnings inequality. They analyze the incidence of benefits using two sets of data: data on unit costs per student by state and by education level, and data from surveys on household income and spending. Among their findings: Nationally, the poorest income groups get most of the national and state subsidy for primary education. At higher education levels the poor get progressively smaller subsidies. For all Mexico, government spending on primary education is very progressive. In lower secondary education it is neutral. And in upper secondary education it benefits mainly the middle and upper classes. Tertiary education is strongly regressive, benefiting mainly the richest deciles and mainly in urban areas. But those government patterns vary by region. In the central region average total spending is more uniformly distributed than the national pattern. In the northern region the subsidy is progressive. Primary education is neutral and higher levels of instruction are moderately regressive. In the central region primary schooling is very progressive, while lower secondary schooling is almost neutral. Upper secondary and tertiary instruction strongly benefit the richest income deciles. In the southern region basic (primary and lower secondary) education is very progressive, upper secondary education is neutral, and tertiary education is highly regressive. In Mexico City all levels of education except primary are stronglyregressive. The authors show that public spending at the tertiary level is more regressive than household spending. So much of public spending on tertiary education favors non-poor families in urban areas that to reallocate the spending so that poor students have a chance to participate would require developing credit markets for higher education. The government's role should be to help overcome market failures in the financial sector, which limit the availability of long-term financing for higher education. These failures can be corrected through student loan programs or means-tested financial aid and scholarship programs. Such programs are rarely devoid of subsidy but are preferable to the direct, cost-free provision of services because the subsidy is targeted more closely to the source of market failure.Curriculum&Instruction,Decentralization,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Environmental Economics&Policies,Curriculum&Instruction,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Gender and Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

A Compass in the Woods: Learning Through Grantmaking to Improve Impact

The field of philanthropy is under increasing pressure to produce – and be able to demonstrate – greater impact for its investments. A growing number of foundations are moving away from the traditional responsive banker model to becoming more thoughtful and engaged partners with their grantees in the business of producing outcomes. In the process, they are placing bigger bets on larger, more strategic programs and initiatives.  What the field is striving to do now is to ensure that this evolution is based on validated theory, not wishful thinking or shots in the dark. The larger the investment, the more skilled foundations must become at managing risk – making informed decisions, tracking progress, adjusting action and learning – throughout the life of a program, so that foreseeable and unforeseeable changes do not torpedo an otherwise worthy collective effort. The traditional grant?to?evaluation?to?adjustment cycle is very long. Because many traditional grantmaking practices are proving to be too slow to adapt, these foundations are striving to better integrate real?time evaluation and learning into their operations in order to become more adaptive; more innovative; more impactful.We undertook this research project to inform how the tools and practices that support Emergent   Learning (described in the next section) can best help foundations and their communities – grantees, intermediaries and other stakeholders – improve the way they learn in complex programs and initiatives

The role of falsification in the development of cognitive architectures: insights from a Lakatosian analysis

It has been suggested that the enterprise of developing mechanistic theories of the human cognitive architecture is flawed because the theories produced are not directly falsifiable. Newell attempted to sidestep this criticism by arguing for a Lakatosian model of scientific progress in which cognitive architectures should be understood as theories that develop over time. However, Newell’s own candidate cognitive architecture adhered only loosely to Lakatosian principles. This paper reconsiders the role of falsification and the potential utility of Lakatosian principles in the development of cognitive architectures. It is argued that a lack of direct falsifiability need not undermine the scientific development of a cognitive architecture if broadly Lakatosian principles are adopted. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the Lakatosian concepts of positive and negative heuristics for theory development and of general heuristic power offer methods for guiding the development of an architecture and for evaluating the contribution and potential of an architecture’s research program