The Montclarion, October 07, 2010

Student Newspaper of Montclair State Universityhttps://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/montclarion/1926/thumbnail.jp

Students´ language in computer-assisted tutoring of mathematical proofs

Truth and proof are central to mathematics. Proving (or disproving) seemingly simple statements often turns out to be one of the hardest mathematical tasks. Yet, doing proofs is rarely taught in the classroom. Studies on cognitive difficulties in learning to do proofs have shown that pupils and students not only often do not understand or cannot apply basic formal reasoning techniques and do not know how to use formal mathematical language, but, at a far more fundamental level, they also do not understand what it means to prove a statement or even do not see the purpose of proof at all. Since insight into the importance of proof and doing proofs as such cannot be learnt other than by practice, learning support through individualised tutoring is in demand. This volume presents a part of an interdisciplinary project, set at the intersection of pedagogical science, artificial intelligence, and (computational) linguistics, which investigated issues involved in provisioning computer-based tutoring of mathematical proofs through dialogue in natural language. The ultimate goal in this context, addressing the above-mentioned need for learning support, is to build intelligent automated tutoring systems for mathematical proofs. The research presented here has been focused on the language that students use while interacting with such a system: its linguistic propeties and computational modelling. Contribution is made at three levels: first, an analysis of language phenomena found in students´ input to a (simulated) proof tutoring system is conducted and the variety of students´ verbalisations is quantitatively assessed, second, a general computational processing strategy for informal mathematical language and methods of modelling prominent language phenomena are proposed, and third, the prospects for natural language as an input modality for proof tutoring systems is evaluated based on collected corpora

MOOSE crossing : construction, community and learning in a networked virtual world for kids

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-231).by Amy Susan Bruckman.Ph.D

Challenging U. S. Undergraduates' Constructions of India: Opportunities to (Re)imagine the Other

Recently, the study of popular culture has expanded into its effect on students' perception of the "Other." Scholars argue that students use popular culture (e.g. news media, movies, television, internet, etc.) at all educational levels to understand and relate to academic material, particularly in geography. Therefore, popular culture is directly involved in the creation of what Edward Said coined "imaginative geographies," or collections of facts and stereotypes of places in the world. Although studies consider the imagined geographies of younger students (K-12), little research in geography explores undergraduates' imagined geographies. In this study, I use qualitative inquiry to examine the ways in which US undergraduates at three universities create, perpetuate, and challenge imagined geographies of India, especially via popular culture mediums. Using participant-driven photo-elicitation (PDPE) (including photographs, focus groups), I explore the ways in which students construct and may better nuance their perceptions and discussions centered on India. I use Said's theory of Orientalism as a lens for analysis. Additionally, through semi-structured interviews with thirty geography instructors across the United States, I explore how educators witness undergraduates' knowledge of distant places in class, and evaluate their varied attempts to complicate these imagined geographies. Overall, my findings indicate that students in higher education rely more on media and popular culture, rather than formal academic learning, although various types of personal relationships played an important role in the development of their perceptions of India. Also, students from different universities and at different points in their educational experience had noticeably different ways of describing India, and thus require unique approaches by instructors to effectively deconstruct their imagined geographies of place. Moreover, I argue for the usefulness of the PDPE approach as a means to help interrogate and nuance undergraduates' knowledge of the world.Geograph

Dyslexia assessment practice within the UK higher education sector: Assessor, lecturer and student perspectives

