Aural feedback in microteaching : an investigation into the effects of audio feedback on a practical training component of teacher education : a thesis submitted as part fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Education at Massey University

The investigation presented here explores the use of audio feedback: in the review stage of a Microteaching exercise. The investigation involving Year Two Music Teacher Traineest compared self-evaluation ratings made in response to three feedback conditions; memory; audio and video; and attempted to explain any difference in ratings by changes in the source of feedback. The three self-ratings were compared to an expert rating of each microlesson to investigate any other effects feedback had on rating. The design of the study also allowed for a comparison to be made between two different teaching conditions, one teaching pupils in a classroom setting, and the other teaching peers in a College setting. Although questionnaire responses indicated a preference for video feedbackt there was actually little change between audio and video ratings. Neither of these ratings were as accurate as the initial memory rating when all three were compared to the expert rating. The video feedback appeared to generate a positive image which resulted in trainees over-rating themselves. Most importantly, there was no significant difference between audio and video ratings. With regard to differences between teaching condition, the peer-teaching setting appeared to encourage an unrealistic view, with trainees in this group over-rating themselves more than those teaching pupils at school. Questionnaire responses indicated that the group teaching in the school setting tended to regard the Microlesson, although limiting, to be a valuable experience. This group's initial rating was lower than the peer-teaching group, but they were more responsive to changes in feedback. Despite severe limitations to the generality of the study due to design shortcomings, the findings provide enough material for a general discussion on the differences in mode of feedback. Several issues were raised, including the idea that an audio stimulus generates a higher level response than a visual stimulus. The discussion includes reference to an informal study which was undertaken to explore this notion. (That it is not directly supported by the findings is probably due to design issues which failed to account for the superior status of video in the eyes of inexperienced self-raters, and by the use of a rating scale which was not sensitive to issues of aural and visual perception.) The discussion takes place within the context of Teacher Education preparing for a profession which is continually making demands on a teacher's adaptability to change and her ability to reflect an issues regarding the pace and direction of those changes. The feedback stage of a Microteaching cycle is seen as a place where such reflective activity can be encouraged, especially by the use of a varietyof modes of feedback, including the activity of listening without visual cues or in other words, audio feedback

Ferroelectric materials for neuromorphic computing

Ferroelectric materials are promising candidates for synaptic weight elements in neural network hardware because of their nonvolatile multilevel memory effect. This feature is crucial for their use in mobile applications such as inference when vector matrix multiplication is performed during portable artificial intelligence service. In addition, the adaptive learning effect in ferroelectric polarization has gained considerable research attention for reducing the CMOS circuit overhead of an integrator and amplifier with an activation function. In spite of their potential for a weight and a neuron, material issues have been pointed out for commercialization in conjunction with CMOS processing and device structures. Herein, we review ferroelectric synaptic weights and neurons from the viewpoint of materials in relation to device operation, along with discussions and suggestions for improvement. Moreover, we discuss the reliability of HfO2 as an emerging material and suggest methods to overcome the scaling issue of ferroelectrics.11Ysciescopu

Ground-state properties of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice: A variational study based on entangled-plaquette states

We study, on the basis of the general entangled-plaquette variational ansatz, the ground-state properties of the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice. Our numerical estimates are in good agreement with available exact results and comparable, for large system sizes, to those computed via the best alternative numerical approaches, or by means of variational schemes based on specific (i.e., incorporating problem dependent terms) trial wave functions. The extrapolation to the thermodynamic limit of our results for lattices comprising up to N=324 spins yields an upper bound of the ground-state energy per site (in units of the exchange coupling) of $-0.5458(2)$ [$-0.4074(1)$ for the XX model], while the estimated infinite-lattice order parameter is $0.3178(5)$ (i.e., approximately 64% of the classical value).Comment: 8 pages, 3 tables, 2 figure

High Temperature Matter and Gamma Ray Spectra from Microscopic Black Holes

The relativistic viscous fluid equations describing the outflow of high temperature matter created via Hawking radiation from microscopic black holes are solved numerically for a realistic equation of state. We focus on black holes with initial temperatures greater than 100 GeV and lifetimes less than 6 days. The spectra of direct photons and photons from $\pi^0$ decay are calculated for energies greater than 1 GeV. We calculate the diffuse gamma ray spectrum from black holes distributed in our galactic halo. However, the most promising route for their observation is to search for point sources emitting gamma rays of ever-increasing energy.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, to be submitted to PR

Dynamics of liquid 4He in Vycor

We have measured the dynamic structure factor of liquid 4He in Vycor using neutron inelastic scattering. Well-defined phonon-roton (p-r) excitations are observed in the superfluid phase for all wave vectors 0.3 < Q < 2.15. The p-r energies and lifetimes at low temperature (T = 0.5 K) and their temperature dependence are the same as in bulk liquid 4He. However, the weight of the single p-r component does not scale with the superfluid fraction (SF) as it does in the bulk. In particular, we observe a p-r excitation between T_c = 1.952 K, where SF = 0, and T_(lambda)=2.172 K of the bulk. This suggests, if the p-r excitation intensity scales with the Bose condensate, that there is a separation of the Bose-Einstein condensation temperature and the superfluid transition temperature T_c of 4He in Vycor. We also observe a two-dimensional layer mode near the roton wave vector. Its dispersion is consistent with specific heat and SF measurements and with layer modes observed on graphite surfaces.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure