The Session Inventory Module within an Intelligent Tutoring System for Data Normalization

The knowledge acquisition of data normalization has been commonly perceived as a hurdle that is challenging students in the beginning database classes. As an effort to provide students with additional assistance while learning this topic, an intelligent tutoring system is proposed and implemented that can be used as a virtual private tutor to teach students in a one-on-one manner. This paper describes the strategically design and management of the tutorial sessions within this system. These sessions are designed and maintained according to their theme topics and difficulty levels so that the virtual tutor can dynamically select sessions based on the assessment of a student’s knowledge level and progress

Abstracts from the Nineteenth Annual Conference National Association for Ethnic Studies. Inc. Ethnic Studies for the Twenty-first Century

With the leadership of James H. Williams, Tengemana Thumbutu, and the staff of the College of Arts at California State Polytechnic University, NAES had one of its best-attended conferences ever. Participants enjoyed the sunny and smog-free skies of spring in California and the amenities of the Kellogg West Conference Center while renewing their commitment to the need to study and implement current research in ethnic studies

Agency as the Acquisition of Capital: the role of one-on-one tutoring and mentoring in changing a refugee student's educational trajectory

Current research into the experiences of refugee students in mainstream secondary schools in Australia indicates that for these students, schools are places of social and academic isolation and failure. This article introduces one such student, Lian, who came to Australia as a refugee from Burma, and whom the author tutored and mentored intensively during his final year of schooling. The article provides an empirically derived understanding of how one-on-one tutoring and mentoring became a platform through which this student was able to succeed in a structure which systematically tried to exclude him. Here, agency is conceptualised in terms of Bourdieu's concept of capital. The analysis highlights the ways in which one-on-one tutoring and mentoring provided the necessary platform by which this refugee student was able to acquire the necessary capital that effected a positive change in his educational trajectory

Static and Dynamic Integrated Expert Systems: State of the Art, Problems and Trends

Systemized analysis of trends towards integration and hybridization in contemporary expert systems is conducted, and a particular class of applied expert systems, integrated expert systems, is considered. For this purpose, terminology, classification, and models, proposed by the author, are employed. As examples of integrated expert systems, Russian systems designed in this field and available to the majority of specialists are analyzed

Conditions and the effects of an intelligent tutoring system usage for Russian high-stakes exam in English

The aim of the proposed study was to dwell on the field of intelligent tutoring systems as applied to high-stakes exam settings in foreign languages. The main research hypothesis of this paper was the following: Does the study attempt frequency within the suggested intelligent tutoring system affect the overall students’ learning performance in preparation for the Speaking part of the Russian high-stakes exam in the English language? Addressing this research hypothesis also resulted in acquiring understanding on key stakeholders’ perception of preparation for the Russian high-stakes exam in English. Research literature was thoroughly analyzed and the suggested intelligent system was described in detail. Data was collected through a computer-based automated procedure with further randomization and sampling. As a result of the study, three cohorts of users of the intelligent tutoring system were defined. Each cohort maintained a positive study dynamics experienced through the use of the intelligent tutoring system. Also, continuous aspiration for implementing online self-training environments was identified within the majority of a foreign language teachers’ community. The framework developed for the research can be used in future research as a foundation for investigating self-regulated learning environments created for the Speaking part preparation of high-stakes exam in foreign languages

Italian signposts for a sociologically and critically engaged pedagogy : Don Lorenzo Milani (1923-1967) and the schools of San Donato and Barbiana revisited

This paper provides a critical exposition and analysis of the work of an acclaimed Italian educator, Lorenzo Milani, and ideas that emerged from his experiences in two Tuscan localities. His work is well known in Italy and many parts of southern Europe. Despite the translations of his works into English and Spanish, in the early 1970s, and their use in sociology of education classes in the United Kingdom, he seems to have had a very limited impact on the Anglo-North American-dominated critical education field. The paper revisits his ideas, in this 90th anniversary year, indicating their contemporary relevance and the signposts they provide for a critically and sociologically engaged pedagogy.peer-reviewe

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity

How education shaped communist Cuba

F is for Fidel, Y is for Yanqui. This mantra used for teaching the alphabet in revolutionary Cuba shows just how far its educational divide with the U.S. has stretched. No sector illustrates better how Cuba and the U.S. have grown apart in over 50 years than education. Cuba claims today that its academic standards are among the highest in the world, and the country has educated tens of thousands of foreign students, mostly in medicine. U.S. policymakers know little about the methods used in Cuban education, nor what practical opportunities for collaboration in research and business might exist. With the agreement the two countries made last December to restore diplomatic relations, that may be about to change

Computational estimate visualisation and evaluation of agent classified rules learning system

Student modelling and agent classified rules learning as applied in the development of the intelligent Preassessment System has been presented in [10],[11]. In this paper, we now demystify the theory behind the development of the pre-assessment system followed by some computational experimentation and graph visualisation of the agent classified rules learning algorithm in the estimation and prediction of classified rules. In addition, we present some preliminary results of the pre-assessment system evaluation. From the results, it is gathered that the system has performed according to its design specification