The formal assessment of dyslexia within the UK higher education sector is a relatively recent practice. The extant literature that there is reflects this historical observation. Missing from this body of literature, though, is any insight gained via systematic studies into the professional practice of those individuals directly responsible for identifying dyslexia in higher education students. In an academic climate where the very concept of dyslexia is being increasingly questioned, the perspectives of dyslexia assessors, together with those of other groups most closely affected by assessors’ practice, constitute an important area of knowledge for all parties concerned with higher education pedagogical and disability issues. This thesis is based on results from the collection and careful analysis of such perspectives acquired through four surveys of large numbers of participants and a smaller number of interviews with practicing dyslexia assessors. The study’s findings reflect both the diversity encompassed by the dyslexia concept within the higher education sector, as well as the complex relationship that exists between dyslexia research and its operationalization into the practice of individual assessors. Whilst data from assessor participants displayed a detailed lack of consensus on one level, this analysis was overridden on another level by a general consensus amongst interviewees around the main purpose and foci of assessment. Lecturers’ and non-dyslexic students’ understanding of, and attitudes towards, dyslexia and dyslexic students were indirectly influenced by assessors’ practice, particularly by what they invariably observed as the heterogeneity of assessed dyslexic students. Dyslexic students, in identifying their self- perceived difficulties, exemplified this diversity within the category. The study’s findings, based on the informed perspectives of its relevant participants, suggest that much current higher education policy and practice around the recognition of dyslexia is based on erroneous unexamined assumptions. The thesis concludes with tentative suggestions as to how the assessment of dyslexia and subsequent provision for the learning difference could be more streamlined with both contemporary research positions and institutions’ commitment to move towards greater inclusivity

The Falcon 2016-2017

https://digitalcommons.spu.edu/archives_newspapers/1087/thumbnail.jp

Interference patterns: Literary study, scientific knowledge, and disciplinary autonomy after the two cultures

This project interrogates the claims made for the possibility of collapsing all the various disciplines into one discipline, probably physics, and surely a science, in the name of making clearer the relations between our various fields of knowledge. This is the aim of the radical reductionist, and I take E. O. Wilson's Consilience as exemplary of such attempts. Central to Wilson's method of achieving unity is the new science of evolutionary psychology - itself a re-working of the sociobiology with which Wilson first achieved notoriety. In the on-going project of explaining culture under a Darwinian description, the evolutionary psychologists have begun to suggest explanations for the popularity and content of narrative fiction. Because they are consonant with the rest of science, these biologistic accounts of fiction might be preferable to the accounts traditionally offered by Literary Studies. Consequently, there is a risk that the traditional practices of Literary Studies will be made redundant within the academy and gradually atrophy. The demand is that Literary Studies either makes itself rigorous like the sciences (as with such projects as Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism), or else forfeit its claims to produce knowledge. Aware of this threat, some literary critics embrace forms of relativism in an attempt to deny the unity or effectiveness of scientific knowledge and so neuter the threatened takeover. Among these forms of relativism, Richard Rorty's account seeks to collapse the hierarchy of disciplines and seemingly offers Literary Studies a means of retaining its distinctive approach without denying the effectiveness of scientific knowledge. I aim to show that Literary Studies need not become a science, and that such sciences as evolutionary psychology are neither as threatening as some had feared, nor as useful to literary study as some have hoped

Bowdoin Orient v.131, no.1-24 (1999-2000)

https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinorient-2000s/1000/thumbnail.jp

Synaptic boojums: Lewis Carroll, linguistic nonsense, and cyberpunk

Tracing a line from Lewis Carroll to 20th-century science fiction and cyberpunk, this project establishes an alternate genealogy based on the use of linguistic nonsense. Science fiction, rather than being merely a genre defined by specific narrative devices or character traits, is instead a language in and of itself. And like any language, it must be learned in order to be understood. Carroll used nonsense as a means of subverting conventional 19th-century opinions of language and, and by extension, society. Carroll was so successful at this that in 1937 American psychiatrist Paul Schilder discussed the dangers to a child\u27s mind inherent in Carroll\u27s work. For Schilder, Carroll\u27s writing, through the violence he commits on language, mirrors a physical violence found in the actions of the characters in Carroll\u27s works. The linguistic violence that Schilder points out is subtle in Carroll\u27s works, but is made more overt in science fiction. But before jumping into science fiction, one must acknowledge James Joyce\u27s contribution to the genre. Joyce borrows heavily from Carroll in Finnegan\u27s Wake while he adds to the English language a multiplicity of words, phrases, and voices from outside the English language, creating a complex linguistic matrix. It is Anthony Burgess\u27 A Clockwork Orange that merges Carroll\u27s nonsense with Schilder\u27s feared violence. As cyberpunk burst onto the scene in the 1980\u27s, with William Gibson\u27s Neuromancer, nonsense took on new levels as technology-driven language blended with multi-cultural phrases in the fluid environment of cyberspace. The fluid environment of cyberspace, and its language, is explored through the works of Pat Cadigan and through Neal Stephenson\u27s Snow Crash