Fusion weighted features and BiLSTM-attention model for argument mining of EFL writing

Argument mining (AM), an emerging field in natural language processing (NLP), aims to automatically extract arguments and the relationships between them in texts. In this study, we propose a new method for argument mining of argumentative essays. The method generates dynamic word vectors with BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), encodes argumentative essays, and obtains word-level and essay-level features with BiLSTM (Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory) and attention training, respectively. By integrating these two levels of features we obtain the full-text features so that the content in the essay is annotated according to Toulmin’s argument model. The proposed method was tested on a corpus of 180 argumentative essays, and the precision of automatic annotation reached 69%. The experimental results show that our model outperforms existing models in argument mining. The model can provide technical support for the automatic scoring system, particularly on the evaluation of the content of argumentative essays

Phronesis, authentic learning and the solution of open-ended problems in computer science.

One of the most significant changes in Higher Education pedagogy that has occurred over the past fifty years is the idea that university students should not just be taught theoretical subject knowledge but should engage with practical aspects of their course so developing the skills and professional competences that will allow them to gain successful employment after graduation. In this paper, we relate this development to the Aristotelian notion of intellectual virtue and specifically the concept of phronesis. We discuss the way in which this idea has developed from classical beginnings to the modern educational setting, and argue that the notion of phronesis, that is, practical wisdom or prudential judgement, is crucial to a range of activities which are fundamental to science, engineering and computing education. These include an understanding of what it means to engage in authentic learning and the solution of open-ended or ill-structured problems. We also discuss the role the concept plays in describing key features of work-based learning. Finally, we make some comments concerning the relative value the education system places on different types of knowledge, and why an appropriate understanding of phronesis allows for a proper appreciation of contingent knowledge within the curriculum

The impact of National Science Foundation investments in undergraduate engineering education research: A comparative, mixed methods study

The U.S. invests billions of taxpayers\u27 dollars in research tied to the national priorities that contribute to its competitiveness in a global economy. As the federal funding agency with an explicit focus on engineering education, the National Science Foundation (NSF) contains a portfolio of projects focused on improving the quantity of engineering graduates and the quality of engineering programs. Within the agency, the Division of Undergraduate Education invests approximately $190 million (FY 2012) annually on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education projects. Although the DUE portfolio includes a suite a projects with different foci supporting national initiatives and Principal Investigators (PIs) report their results in annual reports and conferences, there is little consistency on how impact is defined, evaluated, and measured. ^ While many agree on the importance of investing in research, the stiff economic climate necessitates that the research that demonstrates impact is what will continue to be supported. However, the dearth of scholarship on impact contributes to the lack of understanding around this topic. This study links the fragmented literature on impact to form a unified starting point for continuing the conversation. While existing literature includes three dimensions of research impact (i.e., scientific, societal, and domain-specific impact), this study focuses on the domain-specific impacts of engineering education research using two guiding frameworks, namely, Toulmin\u27s Model (1958) and the Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development (Earle et al., 2013), and a multiphase mixed methods research design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011).^ The qualitative phase of this study explores how researchers on NSF-funded STEM education R&D projects talk about the impact of their work; the findings reveal eight themes that are commonly discussed when PIs articulate the impact of their research, and two themes related to how they support their claims. The findings also indicate that the STEM discipline associated with the study and the project focus have more to do with the types of impact PIs claim than the amount of funding awarded to the project. As a result of identifying the points of alignment between PIs\u27 perspectives on impact and existing literature, a preliminary description of what impact looks like in this context is proposed—using the three dimensions of research impact as an organizing framework. Although this study puts forth a preliminary description of the impact of STEM education research, extensions of this work are necessary before providing practitioners and policymakers with a valid, comprehensive framework characterizing what impact means in this context.^ Ideas supporting the types of claims PIs make when discussing the impact of their work were used to develop a survey that was distributed to a small sample of current and former NSF Program Officers (POs) in the second phase of this study. The survey results provide preliminary evidence on how PIs and NSF PO\u27 perspectives on research impact compare, and affirm that additional studies are needed. Consequently, implications for policy and practice and potential research directions are also discussed

Teacher Planning Problem Space Of Expert Technology Integrating Teachers

Designing meaningful technology-integrated learning remains a challenge for teachers. To address this problem, the purpose of this single case study was to examine how experts plan for technology integration. The conceptual framework of this study drew from information processing theory and combined two existing constructs: the notion of a problem space (Simon & Newell, 1971) with a process model of teacher planning (Yinger, 1980). The resulting combination was a new construct called the teacher planning problem space. The significance of this study was in the application of this new construct to focus on thoughts, decisions, and judgments of teachers during the planning process for technology integration. Participants included a purposeful sample of six technology-integrating experts designated as such by their distinction as the winners of an innovation award. Winning the award bounded the case and the unit of analysis was how each participant negotiated the teacher planning problem space. Data collection included a survey, interviews, audiovisual materials, and documents. Qualitative content analysis methods where used for interpreting data. Results indicated expert technology-integrating teachers continuously sought to improve instruction for their students and technology served to facilitate this goal. Learning from experience as well as knowledge of technology’s affordances were major contributors to these teachers’ flexibility, troubleshooting, and fearlessness when implementing innovative practices with technology. The teacher planning problem space model resulting from this study provides theoretical implications for examining teacher planning. Practical implications include suggestions for administrative policies regarding lesson plan requirements and planning strategies for integrate technology

Sifting the Commonplace: Topoi and the Grounds for Argument in Classical and Modern Rhetoric

This dissertation is a reminder that how we consider reasoning to work and its end is very much bound up with how we think about people, what they are, what they can be, and how they do and should live together. Part of the end of the human being is to understand, to understand the Good or God and thus understand herself and her relation to others and her obligation to others; this is something we see in Aristotle\u27s somewhat-spiritual understanding of Ethics and the Human Being. Focusing on reasoning (and its connection to being) in general, instead of accenting the limitations and conditionings of the human capacity to know, is part of the means of securing the road for this end, which is especially important, as understanding, which is of and by being, is bound up with morality and moral development. Also, bound up with understanding and how human beings should convey it and build it up are rhetoric and dialectic, which are meant to get to the same end, Good or God, together. It is a fundamental contention of this project that rhetoric and dialectic cannot or should not be separated, nor these separated from substance, for rhetoric and dialectic easily become instruments of abuse in isolation, as in, for example, a rigid formalism of the self or a rigid formalism of philosophy. I will focus on dialectical aspects of reasoning and understanding here. Situating Aristotle\u27s discussion of how reasoning operates in a discussion prompted by Toulmin\u27s Uses of Argument, this dissertation shows how Aristotle attempts to avoid the lure of formalism by grounding reasoning and its evaluation in the real (which he understands as the connection among mind, world, and language)