Arithmetic Fact Fluency Supported by Artificial Intelligence

The main purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent students aged eight years developed their arithmetic fact fluency by using artificial intelligence to practice number combinations. The study compares the effects of three different ways of practicing number combinations: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Memorization (Mem), and Guided Learning (GL). The design was a split-plot factorial design with group as a between-subject factor and time (i.e., before and after a six-week intervention) as a within-subject factor. Pre- and post-test were performed to assess students’ fluency with respect to basic number combinations, i.e., addition, such as 3 + 4, 2 + 1, 6 + 3, etc. The results show that students developed their fluency significantly with respect to basic number combinations when practicing this skill with support of artificial intelligence. It seems that the technique is effective at analyzing and recommending content based on students’ learning patterns and what has worked best for similar students. The results therefore strengthen the findings of previous studies that artificial intelligence presents great opportunities to offer individual support to maximize learning. The results also show that practicing number combinations with artificial intelligence is more effective compared to practicing with a focus on memorization and guided learning

Student Teachers’ Experiences with Math Education

Student teachers who are studying to teach math in early elementary school in Sweden today have studied less math in secondary school than student teachers in the late 1980´s and the 1990´s. To be able to address the problems of this new group of students, we need to understand and analyze their experiences. The instruments of inquiry were students’ letters about their experiences in school math. The starting point of the analysis was to find the student teachers’ experiences of certain subtopics aspects of school math. In the second step, relationships between different aspects of school math were identified. These relationships were constructed as activity systems. In the third step, words related to each system were counted to get an indication of what the student teacher had experienced as the most common and least common learning context. This study exposes weaknesses among student teachers when they start their teacher training in mathematics. These weaknesses are now more pronounced when students can begin a teacher training program in math without studying in an intensive math program in secondary school. Almost 80 percent of the student teachers interviewed felt negative emotions toward math, and many see the subject as a set of rules instead of skills. These beliefs can affect their teaching in the future. If teacher training programs don’t challenge these beliefs, the student teachers’ approaches will be limited

Is Repeated Testing of Declarative Knowledge in Mathematics Moderated by Feedback?

This study set out to examine the effects of repeated testing of students’ declarative knowledge in mathematics in grade 7 (13-14 years old) and to what extent feedback moderates the effect of continually testing students’ declarative knowledge. Students who have automated the 400 basic arithmetical combinations (200 addition combinations and 200 subtraction combinations) have gained declarative knowledge. Mastering these combinations gives students an advantage where doing various calculations and performing different mathematical procedures are concerned (Dowker, 2012). If a student has automated the basic combinations, their attention will not be diverted from the procedure when solving calculation tasks, and there is thereby less risk of incorrect answers (Dowker, 2012). Previous studies have also shown that declarative knowledge in mathematics predict future results in more advanced mathematics (Hassel Bring, Goin, & Bransford, 1988; Gersten, Jordan, & Flojo, 2005; Rathmell & Gabriele, 2011)

Tracing patterns of sloyd teachers' efficacy beliefs at different stages of their professional careers

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Affärssystem i molnet: För- och nackdelar för mikroföretag

Mycket av den litteratur som finns inom området molnbaserade affärssystem beskriver de fördelar samt nackdelar små och medelstora företag får av att använda denna modell jämfört med ett lokalt. Bland annat säger leverantörerna att det finns stora pengar att spara på molnbaserade system medan kritikerna nämner exempelvis säkerhet som en nackdel. Med vår studie ville vi undersöka om de fördelar och nackdelar vi fann i litteraturen även var applicerbara på företag i mikrostorlek. Vi har i denna studie utfört sex telefonintervjuer på sex olika företag. Samtliga använder tre eller fler molnbaserade ERP-moduler från leverantörerna Fortnox eller Specter. För att skapa oss en bred kunskap inom ämnet samt forskningsfrågan sökte vi relevant information i befintlig litteratur och artiklar inom molnet, affärssystem och molnbaserade affärssystem. Utifrån denna teori skapade vi ett eget teoretiskt ramverk med huvudområden och underområden som låg till grund för vår intervjuguide för att säkerställa att alla frågor grundade sig i relevant information inom ämnet. Vi fann att mikroföretag som väljer att placera sitt affärssystem i molnet kan se fördelar inom områdena kostnader, teknisk tillgänglighet, användbarhet, implementation, tillgänglighet överallt, och kompatibilitet. De två resterande punkterna, säkerhet och flexibilitet, kunde inte författarna härleda till varken fördelar eller nackdelar

Combined solar and membrane drying technologies for sustainable fruit preservation in low-income countries – prototype development, modelling, and testing

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Is the ozone climate penalty robust in Europe?

Ozone air pollution is identified as one of the main threats bearing upon human health and ecosystems, with 25 000 deaths in 2005 attributed to surface ozone in Europe (IIASA 2013 TSAP Report #10). In addition, there is a concern that climate change could negate ozone pollution mitigation strategies, making them insufficient over the long run and jeopardising chances to meet the long term objective set by the European Union Directive of 2008 (Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008) (60 ppbv, daily maximum). This effect has been termed the ozone climate penalty. One way of assessing this climate penalty is by driving chemistry-transport models with future climate projections while holding the ozone precursor emissions constant (although the climate penalty may also be influenced by changes in emission of precursors). Here we present an analysis of the robustness of the climate penalty in Europe across time periods and scenarios by analysing the databases underlying 11 articles published on the topic since 2007, i.e. a total of 25 model projections. This substantial body of literature has never been explored to assess the uncertainty and robustness of the climate ozone penalty because of the use of different scenarios, time periods and ozone metrics. Despite the variability of model design and setup in this database of 25 model projection, the present meta-analysis demonstrates the significance and robustness of the impact of climate change on European surface ozone with a latitudinal gradient from a penalty bearing upon large parts of continental Europe and a benefit over the North Atlantic region of the domain. Future climate scenarios present a penalty for summertime (JJA) surface ozone by the end of the century (2071-2100) of at most 5 ppbv. Over European land surfaces, the 95% confidence interval of JJA ozone change is [0.44; 0.64] and [0.99; 1.50] ppbv for the 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 time windows, respectively

Gender differences in boys’ and girls’ perception of teaching and learning mathematics

Gender differences between boys and girls in the perception of the classroom setting, and their relationship to achievement in mathematics and aspects of self-regulated learning skills are the focus for this article. Throughout the component analysis of answers from 6758 Swedish students we found some differences in how boys and girls perceive their classroom setting and some differences in boys’ and girls’ relationship to mathematics. According to the classroom setting, we found that boys feel that they use group work more than the girls do. Boys also feel that they have an influence over the content and are more involved during the lesson than girls. With respect to students’ relations to mathematics we found that boys perceive mathematics to be more important than girls do. One implication for teachers from the study points out how different aspects of a perceived learning environment affect students’, boys’ and girls’, achievement in mathematics