Teaching Computational Methods to Humanities Students

This paper discusses the academic and societal implications of teaching computational methods to humanities students from the perspective of digital humanities. Pedagogical choices are backed up by both pedagogical theory and concrete examples from actual courses and course feedback. The aim of this paper is to introduce clear best-practice recommendations for developing digital humanities teaching with an emphasis on methods teaching in order to increase the number of students who understand such methods and can apply them to their own projects.Peer reviewe

The computational turn: thinking about the digital humanities

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Integration of technical knowledge as a way of forming of professional competence of students of technical university

The article describes ways and methods of improving the quality of graduation in Oil and Gas Engineering by means of implementation of the competence building approach within the modernization of the content of professional education. The article proves the expediency of use of the activity approach in formation of professional competence of students of technical University and the experience of implementing this approach. The author emphasizes the importance of the discipline of mathematics in its function as the basis of professional education and pays special attention to the determination of the types of competences and the formation of general professional skills of bachelors. The article deals with the basic concepts of the «task» and the author's understanding of the term «task». The author presented the experience of the development of practice - oriented tasks for students of technical University. The article also considers the experience of implementation of this technology at studying mathematics at the Petroleum Technological University in compliance with the requirements of the third generation standards. The technology of professional competences formation is offered. Special attention is paid to the technology of formation of professional competence of students of technical University. In this article, stages of organization of the study process at implementation of the technology of the problem-based approach in the education are provided. Specific examples are considered methods of organizing the formation of professional competences. The author reveals the subject matter of a mathematical problem in its function as the basic means of competence formation with the students of technical higher education institutions shows the relevance of treatment in learning process task approach and suggests specific methodology for forming key competences through solving technological problems

The Calculus Concept Inventory and teaching methodology reform

textUnlike fields in the humanities and social sciences, mathematics is traditionally taught through lectures in which students are expected to passively learn material. Research has shown that this didactic method leaves students with little conceptual understanding and discourages them mathematically. The Calculus Concept Inventory (CCI) is an exam which was developed to determine the impact of different teaching methodologies on students' conceptual understanding. The results have demonstrated that teaching methods which fall under the category of Interactive Engagement have the largest positive impact on conceptual knowledge. These methods actively engage students through social interactions with their peers and instructors in addition to providing immediate feedback and time for second attempts. The purpose of this report is to describe the current status of calculus reform and the ways in which the CCI is affecting mathematics pedagogy. For example, the University of Texas at Austin Mathematics Department has implemented flipping, an interactive engagement method delivering instruction on-line outside of class and bringing homework into the classroom.Mathematic

Disciplined: Using educational studies to analyse 'Humanities Computing'

Humanities Computing is an emergent field. The activities described as 'Humanities Computing' continue to expand in number and sophistication, yet no concrete definition of the field exists, and there are few academic departments that specialize in this area. Most introspection regarding the role, meaning, and focus of "Humanities Computing" has come from a practical and pragmatic perspective from scholars and educators within the field itself. This article provides an alternative, externalized, viewpoint of the focus of Humanities Computing, by analysing the discipline through its community, research, curriculum, teaching programmes, and the message they deliver, either consciously or unconsciously, about the scope of the discipline. It engages with Educational Theory to provide a means to analyse, measure, and define the field, and focuses specifically on the ACH/ALLC 2005 Conference to identify and analyse those who are involved with the humanities computing community. © 2006 Oxford University Press

Teachers' and students' views and attitudes towards a new mathematics curriculum: A case study

The education system in Portugal is in the midst of a period of intensive reform. This paper describes the findings of a qualitative case study focusing on the views and attitudes of teachers and students participating in a pilot curriculum development programme stressing active methodologies and group work, conducted by the Ministry of Education In particular it discusses their views and attitudes about mathematics, mathematics teaching and curriculum innovation. The teachers were found to struggle with a contradiction: whilst they approved the new orientations, which were seen as adequate and innovative, they complained strongly about the design and implementation of the programme Students had a generally positive attitude towards mathematics, although there were differences among them. The 7th graders were satisfied with their mathematics classes and with the new curriculum. The 10th graders did not consider the changes as significant in themselves, but expressed concern for their academic progress

Crossing the hurdle: the determinants of individual scientific performance

An original cross sectional dataset referring to a medium sized Italian university is implemented in order to analyze the determinants of scientific research production at individual level. The dataset includes 942 permanent researchers of various scientific sectors for a three year time span (2008 - 2010). Three different indicators - based on the number of publications or citations - are considered as response variables. The corresponding distributions are highly skewed and display an excess of zero - valued observations. In this setting, the goodness of fit of several Poisson mixture regression models are explored by assuming an extensive set of explanatory variables. As to the personal observable characteristics of the researchers, the results emphasize the age effect and the gender productivity gap, as previously documented by existing studies. Analogously, the analysis confirm that productivity is strongly affected by the publication and citation practices adopted in different scientific disciplines. The empirical evidence on the connection between teaching and research activities suggests that no univocal substitution or complementarity thesis can be claimed: a major teaching load does not affect the odds to be a non-active researcher and does not significantly reduce the number of publications for active researchers. In addition, new evidence emerges on the effect of researchers administrative tasks, which seem to be negatively related with researcher's productivity, and on the composition of departments. Researchers' productivity is apparently enhanced by operating in department filled with more administrative and technical staff, and it is not significantly affected by the composition of the department in terms of senior or junior researchers.Comment: Revised version accepted for publication by Scientometric

The Tyranny of Transparency: Auto-immunity in The Teaching Machine

This article proposes that the prime ideals of the university - those of truth, knowledge, justice, and emancipation - are also those that currently produce unjust practices "outside" and "within". Using the work of Jacques Derrida and Paul Virilio, the article argues that the central problem of the university today consists not so much of a neo-liberalisation, but of the speeding-up of these ideals through their enmeshment with techniques of calculation, vision, and prediction. The current university therefore suffers from what it with Derrida identifies as an "auto-immune disease," in which the acceleration of its foundational aspirations have led to a near-total subjugation of all and everything to an oppressive quest for transparency. However, the article proposes via Virilio that this totalising transparency paradoxically also produces more blindness, accidents, and unknowability. It hopes to illustrate this with some examples in the teaching scene as well by working through some of its own conceptual tensions. The other logic of the university today, the article finally proposes, consists of a "dark" or stealth functionality, opening up the promise of a radically different future and unanticipated resistance despite itself