Group Argumentation Development through Philosophical Dialogues for Persons with Acquired Brain Injuries

The high prevalence of brain injury incidents in adolescence and adulthood demands effective models for re-learning lost cognitive abilities. Impairment in brain injury survivors’ higher-level cognitive functions is common and a negative predictor for long-term outcome. We conducted two small-scale interventions (N = 12; 33.33% female) with persons with acquired brain injuries in two municipalities in Sweden. Age ranged from 17 to 65 years (M = 51.17, SD = 14.53). The interventions were dialogic, inquiry-based, and inspired by the Philosophy for Children Programme, a participatory thinking skills approach with documented higher-order cognitive outcomes, such as developed argumentation skills, in other target groups. Philosophical dialogues were conducted once a week in the two groups, totalling 12 dialogues per group. Group argumentation development was measured through compared scores from structured observations of filmed dialogues early and late in the intervention. Large positive changes in mean scores from early to late in the intervention, together with constantly high facilitator quality, suggest argumentation development in the sample due to the intervention

Experimental quantum speed-up in reinforcement learning agents

Increasing demand for algorithms that can learn quickly and efficiently has led to a surge of development within the field of artificial intelligence (AI). An important paradigm within AI is reinforcement learning (RL), where agents interact with environments by exchanging signals via a communication channel. Agents can learn by updating their behaviour based on obtained feedback. The crucial question for practical applications is how fast agents can learn to respond correctly. An essential figure of merit is therefore the learning time. While various works have made use of quantum mechanics to speed up the agent's decision-making process, a reduction in learning time has not been demonstrated yet. Here we present a RL experiment where the learning of an agent is boosted by utilizing a quantum communication channel with the environment. We further show that the combination with classical communication enables the evaluation of such an improvement, and additionally allows for optimal control of the learning progress. This novel scenario is therefore demonstrated by considering hybrid agents, that alternate between rounds of quantum and classical communication. We implement this learning protocol on a compact and fully tunable integrated nanophotonic processor. The device interfaces with telecom-wavelength photons and features a fast active feedback mechanism, allowing us to demonstrate the agent's systematic quantum advantage in a setup that could be readily integrated within future large-scale quantum communication networks.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Cultural integration in philosophical dialogue

Research aim The aim of this paper is to outline a way of inspiring the growth of a good culture of philosophical dialogue in a group, through a certain perspective on cultural integration, in order to promote a good philosophical dialogue. Methodological framework Our reasoning is based on several years of experience of philosophical dialogues in various types of groups: school classes (with children aged from 11 to 18 years), groups of children attending philosophical dialogues on their spare time, folk high-school classes, and university students. Conclusions One of the goals of a philosophical dialogue is to make the participants develop certain kinds of qualities, like the ability to think creatively, philosophically and clearly. Developing these kinds of profound qualities takes time and requires a ”good” culture of philosophical dialogue (a concept that is discussed in the paper). Being in a context of philosophical dialogue will make a person familiar with the culture of the dialogue - the person will become an ”elder”. A way of achieving cultural integration for new participants in a philosophical dialogue is to have elders as role models for the beginners. This way, the beginners will be able to learn a way of acting in the context of philosophical dialogue by observing the behaviour of the elders. It is also desirable that the beginners on their behalf make an already existing culture better by bringing their own ways of thinking to it. Learning from others, while also being brave enough to think differently, is essential for the development of good cultures, and human beings. Relevance to Nordic educational research Being in a phase of development regarding philosophy with children, Sweden is in need of methods for doing philosophy with children as well as analyses of these methods. This paper discusses a general feature of philosophical dialogues, viz. the culture of the group doing philosophy, and aims to aid practitioners of philosophy with children (in particular in educational institutions) in creating a good culture of philosophical dialogue.Godkänd; 2012; 20120327 (ysko)</p

Cultural integration in philosophical dialogue

Research aimThe aim of this paper is to outline a way of inspiring the growth of a good culture of philosophical dialogue in a group, through a certain perspective on cultural integration, in order to promote a good philosophical dialogue.Methodological frameworkOur reasoning is based on several years of experience of philosophical dialogues in various types of groups: school classes (with children aged from 11 to 18 years), groups of children attending philosophical dialogues on their spare time, folk high-school classes, and university students. ConclusionsOne of the goals of a philosophical dialogue is to make the participants develop certain kinds of qualities, like the ability to think creatively, philosophically and clearly. Developing these kinds of profound qualities takes time and requires a ”good” culture of philosophical dialogue (a concept that is discussed in the paper). Being in a context of philosophical dialogue will make a person familiar with the culture of the dialogue - the person will become an ”elder”. A way of achieving cultural integration for new participants in a philosophical dialogue is to have elders as role models for the beginners. This way, the beginners will be able to learn a way of acting in the context of philosophical dialogue by observing the behaviour of the elders. It is also desirable that the beginners on their behalf make an already existing culture better by bringing their own ways of thinking to it. Learning from others, while also being brave enough to think differently, is essential for the development of good cultures, and human beings.Relevance to Nordic educational researchBeing in a phase of development regarding philosophy with children, Sweden is in need of methodsGodkänd; 2012; 20120327 (ysko

Philosophical dialogues in education for persons with acquired brain injuries

Godkänd; 2016; 20160508 (vikvik)Utbildning för delaktighet - Att filosofera tillbaka ett "nytt" liv efter förvärvad hjärnskad

Philosophy with Children - How and why?

Godkänd; 2012; 20121211 (ylva

P4PABI : Philosophy for persons with acquired brain injuries

AimThe aim of this study is to examine to what extent philosophical dialogue can be a good tool for persons with acquired brain injuries (ABI) to regain lost abilities and develop new capabilities that are relevant for participating in the society.Methodological frameworkThe empirical data has been collected during nearly two years of philosophical practice with students at the Brain injury program at Framnäs folk high school in northern Sweden. All students at the program have ABI. Persons with ABI may have lost their ability to take positions and they often have difficulties to give arguments and to express themselves clearly. The students that participated in this study have had an ABI and are left with such severe residual functional capacity that their lives have totally changed. The philosophical practice has been inspired by basic ideas from philosophy with children. It is important that individuals with disabilities are viewed as experts in their own recovery process, where their feelings and experiences are treated as valuable in guiding subsequent rehabilitation decisions. Both students and staff have been provided the opportunity to make their voice heard during this project. Hereby, we have approached the experienced utility of philosophical dialogues for persons with ABI from three perspectives; that of the students, the staff and us as participating researchers in the project group.ConclusionsIn general, the preliminary results indicate that the philosophical practice with the students with ABI has been positive for the students to regain lost abilities and develop new capabilities relevant for participating in societyGodkänd; 2012; 20120327 (ysko

Research methods for the Swedish research project Education for Participation : Philosophizing back a ‘new’ life after acquired brain injury

Utbildning för delaktighet - Att filosofera tillbaka ett "nytt" liv efter förvärvad hjärnskad

Research Methods in the Swedish project Education for Participation : Philosophizing back a ‘New’ Life After Acquired Brain Injury

Annually, more than ten million people in all age groups in the world experience an acquired brain injury (‘ABI’), which is a brain injury caused after birth by external forces (e.g. motor vehicle accidents) or certain internal factors (e.g. stroke). Brain injury survivors are often left with long-term impairments in cognitive, social, or emotional functioning. Despite a promising outset, research on the effectiveness of philosophical dialogues as an educational method for persons with ABI to increase their cognitive, social, and emotional functioning has, to our knowledge, been virtually non-existent. The present research project targets this and uses a pretest-posttest and mixed-method triangulation design and attempts to measure effects of two small-scale interventions carried out in the northern part of Sweden. In this text, the project’s research design, data production, and data processing are described. Bokens engelska titel: Family ressemblances. Current proposals in Philosophy for ChildrenUtbildning för delaktighet – att filosofera tillbaka ett 'nytt' liv efter förvärvad hjärnskad

Utbildning för delaktighet : att filosofera tillbaka ett "nytt" liv efter förvärvad hjärnskada

Ett stort antal personer i Sverige drabbas varje år av förvärvade hjärnskador, ofta med livslånga konsekvenser som nedsatta kognitiva, kommunikativa och sociala förmågor, samt minskat välbefinnande. Detta kan leda till utanförskap, svårigheter med studier, långvarig arbetslöshet och stort lidande för den drabbade och anhöriga, liksom till stora samhälleliga kostnader. Filosofiska samtal har visat sig ha positiva effekter för barn. Vår studie visar att sådana samtal framgångsrikt kan användas också i utbildning för personer med förvärvade hjärnskador. Den antyder positiva effekter inom bland annat kognitiv, kommunikativ och social utveckling.Utbildning för delaktighet – att filosofera tillbaka ett "nytt" liv efter förvärvad hjärnskad