Analyzing logic programs with dynamic scheduling

Traditional logic programming languages, such as Prolog, use a fixed left-to-right atom scheduling rule. Recent logic programming languages, however, usually provide more flexible scheduling in which computation generally proceeds leftto- right but in which some calis are dynamically "delayed" until their arguments are sufRciently instantiated to allow the cali to run efficiently. Such dynamic scheduling has a significant cost. We give a framework for the global analysis of logic programming languages with dynamic scheduling and show that program analysis based on this framework supports optimizations which remove much of the overhead of dynamic scheduling

Ill-structured problems and the reference consultation: The librarian’s role in developing student expertise

Purpose – To apply the concept of ill-structured problems and learner expertise to the reference consultation. Design/methodology/approach – Research literature from the 1960s forward regarding ill-structured problems and learner expertise in a variety of disciplines was surveyed. Resulting characteristics of expert problem-solvers were used to suggest applications to the reference consultation. Findings – Librarians can structure the reference consultation to better meet students‟ needs as information problem solvers. Research limitations/implications – The method described appears to have sound basis in research into cognitive development and reflective thinking, but it has not been empirically demonstrated in the reference environment. Empirical research with reference librarians and students would be a logical next step. Originality/value – Research into ill-structured problems and learner expertise is ongoing in information retrieval systems. It has not been applied to the reference consultation

International Law and Practice in Times of Change

This Article, based on remarks given at a fall 2013 conference hosted by The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, offers a perspective on the current state of private and public international law, and what that means for law students today, particularly students at Midwestern law schools. With that perspective in mind, the article concludes with some observations about what law schools are and should be doing to integrate international perspectives and experiences into law school curriculum

People as Part of Ecosystems

30 p. : ill. ; 28 cmhttps://scholar.law.colorado.edu/books_reports_studies/1049/thumbnail.jp

Managing Multimedia Mania: Taming The Technology Beast

Harnessing student energy for the positive use of technology in the classroom requires significant change for many educators. Students today exhibit a one-click mentality when using computers in the classroom, and are frustrated when they are not provided with instant gratification.  Gone are the reading and higher level thinking skills of the pen and paper years.  With today’s multimedia mania, students see the computer and its programs as toys, and it is extremely difficult to get them to move from toys to technology tools.  Educators are misgauging student learning when technology is involved, mainly because it is extremely difficult to assess.  It is important for teachers to tame this multimedia beast and model millennial skills, and thus guide students to focus on the computer as a tool, not merely a toy, in the process of learning. &nbsp

Grit, Mindsets, and Persistence of Engineering Students

Undergraduate engineering programs in the United States suffer from high rates of attrition. To develop the knowledge base that can inform efforts to reduce attrition rates, I conducted three studies focused on helping students persist in engineering. In the first study, I investigated whether grit would help students persist in engineering. In the second study, I explored the gritty behaviors of engineering students who persisted through academic failures. In the third study, I developed an intervention to encourage students to adopt healthy learning dispositions and behaviors to help them persist in engineering. The first study investigates whether a noncognitive factor called Grit could predict engineering retention. Specifically, I explored whether Grit predicts one- and two-year engineering retention, and whether student characteristics and academic performance affect the relationship between Grit and retention. I aggregated data from two first-year engineering cohorts who enrolled in a large public university in Fall 2014 and in Fall 2015. I used binary logistic regression to predict retention with Grit and its two subscales, Perseverance of Effort (PE) and Consistency of Interest (CI), gender, socioeconomic status, ACT math, high school grade-point-average (GPA), first math grade in college, first-semester GPA, first-year cumulative GPA, and second-year cumulative GPA. Grit and second-year cumulative GPA were significant predictors for two-year retention but not one-year retention. PE was a better predictor of retention than Grit for both one- and two-year retention, whereas CI was not a significant predictor of retention at all. Additionally, ACT math, high school GPA, first-semester GPA, and first-year cumulative GPA were significant predictors for both one- and two-year retention. Grit’s utility in predicting engineering retention relies on the PE construct. I recommend more research on the CI construct to better understand how it relates to Grit and success. Though PE is a statistically significant predictor of retention, estimates of predictive power suggest that PE should not be used to predict engineering retention. The second study explores the gritty behaviors of engineering students who persisted through academic failures. Academic failures can influence students to depart from engineering programs. In addition, researchers have identified many reasons for why students depart from engineering including perceived academic difficulty, chilly climates, and poor teaching and advising. However, the problems that departers experience are not unique to them; persisters share the same kinds of problems. To better understand the experience of persisters, I explored the experiences of persisting engineering students who had previously failed a required technical course. I used phenomenography as the qualitative research method to construct categories of description that describe the variety of ways persisting engineering students experienced academic failures. Based on 26 student interviews, I constructed four categories to describe their failure experiences: Unresponsive, Avoidant, Floundering, and Rebounding. Also, I found that students do not always experience failure the same way every time; they can experience failure differently for different instances of failure. Based on our findings, I recommend that failure be normalized in engineering education, and that course and program policies be revised to promote learning from failure. The third study entails the development of a course to encourage students to adopt healthy learning dispositions and behaviors to help them persist in engineering. Healthy learning dispositions encompass attitudes and beliefs that promote learning. Healthy learning behaviors comprise actions such as planning, monitoring, and reflecting that produce effective learning. I used the design-based research methodology to bridge from laboratory studies to classroom implementation. Following design-based research, I used the Transtheoretical Model of Health Behavior Change to guide this translation of theories related to healthy learning dispositions and behaviors into the design of the course. I found that this course helped students adopt the growth mindset and that elements of course design helped students engage in several processes of change. This study demonstrates that theory-informed interventions, like this course, can be effective in helping students adopt healthy learning dispositions. However, more research is needed to help students adopt healthy academic behaviors.National Science Foundation / DUE-1626287Campus Research Board, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign / RB15010Ope

