Re-imagining the university: developing a capacity to care

status: publishe

Ideas del infinito, percepciones y conexiones en distintos contextos : el caso de estudiantes con conocimientos previos de cálculo

En este artículo presentamos una investigación que surge de un especial interés por estudiar y explorar el caso del infinito, en su dualidad potencial-actual, en un nivel donde ya se han introducido conceptos formales del cálculo diferencial e integral, y donde empiezan a aparecer interconexiones y confusiones entre la «imagen formal» e «imagen informal» de estos conceptos. El estudio pretende contribuir con el debate de la problemática del infinito e infinitos a nivel universitario. Se enmarca en un estudio cualitativo; el análisis de datos es inductivo y el foco de investigación es de carácter exploratorio, descriptivo e interpretativo. Participaron en el estudio 89 estudiantes con edades comprendidas entre 17 y 25 años.We present a research springing from a special interest in studying and exploring the infinite and its duality power-present, at a level where formal concepts of differential and integral calculus have already been introduced and where there appear interconnections and confusion between the «formal image» and the «informal image» of these concepts. This paper attempts to contribute to the debate of the finite and infinite problems at university level. It is framed within a qualitative study, the analysis of date is inductive and the focus of the research is of an exploratory, descriptive and interpretative kind. Eightynine students aged between 17 and 25 took part in this study

Learning professional ways of being: Ambiguities of becoming

The purpose of professional education programs is to prepare aspiring professionals for the challenges of practice within a particular profession. These programs typically seek to ensure the acquisition of necessary knowledge and skills, as well as providing opportunities for their application. While not denying the importance of knowledge and skills, this paper reconfigures professional education as a process of becoming. Learning to become a professional involves not only what we know and can do, but also who we are (becoming). It involves integration of knowing, acting, and being in the form of professional ways of being that unfold over time. When a professional education program focuses on the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, it falls short of facilitating their integration into professional ways of being. In addition, through such a focus on epistemology (or theory of knowing), ontology (or theory of being) is overlooked. This paper explores what it means to develop professional ways of being where the focus is becoming, not simply knowing as an end in itself

Infinito actual e inconsistencias : acerca de las incoherencias en los esquemas conceptuales de alumnos de 16-17 años

En este artículo presentamos algunos resultados, reflexiones y aportaciones de un trabajo de investigación (Garbin, 2000) que se centra en identificar las inconsistencias y representar, categorizar y analizar las situaciones de coherencia que manifiestan los alumnos en relación con sus esquemas conceptuales asociados al concepto de infinito actual, el cual se contextualizan en problemas expresados en lenguajes matemáticos diferentes: verbal, geométrico, gráfico, algebraico y analítico. Metodológicamente la investigación se enmarca en un estudio cualitativo. El análisis de datos es inductivo y el foco de investigación tiene un carácter exploratorio, descriptivo e interpretativo. Participaron en el estudio 80 estudiantes de 16-17 años.We present in this article some of the results, considerations and contributions contained in a research work (Garbin, 2000) focused on the identification of inconsistencies and on representation, categorization and analysis of situations of coherence showed by students, in relation to their concept schemes associated to the concept of present infinity, within the context of problems set forth through different mathematical languages: verbal, geometrical, graphical, algebraic and analytical. From a methodological point of view this research is framed within a qualitative study. The data analysis is inductive and its aim is exploratory, descriptive and interpretative. Eighty 16-17 year old students took part in this study

An ontological turn for higher education

In this article, the implications of foregrounding ontology for teaching and learning in higher education are explored. In conventional approaches to higher education programmes, ontology has tended to be subordinated to epistemological concerns. This has meant the flourishing of notions such as the transfer and acquisition of knowledge and skills, either generic or discipline-specific. The authors challenge this emphasis on what students acquire through education by foregrounding instead the question of who they become. They do this through a theoretical/conceptual exploration of an approach to learning that undermines a narrow focus on the intellect by promoting the integration of knowing, acting and being

Improving group functioning in solving realistic problems

Group work in educational settings has several advantages, but it is also associated with some difficulties, most commonly concerns about group functioning. The aim of this study was to improve group functioning in solving realistic problems, using a combination of: 1) team skill training prior to group work; 2) peer and self-assessment to evaluate contribution to group work; and 3) lecturer designed versus studentdesigned problems. The results showed positive effects on group functioning. After initial team skill training, peer assessments and moderation of marks based on those assessments stimulated the so-called free loaders to improve their contributions to group work, which is a result that has been demonstrated in only a few studies. In addition, students showed some preference for designing their own problems and they thought the learning outcomes were higher than from lecturer-designed problems

cost effective quality assessment in industrial parts manufacturing via optical acquisition

Abstract We tackle the problem of dimensional verification via optical acquisition systems in the context of industrial manufacturing processes. Optical methods for quality inspection play a crucial part in the transition process to industry 4.0 and, despite the lack of international standardization, several solutions are available to industries that need to provide dimensional verification to their customers. Unfortunately most of these solutions are still economically unavailable to the majority of small or medium companies. In this paper we present an optical system based on low-cost components and we demonstrate that it provides useful and reliable information in quality inspection procedures

International education and (dis)embodied cosmopolitanisms

This article is a critical examination of practices and representations that constitute international education. While international education has provided substantial contributions and benefits for nation-states and international students, we question the discourses and practices which inform the international education export industry. The ‘brand identities’ of receiving or host countries imply that they are welcoming, respectful of multiculturalism and have a well established intellectual history, in contrast to international students' embodied experiences. There is also a tendency to represent and regard international students as disembodied learners. We conclude that these disjunctures between disembodied representations and embodied experiences are undermining the kinds of cosmopolitan sensibilities that international education claims to provide

Authentic assessment for student learning: an ontological conceptualisation

Authentic assessment has been proposed as having potential to enhance student learning for a changing world. Conventionally, assessment is seen to be authentic when the tasks are real-to-life or have real-life value. Drawing on Martin Heidegger's work, we challenge this conceptualisation as narrow and limited. We argue that authenticity need not be an attribute of tasks but, rather, is a quality of educational processes that engage students in becoming more fully human. Adopting the mode of authenticity involves calling things into question, challenging public assumptions and striving to take a stand in the situations encountered. In addition to assessing student achievement, then, authentic assessment can enhance integration of what students know and how they act with who they are becoming

CIPCaD-Bench: Continuous Industrial Process datasets for benchmarking Causal Discovery methods

Causal relationships are commonly examined in manufacturing processes to support faults investigations, perform interventions, and make strategic decisions. Industry 4.0 has made available an increasing amount of data that enable data-driven Causal Discovery (CD). Considering the growing number of recently proposed CD methods, it is necessary to introduce strict benchmarking procedures on publicly available datasets since they represent the foundation for a fair comparison and validation of different methods. This work introduces two novel public datasets for CD in continuous manufacturing processes. The first dataset employs the well-known Tennessee Eastman simulator for fault detection and process control. The second dataset is extracted from an ultra-processed food manufacturing plant, and it includes a description of the plant, as well as multiple ground truths. These datasets are used to propose a benchmarking procedure based on different metrics and evaluated on a wide selection of CD algorithms. This work allows testing CD methods in realistic conditions enabling the selection of the most suitable method for specific target applications. The datasets are available at the following link: https://github.com/giovanniMenComment: Supplementary Materials at: https://github.com/giovanniMen/CPCaD-Benc