The growth of school mathematics : Korean secondary gifted students' collaborative problem solving using the Wiki

"May 2014."Dissertation Chairman: Dr. Barbara Reys.Includes vita.Electronic networks have provided new intellectual environments where people can accumulate their cognitive power and have increased the necessity to provide students opportunity to learn together in online CoI (Community of Inquiry) beyond classroom walls. In this respect, this study, as a design experiment, investigated the applicability of the Wiki as a collaborative problem solving tool in Korean secondary gifted educational environments. Fourteen Korean secondary gifted students enrolled in a calculus II course, including two females, in a gifted school in Korea collaboratively solved ten calculus problems for 70 days. In this study, the Wiki functioned as a collective cognitive tool by coalescing individual thinking processes into collective thinking processes on the one hand and by distributing cognitive loads of problem solving over individual cognitions along the logic of solutions and refutations on the other hand. This study provides evidence that the Wiki provided Korean secondary gifted students opportunity to experience collaborative learning and growth of school mathematics and thus realized connected knowing via mathematical contents in online CoI in spite of the inconvenience of writing mathematical expressions using the Wiki.Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-195)

Degree of motivation of international hospitality students in their work place

The research aimed to investigate international students' levels of motivation to work in the hospitality industry. A survey was conducted with 193 international hospitality students in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Southeast Queensland, Australia. The research, using expectancy motivation theory, found that the level of motivation during their industry experience programs was not high. This outcome should provide valuable information for education providers and industry practitioners to help them improve motivation levels of international students who study hospitality programmes overseas. © Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education

Effect of RGD Peptide-Coated TiO 2

The purpose of this research was to characterize an Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptide immobilized on TiO2 nanotubes. In addition, we investigated the effects of the RGD peptide-coated TiO2 nanotubes on the cellular response, proliferation, and functionality of osteogenic-induced human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), which are osteoclasts that have been induced by bone marrow macrophages. The RGD peptide was grafted covalently onto the surface of TiO2 nanotubes based on the results of SEM, FT-IR, and XPS. Furthermore, the RGD peptide promoted the initial attachment and proliferation of the hMSCs, regardless of the size of the TiO2 nanotubes. However, the RGD peptide did not prominently affect the osteogenic functionality of the hMSCs because the peptide suppressed hMSC motility associated with osteogenic differentiation. The result of an in vitro osteoclast test showed that the RGD peptide accelerated the initial attachment of preosteoclasts and the formation of mature osteoclasts, which could resorb the bone matrix. Therefore, we believe that an RGD coating on TiO2 nanotubes synthesized on Ti implants might not offer significant acceleration of bone formation in vivo because osteoblasts and osteoclasts reside in the same compartment

Theoretical understanding of the linear relationship between convective updrafts and cloud-base height for shallow cumulus clouds. Part II: Continental conditions

This is the Part II of a two-part study that seeks a theoretical understanding of an empirical relationship for shallow cumulus clouds: subcloud updraft velocity covaries linearly with the cloud-base height. This work focuses on continental cumulus clouds that are more strongly forced by surface fluxes and more deviated from equilibrium than those over oceans (Part I). We use a simple analytical model for shallow cumulus that is well tested against a high-resolution (25 m in the horizontal) large-eddy simulation model. Consistent with a conventional idea, we find that surface Bowen ratio is the key variable that regulates the covariability of both parameters: under the same solar insolation, a drier surface allows for stronger buoyancy flux, triggering stronger convection that deepens the subcloud layer. We find that the slope of the Bowen-ratio-regulated relationship between the two parameters (defined as l) is dependent on both the local time and the stability of the lower free atmosphere. The value of l decreases with time exponentially from sunrise to early afternoon and linearly from early afternoon to sunset. The value of l is larger in a more stable atmosphere. In addition, continental l in the early afternoon more than doubles the oceanic l. Validation of the theoretical results against ground observations over the Southern Great Plains shows a reasonable agreement. Physical mechanisms underlying the findings are explained from the perspective of different time scales at which updrafts and cloud-base height respond to a surface flux forcing

Function Concept: Learning from History

The importance of functions in school mathematics has grown tremendously within the past century. Functions have progressed from being scantly represented in school mathematics to being a core mathematical topic. C.B. Boyer (1946) acknowledged “The development of the function concept has revolutionized mathematics in much the same way as did the nearly simultaneous rise of non-Euclidean geometry. It has transformed mathematics from a pure natural science- the queen of the sciences- into something vastly large. It has established mathematics as the basis of all rigorous thinking – the logic of all possible relations” (Markovits, Eylor, & Bruckheimer, 1986, p. 18). Historical speeches and documents, such as Klein’s 1893 Evanston Colloquium, Moore’s 1902 presidential address to the American Mathematical Society, The Reorganization of Mathematics in Secondary Education Report (1923), and The Report of Progressive Education and Joint Committee (1940), advocated that functions and “relational thinking” be a core concept in school mathematics. In fact, Felix Klein considered functions to be the “soul of mathematics”, and advocated that teachers teach functional concepts. Fortunately, the recommendations made decades ago pertaining to the importance of functions, and the needs to readily integrate the function concept into school mathematics by researchers were not ignored. The recommendations made regarding functions decades ago are evident in today’s curriculum standards. Standards for mathematics require students to be able to define functions, describe functions, identify functions, analyze functions, and recognize patterns in function (NCTM, 2000; Common Core State Standards 2010). Most notably, The Common Core State Standards (2010) has functions as one of five conceptual categories in high school mathematics. Considering the increased emphasis placed on functions in school mathematics within the past century, we sought to describe how the function concept was presented in secondary mathematics textbooks prior to the “New Math” era