94,509 research outputs found
Modelling the role of inter-cultural contact in the motivation of learning English as a foreign language.
The research reported in this paper explores the effect of direct and indirect cross-cultural contact on Hungarian school children's attitudes and motivated behaviour by means of structural equation modelling. Our data are based on a national representative survey of 1,777 13/14-year-old learners of English and German in Hungary; 237 of the students learning English with the highest level of inter-cultural contact were selected for analysis. Our model indicates that for our participants, motivated behaviour is determined not only by language-related attitudes but also by the views the students hold about the perceived importance of contact with foreigners. The results of our study also reveal that the perceived importance of contact was not related to studentsâ direct contact experiences with target language speakers but was influenced by the studentsâ milieu and indirect contact. Among the contact variables, it was only contact through media products that had an important position in our model, whereas direct contact with L2 speakers played an insignificant role in affecting motivated behaviour and attitudes
Neurocognitive Informatics Manifesto.
Informatics studies all aspects of the structure of natural and artificial information systems. Theoretical and abstract approaches to information have made great advances, but human information processing is still unmatched in many areas, including information management, representation and understanding. Neurocognitive informatics is a new, emerging field that should help to improve the matching of artificial and natural systems, and inspire better computational algorithms to solve problems that are still beyond the reach of machines. In this position paper examples of neurocognitive inspirations and promising directions in this area are given
World-view perspectives
The foundation of a tolerant society is an ability to foster and
respond to the diversity of perspective among its people. Cognitive
psychologists have described how perspective influences information
processing, while our innate ability to adopt perspective has been established
by neuropsychology. Literature, through the use of point-of-view, together
with results from researchers adopting socio-cultural paradigms suggests
perspective is also a social construct. An ecologically-based framework is
described that provides cohesion to the temporal, spatial, universal and other
types of world-view perspective associated, predominantly, with indigenous
cultures. Culturally responsible types of creative and critical thinking are
evoked when world-view perspective is engaged while reading text and
reading the world. World-view perspective provides us with a means of
critiquing the construction of knowledge through the de-construction of
dominant discourses, re-valuing of indigenous world-views and reducing the
relational distance between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples
Conceptual learning : the priority for higher education
The common sense notion of learning as the all-pervasive acquisition of new behaviour and knowledge, made vivid by experience, is an incomplete characterisation, because it assumes that the learning of behaviour and the learning of knowledge are indistinguishable, and that acquisition constitutes learning without reference to transfer. A psychological level of analysis is used to argue that conceptual learning should have priority in higher education
Epistemic and social scripts in computer-supported collaborative learning
Collaborative learning in computer-supported learning environments typically means that learners work on tasks together, discussing their individual perspectives via text-based media or videoconferencing, and consequently acquire knowledge. Collaborative learning, however, is often sub-optimal with respect to how learners work on the concepts that are supposed to be learned and how learners interact with each other. One possibility to improve collaborative learning environments is to conceptualize epistemic scripts, which specify how learners work on a given task, and social scripts, which structure how learners interact with each other. In this contribution, two studies will be reported that investigated the effects of epistemic and social scripts in a text-based computer-supported learning environment and in a videoconferencing learning environment in order to foster the individual acquisition of knowledge. In each study the factors âepistemic scriptâ and âsocial scriptâ have been independently varied in a 2Ă2-factorial design. 182 university students of Educational Science participated in these two studies. Results of both studies show that social scripts can be substantially beneficial with respect to the individual acquisition of knowledge, whereas epistemic scripts apparently do not to lead to the expected effects
Fostering shared knowledge with active graphical representation in different collaboration scenarios
This study investigated how two types of graphical representation tools influence the way in which learners use shared and unshared knowledge resources in two different collaboration scenarios, and how learners represent and transfer shared knowledge under these different conditions. Moreover, the relation between the use of knowledge resources, representation, and the transfer of shared knowledge was analyzed. The type of graphical representation (content-specific vs. content-unspecific) and the collaboration scenario (video conferencing vs. face-to-face) were varied. 64 university students participated. Results show that the learning partners converged in their profiles of resource use. With the content-specific graphical representation, learners used more appropriate knowledge resources. Learners in the computer-mediated scenarios showed a greater bandwidth in their profiles of resource use. A relation between discourse and outcomes could be shown for the transfer but not for the knowledge representation aspectIn dieser Studie werden die Wirkungen von verschiedenen Arten graphischer ReprĂ€sentation auf die Nutzung geteilter und ungeteilter Wissensressourcen in zwei verschiedenen Kooperationsszenarien untersucht. Des Weiteren wird analysiert, wie Lernende geteiltes und ungeteiltes Wissen unter diesen verschiedenen Bedingungen reprĂ€sentieren und transferieren. SchlieĂlich wird die Beziehung zwischen der Nutzung von Wissensressourcen auf der einen Seite sowie der ReprĂ€sentation und dem Transfer geteilten Wissens auf der anderen Seite geprĂŒft. Mit der Art der graphischen ReprĂ€sentation (inhaltsspezifisch vs. inhaltsunspezifisch) und dem Kooperationsszenario (Videokonferenz vs. face-to-face) werden zwei Faktoren experimentell variiert. 64 Studierende nahmen an der Studie teil. Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Lernpartner in ihren Profilen der Ressourcennutzung konvergierten. Lernende, die durch die inhaltsspezifische graphische ReprĂ€sentation unterstĂŒtzt wurden, verwendeten angemessenere Wissensressourcen. Lernende in den computervermittelten Szenarien weisen eine gröĂere Bandbreite in ihren Profilen der Ressourcennutzung auf. Eine direkte Wirkung vom Diskurs der Lernenden auf die Entwicklung geteilten Wissens konnte fĂŒr den Transfer, aber nicht fĂŒr die WissensreprĂ€sentation gezeigt werde
Teegi: Tangible EEG Interface
We introduce Teegi, a Tangible ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG) Interface that
enables novice users to get to know more about something as complex as brain
signals, in an easy, en- gaging and informative way. To this end, we have
designed a new system based on a unique combination of spatial aug- mented
reality, tangible interaction and real-time neurotech- nologies. With Teegi, a
user can visualize and analyze his or her own brain activity in real-time, on a
tangible character that can be easily manipulated, and with which it is
possible to interact. An exploration study has shown that interacting with
Teegi seems to be easy, motivating, reliable and infor- mative. Overall, this
suggests that Teegi is a promising and relevant training and mediation tool for
the general public.Comment: to appear in UIST-ACM User Interface Software and Technology
Symposium, Oct 2014, Honolulu, United State
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