“Disability? No. .... Dis(Ease)Ability” When an Innovative Pedagogical Theory Is the Difference

After a long process of application analysis on the use of various technologies and their peculiarities instrumental in the complex field of education, to facilitate the process of learning competent aimed at achieving the maximum possible autonomy of the students, pathologically deficient compared to the same time of the companions , I have come to grasp the objective fact of blocking or at times, slowing the action of the teachers in these school situations. It showed the lack of a theoretical reference line that was primarily pedagogical about the true identity of educational action with which to understand the Media Education not only in the “school for all” but, above all, in the “education for all”. I have gained so convinced of the need for a pedagogy of action that would change the veil obscured by “formae mentis” anchored to a school, “therapist and / or therapeutic” with a school that was, however, instructive and useful to the cognitive styles of all its users, although complex. Draw up a theoretical path that would put out all the positivity that the action of ‘“educate” has, if properly calibrated and adjusted to the particularities of each, it was my first goal; subsequently, through the analysis of all my experiments with application of various technologies pupils from clinical diagnoses most varied and complex, and the successes each time, I modeled a methodology and didactics of reference, so that the action of the teacher was not limited only to a pragmatism abstract. In fact, I am convinced, that is not the technology but those who lack the “how” and “what” to make the teacher! ...... But, this journey is just beginning ....

Labour Migration and Human Trafficking: An Introduction

Anti-trafficking initiatives grew exponentially since the United Nations passed the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (hereafter the UN Trafficking Protocol) in 2000. This book contributes to the growing critique of the anti-trafficking agenda by exploring the ways in which the UN Trafficking Protocol has been taken up by policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, and international agencies in Southeast Asia. This region is recognized internationally as a ‘hotspot’ for human trafficking, but there have been few attempts to critically evaluate the vast numbers of anti-trafficking programs and projects or counter-trafficking laws and regulations in operation in the region. Instead, much of the literature has focused on documenting the role that international agencies and NGOs have played in counter-trafficking programs; the development of anti-trafficking laws and policies; or empirical studies of human trafficking cases and/or trends.2 In order to address this gap, the authors in this collection focus their attention at the local level and pay careful, systematic attention to the ways that anti-trafficking initiatives have been taken up and translated by different stakeholders at different scales. As these cases show, anti-trafficking initiatives include rescue and repatriation programs for ‘victims’; education programs about the dangerous habits of smugglers and traffickers; development programs aimed at improving economic livelihoods in ‘hotspots’; and international and bilateral policing efforts aimed at securing borders and arresting people smugglers and traffickers. Associated with the rise of a strong discourse of transnational crime prevention, these initiatives have been accompanied by numerous anti-trafficking laws and protocols passed at local, national and regional levels