Pointless learning

Bayesian inversion is at the heart of probabilistic programming and more generally machine learning. Understanding inversion is made difficult by the pointful (kernel-centric) point of view usually taken in the literature. We develop a pointless (kernel-free) approach to inversion. While doing so, we revisit some foundational objects of probability theory, unravel their category-theoretical underpinnings and show how pointless Bayesian inversion sits naturally at the centre of this construction

Pointless learning (long version)

International audienceBayesian inversion is at the heart of probabilistic programming and more generally machine learning. Understanding inversion is made difficult by the pointful (kernel-centric) point of view usually taken in the literature. We develop a pointless (kernel-free) approach to inversion. While doing so, we revisit some foundational objects of probability theory, unravel their category-theoretical underpinnings and show how pointless Bayesian inversion sits naturally at the centre of this construction

Pointless learning (long version)

International audienceBayesian inversion is at the heart of probabilistic programming and more generally machine learning. Understanding inversion is made difficult by the pointful (kernel-centric) point of view usually taken in the literature. We develop a pointless (kernel-free) approach to inversion. While doing so, we revisit some foundational objects of probability theory, unravel their category-theoretical underpinnings and show how pointless Bayesian inversion sits naturally at the centre of this construction

How do different student constituencies (not) learn the history and philosophy of their subject? Case studies from science, technology and medicine

[FIRST PARAGRAPH] Why should H.E. teachers concern themselves with how their students do or don’t learn? Much has been said recently about the alleged merits and demerits of ‘student-centred’ learning, especially on the extent to which student autonomy in the learning process is beneficial to their long-term interests. This paper is a not a contribution to that debate. Rather it focuses on how teachers might uphold their conventional educational responsibilities but make their role more effective. Its central thesis is that this role is most effective when treated not so much as the ‘teaching’ of students as the process of helping students to learn. This particular study concerns how university students of science, technology and medicine (STM) can be helped to learn the history and philosophy of their respective subject from practitioners in the history and philosophy of science, technology and medicine. But I will not be focussing on those students (sometimes the majority) who have no trouble learning to think in historical and philosophical ways about their subject. They are not the ones who require most help from us. More importantly, I look at those students who—despite the best efforts of their teachers—find the historical or philosophical sensibility to be difficult, repellent, uninteresting, irrelevant, pointless or simply weird. In the worst case scenario such students learn nothing substantial or valuable from classes in the history and philosophy of their subject, and become bored, alienated or hostile to the whole enterprise

“Enjoyable”, “okay” or “rather pointless”? An exploration of Chinese and British students' views on innovative and traditional assignment types in UK universities

In the U.K., Chinese students are now “the largest single overseas student group” with more than 60,000 studying here in 2006 (British Council, 2008) yet there has been little study of their views towards British assessment methods, particularly innovative assignment types. The focus of this paper is on the similarities and differences in attitudes towards assessed writing between Chinese and British students in U.K. universities. Data was gathered in 2007-8 and consists of 200 questionnaire responses from Chinese and British students studying a wide range of subjects in over 40 UK universities together with follow-up emails and interviews. Students are asked to describe how they plan and write assignments and how this has altered over the course of their university study. Also explored are the use of aids such as electronic and paper dictionaries, translation software and proofreading by native or non-native speakers. The main focus of the study is British and Chinese students’ views of assignment-writing, particularly in relation to recent, alternative assignment types such as blogs, letters and e-posters. Currently students in U.K. H.E. are expected to produce a wide variety of text types with several writers suggesting that more discipline and text-specific help is needed (e.g. Hewings and Hewings, 2001). Jin and Cortazzi have pointed out the “increasingly diverse” nature of Chinese students in the U.K. (2006) and Gu and Schweisfurth suggest that the notion of ‘the Chinese learner’ invites an unhelpful view of homogeneity (2006). In this paper I consider the difficulties facing U.K. university students in terms of the range of writing requirements which are now expected and how British and Chinese students embrace these challenges

Making Tutoring Strange: The Pedagogical Aims of Tutor Training

"I don’t think that we even need this class. Tutoring is really intuitive and the class is pointless.” These were the words of a student whose poor performance in our tutor training course meant that she was not invited to serve as a Writing Fellow after the course. As the three-credit course over our 15week semester was coming to a close and I made my way through annotated bibliographies and research proposals from the other students in the course, I wondered if she was right. Had the course been pointless? As I walked into the Writing Center during a particularly busy time of day and witnessed a dozen small gestures and phrases that made me proud, I thought again of the student’s assessment. Was she right?University Writing Cente

Addressing the learners' needs for specific and constructive feedback

This paper discusses an on-going project which proposes to make feedback to students more personal, explicit and more useful as a method of further engaging students. It addresses an issue that has recently been identified by the researchers where students on an Engineering programme were not recognising the presence of feedback on their assessed work. Feedback is central to the process of learning. However it has been widely accepted, through tools such as the UK National Student Survey, that students are still relatively dissatisfied with the feedback they have received. There is therefore a need to ensure that feedback given to students is specific and constructive in terms of helping them move their own learning forward. A pilot is being carried out with two Engineering classes, offering students the option to request specific feedback on their class tests. The students are asked to identify the areas of their work they require feedback on through the completion of a ‘feedback request label’. Staff can then respond to the feedback requests and issue students with personal and relevant feedback. Initial findings from the project have shown students to have clear expectations regarding the type of feedback they want. Students identified that they expect clear and legible feedback, which draws together feedback comments from throughout their work and provides a summary of how they could move forwards. Findings have also identified some differences in expectations and perceptions of feedback between the Level 3 and Level 4 students involved in the project

Children researching links between poverty and literacy

Two groups of six children (aged eleven) in two UK primary schools – one in an area of socio-economic advantage and one in an area of socio-economic disadvantage – were trained in research methods. They were supported to undertake their own research projects about aspects of literacy, which they identified themselves. Areas explored include: - homework experiences - learning environments and - how confidence affects literacy. These research studies provide rich descriptions of children’s own literacy experiences, generating data that is not easily accessible to adults. The absence of power relations in the data collection by having child researchers means that the responses are untainted by efforts to ‘please the adult’. This report will be of interest to teachers, educationalists, government bodies, policy maker