Design of teaching materials informed by consideration of learning-impaired students

The general aim of this project is to fundamentally re-think the design of teaching materials in view of what is now known about cognitive deficits and about what Howard Gardner has termed ‘multiple intelligences’. The applicant has implemented this strategy in two distinct areas, the first involving the writing of an English language programme for Chinese speakers, the second involving the construction of specialized equipment for teaching elementary logic to blind students. The next phase (for which funding is sought) is to test the effectiveness of the logic device, because in theory – the one to be tested – materials the design of which is informed by the above rationale will provide a richer learning experience for non-impaired users

Quantum Inference on Bayesian Networks

Performing exact inference on Bayesian networks is known to be #P-hard. Typically approximate inference techniques are used instead to sample from the distribution on query variables given the values $e$ of evidence variables. Classically, a single unbiased sample is obtained from a Bayesian network on $n$ variables with at most $m$ parents per node in time $\mathcal{O}(nmP(e)^{-1})$, depending critically on $P(e)$, the probability the evidence might occur in the first place. By implementing a quantum version of rejection sampling, we obtain a square-root speedup, taking $\mathcal{O}(n2^mP(e)^{-\frac12})$ time per sample. We exploit the Bayesian network's graph structure to efficiently construct a quantum state, a q-sample, representing the intended classical distribution, and also to efficiently apply amplitude amplification, the source of our speedup. Thus, our speedup is notable as it is unrelativized -- we count primitive operations and require no blackbox oracle queries.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to PR

An Investigation of Student Engagement in a Global Warming Debate

NOTE: This is a large file, 77 mb in size! This article describes an investigation into how using debate as a pedagogical tool for addressing earth system science concepts can promote active student learning, present a realistic and dynamic view of science, and provide a mechanism for integrating the scientific, political and social dimensions of global environmental change. Using global warming as an example of earth system science, the authors consider how participation in debate provides an avenue for engaging students in science. The investigation draws from studies of school science that focus on the use of argument as a pedagogical tool and examines how students make use of observationally-based climatic data sets when debating the cause of global warming. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Addressing nutritional literacy in preschool learning environments

INTRODUCTION: Obesity among preschool children is more common among lower-income families. Prevalence of type 2 diabetes in U.S. Mexican and African American populations has steadily increased and is associated with modifiable risk factors, such as poor dietary habits. AIM: The purpose of this study was to conduct an assessment of the preschool Bienestar/NEEMA Health Program, focusing on: students’ knowledge increase, teacher input on the classroom materials used, parental feedback on take-home activities, and input on the program\u27s food service training by the school district\u27s nutrition coordinator. SAMPLE: Curriculum was implemented and assessed in one Head Start school over a six-week period. Teacher’s focus group discussion surrounded the classroom curriculum, parents attended a discussion of the parent curriculum and one school food service personnel was interviewed regarding the school food service personnel curriculum. RESULTS: Three and 4-year-old students (n=104) in Spanish-speaking, English-speaking, and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes participated in the study. Knowledge assessments showed a slight increase in nutrition knowledge. Teachers indicated the materials were cognitively appropriate, but materials should use actual photographs and not clip art to teach core concepts. Parents appreciated learning how chronic disease is nutritionally related and how to feed their families on a budget. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH DISPARITIES IN PUBLIC HEALTH: Nutritional literacy is critical for decreasing the risk and financial burden of obesity and chronic disease in America. Food preference begins at an early age and sets the stage for lifelong eating habits. Developing appropriate and inexpensive nutrition education materials for preschool children should include social scientists, nutritionists and food scientists as an integral part of the interdisciplinary public health team focusing on decreasing health disparities

I see what you mean

The ability to understand and predict others' behavior is essential for successful interactions. When making predictions about what other humans will do, we treat them as intentional systems and adopt the intentional stance, i.e., refer to their mental states such as desires and intentions. In the present experiments, we investigated whether the mere belief that the observed agent is an intentional system influences basic social attention mechanisms. We presented pictures of a human and a robot face in a gaze cuing paradigm and manipulated the likelihood of adopting the intentional stance by instruction: in some conditions, participants were told that they were observing a human or a robot, in others, that they were observing a human-like mannequin or a robot whose eyes were controlled by a human. In conditions in which participants were made to believe they were observing human behavior (intentional stance likely) gaze cuing effects were significantly larger as compared to conditions when adopting the intentional stance was less likely. This effect was independent of whether a human or a robot face was presented. Therefore, we conclude that adopting the intentional stance when observing others' behavior fundamentally influences basic mechanisms of social attention. The present results provide striking evidence that high-level cognitive processes, such as beliefs, modulate bottom-up mechanisms of attentional selection in a top-down manner