Using the learning study grounded on the variation theory to improve students’ mathematical understanding

Topic Study Group 37: New trends in mathematics education researchThis paper illustrates how teachers make use of a learning theory, the variation theory, as well as their own professional expertise and collaboration to help students improve their mathematical understanding. A learning study (cf. Pang & Marton, 2003) involves a group of teachers who undertake theoretically grounded collaborative action research on their own practice. Unlike design experiments, a learning study emphasises teachers’ involvement in and ownership of the innovative practices that echo the spirit of the lesson study. The primary role of the researcher(s) in a learning study is to have a professional dialogue with the teachers and to provide professional support when necessary. Furthermore, the major focus of a learning study is on the objects of learning, i.e., on what students are expected to learn, rather than on the teaching arrangements. According to the variation theory, to help students appropriate certain objects of learning, certain patterns of variation and invariance that are co-constituted by the learners and the teacher are necessary. To exemplify this, this paper presents two learning studies conducted in mathematics in Hong Kong. The results show that there was a marked improvement in students’ mathematical understanding after learning studies grounded in the variation theory were introduced.postprintThe 11th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME) 2008, Monterrey, Mexico, 6-13 July 2008

Connecting student learning and classroom teaching through the variation framework

In a recent paper in The Harvard Educational Review, Graham Nuthall, has called attention to the lacking link between student learning and classroom teaching (2004). This lack is as evident in educational research as is in the minds of teachers. Lack in the first respect means that research does offer any theoretical tools for teachers for learning from their own experiences, hence lack in the first respect contributes to lack in the second respect. Accordingly, 'Teachers often feel that learning outcomes are unpredictable, mysterious and uncontrollable' (Kennedy, 1999 quoted by Nuthall, 2004 p 276). The aim of our presentation is to describe a framework, the variation framework from phenomenography, which we believe to be useful in connecting student learning and classroom teaching. By using it, researchers can learn about the nature of the relationship between the two, and teachers can learn from their own experiences about how their students' learning relates to their teaching. This can be done by telling apart what is critical in teaching for the students' learning, from what is not critical. First, however, we have to point out the kind of learning outcomes in relation to which features of teaching might be critical.postprintThe 12th Biennial Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction: Developing Potentials for Learning, Budapest, Hungary, 28 August-1 September 2007

Learning study: Helping teachers to use theory, develop professionally, and produce new knowledge to be shared

The lesson study approach is a systematic process for producing professional knowledge about teaching by teachers, and has spread rapidly and extensively in the United States. The learning study approach is essentially a kind of lesson study with an explicit learning theory-the variation theory of learning. In this paper, we argue that having an explicit learning theory adds value to lesson study, as the variation theory of learning serves as a source of guiding principles for the teachers when they engage in pedagogical design, lesson analysis and evaluation. Through the use of two Hong Kong learning study cases, one from each of the two major ways of conducting learning study, we demonstrate the power of variation theory in explaining and predicting the relationship between what has taken place in the classroom and what the learners learn, and subsequently identifying ways to improve student learning through promoting teacher professional learning in a learning study setting. © 2011 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Discovering conversational topics and emotions associated with Demonetization tweets in India

Social media platforms contain great wealth of information which provides us opportunities explore hidden patterns or unknown correlations, and understand people's satisfaction with what they are discussing. As one showcase, in this paper, we summarize the data set of Twitter messages related to recent demonetization of all Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes in India and explore insights from Twitter's data. Our proposed system automatically extracts the popular latent topics in conversations regarding demonetization discussed in Twitter via the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) based topic model and also identifies the correlated topics across different categories. Additionally, it also discovers people's opinions expressed through their tweets related to the event under consideration via the emotion analyzer. The system also employs an intuitive and informative visualization to show the uncovered insight. Furthermore, we use an evaluation measure, Normalized Mutual Information (NMI), to select the best LDA models. The obtained LDA results show that the tool can be effectively used to extract discussion topics and summarize them for further manual analysis.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1608.02519 by other authors; text overlap with arXiv:1705.08094 by other author

The accidental resurrection of the idea of ATI (aptitude-treatment interaction)

Conference Theme: Responsible Teaching and Sustainable LearningIn helping learners make a novel meaning their own, such as teaching students a new concept in school, we frequently point to examples that share the aimed-at meaning, but differ otherwise. This approach rests on the assumption that novel meanings can be acquired through the experience of sameness against a background of difference. This paper, through an experimental study, tests the conjecture derived from Variation Theory (of learning) that new meanings are acquired from experiencing differences against a background of sameness, and that the pattern of variation and invariance consistent with ...postprin

Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors among Secondary Students in Hong Kong

Although researchers have identified correlations between specific attitudes and particular behaviors in the pro-environmental domain, the general relationship between young people’s development of environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors is not well understood. Past research indicates that geographic context can play a role, while social factors such as age and gender can have a more significant impact on predicting attitudes and behaviors than formal education. Few studies have systematically examined the relationships between education and environmental attitudes and behaviors among youth in Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study comparing secondary school students’ environmental attitudes and behaviors with age and related factors in two international schools and two government schools in Hong Kong. Students’ attitudes and behaviors were compared based on school type (curriculum), while the authors additionally compared the significance of social factors and attitudes on students’ behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – Attitudes were measured using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the NEP for Children (NEPC), the most commonly used, internationally standardized tools for investigating environmental attitudes and values of adults and young people for comparative purposes. The authors compared NEP/NEPC scores and student self-reported environmental behaviors using a short questionnaire. Findings – No significant differences were found in attitudes or behaviors based on school type. However the authors did observe a significant effect of gender and age on students’ attitudes, and a significant correlation of student attitudes in the NEP with students’ self-reports regarding air conditioning consumption. Originality/value – This study builds a foundation for cross-national studies and for evaluating the impact of curricula over time.postprin

Prolonged membrane potential depolarization in cingulate pyramidal cells after digit amputation in adult rats

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays an important role in higher brain functions including learning, memory, and persistent pain. Long-term potentiation of excitatory synaptic transmission has been observed in the ACC after digit amputation, which might contribute to plastic changes associated with the phantom pain. Here we report a long-lasting membrane potential depolarization in ACC neurons of adult rats after digit amputation in vivo. Shortly after digit amputation of the hind paw, the membrane potential of intracellularly recorded ACC neurons quickly depolarized from ~-70 mV to ~-15 mV and then slowly repolarized. The duration of this amputation-induced depolarization was about 40 min. Intracellular staining revealed that these neurons were pyramidal neurons in the ACC. The depolarization is activity-dependent, since peripheral application of lidocaine significantly reduced it. Furthermore, the depolarization was significantly reduced by a NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801. Our results provide direct in vivo electrophysiological evidence that ACC pyramidal cells undergo rapid and prolonged depolarization after digit amputation, and the amputation-induced depolarization in ACC neurons might be associated with the synaptic mechanisms for phantom pain

A comparative study of the quality of life of patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and terminal cancer

2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Validity and reliability of the Chinese critical thinking disposition inventory

2004-2005 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe