Learning to Appraise the Quality of Qualitative Research Articles: A Contextualized Learning Object for Constructing Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chenail, Ronald J.

2011-01-01

Helping beginning qualitative researchers critically appraise qualitative research articles is a common learning objective for introductory methodology courses. To aid students in achieving competency in appraising the quality of qualitative research articles, a multi-part activity incorporating the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme's (CASP)…

The Effects of Project-Based Learning Activities on Academic Achievement and Motivation in Mathematics in Eighth-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mudrich, Rachel Marie

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research study was to determine if project-based learning activities (PBLA) incorporated into an eighth-grade mathematics classroom have an effect on students' academic achievement and motivation toward learning. The control group used the traditional instruction method to cover mathematic objective skills that are Common Core…

Development of inquiry-based learning activities integrated with the local learning resource to promote learning achievement and analytical thinking ability of Mathayomsuksa 3 student

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sukji, Paweena; Wichaidit, Pacharee Rompayom; Wichaidit, Sittichai

2018-01-01

The objectives of this study were to: 1) compare learning achievement and analytical thinking ability of Mathayomsuksa 3 students before and after learning through inquiry-based learning activities integrated with the local learning resource, and 2) compare average post-test score of learning achievement and analytical thinking ability to its cutting score. The target of this study was 23 Mathayomsuksa 3 students who were studying in the second semester of 2016 academic year from Banchatfang School, Chainat Province. Research instruments composed of: 1) 6 lesson plans of Environment and Natural Resources, 2) the learning achievement test, and 3) analytical thinking ability test. The results showed that 1) student' learning achievement and analytical thinking ability after learning were higher than that of before at the level of .05 statistical significance, and 2) average posttest score of student' learning achievement and analytical thinking ability were higher than its cutting score at the level of .05 statistical significance. The implication of this research is for science teachers and curriculum developers to design inquiry activities that relate to student's context.

Learning to learn causal models.

PubMed

Kemp, Charles; Goodman, Noah D; Tenenbaum, Joshua B

2010-09-01

Learning to understand a single causal system can be an achievement, but humans must learn about multiple causal systems over the course of a lifetime. We present a hierarchical Bayesian framework that helps to explain how learning about several causal systems can accelerate learning about systems that are subsequently encountered. Given experience with a set of objects, our framework learns a causal model for each object and a causal schema that captures commonalities among these causal models. The schema organizes the objects into categories and specifies the causal powers and characteristic features of these categories and the characteristic causal interactions between categories. A schema of this kind allows causal models for subsequent objects to be rapidly learned, and we explore this accelerated learning in four experiments. Our results confirm that humans learn rapidly about the causal powers of novel objects, and we show that our framework accounts better for our data than alternative models of causal learning. Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Physical Development and Health, Grades 3, 6, 8, 10, 12. State Goals for Learning and Sample Learning Objectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illinois State Board of Education, Springfield.

This document sets forth the state goals for learning in the area of physical development and health for elementary and secondary students in Illinois. The final objective of this schooling is to provide students with the knowledge and attitudes to achieve healthful living throughout their lives and to acquire physical fitness, coordination, and…

Assessing the Effectiveness of STAD Model and Problem Based Learning in Mathematics Learning Achievement and Problem Solving Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rattanatumma, Tawachai; Puncreobutr, Vichian

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of teaching methods in improving Mathematics Learning Achievement and Problem solving ability of students at an international college. This is a Quasi-Experimental Research which was done the study with the first year students who have registered to study Mathematics subject at St.…

Representing and Learning Complex Object Interactions

PubMed Central

Zhou, Yilun; Konidaris, George

2017-01-01

We present a framework for representing scenarios with complex object interactions, in which a robot cannot directly interact with the object it wishes to control, but must instead do so via intermediate objects. For example, a robot learning to drive a car can only indirectly change its pose, by rotating the steering wheel. We formalize such complex interactions as chains of Markov decision processes and show how they can be learned and used for control. We describe two systems in which a robot uses learning from demonstration to achieve indirect control: playing a computer game, and using a hot water dispenser to heat a cup of water. PMID:28593181

Accounting for Tibetan University Students' and Teachers' Intellectual Styles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Li-Fang; Fu, Hong; Jiao, Ben

2008-01-01

The primary objective of this study was to further understand Tibetan university students' learning styles through investigating Tibetan university teachers' teaching styles and their preferred student learning styles. This objective was achieved by analysing the interview data from a group of Tibetan university teachers and the comparative survey…

A Multi-modal, Discriminative and Spatially Invariant CNN for RGB-D Object Labeling.

PubMed

Asif, Umar; Bennamoun, Mohammed; Sohel, Ferdous

2017-08-30

While deep convolutional neural networks have shown a remarkable success in image classification, the problems of inter-class similarities, intra-class variances, the effective combination of multimodal data, and the spatial variability in images of objects remain to be major challenges. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel framework to learn a discriminative and spatially invariant classification model for object and indoor scene recognition using multimodal RGB-D imagery. This is achieved through three postulates: 1) spatial invariance - this is achieved by combining a spatial transformer network with a deep convolutional neural network to learn features which are invariant to spatial translations, rotations, and scale changes, 2) high discriminative capability - this is achieved by introducing Fisher encoding within the CNN architecture to learn features which have small inter-class similarities and large intra-class compactness, and 3) multimodal hierarchical fusion - this is achieved through the regularization of semantic segmentation to a multi-modal CNN architecture, where class probabilities are estimated at different hierarchical levels (i.e., imageand pixel-levels), and fused into a Conditional Random Field (CRF)- based inference hypothesis, the optimization of which produces consistent class labels in RGB-D images. Extensive experimental evaluations on RGB-D object and scene datasets, and live video streams (acquired from Kinect) show that our framework produces superior object and scene classification results compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

The Development of Teaching and Learning in Bright-Field Microscopy Technique

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iskandar, Yulita Hanum P.; Mahmud, Nurul Ethika; Wahab, Wan Nor Amilah Wan Abdul; Jamil, Noor Izani Noor; Basir, Nurlida

2013-01-01

E-learning should be pedagogically-driven rather than technologically-driven. The objectives of this study are to develop an interactive learning system in bright-field microscopy technique in order to support students' achievement of their intended learning outcomes. An interactive learning system on bright-field microscopy technique was…

Undergraduate College Students, Laptop Computers, and Lifelong Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Chong Leng; Morris, John S.

2006-01-01

Many universities and colleges list the development of lifelong learning skills as a curriculum objective and have adopted laptop programs that may enable lifelong learning. The purpose of this research is to address the effectiveness of a technology-based and computer-mediated learning environment in achieving lifelong learning skills from the…

Effects of Semantic Web Based Learning on Pre-Service Teachers' ICT Learning Achievement and Satisfaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karalar, Halit; Korucu, Agah Tugrul

2016-01-01

Although the Semantic Web offers many opportunities for learners, effects of it in the classroom is not well known. Therefore, in this study explanations have been stated as how the learning objects defined by means of using the terminology in a developed ontology and kept in objects repository should be presented to learners with the aim of…

An Innovative Approach to Scheme Learning Map Considering Tradeoff Multiple Objectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Yu-Shih; Chang, Yi-Chun; Chu, Chih-Ping

2016-01-01

An important issue in personalized learning is to provide learners with customized learning according to their learning characteristics. This paper focused attention on scheming learning map as follows. The learning goal can be achieved via different pathways based on alternative materials, which have the relationships of prerequisite, dependence,…

Influences of an Inquiry-based Ubiquitous Gaming Design on Students' Learning Achievements, Motivation, Behavioral Patterns, and Tendency towards Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Gwo-Jen; Chen, Chih-Hung

2017-01-01

In this paper, an inquiry-based ubiquitous gaming approach was proposed. The objective of the study was to enhance students' performances in in-field learning activities. To show the advantages of the approach, an experiment was carried out to assess the effects of it on students' learning achievement, motivation, critical thinking, and problem…

Adaptive Urban Stormwater Management Using a Two-stage Stochastic Optimization Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hung, F.; Hobbs, B. F.; McGarity, A. E.

2014-12-01

In many older cities, stormwater results in combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and consequent water quality impairments. Because of the expense of traditional approaches for controlling CSOs, cities are considering the use of green infrastructure (GI) to reduce runoff and pollutants. Examples of GI include tree trenches, rain gardens, green roofs, and rain barrels. However, the cost and effectiveness of GI are uncertain, especially at the watershed scale. We present a two-stage stochastic extension of the Stormwater Investment Strategy Evaluation (StormWISE) model (A. McGarity, JWRPM, 2012, 111-24) to explicitly model and optimize these uncertainties in an adaptive management framework. A two-stage model represents the immediate commitment of resources ("here & now") followed by later investment and adaptation decisions ("wait & see"). A case study is presented for Philadelphia, which intends to extensively deploy GI over the next two decades (PWD, "Green City, Clean Water - Implementation and Adaptive Management Plan," 2011). After first-stage decisions are made, the model updates the stochastic objective and constraints (learning). We model two types of "learning" about GI cost and performance. One assumes that learning occurs over time, is automatic, and does not depend on what has been done in stage one (basic model). The other considers learning resulting from active experimentation and learning-by-doing (advanced model). Both require expert probability elicitations, and learning from research and monitoring is modelled by Bayesian updating (as in S. Jacobi et al., JWRPM, 2013, 534-43). The model allocates limited financial resources to GI investments over time to achieve multiple objectives with a given reliability. Objectives include minimizing construction and O&M costs; achieving nutrient, sediment, and runoff volume targets; and community concerns, such as aesthetics, CO2 emissions, heat islands, and recreational values. CVaR (Conditional Value at Risk) and chance constraints are placed on the objectives to achieve desired confidence levels. By varying the budgets, reliability constraints, and priorities among other objectives, we generate a range of GI deployment strategies that represent tradeoffs among objectives as well as the confidence in achieving them.

The Direction of Web-based Training: A Practitioner's View.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilby, Tim

2001-01-01

Web-based training has had achievements and disappointments as online learning has matured. Best practices include user-centered design, knowledge object structures, usability engineering, and formal evaluation. Knowledge management, peer-to-peer learning, and personal learning appliances will continue to alter the online learning landscape. (SK)

QR Codes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Hsin-Chih; Chang, Chun-Yen; Li, Wen-Shiane; Fan, Yu-Lin; Wu, Ying-Tien

2013-01-01

This study presents an m-learning method that incorporates Integrated Quick Response (QR) codes. This learning method not only achieves the objectives of outdoor education, but it also increases applications of Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML) (Mayer, 2001) in m-learning for practical use in a diverse range of outdoor locations. When…

How to Achieve Learning Impact.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Bob

1978-01-01

Although learning can be defined in cognitive, affective, or behavioral terms, the specification of communication, planning, or evaluation skills in behavioral terms is most appropriate in management training. Learning objectives are most effectively reached in a closed rather than open loop learning design. In designs, the learner's reactions and…

Finding the Right Mix: Teaching Methods as Predictors for Student Progress on Learning Objectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glover, Jacob I.

2012-01-01

This study extends existing student ratings research by exploring how teaching methods, individually and collectively, influence a minimum standard of student achievement on learning objectives and how class size impacts this influence. Twenty teaching methods were used to predict substantial or exceptional progress on each of 12 learning…

A Web of Learning Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andersen, Britt; Ree, Gunnar; Sandaker, Ingunn

2010-01-01

For at least two decades, politicians, academics and other stakeholders have advocated cooperation across sectors, administrative layers and other institutionalised boundaries to achieve objectives of what are called "learning regions" and the "lifelong learning perspective". Boundaries between geographical, institutional and sectors are becoming…

Business Simulations and Cognitive Learning: Developments, Desires, and Future Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Philip H.; Lawton, Leigh

2009-01-01

This article focuses on the research associated with the assessment of the cognitive learning that occurs through participation in a simulation exercise. It summarizes the "objective" evidence regarding cognitive learning versus the "perceptions" of cognitive learning achieved as reported by participants and instructors. The authors also explain…

Students' Metacognition and Cognitive Style and Their Effect on Cognitive Load and Learning Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

López-Vargas, Omar; Ibáñez-Ibáñez, Jaime; Racines-Prada, Oswaldo

2017-01-01

The present research's objective is to examine the effects of metacognitive scaffolding and cognitive style in the Field Dependence-Independence (FDI) dimension on cognitive load (CL) and learning achievement (LA) in high school students, when they interact with a hypermedia environment on philosophy (logic). Fifty-four students belonging to two…

Virtual patient care: an interprofessional education approach for physician assistant, physical therapy and occupational therapy students.

PubMed

Shoemaker, Michael J; Platko, Christina M; Cleghorn, Susan M; Booth, Andrew

2014-07-01

The purpose of this retrospective qualitative case report is to describe how a case-based, virtual patient interprofessional education (IPE) simulation activity was utilized to achieve physician assistant (PA), physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) student IPE learning outcomes. Following completion of a virtual patient case, 30 PA, 46 PT and 24 OT students were required to develop a comprehensive, written treatment plan and respond to reflective questions. A qualitative analysis of the submitted written assignment was used to determine whether IPE learning objectives were met. Student responses revealed three themes that supported the learning objectives of the IPE experience: benefits of collaborative care, role clarification and relevance of the IPE experience for future practice. A case-based, IPE simulation activity for physician assistant and rehabilitation students using a computerized virtual patient software program effectively facilitated achievement of the IPE learning objectives, including development of greater student awareness of other professions and ways in which collaborative patient care can be provided.

Intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and learning English as a foreign language.

PubMed

Shaikholeslami, Razieh; Khayyer, Mohammad

2006-12-01

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships of amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation with learning the English language. The 230 Iranian students at Shiraz University were tested using the Language Learning Orientations Scales to measure Amotivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and Intrinsic Motivation as explanatory variables. Grade point average in English exams was selected as a measure of English learning Achievement. Multiple regression analysis revealed that learning Achievement scores were predicted by scores on the Amotivation subscale, Introjected Regulation subscale, Knowledge subscale, and Stimulation subscale, whereas, the External and Identified Regulation and Accomplishment subscales did not have a significant relationship with Achievement. The results are discussed in terms of differences in Iranian context and culture.

HD-MTL: Hierarchical Deep Multi-Task Learning for Large-Scale Visual Recognition.

PubMed

Fan, Jianping; Zhao, Tianyi; Kuang, Zhenzhong; Zheng, Yu; Zhang, Ji; Yu, Jun; Peng, Jinye

2017-02-09

In this paper, a hierarchical deep multi-task learning (HD-MTL) algorithm is developed to support large-scale visual recognition (e.g., recognizing thousands or even tens of thousands of atomic object classes automatically). First, multiple sets of multi-level deep features are extracted from different layers of deep convolutional neural networks (deep CNNs), and they are used to achieve more effective accomplishment of the coarseto- fine tasks for hierarchical visual recognition. A visual tree is then learned by assigning the visually-similar atomic object classes with similar learning complexities into the same group, which can provide a good environment for determining the interrelated learning tasks automatically. By leveraging the inter-task relatedness (inter-class similarities) to learn more discriminative group-specific deep representations, our deep multi-task learning algorithm can train more discriminative node classifiers for distinguishing the visually-similar atomic object classes effectively. Our hierarchical deep multi-task learning (HD-MTL) algorithm can integrate two discriminative regularization terms to control the inter-level error propagation effectively, and it can provide an end-to-end approach for jointly learning more representative deep CNNs (for image representation) and more discriminative tree classifier (for large-scale visual recognition) and updating them simultaneously. Our incremental deep learning algorithms can effectively adapt both the deep CNNs and the tree classifier to the new training images and the new object classes. Our experimental results have demonstrated that our HD-MTL algorithm can achieve very competitive results on improving the accuracy rates for large-scale visual recognition.

Designing and Evaluating an Interprofessional Experiential Course Series Involving Medical and Pharmacy Students

PubMed Central

Dueñas, Gladys G.; Zanoni, Aileen; Grover, Anisha B.

2016-01-01

Objective. To prepare first-year and second-year pharmacy and medical students to build effective collaborative health care teams by participating in an interprofessional experiential 6-semester course series. Design. An interprofessional experiential course series was designed using a variety of teaching methods to achieve both interprofessional and experiential learning outcomes. A standardized objective behavioral assessment was developed to measure team performance of interprofessional communication and teamwork. In addition, student perceptions were measured using a validated instrument. Assessment. A majority of teams demonstrated appropriate competence with respect to interprofessional communication and teamwork. Additionally, a majority of students expressed positive perceptions of interprofessional collaboration with respect to teamwork, roles and responsibilities, and patient outcomes. Conclusion. An interprofessional experiential course series can be successfully implemented to achieve both interprofessional and experiential learning outcomes. Highly collaborative teams and positive student perceptions provide evidence of achievement of interprofessional education learning outcomes. PMID:27402988

Blended Learning Environments in Arab Universities: Probing Current Status and Projecting Future Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AlFuqaha, Isam Najib

2013-01-01

This paper is a review of blended learning as a catalyst of optimizing the achievement of learning objectives. Blended learning forms an attempt to apply the right learning technologies to match the right personal learning styles to transfer the right skills to the right persons at the right times. The paper is about rethinking the teaching and…

The Role of Unconscious Information Processing in the Acquisition and Learning of Instructional Messages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuldas, Seffetullah; Bakar, Zainudin Abu; Ismail, Hairul Nizam

2012-01-01

This review investigates how the unconscious information processing can create satisfactory learning outcomes, and can be used to ameliorate the challenges of teaching students to regulate their learning processes. The search for the ideal model of human information processing as regards achievement of teaching and learning objectives is a…

Linking Student Achievement Growth to Professional Development Participation and Changes in Instruction: A Longitudinal Study of Elementary Students and Teachers in Title I Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Desimone, Laura; Smith, Thomas M.; Phillips, Kristie J. R.

2013-01-01

Background/Context: Most reforms in elementary education rely on teacher learning and improved instruction to increase student learning. This study increases our understanding of which types of professional development effectively change teaching practice in ways that boost student achievement. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study:…

A Comparison of the Effects of an Advanced Organizer and/or Behavioral Objectives on the Achievement of Disadvantaged Biology Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahle, Jane Butler

The use of an advanced organizer (a generalizable, encompassing concept) prior to an individualized instructional sequence in a self-paced, audiotutorial learning format was accompanied by gains in individual unit achievement and in retention by disadvantaged biology students. Although behavioral objectives generally were shown to make no…

Multiple Intelligence Approach to Curriculum Transaction in Achieving the Educational Objectives at Secondary School Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Francis, Reni

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to foster learning through the Multiple Intelligence Approach in achieving educational objectives across the levels of Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. Multiple intelligences approach facilitates ways for students by ensuring that curriculum and instruction validate the strengths and build on the assets that students possess…

Learning Sequences of Actions in Collectives of Autonomous Agents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turner, Kagan; Agogino, Adrian K.; Wolpert, David H.; Clancy, Daniel (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

In this paper we focus on the problem of designing a collective of autonomous agents that individually learn sequences of actions such that the resultant sequence of joint actions achieves a predetermined global objective. We are particularly interested in instances of this problem where centralized control is either impossible or impractical. For single agent systems in similar domains, machine learning methods (e.g., reinforcement learners) have been successfully used. However, applying such solutions directly to multi-agent systems often proves problematic, as agents may work at cross-purposes, or have difficulty in evaluating their contribution to achievement of the global objective, or both. Accordingly, the crucial design step in multiagent systems centers on determining the private objectives of each agent so that as the agents strive for those objectives, the system reaches a good global solution. In this work we consider a version of this problem involving multiple autonomous agents in a grid world. We use concepts from collective intelligence to design goals for the agents that are 'aligned' with the global goal, and are 'learnable' in that agents can readily see how their behavior affects their utility. We show that reinforcement learning agents using those goals outperform both 'natural' extensions of single agent algorithms and global reinforcement, learning solutions based on 'team games'.

Assessment of the core learning objectives curriculum for the urology clerkship.

PubMed

Rapp, David E; Gong, Edward M; Reynolds, W Stuart; Lucioni, Alvaro; Zagaja, Gregory P

2007-11-01

The traditional approach to the surgical clerkship has limitations, including variability of clinical exposure. To optimize student education we developed and introduced the core learning objectives curriculum, which is designed to allow students freedom to direct their learning and focus on core concepts. We performed a prospective, randomized, controlled study to compare the efficacy of core learning objectives vs traditional curricula through objective and subjective measures. Medical students were randomly assigned to the core learning objectives or traditional curricula during the 2-week urology clerkship. Faculty was blinded to student assignment. Upon rotation completion all students were given a 20-question multiple choice examination covering basic urology concepts. In addition, students completed a questionnaire addressing subjective clerkship satisfaction, comprising 15 questions. Between June 2005 and January 2007, 10 core learning objectives students and 10 traditional students completed the urology clerkship. The average +/- SEM multiple choice examination score was 12.1 +/- 0.87 and 9.8 +/- 0.59 for students assigned to the core learning objectives and traditional curricula, respectively (p <0.05). Subjective scores were higher in the core learning objectives cohort, although this result did not attain statistical significance (124.9 +/- 3.72 vs 114.3 +/- 4.96, p = 0.1). Core learning objectives students reported higher satisfaction in all 15 assessed subjective end points. Our experience suggests that the core learning objectives model may be an effective educational tool to help students achieve a broad and directed exposure to the core urological concepts.

Video Game Learning Dynamics: Actionable Measures of Multidimensional Learning Trajectories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reese, Debbie Denise; Tabachnick, Barbara G.; Kosko, Robert E.

2015-01-01

Valid, accessible, reusable methods for instructional video game design and embedded assessment can provide actionable information enhancing individual and collective achievement. Cyberlearning through game-based, metaphor-enhanced learning objects (CyGaMEs) design and embedded assessment quantify player behavior to study knowledge discovery and…

Learned Non-Rigid Object Motion is a View-Invariant Cue to Recognizing Novel Objects

PubMed Central

Chuang, Lewis L.; Vuong, Quoc C.; Bülthoff, Heinrich H.

2012-01-01

There is evidence that observers use learned object motion to recognize objects. For instance, studies have shown that reversing the learned direction in which a rigid object rotated in depth impaired recognition accuracy. This motion reversal can be achieved by playing animation sequences of moving objects in reverse frame order. In the current study, we used this sequence-reversal manipulation to investigate whether observers encode the motion of dynamic objects in visual memory, and whether such dynamic representations are encoded in a way that is dependent on the viewing conditions. Participants first learned dynamic novel objects, presented as animation sequences. Following learning, they were then tested on their ability to recognize these learned objects when their animation sequence was shown in the same sequence order as during learning or in the reverse sequence order. In Experiment 1, we found that non-rigid motion contributed to recognition performance; that is, sequence-reversal decreased sensitivity across different tasks. In subsequent experiments, we tested the recognition of non-rigidly deforming (Experiment 2) and rigidly rotating (Experiment 3) objects across novel viewpoints. Recognition performance was affected by viewpoint changes for both experiments. Learned non-rigid motion continued to contribute to recognition performance and this benefit was the same across all viewpoint changes. By comparison, learned rigid motion did not contribute to recognition performance. These results suggest that non-rigid motion provides a source of information for recognizing dynamic objects, which is not affected by changes to viewpoint. PMID:22661939

The Impact of Supported and Annotated Mobile Learning on Achievement and Cognitive Load

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shadiev, Rustam; Hwang, Wu-Yuin; Huang, Yueh-Min; Liu, Tzu-Yu

2015-01-01

We designed activities for learning English as a foreign language in a mobile learning environment with familiar authentic support for this study. Students learned at school and then applied their newly gained knowledge to solve daily life problems by first using a tablet to take pictures of objects they wished to learn about, then describing them…

The Effect of Inquiry Training Learning Model Based on Just in Time Teaching for Problem Solving Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turnip, Betty; Wahyuni, Ida; Tanjung, Yul Ifda

2016-01-01

One of the factors that can support successful learning activity is the use of learning models according to the objectives to be achieved. This study aimed to analyze the differences in problem-solving ability Physics student learning model Inquiry Training based on Just In Time Teaching [JITT] and conventional learning taught by cooperative model…

Applying Objective Diagnostic Criteria to Students in a College Support Program for Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Lovett, Benjamin J.

2013-01-01

This study examined whether a large group of postsecondary students participating in a support program for students classified as having learning disabilities (LD) met criteria for five objective diagnostic models for LD: IQ-achievement discrepancy (1.0 SD, 1.5 SD, and greater than 2.0 SD) models, a "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of…

Dental Students’ Educational Achievement in Relation to Their Learning Styles: A Cross-sectional Study in Iran

PubMed Central

Hosseini, Seyed Masoud; Amery, Hamideh; Emadzadeh, Ali; Babazadeh, Saber

2015-01-01

Background and Objectives: In recent decades, many studies have been carried out on the importance of Kolb experiential learning theory (ELT) in teaching-learning processes and its effect on learning outcomes. However, some experts have criticized the Kolb theory and argue that there are some ambiguities on the validity of the theory as an important predictor of achievement. This study has been carried out on dental students’ educational achievement in relation to their dominant learning styles based on Kolb theory in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (Iran). Methods: In a cross sectional study, Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI Ver. 3.1) as well as a questionnaire containing students’ demographic data, academic achievement marks including grade point average (GPA), theoretical and practical courses marks, and the comprehensive basic sciences exam (CBSE) scores were administered on a purposive sample of 162 dental students who had passed their comprehensive basic sciences exam. Educational achievement data were analyzed in relation to students’ dominant learning styles, using descriptive and analytical statistics including χ2, Kruskal-Wallis and two-way ANOVA tests. Results: The dominant learning styles of students were Assimilating (53.1%), Converging (24.1%), Diverging (14.2%) and Accommodating (8.6%). Although, the students with Assimilating and Converging learning styles had a better performance on their educational achievement, there was no significant relationship between educational achievement and dominant learning style (P≥0.05). Conclusion: Findings support that the dominant learning style is not exclusively an essential factor to predict educational achievement. Rather, it shows learning preferences of students that may be considered in designing learning opportunities by the teachers. PMID:26156915

A neural network-based exploratory learning and motor planning system for co-robots

PubMed Central

Galbraith, Byron V.; Guenther, Frank H.; Versace, Massimiliano

2015-01-01

Collaborative robots, or co-robots, are semi-autonomous robotic agents designed to work alongside humans in shared workspaces. To be effective, co-robots require the ability to respond and adapt to dynamic scenarios encountered in natural environments. One way to achieve this is through exploratory learning, or “learning by doing,” an unsupervised method in which co-robots are able to build an internal model for motor planning and coordination based on real-time sensory inputs. In this paper, we present an adaptive neural network-based system for co-robot control that employs exploratory learning to achieve the coordinated motor planning needed to navigate toward, reach for, and grasp distant objects. To validate this system we used the 11-degrees-of-freedom RoPro Calliope mobile robot. Through motor babbling of its wheels and arm, the Calliope learned how to relate visual and proprioceptive information to achieve hand-eye-body coordination. By continually evaluating sensory inputs and externally provided goal directives, the Calliope was then able to autonomously select the appropriate wheel and joint velocities needed to perform its assigned task, such as following a moving target or retrieving an indicated object. PMID:26257640

A neural network-based exploratory learning and motor planning system for co-robots.

PubMed

Galbraith, Byron V; Guenther, Frank H; Versace, Massimiliano

2015-01-01

Collaborative robots, or co-robots, are semi-autonomous robotic agents designed to work alongside humans in shared workspaces. To be effective, co-robots require the ability to respond and adapt to dynamic scenarios encountered in natural environments. One way to achieve this is through exploratory learning, or "learning by doing," an unsupervised method in which co-robots are able to build an internal model for motor planning and coordination based on real-time sensory inputs. In this paper, we present an adaptive neural network-based system for co-robot control that employs exploratory learning to achieve the coordinated motor planning needed to navigate toward, reach for, and grasp distant objects. To validate this system we used the 11-degrees-of-freedom RoPro Calliope mobile robot. Through motor babbling of its wheels and arm, the Calliope learned how to relate visual and proprioceptive information to achieve hand-eye-body coordination. By continually evaluating sensory inputs and externally provided goal directives, the Calliope was then able to autonomously select the appropriate wheel and joint velocities needed to perform its assigned task, such as following a moving target or retrieving an indicated object.

A Blended Learning Experience for Teaching Microbiology

PubMed Central

Sancho, Pilar; Corral, Ricardo; Rivas, Teresa; González, María Jesús; Chordi, Andrés

2006-01-01

Objectives To create a virtual laboratory system in which experimental science students could learn required skills and competencies while overcoming such challenges as time limitations, high cost of resources, and lack of feedback often encountered in a traditional laboratory setting. Design A blended learning experience that combines traditional practices and e-learning was implemented to teach microbiological methods to pharmacy students. Virtual laboratory modules were used to acquire nonmanual skills such as visual and mental skills for data reading, calculations, interpretation of the results, deployment of an analytical protocol, and reporting results. Assesment Learning achievement was evaluated by questions about microbiology case-based problems. Students' perceptions were obtained by assessment questionnaire. Conclusion By combining different learning scenarios, the acquisition of the necessary but otherwise unreachable competences was achieved. Students achieved similar grades in the modules whose initiation was in the virtual laboratory to the grades they achieved with the modules whose complete or partial initiation took place in the laboratory. The knowledge acquired was satisfactory and the participants valued the experience. PMID:17149449

Enhancing Student Learning in Marketing Courses: An Exploration of Fundamental Principles for Website Platforms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollenbeck, Candice R.; Mason, Charlotte H.; Song, Ji Hee

2011-01-01

The design of a course has potential to help marketing students achieve their learning objectives. Marketing courses are increasingly turning to technology to facilitate teaching and learning, and pedagogical tools such as Blackboard, WebCT, and e-Learning Commons are essential to the design of a course. Here, the authors investigate the research…

Redesigning Problem-Based Learning in the Knowledge Creation Paradigm for School Science Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeo, Jennifer; Tan, Seng Chee

2014-01-01

The introduction of problem-based learning into K-12 science classrooms faces the challenge of achieving the dual goal of learning science content and developing problem-solving skills. To overcome this content-process tension in science classrooms, we employed the knowledge-creation approach as a boundary object between the two seemingly…

Learning Objects and the E-Learning Cost Dilemma

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weller, Martin

2004-01-01

The creation of quality e-learning material creates a cost dilemma for many institutions, since it has both high variable and high fixed costs. This cost dilemma means that economies of scale are difficult to achieve, which may result in a consequent reduction in the quality of the learning material. Based on the experience of creating a masters…

The Academic Procrastination in Junior High School Students' Mathematics Learning: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asri, Dahlia Novarianing; Setyosari, Punaji; Hitipeuw, Imanuel; Chusniyah, Tutut

2017-01-01

Among the main causes of low learning achievement in mathematics learning is a delayed behavior to do tasks, commonly called academic procrastination. The objectives of this research are to describe and to explain the causal factors and consequences of academic procrastination in learning mathematics for junior high school students. This research…

Use of SMART Learning Objectives to Introduce Continuing Professional Development Into the Pharmacy Curriculum

PubMed Central

Khandoobhai, Anand; Leadon, Kim

2012-01-01

Objective. To determine whether a 2-year continuing professional development (CPD) training program improved first-year (P1) and second-year (P2) pharmacy students’ ability to write SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed) learning objectives. Design. First-year students completed live or online CPD training, including creating portfolios and writing SMART objectives prior to their summer introductory pharmacy practice experience (IPPE). In year 2, P1 and P2 students were included. SMART learning objectives were graded and analyzed. Assessment. On several objectives, the 2011 P1 students (n = 130) scored higher than did the P2 cohort (n = 105). In 2011, P2 students outscored their own performance in 2010. In 2011, P1 students who had been trained in online modules performed the same as did live-session trainees with respect to SMART objectives. Conclusion. With focused online or live training, students are capable of incorporating principles of CPD by writing SMART learning objectives. PMID:22611277

Widget, Widget on the Wall, Am I Performing Well at All?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheffel, Maren; Drachsler, Hendrik; de Kraker, Joop

2017-01-01

In collaborative learning environments, students work together on assignments in virtual teams and depend on each other's contribution to achieve their learning objectives. The online learning environment, however, may not only facilitate but also hamper group communication, coordination, and collaboration. Group awareness widgets that visualize…

Increasing Student Learning through Multimedia Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simkins, Michael; Cole, Karen; Tavalin, Fern; Means, Barbara

This book discusses enhancing student achievement through project-based learning with multimedia. Chapter 1 describes project-based multimedia learning. Chapter 2 presents a multimedia primer, including the five basic types of media objects (i.e., images, text, sound, motion, and interactivity). Chapter 3 addresses making a real-world connection,…

The Role of Motivation, Cognition, and Conscientiousness for Academic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imhof, Margarete; Spaeth-Hilbert, Tatjana

2013-01-01

Based on a cognitive motivational process model of learning, the impact of studying behavior on learning outcome is investigated. First-year students (N = 488) participated in the study. Two research questions were addressed: (1) Can cognitive-motivational variables and objective study behavior predict individual learning? (2) Which factors drive…

Seeking Empirical Validity in an Assurance of Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avery, Sherry L.; McWhorter, Rochell R.; Lirely, Roger; Doty, H. Harold

2014-01-01

Business schools have established measurement tools to support their assurance of learning (AoL) systems and to assess student achievement of learning objectives. However, business schools have not required their tools to be empirically validated, thus ensuring that they measure what they are intended to measure. The authors propose confirmatory…

Assessing Learning Online: The Top Ten List

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klecker, Beverly M.

2005-01-01

The purpose of instruction, whether face-to-face or online, is to facilitate student achievement of intended learning objectives. Traditionally, the major function of classroom assessment in undergraduate and graduate university courses has been to measure the individual student's learning in order to provide feedback to the student and to…

Two Models of Learning and Achievement: An Explanation for the Achievement Gap?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeh, Stuart S.

2015-01-01

Background/Context: Despite decades of research, the persistence of the gap in student achievement between disadvantaged minority students and their middle-class peers remains unexplained. Purpose/Objective: The purpose of the current article is to propose a new model of the achievement gap. Research Design: Data were analyzed from three…

Multi-objects recognition for distributed intelligent sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Haibo; Chen, Sheng; Cao, Yuan; Desai, Sachi; Hohil, Myron E.

2008-04-01

This paper proposes an innovative approach for multi-objects recognition for homeland security and defense based intelligent sensor networks. Unlike the conventional way of information analysis, data mining in such networks is typically characterized with high information ambiguity/uncertainty, data redundancy, high dimensionality and real-time constrains. Furthermore, since a typical military based network normally includes multiple mobile sensor platforms, ground forces, fortified tanks, combat flights, and other resources, it is critical to develop intelligent data mining approaches to fuse different information resources to understand dynamic environments, to support decision making processes, and finally to achieve the goals. This paper aims to address these issues with a focus on multi-objects recognition. Instead of classifying a single object as in the traditional image classification problems, the proposed method can automatically learn multiple objectives simultaneously. Image segmentation techniques are used to identify the interesting regions in the field, which correspond to multiple objects such as soldiers or tanks. Since different objects will come with different feature sizes, we propose a feature scaling method to represent each object in the same number of dimensions. This is achieved by linear/nonlinear scaling and sampling techniques. Finally, support vector machine (SVM) based learning algorithms are developed to learn and build the associations for different objects, and such knowledge will be adaptively accumulated for objects recognition in the testing stage. We test the effectiveness of proposed method in different simulated military environments.

An Asynchronous Learning Approach for the Instructional Component of a Dual-Campus Pharmacy Resident Teaching Program

PubMed Central

Baia, Patricia; Canning, Jacquelyn E.; Strang, Aimee F.

2015-01-01

Objective. To describe the shift to an asynchronous online approach for pedagogy instruction within a pharmacy resident teaching program offered by a dual-campus college. Design. The pedagogy instruction component of the teaching program (Part I) was redesigned with a focus on the content, delivery, and coordination of the learning environment. Asynchronous online learning replaced distance technology or lecture capture. Using a pedagogical content knowledge framework, residents participated in self-paced online learning using faculty recordings, readings, and discussion board activities. A learning management system was used to assess achievement of learning objectives and participation prior to progressing to the teaching experiences component of the teaching program (Part II). Assessment. Evaluation of resident pedagogical knowledge development and participation in Part I of the teaching program was achieved through the learning management system. Participant surveys and written reflections showed general satisfaction with the online learning environment. Future considerations include addition of a live orientation session and increased faculty presence in the online learning environment. Conclusion. An online approach framed by educational theory can be an effective way to provide pedagogy instruction within a teaching program. PMID:25861110

Neural Dynamics of Object-Based Multifocal Visual Spatial Attention and Priming: Object Cueing, Useful-Field-of-View, and Crowding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foley, Nicholas C.; Grossberg, Stephen; Mingolla, Ennio

2012-01-01

How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued…

E-Learning Content Design Standards Based on Interactive Digital Concepts Maps in the Light of Meaningful and Constructivist Learning Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Afify, Mohammed Kamal

2018-01-01

The present study aims to identify standards of interactive digital concepts maps design and their measurement indicators as a tool to develop, organize and administer e-learning content in the light of Meaningful Learning Theory and Constructivist Learning Theory. To achieve the objective of the research, the author prepared a list of E-learning…

Computer-Based Learning in Open and Distance Learning Institutions in Nigeria: Cautions on Use of Internet for Counseling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okopi, Fidel Onjefu; Odeyemi, Olajumoke Janet; Adesina, Adewale

2015-01-01

The study has identified the areas of strengths and weaknesses in the current use of Computer Based Learning (CBL) tools in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institutions in Nigeria. To achieve these objectives, the following research questions were proposed: (i) What are the computer-based learning tools (soft and hard ware) that are actually in…

The Use of Concrete Learning Objects Taken from the History of Mathematics in Mathematics Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bütüner, Suphi Önder

2016-01-01

This study aimed to reveal the effects of teaching with concrete learning objects taken from the history of mathematics on student achievement. Being a quasi-experimental study, it was conducted with two grade 8 classes in a secondary school located in Trabzon. The experimental group consisted of 27 students and the control group consisted of 25.…

Learning Objectives and Testing: An Analysis of Six Principles of Economics Textbooks, Using Bloom's Taxonomy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karns, James M. L.; And Others

1983-01-01

Significant differences were found between the stated objectives of most college level economics textbooks and the instruments included in the instructor's manuals to measure student achievement. (Author/RM)

A Process for Curricular Improvement Based on Evaluation of Student Performance on Milestone Examinations

PubMed Central

Hylton, Ann C.; Justice, Michael

2016-01-01

Objective. To identify and address areas for curricular improvement by evaluating student achievement of expected learning outcomes and competencies on annual milestone examinations. Design. Students were tested each professional year with a comprehensive milestone examination designed to evaluate student achievement of learning outcomes and professional competencies using a combination of multiple-choice questions, standardized patient assessments (SPAs), and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) questions. Assessment. Based on student performance on milestone examinations, curricular changes were instituted, including an increased emphasis on graded comprehensive cases, OSCE skills days, and use of patient simulation in lecture and laboratory courses. After making these changes, significant improvements were observed in second and third-year pharmacy students’ grades for the therapeutic case and physician interaction/errors and omissions components of the milestone examinations. Conclusion. Results from milestone examinations can be used to identify specific areas in which curricular improvements are needed to foster student achievement of learning outcomes and professional competencies. PMID:28090108

Impact of Gadget Based Learning of Grammar in English at Standard II

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singaravelu, G.

2014-01-01

The study enlightens the impact of Gadget Based Learning of English Grammar at standard II. Objectives of the study is to find out the learning problems of the students of standard II in Learning English Grammar in Shri Vani Vilas Middle School and to find whether there is any significant difference in achievement mean score between pre test of…

The Effectiveness of the Chemistry Problem Based Learning (PBL) via FB among Pre-University Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sunar, Mohd Shahir Mohamed; Shaari, Ahmad Jelani

2017-01-01

The impact of social media, such as Facebook in various fields including education is undeniable. The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of the interaction between students' learning styles and learning approaches on their achievements in the chemistry subject using the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) method through Facebook. The…

A Wiki-Based Teaching Material Development Environment with Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Yen-Ting; Lin, Yi-Chun; Huang, Yueh-Min; Cheng, Shu-Chen

2013-01-01

One goal of e-learning is to enhance the interoperability and reusability of learning resources. However, current e-learning systems do little to adequately support this. In order to achieve this aim, the first step is to consider how to assist instructors in re-organizing the existing learning objects. However, when instructors are dealing with a…

A Mixed Method Case Study on Learner Engagement in e-Learning Professional Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Jane Yanfeng

2014-01-01

Previous research showed that learners' reluctance in participating in e-Learning training is a major obstacle in achieving training objectives. This study focused on learners' e-Learning engagement in professional training in the chapter of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). The participants were 21 chapter members.…

Identification of Quality Visual-Based Learning Material for Technology Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katsioloudis, Petros

2010-01-01

It is widely known that the use of visual technology enhances learning by providing a better understanding of the topic as well as motivating students. If all visual-based learning materials (tables, figures, photos, etc.) were equally effective in facilitating student achievement of all kinds of educational objectives, there would virtually be no…

The Student Experience in Speed Teaming: A New Approach to Team Formation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen, Randall S.; Hansen, Katharine

2007-01-01

Many benefits accrue for students when they work in teams. Researchers have shown that the learning-by-doing approach of group projects results in active learning and far greater comprehension and retention, higher levels of student achievement, accomplishment of sophisticated learning objectives, the development of critical reasoning skills, and…

Recognising and Validating Outcomes of Non-Accredited Learning: A Practical Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenwood, Maggie, Ed.; Hayes, Amanda, Ed.; Turner, Cheryl, Ed.; Vorhaus, John, Ed.

A group of adult educators in England conducted seven case studies to identify strategies for recognizing adult students' learning progress in nonaccredited programs. The case studies identified the following elements of good practice in the process of recording and validating achievement: (1) initial identification of learning objectives; (2)…

Redesign and Evaluation of a Patient Assessment Course

PubMed Central

Sobieraj, Diana M.; McCaffrey, Desmond; Lee, Jennifer J.

2009-01-01

Objectives To redesign a patient assessment course using a structured instructional design process and evaluate student learning. Design Course coordinators collaborated with an instructional design and development expert to incorporate new pedagogical approaches (eg, Web-based self-tests), create new learning activities (eg, peer collaboration on worksheets, SOAP note writing), and develop grading rubrics. Assessment Formative and summative surveys were administered for student self-assessment and course evaluation. Seventy-six students (78%) completed the summative survey. The mean course grade was 91.8% ± 3.6%, with more than 75% of students reporting achievement of primary course learning objectives. All of the additional learning activities helped students meet the learning objectives with the exception of the written drug information response. Conclusion The use of a structured instructional design process to redesign a patient assessment course was successful in creating a curriculum that succeeded in teaching students the specified learning objectives. Other colleges and schools are encouraged to collaborate with an instructional design and development expert to improve the pharmacy curriculum. PMID:19960090

Use of individualized learning plans among fourth-year sub-interns in pediatrics and internal medicine.

PubMed

Shepard, Michelle E; Sastre, Elizabeth A; Davidson, Mario A; Fleming, Amy E

2012-01-01

Individualized Learning Plans (ILPs) are an effective tool for promoting self-directed learning among residents. However, no literature details ILP use among medical students. Fifty fourth-year sub-interns in pediatrics and internal medicine created ILPs, including a self-assessment of strengths and weaknesses based on ACGME core competencies and the setting of learning objectives. During weekly follow-up meetings with faculty mentors and peers, students discussed challenges and revised goals. Upon completion of the rotation, students completed a survey of Likert-scale questions addressing satisfaction with and perceived utility of ILP components. Students most often self-identified strengths in the areas of Professionalism and Interpersonal and Communication Skills and weaknesses in Patient Care and Systems-Based Practice. Eighty-two percent set at least one learning objective in an identified area of weakness. Students expressed high confidence in their abilities to create achievable learning objectives and to generate strategies to meet those objectives. Students agreed that discussions during group meetings were meaningful, and they identified the setting learning objectives and weekly meetings as the most important elements of the exercise. Fourth-year sub-interns reported that ILPs helped them to accomplish rotation goals, with the setting of learning objectives and weekly discussions being the most useful elements.

An explanatory model of academic achievement based on aptitudes, goal orientations, self-concept and learning strategies.

PubMed

Miñano Pérez, Pablo; Castejón Costa, Juan-Luis; Gilar Corbí, Raquel

2012-03-01

As a result of studies examining factors involved in the learning process, various structural models have been developed to explain the direct and indirect effects that occur between the variables in these models. The objective was to evaluate a structural model of cognitive and motivational variables predicting academic achievement, including general intelligence, academic self-concept, goal orientations, effort and learning strategies. The sample comprised of 341 Spanish students in the first year of compulsory secondary education. Different tests and questionnaires were used to evaluate each variable, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was applied to contrast the relationships of the initial model. The model proposed had a satisfactory fit, and all the hypothesised relationships were significant. General intelligence was the variable most able to explain academic achievement. Also important was the direct influence of academic self-concept on achievement, goal orientations and effort, as well as the mediating ability of effort and learning strategies between academic goals and final achievement.

Evaluation of three different methods of distance learning for postgraduate diagnostic imaging education: A pilot study.

PubMed

Poirier, Jean-Nicolas; Cooley, Jeffrey R; Wessely, Michelle; Guebert, Gary M; Petrocco-Napuli, Kristina

2014-10-01

Objective : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceived effectiveness and learning potential of 3 Web-based educational methods in a postgraduate radiology setting. Methods : Three chiropractic radiology faculty from diverse geographic locations led mini-courses using asynchronous discussion boards, synchronous Web conferencing, and asynchronous voice-over case presentations formatted for Web viewing. At the conclusion of each course, participants filled out a 14-question survey (using a 5-point Likert scale) designed to evaluate the effectiveness of each method in achieving specified course objectives and goals and their satisfaction when considering the learning potential of each method. The mean, standard deviation, and percentage agreements were tabulated. Results : Twenty, 15, and 10 participants completed the discussion board, Web conferencing, and case presentation surveys, respectively. All educational methods demonstrated a high level of agreement regarding the course objective (total mean rating >4.1). The case presentations had the highest overall rating for achieving the course goals; however, all but one method still had total mean ratings >4.0 and overall agreement levels of 70%-100%. The strongest potential for interactive learning was found with Web conferencing and discussion boards, while case presentations rated very low in this regard. Conclusions : The perceived effectiveness in achieving the course objective and goals was high for each method. Residency-based distance education may be a beneficial adjunct to current methods of training, allowing for international collaboration. When considering all aspects tested, there does not appear to be a clear advantage to any one method. Utilizing various methods may be most appropriate.

The Corporate University Model for Continuous Learning, Training and Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

El-Tannir, Akram A.

2002-01-01

Corporate universities typically convey corporate culture and provide systematic curriculum aimed at achieving strategic objectives. Virtual access and company-specific content combine to provide opportunities for continuous and active learning, a model that is becoming pervasive. (Contains 17 references.) (SK)

Positive Feelings towards the Learning of Mathematics for Low Achievers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tong, Cherng Luen; Leong, Yew Hoong; Quek, Khiok Seng

2013-01-01

A common area of difficulty and frustration for low achieving students is the operations involving negative numbers. The main objective of our innovations in this area with two classes of Year 7 low achieving students was to develop positive feelings towards mathematics, in particular of an appreciation for the "reasonableness" and clear…

Exploring In-Service Teachers' Perceptions on Values-Based Water Education via Interactive Instructional Strategies that Enhance Meaningful Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thoe, Ng Khar

2007-01-01

Instructional strategies determine the approaches an educator may take to achieve learning objectives. Research has shown that sets of strategies or instructional models anchored on social constructivist learning theories were found to be effective in enhancing active participation. It is particularly influential and meaningful in many areas of…

Towards a Personality Understanding of Information Technology Students and Their IT Learning in UAE University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Qirim, Nabeel; Rouibah, Kamel; Tarhini, Ali; Serhani, Mohamed Adel; Yammahi, Aishah Rashid; Yammahi, Maraim Ahmed

2018-01-01

This research investigates the personality characteristics of Information Technology students (CIT) in UAE University (UAEU) and how such features impact their IT learning. To achieve this objective, this research attempts to explain the impact of the Big-5 factors on learning using survey research. Results from 179 respondents suggested that…

Influences on Peer Evaluation in a Group Project: An Exploration of Leadership, Demographics and Course Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dingel, Molly; Wei, Wei

2014-01-01

Collaborative learning strategies are widely used in higher education to deepen learning, promote team-building skills and achieve course learning objectives. Using peer evaluation is an important strategy to ensure that engaged and active students are rewarded for their efforts, and to discourage loafing within groups. However, less is known…

Investigating the Effect of Different Verbal Formats of Advance Organizers on Third Graders' Understanding of Heat Transfer Concept

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chuang, Hsueh-Hua; Liu, Han-Chin

2014-01-01

The emergence of computer and multimedia technology change the forms of instructional materials and instructional design plays an important role on student learning outcome in multimedia learning. Research has found that using advance organizers has the potential for achieving learning objectives. Thus, this study investigated how using different…

Investigating the Effect of Different Verbal Formats of Advance Organizers on Third Graders' Understanding of Heat Transfer Concept

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chuang, Hsueh-Hua; Liu, Han-Chin

2014-01-01

The emergence of computer and multimedia technology change the forms of instructional materials and instructional design plays an important role on student learning outcome in multimedia learning. Research has found that using advance organizers has the potential for achieving learning objectives. Thus, this study investigated how using different…

What Are the Effects of Implementing Learning-Focused Strategies in Biology and Physical Science Classrooms?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simmons, Robin

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to determine if Learning-Focused Strategies (LFS) implemented in high school science courses would affect student achievement and the pass rate of biology and physical science Common District Assessments (CDAs). The LFS, specific teaching strategies contained in the Learning-Focused Strategies Model (LFSM) Program…

A longitudinal interprofessional simulation curriculum for critical care teams: Exploring successes and challenges.

PubMed

Leclair, Laurie W; Dawson, Mary; Howe, Alison; Hale, Sue; Zelman, Eric; Clouser, Ryan; Garrison, Garth; Allen, Gilman

2018-05-01

Interprofessional care teams are the backbone of intensive care units (ICUs) where severity of illness is high and care requires varied skills and experience. Despite this care model, longitudinal educational programmes for such workplace teams rarely include all professions. In this article, we report findings on the initial assessment and evaluation of an ongoing, longitudinal simulation-based curriculum for interprofessional workplace critical care teams. The study had two independent components, quantitative learner assessment and qualitative curricular evaluation. To assess curriculum effectiveness at meeting learning objectives, participant-reported key learning points identified using a self-assessment tool administered immediately following curricular participation were mapped to session learning objectives. To evaluate the curriculum, we conducted a qualitative study using a phenomenology approach involving purposeful sampling of nine curricular participants undergoing recorded semi-structured interviews. Verbatim transcripts were reviewed by two independent readers to derive themes further subdivided into successes and barriers. Learner self-assessment demonstrated that the majority of learners, across all professions, achieved at least one intended learning objective with senior learners more likely to report team-based objectives and junior learners more likely to report knowledge/practice objectives. Successes identified by curricular evaluation included authentic critical care curricular content, safe learning environment, and team comradery from shared experience. Barriers included unfamiliarity with the simulation environment and clinical coverage for curricular participation. This study suggests that a sustainable interprofessional curriculum for workplace ICU critical care teams can achieve the desired educational impact and effectively deliver authentic simulated work experiences if barriers to educational engagement and participation can be overcome.

An Integrated Course in Pain Management and Palliative Care Bridging the Basic Sciences and Pharmacy Practice

PubMed Central

Kullgren, Justin; Unni, Elizabeth; Hanson, Eric

2013-01-01

Objective. To describe the development of an integrated pain and palliative care course and to investigate the long-term effectiveness of the course during doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students’ advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) and in their practice after graduation. Design. Roseman University College of Pharmacy faculty developed a 3-week elective course in pain and palliative care by integrating relevant clinical and pharmaceutical sciences. Instructional strategies included lectures, team and individual activities, case studies, and student presentations. Assessment. Students who participated in the course in 2010 and 2011 were surveyed anonymously to gain their perception about the class as well as the utility of the course during their APPEs and in their everyday practice. Traditional and nontraditional assessment of students confirmed that the learning outcomes objectives were achieved. Conclusions. Students taking the integrated course on pain management and palliative care achieved mastery of the learning outcome objectives. Surveys of students and practicing pharmacists who completed the course showed that the learning experience as well as retention was improved with the integrated mode of teaching. Integrating basic and clinical sciences in therapeutic courses is an effective learning strategy. PMID:23966724

Internationalizing the University Mathematics Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Appelbaum, Peter; Friedler, Louis M.; Ortiz, Carlos E.; Wolff, Edward F.

2009-01-01

This article offers suggestions for achieving the internationalization of university mathematics-related curricular offerings. It presents learning objectives and related student outcomes, raises general issues related to internationalization, and then discusses how to incorporate the objectives and address these issues within the university…

Peer Online Discourse Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Ke; Carr-Chellman, Ali

Research shows that learning in groups improves students' achievement of learning objectives. Some indicate that a facilitator will smooth the process of collaboration (Johnson et al, 1987; Hooper, 1992; Moore and Kearsley, 1996; Brandon & Hollingshead, 1999; Bernard et al, 2000). Advocates for peer-controlled collaboration claim that learners…

Teaching Principles of Management through Experiential and Service Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furutan, Omid

2014-01-01

Management faculties often use cases, simulations, and research projects to achieve learning objectives in the Principles of Management class. This class typically aims to introduce students to the topics of "planning, organizing, coordinating, staffing, directing, budgeting, controlling, and evaluating functions of management; leadership…

Learning and Construction in Engineering Jobs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buch, Anders

Knowledge production and learning in engineering is a local, situated, negotiated, and thoroughly social process. Although engineering work entails the construal, production, and application of artifacts and technical devices belonging to the "object world," the process of designing is a process of achieving consensus among real or…

A Neural-Dynamic Architecture for Concurrent Estimation of Object Pose and Identity

PubMed Central

Lomp, Oliver; Faubel, Christian; Schöner, Gregor

2017-01-01

Handling objects or interacting with a human user about objects on a shared tabletop requires that objects be identified after learning from a small number of views and that object pose be estimated. We present a neurally inspired architecture that learns object instances by storing features extracted from a single view of each object. Input features are color and edge histograms from a localized area that is updated during processing. The system finds the best-matching view for the object in a novel input image while concurrently estimating the object’s pose, aligning the learned view with current input. The system is based on neural dynamics, computationally operating in real time, and can handle dynamic scenes directly off live video input. In a scenario with 30 everyday objects, the system achieves recognition rates of 87.2% from a single training view for each object, while also estimating pose quite precisely. We further demonstrate that the system can track moving objects, and that it can segment the visual array, selecting and recognizing one object while suppressing input from another known object in the immediate vicinity. Evaluation on the COIL-100 dataset, in which objects are depicted from different viewing angles, revealed recognition rates of 91.1% on the first 30 objects, each learned from four training views. PMID:28503145

The Impact of a Physical Activity Intervention Program on Academic Achievement in a Swedish Elementary School Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Käll, Lina B.; Nilsson, Michael; Lindén, Thomas

2014-01-01

Background: Despite the emerging body of research on the potential of physical activity to improve learning and academic achievement, conclusive evidence regarding the effects of physical activity on academic achievement is lacking. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of a physical activity intervention program on academic…

The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Mediating the Relationship between Emerging Adulthood and Academic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noor, Farukh; Hanafi, Zahyah

2017-01-01

Purpose: Academic achievement of students can be fostered and improved if they learn to apply emotional intelligence in their emerging adulthood. The core objective of this research is to test the relationship between emerging adulthood and academic achievement by taking emotional intelligence as a mediator. Methodology: The sample comprises 90…

Development of Objective Standard Setting Using Rasch Measurement Model in Malaysian Institution of Higher Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khatimin, Nuraini; Aziz, Azrilah Abdul; Zaharim, Azami; Yasin, Siti Hanani Mat

2013-01-01

Measurement and evaluation of students' achievement are an important aspect to make sure that students really understand the course content and monitor students' achievement level. Performance is not only reflected from the numbers of high achievers of the students, but also on quality of the grade obtained; does the grade "A" truly…

Challenge: Teacher's Utilization Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lincoln Public Schools, NE.

Published as a guide to educational television viewing for the gifted, the stated objective is to extend the learning environment, validate and individualize learning, provide resources, and use a nonverbal approach. For each area discussed the text provides information on the target audience, the need and purpose, methods of achieving the…

Communicating Learning Outcomes and Student Performance through the Student Transcript

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenyon, George; Barnes, Cynthia

2010-01-01

The university accreditation process now puts more emphasis on self assessment. This change requires universities to identify program objectives, performance indicators, and areas for improvement. Many accrediting institutions are requiring that institutions communicate clearly to constituents: 1) what learning outcomes were achieved by students,…

Achievement Goal Orientation for Athletic Training Education: Preparing for Lifelong Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peer, Kimberly S.

2007-01-01

Objective: This review of literature presents the theoretical framework of goal orientation and student achievement from a pedagogical perspective while providing practical applications and implications for integrating goal orientation into athletic training education programs. Data Sources: Selected literature derived from EBSCO, Education…

Competency to Study and Learn in Stressful Contests: Fundamentals of the "e-Coping with Academic Stress"™ Utility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de la Fuente, Jesús; López, Mireia; Zapata, Lucía; Martínez-Vicente, Jose Manuel; Vera, Manuel Mariano; Solinas, Giulliana; Fadda, Salvatore

2014-01-01

There has been growing research interest in achievement emotions in university teaching-learning processes in recent years. While their importance has been firmly established, there continues to be a need for assessment and intervention models. The objective of this report is to present the "Competency Model for Studying, Learning and…

Effectiveness of E-TLM in Learning Vocabulary in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singaravelu, G.

2011-01-01

The study enlightens the effectiveness of e-TLM in Learning Vocabulary in English at standard VI. Objectives of the study: 1. To find out the problems of conventional TLM in learning vocabulary in English. 2. To find out the significant difference in achievement mean score between the pre test of control group and the post test of control group.…

Basic steps in establishing effective small group teaching sessions in medical schools.

PubMed

Meo, Sultan Ayoub

2013-07-01

Small-group teaching and learning has achieved an admirable position in medical education and has become more popular as a means of encouraging the students in their studies and enhance the process of deep learning. The main characteristics of small group teaching are active involvement of the learners in entire learning cycle and well defined task orientation with achievable specific aims and objectives in a given time period. The essential components in the development of an ideal small group teaching and learning sessions are preliminary considerations at departmental and institutional level including educational strategies, group composition, physical environment, existing resources, diagnosis of the needs, formulation of the objectives and suitable teaching outline. Small group teaching increases the student interest, teamwork ability, retention of knowledge and skills, enhance transfer of concepts to innovative issues, and improve the self-directed learning. It develops self-motivation, investigating the issues, allows the student to test their thinking and higher-order activities. It also facilitates an adult style of learning, acceptance of personal responsibility for own progress. Moreover, it enhances student-faculty and peer-peer interaction, improves communication skills and provides opportunity to share the responsibility and clarify the points of bafflement.

Emotionalized learning experiences: Tapping into the affective domain.

PubMed

Green, Zane Asher; Batool, Sadia

2017-06-01

The experimental study was undertaken to examine the effect of emotionalized learning experiences on the academic achievement of students at Preston University. The major objectives of the study were to identify the effect of teaching methods on students' academic achievement and to evaluate the relationship between affective learning conditions and students' academic achievement. Based on four intact semesters, the population of the study comprised 140 students from the Bachelors of Business Administration Program. The whole population was considered as the sample. The control group (28 students) was taught through the interactive lecture method, whereas, the experimental group 1 (35 students), experimental group 2 (46 students) and experimental group 3 (31 students) were taught through the activity method, reflective learning method and cooperative learning method respectively. Results indicated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores obtained in the achievement test as a result of the effect of teaching methods used for offering the emotionalized learning experiences. There was also a significant relationship between affective leaning conditions and students' academic achievement. Furthermore, it was found that students' academic achievement in the affective domain was highest with regard to workshops 1, 2 and 3. It was concluded that the emotionalized learning experiences offered to the students via the four teaching methods helped students in enhancing their knowledge, changing their attitudes and developing their skills with regard to living a happy, healthy and meaningful life. However, the reflective learning method proved to be the most suitable followed by the interactive lecture method, the cooperative learning method and the activity method. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Objective structured practical examination in biochemistry: An experience in Medical College, Kolkata.

PubMed

Kundu, Dipankar; Das, H N; Sen, Gargi; Osta, Manish; Mandal, T; Gautam, Divyendu

2013-01-01

Undergraduate medical examination is undergoing extensive re evaluation with new core educational objectives being defined. Consequently, new exam systems have also been designed to test the objectives. Objective structured practical examination (OSPE) is one of them. To introduce OSPE as a method of assessment of practical skills and learning and to determine student satisfaction regarding the OSPE. Furthermore, to explore the faculty perception of OSPE as a learning and assessment tool. The first M.B.B.S students of 2011 12 batch of Medical College, Kolkata, were the subjects for the study. OSPE was organized and conducted on "Identification of Unknown Abnormal Constituents in Urine." Coefficient of reliability of questions administered was done by calculating Cronbach's alpha. A questionnaire on various components of the OSPE was administered to get the feedback. 16 students failed to achieve an average of 50% or above in the assessment. However, 49 students on an average achieved >75%, 52 students achieved between 65% and 75%, and 29 students scored between 50% and 65%. Cronbach's alpha of the questions administered showed to be having high internal consistency with a score of 0.80. Ninety nine percent of students believed that OSPE helps them to improve and 81% felt that this type of assessment fits in as both learning and evaluation tools. Faculty feedback reflected that such assessment tested objectivity, measured practical skills better, and eliminated examiner bias to a greater extent. OSPE tests different desired components of competence better and eliminated examiner bias. Student feedback reflects that such assessment helps them to improve as it is effective both as teaching and evaluation tools.

Progress and Challenges in Developing Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (TQRIS) in the Round 1 Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) States. NCEE 2018-4003

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirby, Gretchen; Caronongan, Pia; Esposito, Andrea Mraz; Murphy, Lauren; Shoji, Megan; Del Grosso, Patricia; Kiambuthi, Wamaitha; Clark, Melissa; Dragoset, Lisa

2017-01-01

This report focuses on the progress made and challenges faced by the nine states in achieving the first three objectives for which they were held accountable for use of their Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge (RTTELC) funds. It discusses discrete findings related to these objectives in relevant chapters of the report: Tiered Quality Rating…

Relationship between the learning style preferences of medical students and academic achievement

PubMed Central

Almigbal, Turky H.

2015-01-01

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between the learning style preferences of Saudi medical students and their academic achievements. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 600 medical students at King Saud University in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from October 2012 to July 2013. The Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic questionnaire (VARK) questionnaire was used to categorize learning style preferences. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used to identify the learning style preferences of medical students and their relationship to academic achievement, gender, marital status, residency, different teaching curricula, and study resources (for example, teachers’ PowerPoint slides, textbooks, and journals). Results: The results indicated that 261 students (43%) preferred to learn using all VARK modalities. There was a significant difference in learning style preferences between genders (p=0.028). The relationship between learning style preferences and students in different teaching curricula was also statistically significant (p=0.047). However, learning style preferences are not related to a student’s academic achievements, marital status, residency, or study resources (for example, teachers’ PowerPoint slides, textbooks, and journals). Also, after being adjusted to other studies’ variables, the learning style preferences were not related to GPA. Conclusion: Our findings can be used to improve the quality of teaching in Saudi Arabia; students would be advantaged if teachers understood the factors that can be related to students’ learning styles. PMID:25737179

Interactions between Teachers' Attribution for Student Learning and Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burchard, Melinda; Dormer, Jan; Fisler, Jennifer

2017-01-01

This study investigated interactions between evidence-based practices implemented and attributions of factors contributing to achievement of student learning objectives. Conducted in three school districts in a mid-Atlantic state, 78 teachers completed an end-of-year survey. Internal attributions were significantly correlated with implementation…

Constructivist Learning of Anatomy: Gaining Knowledge by Creating Anatomical Casts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hermiz, David J.; O'Sullivan, Daniel J.; Lujan, Heidi L.; DiCarlo, Stephen E.

2011-01-01

Educators are encouraged to provide inquiry-based, collaborative, and problem solving activities that enhance learning and promote curiosity, skepticism, objectivity, and the use of scientific reasoning. Making anatomical casts or models by injecting solidifying substances into organs is an example of a constructivist activity for achieving these…

Increasing Student Achievement through Brain-Based Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pociask, Amanda; Settles, Jeri

2007-01-01

The students targeted were third and fourth grade students with learning-disabilities and seventh-eighth grade science students who exhibited poor test scores, motivation, and behaviors that negatively impacted their learning. The objective of this study was to change the level of student engagement in order to increase their academic achievement…

Toward Objectivity in Diagnosing Learning Disabilities: Refinement of Established Procedures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Marvin; Mina, Elias

Variability in diagnostic procedures and a lack of valid and reliable measures led to the development of a comprehensive battery, which incorporated an operational definition of learning disabilities. The battery consisted of forms for observing these functions: intelligence, academic achievement, gross and fine motor control, visual perception,…

Universal Design for Learning: Curriculum, Technology, and Accessibility.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erlandson, Robert F.

This paper examines how teachers, as educational designers, can utilize universal design for learning (UDL) concepts. UDL is a comprehensive approach to the design of educational systems that addresses elements necessary for the achievement of desired educational goals and objectives: elements such as equity among the participants, environmental…

The Dynamic Interplay among EFL Learners' Ambiguity Tolerance, Adaptability, Cultural Intelligence, Learning Approach, and Language Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alahdadi, Shadi; Ghanizadeh, Afsaneh

2017-01-01

A key objective of education is to prepare individuals to be fully-functioning learners. This entails developing the cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, cultural, and emotional competencies. The present study aimed to examine the interrelationships among adaptability, tolerance of ambiguity, cultural intelligence, learning approach, and…

Learning Processes and Approaches: Examining Their Interrelationships to Understand Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chennamsetti, Prashanti

2008-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between two contrasting research paradigms, namely, cognitive and experiential research, a significant literature review previously unaddressed. To achieve this objective, a conceptual description of three theoretical frameworks, Dual-Store model, Levels of Processing (LOP; drawn from…

Asynchronous Discussion Board Facilitation and Rubric Use in a Blended Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giacumo, Lisa

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of instructor response prompts and rubrics on students' performance in an asynchronous discussion-board assignment, their learning achievement on an objective-type posttest, and their reported satisfaction levels. Researchers who have studied asynchronous computer-mediated student…

Relationships between Learning Disability, Executive Function, and Psychopathology in Children with ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattison, Richard E.; Mayes, Susan Dickerson

2012-01-01

Objective: Learning disabilities (LD), executive function (EF), and psychopathology were investigated to clarify their relationships in 595 children with ADHD. Method: Standard instruments for IQ, achievement, EF, and parent and teacher ratings of psychopathology were obtained at the time of outpatient evaluation. Results: Comparisons between the…

Digital Game-Based Learning: A Didactic Experience in the Pre-Degree Nursing Career.

PubMed

Solís de Ovando, A; Rodríguez, A; Hullin, C

2018-01-01

Nowadays we are faced with a society immersed in globalization and native technology, causing a great challenge in the university teaching staff. The gamification, as teaching-learning didactic methodology, gathers the characteristics that allow to motivate and achieve an active and significant learning. The objective of this work is to show the experience of the nursing career, which combines the learning based on games and the use of digital applications.

Convergence analysis of sliding mode trajectories in multi-objective neural networks learning.

PubMed

Costa, Marcelo Azevedo; Braga, Antonio Padua; de Menezes, Benjamin Rodrigues

2012-09-01

The Pareto-optimality concept is used in this paper in order to represent a constrained set of solutions that are able to trade-off the two main objective functions involved in neural networks supervised learning: data-set error and network complexity. The neural network is described as a dynamic system having error and complexity as its state variables and learning is presented as a process of controlling a learning trajectory in the resulting state space. In order to control the trajectories, sliding mode dynamics is imposed to the network. It is shown that arbitrary learning trajectories can be achieved by maintaining the sliding mode gains within their convergence intervals. Formal proofs of convergence conditions are therefore presented. The concept of trajectory learning presented in this paper goes further beyond the selection of a final state in the Pareto set, since it can be reached through different trajectories and states in the trajectory can be assessed individually against an additional objective function. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Health Behaviors Relate to Academic Performance via Affect: An Intensive Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

Flueckiger, Lavinia; Lieb, Roselind; Meyer, Andrea H.; Mata, Jutta

2014-01-01

Objective This intensive longitudinal study examined how sleep and physical activity relate to university students’ affect and academic performance during a stressful examination period. Methods On 32 consecutive days, 72 first-year students answered online questionnaires on their sleep quality, physical activity, positive and negative affect, learning goal achievement, and examination grades. First-year university students are particularly well-suited to test our hypotheses: They represent a relatively homogeneous population in a natural, but controlled setting, and simultaneously deal with similar stressors, such as examinations. Data were analyzed using multilevel structural equation models. Results Over the examination period, better average sleep quality but not physical activity predicted better learning goal achievement. Better learning goal achievement was associated with increased probability of passing all examinations. Relations of average sleep quality and average physical activity with learning goal achievement were mediated by experienced positive affect. In terms of day-to-day dynamics, on days with better sleep quality, participants reported better learning goal achievement. Day-to-day physical activity was not related to daily learning goal achievement. Daily positive and negative affect both mediated the effect of day-to-day sleep quality and physical activity on daily learning goal achievement. Conclusion Health behaviors such as sleep quality and physical activity seem important for both academic performance and affect experience, an indicator of mental health, during a stressful examination period. These results are a first step toward a better understanding of between- and within-person variations in health behaviors, affect, and academic performance, and could inform prevention and intervention programs for university students. PMID:25353638

A model of blended learning in a preclinical course in prosthetic dentistry.

PubMed

Reissmann, Daniel R; Sierwald, Ira; Berger, Florian; Heydecke, Guido

2015-02-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of blending learning that added online tools to traditional learning methods in a preclinical course in prosthetic dentistry at one dental school in Germany. The e-learning modules were comprised of three main components: fundamental principles, additional information, and learning objective tests. Video recordings of practical demonstrations were prepared and cut into sequences meant to achieve single learning goals. The films were accompanied by background information and, after digital processing, were made available online. Additionally, learning objective tests and learning contents were integrated. Evaluations of 71 of 89 students (response rate: 80%) in the course with the integrated e-learning content were available for the study. Compared with evaluation results of the previous years, a substantial and statistically significant increase in satisfaction with learning content (from 30% and 34% to 86%, p<0.001) and learning effect (from 65% and 63% to 83%, p<0.05) was observed. Satisfaction ratings stayed on a high level in three subsequent courses with the modules. Qualitative evaluation revealed mostly positive responses, with not a single negative comment regarding the blended learning concept. The results showed that the e-learning tool was appreciated by the students and suggest that learning objective tests can be successfully implemented in blended learning.

Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills.

PubMed

Rauschenbach, Ines; Keddis, Ramaydalis; Davis, Diane

2018-01-01

We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy.

Poster Development and Presentation to Improve Scientific Inquiry and Broaden Effective Scientific Communication Skills †

PubMed Central

Rauschenbach, Ines; Keddis, Ramaydalis; Davis, Diane

2018-01-01

We have redesigned a tried-and-true laboratory exercise into an inquiry-based team activity exploring microbial growth control, and implemented this activity as the basis for preparing a scientific poster in a large, multi-section laboratory course. Spanning most of the semester, this project culminates in a poster presentation of data generated from a student-designed experiment. Students use and apply the scientific method and improve written and verbal communication skills. The guided inquiry format of this exercise provides the opportunity for student collaboration through cooperative learning. For each learning objective, a percentage score was tabulated (learning objective score = points awarded/total possible points). A score of 80% was our benchmark for achieving each objective. At least 76% of the student groups participating in this project over two semesters achieved each learning goal. Student perceptions of the project were evaluated using a survey. Nearly 90% of participating students felt they had learned a great deal in the areas of formulating a hypothesis, experimental design, and collecting and analyzing data; 72% of students felt this project had improved their scientific writing skills. In a separate survey, 84% of students who responded felt that peer review was valuable in improving their final poster submission. We designed this inquiry-based poster project to improve student scientific communication skills. This exercise is appropriate for any microbiology laboratory course whose learning outcomes include the development of scientific inquiry and literacy. PMID:29904518

A Long-Term Experiment to Investigate the Relationships between High School Students' Perceptions of Mobile Learning and Peer Interaction and Higher-Order Thinking Tendencies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Gwo-Jen; Lai, Chiu-Lin; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Chu, Hui-Chun; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2018-01-01

In this study, a one-year program was conducted to investigate the relationships between students' perceptions of mobile learning and their tendencies of peer interaction and higher-order thinking in issue-based mobile learning activities. To achieve the research objective, a survey consisting of eight scales, namely, usability, continuity,…

Large-scale weakly supervised object localization via latent category learning.

PubMed

Chong Wang; Kaiqi Huang; Weiqiang Ren; Junge Zhang; Maybank, Steve

2015-04-01

Localizing objects in cluttered backgrounds is challenging under large-scale weakly supervised conditions. Due to the cluttered image condition, objects usually have large ambiguity with backgrounds. Besides, there is also a lack of effective algorithm for large-scale weakly supervised localization in cluttered backgrounds. However, backgrounds contain useful latent information, e.g., the sky in the aeroplane class. If this latent information can be learned, object-background ambiguity can be largely reduced and background can be suppressed effectively. In this paper, we propose the latent category learning (LCL) in large-scale cluttered conditions. LCL is an unsupervised learning method which requires only image-level class labels. First, we use the latent semantic analysis with semantic object representation to learn the latent categories, which represent objects, object parts or backgrounds. Second, to determine which category contains the target object, we propose a category selection strategy by evaluating each category's discrimination. Finally, we propose the online LCL for use in large-scale conditions. Evaluation on the challenging PASCAL Visual Object Class (VOC) 2007 and the large-scale imagenet large-scale visual recognition challenge 2013 detection data sets shows that the method can improve the annotation precision by 10% over previous methods. More importantly, we achieve the detection precision which outperforms previous results by a large margin and can be competitive to the supervised deformable part model 5.0 baseline on both data sets.

Visual object tracking by correlation filters and online learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xin; Xia, Gui-Song; Lu, Qikai; Shen, Weiming; Zhang, Liangpei

2018-06-01

Due to the complexity of background scenarios and the variation of target appearance, it is difficult to achieve high accuracy and fast speed for object tracking. Currently, correlation filters based trackers (CFTs) show promising performance in object tracking. The CFTs estimate the target's position by correlation filters with different kinds of features. However, most of CFTs can hardly re-detect the target in the case of long-term tracking drifts. In this paper, a feature integration object tracker named correlation filters and online learning (CFOL) is proposed. CFOL estimates the target's position and its corresponding correlation score using the same discriminative correlation filter with multi-features. To reduce tracking drifts, a new sampling and updating strategy for online learning is proposed. Experiments conducted on 51 image sequences demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is superior to the state-of-the-art approaches.

Space Object Classification Using Fused Features of Time Series Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jia, B.; Pham, K. D.; Blasch, E.; Shen, D.; Wang, Z.; Chen, G.

In this paper, a fused feature vector consisting of raw time series and texture feature information is proposed for space object classification. The time series data includes historical orbit trajectories and asteroid light curves. The texture feature is derived from recurrence plots using Gabor filters for both unsupervised learning and supervised learning algorithms. The simulation results show that the classification algorithms using the fused feature vector achieve better performance than those using raw time series or texture features only.

Nursing students' assessment of the learning environment in different clinical settings.

PubMed

Bisholt, Birgitta; Ohlsson, Ulla; Engström, Agneta Kullén; Johansson, Annelie Sundler; Gustafsson, Margareta

2014-05-01

Nursing students perform their clinical practice in different types of clinical settings. The clinical learning environment is important for students to be able to achieve desired learning outcomes. Knowledge is lacking about the learning environment in different clinical settings. The aim was to compare the learning environment in different clinical settings from the perspective of the nursing students. A cross-sectional study with comparative design was conducted. Data was collected from 185 nursing students at three universities by means of a questionnaire involving the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES + T) evaluation scale. An open-ended question was added in order to ascertain reasons for dissatisfaction with the clinical placement. The nursing students' satisfaction with the placement did not differ between clinical settings. However, those with clinical placement in hospital departments agreed more strongly that sufficient meaningful learning situations occurred and that learning situations were multi-dimensional. Some students reported that the character of the clinical setting made it difficult to achieve the learning objectives. In the planning of the clinical placement, attention must be paid to whether the setting offers the student a meaningful learning situation where the appropriate learning outcome may be achieved. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The competency of internists in holistic global care to support healthy Indonesia 2010.

PubMed

Rudijanto, Achmad

2006-01-01

All patients are entitled to good standards of practice and care from their doctors. The improved health of all peoples is the main goal of medical education, including for the education of internal medicine registrars. The future development of the direction and goal of education, the level of competence of internal medicine specialists, and the process of learning will be related to preparing the internal medicine specialist to have global competitive advantage. Identification of general competencies is the first step in a long-term effort designed to emphasize educational outcome, for assessment in residency programs, and in the accreditation process. To achieve that competence, a variety of learning opportunities need to be provided in order that the resident can achieve the necessary knowledge, skills, attitude, and behaviors. Identification of the role and function of internal medicine specialists is needed prior to the development of the general competencies. As educational objectives, the competencies fall into two main categories: knowledge-based and performance-based. Knowledge-based competency has two components, medical knowledge (bio-science and clinical medicine) and contextual knowledge (epidemiology, health service organization, and human behavior). The performance base has two components, intellectual skills and the interpersonal skills. Besides the two main categories of educational objectives, there are behavioral objectives that residents must achieve through the educational program, to ensure that residents are able to deal with a range of prescribed clinical situations effectively, safely, humanely, and economically. The achievement of behavioral objectives will ensure, at least in part, that the doctor will implement good medical practice. The index clinical/community situations (ICS) on which the educational objectives will be based are taken from diseases and illnesses that occur in clinical and community settings. No resident can master all medicine there is to know, as there are no limits to what can be known about medicine. It is important to make choices in selecting what residents should learn by analyzing the ICS.

The effect of retesting on end-of-semester performance in high school chemistry at three levels of previous science achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deboer, George E.

To determine the effect of retesting on student learning in chemistry, three questions were addressed by means of a 3 × 2 (achievement level X treatment) factorial design: (1) Does retesting affect differently the end-of-semester mastery of course objectives of students who are grouped according to their previous achievement in science? (2) Do students who are given an opportunity to take retests merely delay their studying and perform at a lower level on initial tests than nonretested students? (3) Is the procrastination of retested students (if it exists) affected by their achievement level? The results showed that for one of four units low ability students who were retested demonstrated greater learning gains than low ability students who were not retested, and that procrastination, if it was present, did not have significant effects on student learning at any achievement level. Results were discussed in terms of the students' room for improvement, motivation to improve, and ability to improve.

From brain synapses to systems for learning and memory: Object recognition, spatial navigation, timed conditioning, and movement control.

PubMed

Grossberg, Stephen

2015-09-24

This article provides an overview of neural models of synaptic learning and memory whose expression in adaptive behavior depends critically on the circuits and systems in which the synapses are embedded. It reviews Adaptive Resonance Theory, or ART, models that use excitatory matching and match-based learning to achieve fast category learning and whose learned memories are dynamically stabilized by top-down expectations, attentional focusing, and memory search. ART clarifies mechanistic relationships between consciousness, learning, expectation, attention, resonance, and synchrony. ART models are embedded in ARTSCAN architectures that unify processes of invariant object category learning, recognition, spatial and object attention, predictive remapping, and eye movement search, and that clarify how conscious object vision and recognition may fail during perceptual crowding and parietal neglect. The generality of learned categories depends upon a vigilance process that is regulated by acetylcholine via the nucleus basalis. Vigilance can get stuck at too high or too low values, thereby causing learning problems in autism and medial temporal amnesia. Similar synaptic learning laws support qualitatively different behaviors: Invariant object category learning in the inferotemporal cortex; learning of grid cells and place cells in the entorhinal and hippocampal cortices during spatial navigation; and learning of time cells in the entorhinal-hippocampal system during adaptively timed conditioning, including trace conditioning. Spatial and temporal processes through the medial and lateral entorhinal-hippocampal system seem to be carried out with homologous circuit designs. Variations of a shared laminar neocortical circuit design have modeled 3D vision, speech perception, and cognitive working memory and learning. A complementary kind of inhibitory matching and mismatch learning controls movement. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Brain and Memory. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of learning objectives for neurology in a veterinary curriculum: part I: undergraduates.

PubMed

Lin, Yu-Wei; Volk, Holger A; Penderis, Jacques; Tipold, Andrea; Ehlers, Jan P

2015-01-13

With an increasing caseload of veterinary neurology patients in first opinion practice, there is a requirement to establish relevant learning objectives for veterinary neurology encompassing knowledge, skills and attitudes for veterinary undergraduate students in Europe. With help of experts in veterinary neurology from the European College of Veterinary Neurology (ECVN) and the European Society of Veterinary Neurology (ESVN) a survey of veterinary neurologic learning objectives using a modified Delphi method was conducted. The first phase comprised the development of a draft job description and learning objectives by a working group established by the ECVN. In the second phase, a quantitative questionnaire (multiple choice, Likert scale and free text) covering 140 learning objectives and subdivided into 8 categories was sent to 341 ESVN and ECVN members and a return rate of 62% (n = 213/341) was achieved. Of these 140 learning objectives ECVN Diplomates and ESVN members considered 42 (30%) objectives as not necessary for standard clinical veterinary neurology training, 94 (67%) were graded to be learned at a beginner level and 4 (3%) at an advanced level. The following objectives were interpreted as the most important day one skills: interpret laboratory tests, perform a neurological examination and establish a neuroanatomical localization. In this survey the three most important diseases of the central nervous system included epilepsy, intervertebral disc disease and inflammatory diseases. The three most important diseases of the peripheral nervous system included polyradiculoneuritis, myasthenia gravis and toxic neuropathies. The results of this study should help to reform the veterinary curriculum regarding neurology and may reduce the phenomenon of "Neurophobia".

Effects of Instructional Design with Mental Model Analysis on Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hong, Eunsook

This paper presents a model for systematic instructional design that includes mental model analysis together with the procedures used in developing computer-based instructional materials in the area of statistical hypothesis testing. The instructional design model is based on the premise that the objective for learning is to achieve expert-like…

The Feasibility of E-Learning Implementation in an Iranian University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mirzamohammadi, M. H.

2017-01-01

The present research aimed to investigate the feasibility of e-learning implementation in an Iranian comprehensive university (included medical and non-medical fields) to provide appropriate solutions in this regard. To achieve this objective, seven research questions were formed. Surveying method was applied for data collection in this study.…

Longitudinal Models of Reading Achievement of Students with Learning Disabilities and without Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Amanda L.; Kohli, Nidhi; Farnsworth, Elyse M.; Sadeh, Shanna; Jones, Leila

2017-01-01

Objective: Accurate estimation of developmental trajectories can inform instruction and intervention. We compared the fit of linear, quadratic, and piecewise mixed-effects models of reading development among students with learning disabilities relative to their typically developing peers. Method: We drew an analytic sample of 1,990 students from…

EVALUATION OF 1966 EOA SECONDARY SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM. RESEARCH REPORT.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

GODON, ROLF M.

PRESENTED IS AN EVALUATION OF A 6-WEEK SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM FOR 502 DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS ENTERING JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE FALL OF 1966. PROGRAM GOALS WERE TO RAISE ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS, REDUCE SUMMER LEARNING LOSSES, ENCOURAGE ASPIRATION AND MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING, AND PROVIDE ENRICHMENT. THESE OBJECTIVES WERE IMPLEMENTED BY INTENSIVE…

How Cognitive Requirement of Prompt and Time in Course Are Correlated with Intersubjectivity within Threaded Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Barbara M.

2011-01-01

Threaded discussions represent conversational turn-taking in asynchronous, online learning environments. Given the crucial role that discussions play in the construction of knowledge within an online course, the quality of the interaction that occurs within threaded discussions is important to achieving the learning objectives of the designed…

Identity as a Nexus of Affect and Discourse in Mathematical Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heyd-Metzuyanim, Einhat

2017-01-01

This theoretical paper suggests identity as a nexus of research on affect and discourse in mathematical learning. It broadens Sfard and Prusak's (2005) discursive definition of identity by building on an analytical framework that examines positioning of students at three levels: the objects described, the interactions achieved, and the alignment…

Learning to Look for Language: Development of Joint Attention in Young Deaf Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lieberman, Amy M.; Hatrak, Marla; Mayberry, Rachel I.

2014-01-01

Joint attention between hearing children and their caregivers is typically achieved when the adult provides spoken, auditory linguistic input that relates to the child's current visual focus of attention. Deaf children interacting through sign language must learn to continually switch visual attention between people and objects in order to achieve…

Human Resource Building--An Approach to Service Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rajan, Sonika

2009-01-01

Background: Isabella Thoburn College at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India has initiated Service Learning Program for its students through 4 issue based centers. One of the centers AIDS Awareness Center for Counseling, Education, and Training (AACCET) is in the field of HIV/AIDS. It follows 6 pronged approach to achieve its objectives and one of the…

Adopting a Design-Thinking Multidisciplinary Learning Approach: Integrating Mobile Applications into a Marketing Research Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zarzosa, Jennifer

2018-01-01

This article seeks to address the gap between marketing education and marketing practice by integrating a design-thinking (DT) methodology to the marketing research (MR) framework to achieve learning objectives that will enhance cross-functional, collaborative, conceptual, and technical skills. The mobile application marketing research project…

Effects of Objectives, Practice, and Review in Multimedia Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Florence; Klein, James

2008-01-01

This study examined the effects of instructional elements (objectives, information, practice with feedback, and review) on achievement, attitude, and time in a computer-based, multimedia program. Undergraduate college students used the multimedia lesson to learn about artists and their painting styles. Results indicated that practice had a…

Assessment of Student Academic Achievement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neosho County Community Coll., Chanute, KS.

Neosho Community College (NCC) in Kansas developed an assessment program to measure changes in student learning and progress in courses and programs. The specific objectives of student assessment at NCC are to determine readiness for regular college courses; to determine proper placement; to assist students in meeting personal objectives; and to…

Study on the Implementation of Interaction Teaching Mode in Distance Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Chunyu; Xu, Zhenhui

2015-01-01

By analyzing the learning characteristics of learners and the features of interactive teaching in distance education, this paper proposes the curriculum implementation subject of network education, namely objects multi-directional interaction teaching mode, so as to improve teaching effectiveness and achieve teaching objectives to ensure the…

Development of probabilistic thinking-oriented learning tools for probability materials at junior high school students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sari, Dwi Ivayana; Hermanto, Didik

2017-08-01

This research is a developmental research of probabilistic thinking-oriented learning tools for probability materials at ninth grade students. This study is aimed to produce a good probabilistic thinking-oriented learning tools. The subjects were IX-A students of MTs Model Bangkalan. The stages of this development research used 4-D development model which has been modified into define, design and develop. Teaching learning tools consist of lesson plan, students' worksheet, learning teaching media and students' achievement test. The research instrument used was a sheet of learning tools validation, a sheet of teachers' activities, a sheet of students' activities, students' response questionnaire and students' achievement test. The result of those instruments were analyzed descriptively to answer research objectives. The result was teaching learning tools in which oriented to probabilistic thinking of probability at ninth grade students which has been valid. Since teaching and learning tools have been revised based on validation, and after experiment in class produced that teachers' ability in managing class was effective, students' activities were good, students' responses to the learning tools were positive and the validity, sensitivity and reliability category toward achievement test. In summary, this teaching learning tools can be used by teacher to teach probability for develop students' probabilistic thinking.

Comparisons between students' learning achievements of their conventional instruction and the science, technology and social conceptual instructional design on digestion system issue of secondary students at the 10th grade level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wichalek, Supattra; Chayaburakul, Kanokporn; Santiboon, Toansakul

2018-01-01

The purposes of this action research study were 1) to develop learning activities according to the instructional designing model of science, technology, and social (STS) on Digestion Issue, 2) to compare students' learning achievements between their learning activities with the conventional instructional (CIM) and conceptual instructional designing methods of science, technology, and social (STS) on digestion system of secondary students at the 10th grade level with a sample size of 35 experimental student group of their STS learning method, and 91 controlling group in two classes in the first semester in academic year 2016. Using the 4-Instructional Innovative Lesson Plans, the Students' Learning Behaviour Observing Form, the Questionnaire on Teacher Behaviour Interaction (QTBI), the Researcher's Recording Form, the Learning Activity Form, and the Parallel Learning Achievement Test (LAT) were assessed. The results of this research have found that; the Index of Item Objective Congruence (IOC) value ranged from 0.67 to 1.00; the difficulty values were 0.47 and 0.79 for the CIM and STS methods, respectively, the discriminative validity for the LAT was ranged from 0.20 to 0.75. The reliability of the QTBI was 0.79. Students' responses of their learning achievements with the average means scores indicted of the normalized gain values of 0.79 for the STS group, and 0.50 and 0.36 for the CIM groups, respectively. Students' learning achievements of their post-test indicated that of a higher than pre-test, the pre-test and post-test assessments were also differentiated evidence at the 0.05 levels for the STS and CIM groups, significantly. The 22-students' learning outcomes from the STS group evidences at a high level, only of the 9-students' responses in a moderate level were developed of their learning achievements, responsibility.

Characterizing Student Perceptions of and Buy-In toward Common Formative Assessment Techniques

PubMed Central

Brazeal, Kathleen R.; Brown, Tanya L.; Couch, Brian A.

2016-01-01

Formative assessments (FAs) can occur as preclass assignments, in-class activities, or postclass homework. FAs aim to promote student learning by accomplishing key objectives, including clarifying learning expectations, revealing student thinking to the instructor, providing feedback to the student that promotes learning, facilitating peer interactions, and activating student ownership of learning. While FAs have gained prominence within the education community, we have limited knowledge regarding student perceptions of these activities. We used a mixed-methods approach to determine whether students recognize and value the role of FAs in their learning and how students perceive course activities to align with five key FA objectives. To address these questions, we administered a midsemester survey in seven introductory biology course sections that were using multiple FA techniques. Overall, responses to both open-ended and closed-ended questions revealed that the majority of students held positive perceptions of FAs and perceived FAs to facilitate their learning in a variety of ways. Students consistently considered FA activities to have accomplished particular objectives, but there was greater variation among FAs in how students perceived the achievement of other objectives. We further discuss potential sources of student resistance and implications of these results for instructor practice. PMID:27909023

Action-Driven Visual Object Tracking With Deep Reinforcement Learning.

PubMed

Yun, Sangdoo; Choi, Jongwon; Yoo, Youngjoon; Yun, Kimin; Choi, Jin Young

2018-06-01

In this paper, we propose an efficient visual tracker, which directly captures a bounding box containing the target object in a video by means of sequential actions learned using deep neural networks. The proposed deep neural network to control tracking actions is pretrained using various training video sequences and fine-tuned during actual tracking for online adaptation to a change of target and background. The pretraining is done by utilizing deep reinforcement learning (RL) as well as supervised learning. The use of RL enables even partially labeled data to be successfully utilized for semisupervised learning. Through the evaluation of the object tracking benchmark data set, the proposed tracker is validated to achieve a competitive performance at three times the speed of existing deep network-based trackers. The fast version of the proposed method, which operates in real time on graphics processing unit, outperforms the state-of-the-art real-time trackers with an accuracy improvement of more than 8%.

The use of concrete learning objects taken from the history of mathematics in mathematics education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bütüner, Suphi Önder

2016-11-01

This study aimed to reveal the effects of teaching with concrete learning objects taken from the history of mathematics on student achievement. Being a quasi-experimental study, it was conducted with two grade 8 classes in a secondary school located in Trabzon. The experimental group consisted of 27 students and the control group consisted of 25. Data were collected by using worksheets, an achievement exam and written opinion forms. The data from the achievement exam were analysed by using the Mann-Whitney U-test while the data from written opinion forms were analysed through content analysis. The Mann-Whitney U-test results showed a significant difference between the mean ranks of the experimental and control groups in favour of the former. Findings from the written opinion forms suggested that the students found the activities to be instructive and fun, enjoyed using concrete models in their classes, and learned from discovering the rules. It was also found that students had previously not engaged in similar activities and had only experienced the history of mathematics through the life stories and works of mathematicians and the representation of ancient numbers at the beginning of each unit.

Pathways to Results: Project Profile Compendium

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Office of Community College Research and Leadership, 2011

2011-01-01

Finding the best ways for students to learn and achieve success is of paramount importance to the state and the nation. More than ever before, college and career readiness is critical to the nation's economy, with college completion being an integral objective to achieving this goal. Illinois is committed to the Common Core State Standards,…

Assessment through Achievement Systems: A Framework for Educational Game Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Monica; Jennings, Erin; Andreen, Michael

2011-01-01

Educational games have great potential as tools for motivating and engaging students, in addition to teaching learning content and objectives, but have had difficulty proving their potential through traditional means. This article proposes that recent advances in the achievement systems of entertainment games can be used to measure motivation and…

The Effects of the "Groups of Four" Program on Student Achievement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Lizbeth Champagne

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the "Groups of Four" program, examining the impact of the cooperative learning strategy on students' achievement in mathematical problem solving. Effects of three specific independent variables in the program were examined in terms of gender, group assignment, and ability,…

Student Team Achievement Divisions: Its Effect on Electrical Motor Installation Knowledge Competence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanafi, Ahmad; Basuki, Ismet

2018-04-01

Student team achievement division (STAD) was an active learning strategy with the small group inside of the classroom members. The students would work in small heterogeneous groups (of five to six members) and help one another to comprehend the material given. To achieve the objectives of the study, this research aims to know the effect of STAD on competence of electrical motor installation. The objective of the student competence was knowledge competence. The data was collected from 30 students. the participants were the students of second class at electrical installation techniques, SMKN 1 Pungging Indonesia. The design of empirical test in this research was one shot case study. The result of knowledge test would be compared by criteria for minimum competence, which was 75. Knowledge competence was analyzed with one sample t test technique. From the analysis got average 84.93, which meant average of student competence had reached criteria for minimum competence. From that analyze, It could be concluded that STAD was effective on electrical motor installation knowledge competence. STAD could grow student motivation to learn better than other models. But, in the application of cooperative learning teacher should prepare carefully before the learning process to avoid problems that could arise during group learning such as students who were less active in the groups. The problem could be resolved by away the teachers took around to check each group. It was felt could minimize the problems.

Using a binaural biomimetic array to identify bottom objects ensonified by echolocating dolphins

USGS Publications Warehouse

Heiweg, D.A.; Moore, P.W.; Martin, S.W.; Dankiewicz, L.A.

2006-01-01

The development of a unique dolphin biomimetic sonar produced data that were used to study signal processing methods for object identification. Echoes from four metallic objects proud on the bottom, and a substrate-only condition, were generated by bottlenose dolphins trained to ensonify the targets in very shallow water. Using the two-element ('binaural') receive array, object echo spectra were collected and submitted for identification to four neural network architectures. Identification accuracy was evaluated over two receive array configurations, and five signal processing schemes. The four neural networks included backpropagation, learning vector quantization, genetic learning and probabilistic network architectures. The processing schemes included four methods that capitalized on the binaural data, plus a monaural benchmark process. All the schemes resulted in above-chance identification accuracy when applied to learning vector quantization and backpropagation. Beam-forming or concatenation of spectra from both receive elements outperformed the monaural benchmark, with higher sensitivity and lower bias. Ultimately, best object identification performance was achieved by the learning vector quantization network supplied with beam-formed data. The advantages of multi-element signal processing for object identification are clearly demonstrated in this development of a first-ever dolphin biomimetic sonar. ?? 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.

A real-time standard parts inspection based on deep learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Kuan; Li, XuDong; Jiang, Hongzhi; Zhao, Huijie

2017-10-01

Since standard parts are necessary components in mechanical structure like bogie and connector. These mechanical structures will be shattered or loosen if standard parts are lost. So real-time standard parts inspection systems are essential to guarantee their safety. Researchers would like to take inspection systems based on deep learning because it works well in image with complex backgrounds which is common in standard parts inspection situation. A typical inspection detection system contains two basic components: feature extractors and object classifiers. For the object classifier, Region Proposal Network (RPN) is one of the most essential architectures in most state-of-art object detection systems. However, in the basic RPN architecture, the proposals of Region of Interest (ROI) have fixed sizes (9 anchors for each pixel), they are effective but they waste much computing resources and time. In standard parts detection situations, standard parts have given size, thus we can manually choose sizes of anchors based on the ground-truths through machine learning. The experiments prove that we could use 2 anchors to achieve almost the same accuracy and recall rate. Basically, our standard parts detection system could reach 15fps on NVIDIA GTX1080 (GPU), while achieving detection accuracy 90.01% mAP.

Self-regulated learning strategies used in surgical clerkship and the relationship with clinical achievement.

PubMed

Turan, Sevgi; Konan, Ali

2012-01-01

Self-regulated learning indicates students' skills in controlling their own learning. Self-regulated learning, which a context-specific process, emphasizes autonomy and control. Students gain more autonomy with respect to learning in the clinical years. Examining the self-regulated learning skills of students in this period will provide important clues about the level at which students are ready to use these skills in real-life conditions. The self-regulated learning strategies used by medical students in surgical clerkship were investigated in this study and their relation with clinical achievement was analyzed. The study was conducted during the surgery clerkship of medical students. The participation rate was 94% (309 students). Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), a case-based examination, Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), and tutor evaluations for assessing achievement were used. The relationship between the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire scores of the students and clinical achievement was analyzed with multilinear regression analysis. The findings showed that students use self-regulated learning skills at medium levels during their surgery clerkship. A relationship between these skills and OSCE scores and tutor evaluations was determined. OSCE scores of the students were observed to increase in conjunction with increased self-efficacy levels. However, as students' beliefs regarding control over learning increased, OSCE scores decreased. No significant relationship was defined between self-regulated learning skills and case-based examination scores. We observed that a greater self-efficacy for learning resulted in higher OSCE scores. Conversely, students who believe that learning is a result of their own effort had lower OSCE scores. Copyright © 2012 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The relationship between gross motor skills and academic achievement in children with learning disabilities.

PubMed

Westendorp, Marieke; Hartman, Esther; Houwen, Suzanne; Smith, Joanne; Visscher, Chris

2011-01-01

The present study compared the gross motor skills of 7- to 12-year-old children with learning disabilities (n = 104) with those of age-matched typically developing children (n = 104) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. Additionally, the specific relationships between subsets of gross motor skills and academic performance in reading, spelling, and mathematics were examined in children with learning disabilities. As expected, the children with learning disabilities scored poorer on both the locomotor and object-control subtests than their typically developing peers. Furthermore, in children with learning disabilities a specific relationship was observed between reading and locomotor skills and a trend was found for a relationship between mathematics and object-control skills: the larger children's learning lag, the poorer their motor skill scores. This study stresses the importance of specific interventions facilitating both motor and academic abilities. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hands-On Surgical Training Workshop: an Active Role-Playing Patient Education for Adolescents.

PubMed

Wongkietkachorn, Apinut; Boonyawong, Pangpoom; Rhunsiri, Peera; Tantiphlachiva, Kasaya

2017-09-01

Most patient education involves passive learning. To improve patient education regarding surgery, an active learning workshop-based teaching method is proposed. The objective of this study was to assess level of patient surgical knowledge, achievement of workshop learning objectives, patient apprehension about future surgery, and participant workshop satisfaction after completing a surgical training workshop. A four-station workshop (surgical scrub, surgical suture, laparoscopic surgery, and robotic surgery) was developed to teach four important components of the surgical process. Healthy, surgery-naive adolescents were enrolled to attend this 1-h workshop-based training program. Training received by participants was technically and procedurally identical to training received by actual surgeons. Pre- and post-workshop questionnaires were used to assess learning outcomes. There were 1312 participants, with a mean age 15.9 ± 1.1 years and a gender breakdown of 303 males and 1009 females. For surgical knowledge, mean pre-workshop and post-workshop scores were 6.1 ± 1.5 and 7.5 ± 1.5 (out of 10 points), respectively (p < 0.001). Out of 5 possible points, achievement of learning objectives, decreased apprehension about future surgery, and overall workshop satisfaction scores were all higher than 4.5. Active, hands-on patient education is an effective way to improve understanding of surgery-related processes. This teaching method may also decrease apprehension that patients or potential patients harbor regarding a future surgical procedure.

Moving towards Inclusive Learning and Teaching: A Synthesis of Recent Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawrie, Gwen; Marquis, Elizabeth; Fuller, Eddie; Newman, Tara; Qiu, Mei; Nomikoudis, Milton; Roelofs, Frits; van Dam, Lianne

2017-01-01

The need for inclusive and equitable approaches to teaching and learning is a persistent theme in recent literature. In spite of relatively widespread agreement about this objective, inclusion remains elusive, and opinions about how best to achieve it proliferate. To provide a landscape view of the field and offer recommendations for research and…

Using Blogs to Enhance Student Engagement and Learning in the Health Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zinger, Lana; Sinclair, Alicia

2013-01-01

Teaching in a diverse, urban community college, it has become apparent that students spend most of their free (and classroom) time participating in social media. In response, we decided to incorporate social media, blogs specifically, as a way to increase student engagement, retention and achievement. The learning objective was for our students to…

A Guide to Using Student Learning Objectives as a Locally-Determined Measure of Student Growth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio Department of Education, 2012

2012-01-01

Over the past decade, Ohio has made important education policy advances, with a focus on student learning and achievement, standards, and accountability. Ohio is serious about its commitment to quality schools and honors this commitment by providing Local Education Agencies (LEAs) a research-based, transparent, fair teacher evaluation system…

Using Student e-Portfolios to Facilitate Learning Objective Achievements in an Outcome-Based University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tubaishat, Abdallah; Lansari, Azzedine

2013-01-01

Several researchers define e-portfolios as a digital collection of students' work accomplished throughout their time of studies in an academic program (Buzzetto-More, 2006; Love, McKean and Gathercoal, 2004; Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, 1991; Siemens, 2004). E-portfolios can be a rich resource for students and faculty. Students learn to identify…

Learning Anatomy via Mobile Augmented Reality: Effects on Achievement and Cognitive Load

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Küçük, Sevda; Kapakin, Samet; Göktas, Yüksel

2016-01-01

Augmented reality (AR), a new generation of technology, has attracted the attention of educators in recent years. In this study, a MagicBook was developed for a neuroanatomy topic by using mobile augmented reality (mAR) technology. This technology integrates virtual learning objects into the real world and allow users to interact with the…

Learning Auditory Discrimination with Computer-Assisted Instruction: A Comparison of Two Different Performance Objectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steinhaus, Kurt A.

A 12-week study of two groups of 14 college freshmen music majors was conducted to determine which group demonstrated greater achievement in learning auditory discrimination using computer-assisted instruction (CAI). The method employed was a pre-/post-test experimental design using subjects randomly assigned to a control group or an experimental…

Quality of Teaching and Learning in Resource Quandary: The Case of a University in Zimbabwe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chidindi, Joseph

2012-01-01

Zimbabwe faced severe economic challenges that impacted on resource accumulation leading to a decline of quality of teaching and learning in a selected university in Zimbabwe yet the Resource Dependence Theory advocates that organizations are dependent on the environment for resources for survival and achievement of their set objectives. The study…

Academic Performance in ADHD when Controlled for Comorbid Learning Disorders, Family Income, and Parental Education in Brazil

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carmine Pastura, Giuseppe Mario; Mattos, Paulo; Campos Araujo, Alexandra Prufer de Queiroz

2009-01-01

Objective: Scholastic achievement in a nonclinical sample of ADHD children and adolescents was evaluated taking into consideration variables such as comorbid learning disorders, family income, and parental education which may also be associated with poor academic performance. Method: After screening for ADHD in 396 students, the authors compared…

Effective Assessments of Integrated Animations--Exploring Dynamic Physics Instruction for College Students' Learning and Attitudes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Su, King-Dow; Yeh, Shih-Chuan

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to give effective assessments of three major physics animations to upgrade college students' learning achievements and attitudes. All college participants were taken from mechanical and civil engineering departments who joined this physics course during the 2011 academic year. Three prime objectives of physics…

Extended Worksheet Developed According to 5E Model Based on Constructivist Learning Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Töman, Ufuk; Akdeniz, Ali Riza; Odabasi Çimer, Sabiha; Gürbüz, Fatih

2013-01-01

In order to achieve the targeted objectives desired level of education and modern learning theories for learner centered methods are recommended. In this context the use of worksheets developed and that student participation is considered to be one of the methods. This research is one of the ethyl alcohol fermentation biology issues and prepare…

Curriculum development for a national cardiotocography education program: a Delphi survey to obtain consensus on learning objectives.

PubMed

Thellesen, Line; Hedegaard, Morten; Bergholt, Thomas; Colov, Nina P; Hoegh, Stinne; Sorensen, Jette L

2015-08-01

To define learning objectives for a national cardiotocography (CTG) education program based on expert consensus. A three-round Delphi survey. One midwife and one obstetrician from each maternity unit in Denmark were appointed based on CTG teaching experience and clinical obstetric experience. Following national and international guidelines, the research group determined six topics as important when using CTG: fetal physiology, equipment, indication, interpretation, clinical management, and communication/responsibility. In the first Delphi round, participants listed one to five learning objectives within the predefined topics. Responses were analyzed by a directed approach to content analysis. Phrasing was modified in accordance with Bloom's taxonomy. In the second and third Delphi rounds, participants rated each objective on a five-point relevance scale. Consensus was predefined as objectives with a mean rating value of ≥ 3. A prioritized list of CTG learning objectives. A total of 42 midwives and obstetricians from 21 maternity units were invited to participate, of whom 26 completed all three Delphi rounds, representing 18 maternity units. The final prioritized list included 40 objectives. The highest ranked objectives emphasized CTG interpretation and clinical management. The lowest ranked objectives emphasized fetal physiology. Mean ratings of relevance ranged from 3.15 to 5.00. National consensus on CTG learning objectives was achieved using the Delphi methodology. This was an initial step in developing a valid CTG education program. A prioritized list of objectives will clarify which topics to emphasize in a CTG education program. © 2015 Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

U.S. dental hygiene faculty perceptions of learner outcomes in distance education courses.

PubMed

Corum, Kathrine A; Gadbury-Amyot, Cynthia C; Johnson, Kerry; Strait, Tia M

2014-04-01

The purpose of this study was to determine perceptions of full-time, entry-level dental hygiene educators regarding the ability to achieve interaction in their distance education courses and the impact of interaction on learning outcomes. The specific interactions explored were student-instructor, student-content, and student-student. A survey was developed, pilot tested, revised, and mailed to 287 educators across the United States, generating an overall response rate of 22.3 percent. The majority of respondents perceived interaction to be achievable in their distance courses, to increase through technology, and to positively influence learning outcomes. Nearly 90 percent reported student-instructor interaction as achievable, 95.3 percent reported student-content interaction as achievable, and 79.7 percent reported student-student interaction as achievable. Learning outcomes were defined in this study as the student's achievement of course objectives and competencies at course completion. Approximately 81 percent of the respondents reported a positive influence from student-instructor interaction, 79.7 percent from student-content interaction, and 70.3 percent from student-student interaction. This study also examined which modalities were perceived as being most influential in achieving interaction. The results demonstrated a prevalence of discussion board posting in an environment in which numerous Web 2.0 tools are available and respondents were not as positive about their ability to achieve student-student interaction in the distance learning environment. The authors conclude that faculty development is critical in achieving quality outcomes in dental hygiene distance education courses.

The Initial Development of Object Knowledge by a Learning Robot

PubMed Central

Modayil, Joseph; Kuipers, Benjamin

2008-01-01

We describe how a robot can develop knowledge of the objects in its environment directly from unsupervised sensorimotor experience. The object knowledge consists of multiple integrated representations: trackers that form spatio-temporal clusters of sensory experience, percepts that represent properties for the tracked objects, classes that support efficient generalization from past experience, and actions that reliably change object percepts. We evaluate how well this intrinsically acquired object knowledge can be used to solve externally specified tasks including object recognition and achieving goals that require both planning and continuous control. PMID:19953188

Academic Program Life Cycle: A Redefined Approach to Understanding Market Demands

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mukerji, Siran; Tripathi, Purnendu

2004-01-01

Education can develop intellectual capability in people, which may in turn lead toward development of a more humane society. Open and distance learning (ODL) has provided one means of achieving social objectives democratically. In India significant success has been achieved through a network of 10 open universities and 104 institutes of open and…

Instructional Methods and Students' End of Term Achievement in Biology in Selected Secondary Schools in Sokoto Metropolis, Sokoto State Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shamsuddeen, Abdulrahman; Amina, Hassan

2016-01-01

This study investigated the Correlation between instructional methods and students end of term achievement in Biology in selected secondary schools in Sokoto Metropolis, Sokoto State Nigeria. The study addressed three Specific objectives. To examine the relationship between; Cooperative learning methods, guided discovery, Simulation Method and…

Research on knowledge representation, machine learning, and knowledge acquisition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buchanan, Bruce G.

1987-01-01

Research in knowledge representation, machine learning, and knowledge acquisition performed at Knowledge Systems Lab. is summarized. The major goal of the research was to develop flexible, effective methods for representing the qualitative knowledge necessary for solving large problems that require symbolic reasoning as well as numerical computation. The research focused on integrating different representation methods to describe different kinds of knowledge more effectively than any one method can alone. In particular, emphasis was placed on representing and using spatial information about three dimensional objects and constraints on the arrangement of these objects in space. Another major theme is the development of robust machine learning programs that can be integrated with a variety of intelligent systems. To achieve this goal, learning methods were designed, implemented and experimented within several different problem solving environments.

Consequences, Characteristics, and Causes of Mathematical Learning Disabilities and Persistent Low Achievement in Mathematics

PubMed Central

Geary, David C.

2011-01-01

Objective The goals of the review are threefold; a) to highlight the educational and employment consequences of poorly developed mathematical competencies; b) overview the characteristics of the children with persistently low achievement in mathematics; and c) provide a primer on cognitive science research that is aimed at identifying the cognitive mechanisms underlying these learning disabilities and associated cognitive interventions. Method Literatures on the educational and economic consequences of poor mathematics achievement were reviewed and integrated with reviews of epidemiological, behavioral genetic, and cognitive science studies of poor mathematics achievement. Results Poor mathematical competencies are common among adults and result in employment difficulties and difficulties in many common day-to-day activities. Among students, about 7% of children and adolescents have a mathematical learning disability (MLD) and another 10% show persistent low achievement (LA) in mathematics despite average abilities in most other areas. Children with MLD and their LA peers have deficits in understanding and representing numerical magnitude, difficulties retrieving basic arithmetic facts from long-term memory, and delays in learning mathematical procedures. These deficits and delays cannot be attributed to intelligence, but are related to working memory deficits for children with MLD, but not LA children. Interventions that target these cognitive deficits are in development and preliminary results are promising. Conclusion Mathematical learning disabilities and learning difficulties associated with persistent low achievement in mathematics are common and not attributable to intelligence. These individuals have identifiable number and memory delays and deficits that appear to be specific to mathematics learning. The most promising interventions are those that target these specific deficits and, in addition, for children with MLD interventions that target their low working memory capacity. PMID:21285895

An asynchronous learning approach for the instructional component of a dual-campus pharmacy resident teaching program.

PubMed

Garrison, Gina Daubney; Baia, Patricia; Canning, Jacquelyn E; Strang, Aimee F

2015-03-25

To describe the shift to an asynchronous online approach for pedagogy instruction within a pharmacy resident teaching program offered by a dual-campus college. The pedagogy instruction component of the teaching program (Part I) was redesigned with a focus on the content, delivery, and coordination of the learning environment. Asynchronous online learning replaced distance technology or lecture capture. Using a pedagogical content knowledge framework, residents participated in self-paced online learning using faculty recordings, readings, and discussion board activities. A learning management system was used to assess achievement of learning objectives and participation prior to progressing to the teaching experiences component of the teaching program (Part II). Evaluation of resident pedagogical knowledge development and participation in Part I of the teaching program was achieved through the learning management system. Participant surveys and written reflections showed general satisfaction with the online learning environment. Future considerations include addition of a live orientation session and increased faculty presence in the online learning environment. An online approach framed by educational theory can be an effective way to provide pedagogy instruction within a teaching program.

Effects of Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematical Metacognition on Word Problem Solving in Children with and without Mathematical Learning Difficulties.

PubMed

Lai, Yinghui; Zhu, Xiaoshuang; Chen, Yinghe; Li, Yanjun

2015-01-01

Mathematics is one of the most objective, logical, and practical academic disciplines. Yet, in addition to cognitive skills, mathematical problem solving also involves affective factors. In the current study, we first investigated effects of mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematical metacognition on word problem solving (WPS). We tested 224 children (116 boys, M = 10.15 years old, SD = 0.56) with the Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Children, the Chinese Revised-edition Questionnaire of Pupil's Metacognitive Ability in Mathematics, and WPS tasks. The results indicated that mathematical metacognition mediated the effect of MA on WPS after controlling for IQ. Second, we divided the children into four mathematics achievement groups including high achieving (HA), typical achieving (TA), low achieving (LA), and mathematical learning difficulty (MLD). Because mathematical metacognition and MA predicted mathematics achievement, we compared group differences in metacognition and MA with IQ partialled out. The results showed that children with MLD scored lower in self-image and higher in learning mathematics anxiety (LMA) than the TA and HA children, but not in mathematical evaluation anxiety (MEA). MLD children's LMA was also higher than that of their LA counterparts. These results provide insight into factors that may mediate poor WPS performance which emerges under pressure in mathematics. These results also suggest that the anxiety during learning mathematics should be taken into account in mathematical learning difficulty interventions.

Effects of Mathematics Anxiety and Mathematical Metacognition on Word Problem Solving in Children with and without Mathematical Learning Difficulties

PubMed Central

Lai, Yinghui; Zhu, Xiaoshuang; Chen, Yinghe; Li, Yanjun

2015-01-01

Mathematics is one of the most objective, logical, and practical academic disciplines. Yet, in addition to cognitive skills, mathematical problem solving also involves affective factors. In the current study, we first investigated effects of mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematical metacognition on word problem solving (WPS). We tested 224 children (116 boys, M = 10.15 years old, SD = 0.56) with the Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Children, the Chinese Revised-edition Questionnaire of Pupil’s Metacognitive Ability in Mathematics, and WPS tasks. The results indicated that mathematical metacognition mediated the effect of MA on WPS after controlling for IQ. Second, we divided the children into four mathematics achievement groups including high achieving (HA), typical achieving (TA), low achieving (LA), and mathematical learning difficulty (MLD). Because mathematical metacognition and MA predicted mathematics achievement, we compared group differences in metacognition and MA with IQ partialled out. The results showed that children with MLD scored lower in self-image and higher in learning mathematics anxiety (LMA) than the TA and HA children, but not in mathematical evaluation anxiety (MEA). MLD children’s LMA was also higher than that of their LA counterparts. These results provide insight into factors that may mediate poor WPS performance which emerges under pressure in mathematics. These results also suggest that the anxiety during learning mathematics should be taken into account in mathematical learning difficulty interventions. PMID:26090806

TU-D-213AB-01: How You Can Be the Speaker and Communicator Everyone Wants You to Be.

PubMed

Collins, J; Aydogan, B

2012-06-01

Effectiveness of an oral presentation depends on the ability of the speaker to communicate with the audience. An important part of this communication is focusing on two to five key points and emphasizing those points during the presentation. Every aspect of the presentation should be purposeful and directed at facilitating learners' achievement of the objectives. This necessitates that the speaker has carefully developed the objectives and built the presentation around attainment of the objectives. A presentation should be designed to include as much audience participation as possible, no matter the size of the audience. Techniques to encourage audience participation include questioning, brainstorming, small-group activities, role-playing, case-based examples, directed listening, and use of an audience response system. It is first necessary to motivate and gain attention of the learner for learning to take place. This can be accomplished through appropriate use of humor, anecdotes, and quotations. This course will review adult learning principles and effective presentation skills, Learning Objectives: 1. Apply adult learning principles. 2. Demonstrate effective presentations skills. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Slow feature analysis: unsupervised learning of invariances.

PubMed

Wiskott, Laurenz; Sejnowski, Terrence J

2002-04-01

Invariant features of temporally varying signals are useful for analysis and classification. Slow feature analysis (SFA) is a new method for learning invariant or slowly varying features from a vectorial input signal. It is based on a nonlinear expansion of the input signal and application of principal component analysis to this expanded signal and its time derivative. It is guaranteed to find the optimal solution within a family of functions directly and can learn to extract a large number of decorrelated features, which are ordered by their degree of invariance. SFA can be applied hierarchically to process high-dimensional input signals and extract complex features. SFA is applied first to complex cell tuning properties based on simple cell output, including disparity and motion. Then more complicated input-output functions are learned by repeated application of SFA. Finally, a hierarchical network of SFA modules is presented as a simple model of the visual system. The same unstructured network can learn translation, size, rotation, contrast, or, to a lesser degree, illumination invariance for one-dimensional objects, depending on only the training stimulus. Surprisingly, only a few training objects suffice to achieve good generalization to new objects. The generated representation is suitable for object recognition. Performance degrades if the network is trained to learn multiple invariances simultaneously.

"Let's Get Physical": Advantages of a Physical Model over 3D Computer Models and Textbooks in Learning Imaging Anatomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preece, Daniel; Williams, Sarah B.; Lam, Richard; Weller, Renate

2013-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) information plays an important part in medical and veterinary education. Appreciating complex 3D spatial relationships requires a strong foundational understanding of anatomy and mental 3D visualization skills. Novel learning resources have been introduced to anatomy training to achieve this. Objective evaluation of their…

The Influence of Islamic Moral Values on the Students' Behavior in Aceh

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nuriman; Fauzan

2017-01-01

This study shows the influence and relationship of Islamic moral values to the students' behavior in Aceh Province. Learning Objects are the moral values of Islam achieved in learning in high school and vocational institutions that are assumed to affect the students' behavior. The quantitative methods used in this study and was running by SPSS…

Learning Activity Packets for High School Social Studies, American Studies, American History and Low Achieving Students. Course I.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seif, Elliott

The document presents student learning packets designed to provide an alternative social studies experience for high school students. The objective is to enable students to better understand themselves and their environment and other individuals and groups. Written at a junior high school reading level, the packets are intended to be used with low…

Loyalty Switching from Traditional to e-Learning in Indian Higher Education: A Markov Chain Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rajasekhar, Mamilla; Anitha, Cuddapah

2005-01-01

It is high time for Indian universities to transform themselves from sellers to marketers, though they are non-profit organizations, in marketing their degrees to its customers (students). In this direction e-learning could be one of the tools that helps achieve this objective. The authors in this survey-based article studied the consumers'…

Learning-Related Cognitive Self-Regulation Measures for Prekindergarten Children: A Comparative Evaluation of the Educational Relevance of Selected Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipsey, Mark W.; Nesbitt, Kimberly Turner; Farran, Dale C.; Dong, Nianbo; Fuhs, Mary Wagner; Wilson, Sandra Jo

2017-01-01

Many cognitive self-regulation (CSR) measures are related to the academic achievement of prekindergarten children and are thus of potential interest for school readiness screening and as outcome variables in intervention research aimed at improving those skills in order to facilitate learning. The objective of this study was to identify…

Supporting Self-Improvement in Teaching, Literacy, Language and Numeracy. Tools for Staff Development. Module 4: Teaching and Learning Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basic Skills Agency, 2007

2007-01-01

This module provides teachers with practical tools to improve the quality of teaching and learning activities and enable learners to achieve their objectives in literacy, language and numeracy. Unit 1 explores approaches that are particularly appropriate to adult learners, developing thinking skills and involving them in decision making and…

An integrated course in pain management and palliative care bridging the basic sciences and pharmacy practice.

PubMed

Kullgren, Justin; Radhakrishnan, Rajan; Unni, Elizabeth; Hanson, Eric

2013-08-12

To describe the development of an integrated pain and palliative care course and to investigate the long-term effectiveness of the course during doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students' advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) and in their practice after graduation. Roseman University College of Pharmacy faculty developed a 3-week elective course in pain and palliative care by integrating relevant clinical and pharmaceutical sciences. Instructional strategies included lectures, team and individual activities, case studies, and student presentations. Students who participated in the course in 2010 and 2011 were surveyed anonymously to gain their perception about the class as well as the utility of the course during their APPEs and in their everyday practice. Traditional and nontraditional assessment of students confirmed that the learning outcomes objectives were achieved. Students taking the integrated course on pain management and palliative care achieved mastery of the learning outcome objectives. Surveys of students and practicing pharmacists who completed the course showed that the learning experience as well as retention was improved with the integrated mode of teaching. Integrating basic and clinical sciences in therapeutic courses is an effective learning strategy.

Impact of a Resident-as-Teacher Workshop on Teaching Behavior of Interns and Learning Outcomes of Medical Students

PubMed Central

Hill, Andrew G.; Srinivasa, Sanket; Hawken, Susan J.; Barrow, Mark; Farrell, Susan E.; Hattie, John; Yu, Tzu-Chieh

2012-01-01

Background Residents and interns are recognized as important clinical teachers and mentors. Resident-as-teacher training programs are known to improve resident attitudes and perceptions toward teaching, as well as their theoretical knowledge, skills, and teaching behavior. The effect of resident-as-teacher programs on learning outcomes of medical students, however, remains unknown. An intervention cohort study was conducted to prospectively investigate the effects of a teacher-training workshop on teaching behavior of participating interns and on the clerkship learning outcomes of instructed fourth-year medical students. Methods The House Officer-as-Teacher Training Workshop was implemented in November 2009 over 1.5 days and attended by all 34 interns from one teaching hospital. Subsequently, between February and August 2010, 124 fourth-year medical students rated the observable teaching behavior of interns during 6-week general surgery clerkships at this intervention hospital as well as at 2 comparable hospitals serving as control sites. Ratings were collected using an anonymous 15-item Intern Clinical Teaching Effectiveness Instrument. Student achievement of clerkship learning outcomes during this period was evaluated using a validated and centralized objective structured clinical examination. Results Medical students completed 101 intern clinical teaching effectiveness instruments. Intern teaching behavior at the intervention hospital was found to be significantly more positive, compared with observed behavior at the control hospitals. Objective structured clinical examination results, however, did not demonstrate any significant intersite differences in student achievement of general surgery clerkship learning outcomes. Conclusions The House Officer-as-Teacher Training Workshop noticeably improved teaching behavior of surgical interns during general surgery clerkships. This improvement did not, however, translate into improved achievement of clerkship learning outcomes by medical students during the study period. PMID:23451304

[Systemic learning planification for medical students during oncology clinical rotation].

PubMed

Gonçalves, Anthony; Viens, Patrice; Gilabert, Marine; Turrini, Olivier; Lambaudie, Eric; Prebet, Thomas; Farnault, Bertrand; Eisinger, François; Gorincour, Guillaume; Bertucci, François

2011-12-01

The expected increase in cancer incidence emphasizes the need for specific training in this area, including either family physician or specialized oncologists. In France, the fourth to sixth years of medical teaching include both theoretical classes at the university and daily actual practice at the hospital. Thus, clinical rotations are thought to play a major role in the training of medical students and also largely participate to the choice of the student of his/her final specialty. Pedagogic quality of these rotations is dependent on multiple parameters, including a rigorous planification of the expected learning. Here, we reported a systemic planification of learning activities for medical students during an oncology rotation at the Paoli-Calmettes Institute in Marseille, France, a regional comprehensive cancer center. This planification includes an evaluation of learning requirements, definition of learning objectives, selection of learning methods and choice of methods of assessment of the students' achievement of these objectives as well as the learning activity itself.

Environmental & Psychosocial Contributors to Learning Disparities

EPA Science Inventory

Purpose: Studies suggest early traffic-related pollution exposures (TRPEs) adversely impact cognitive development (COGDEV). Since racial differences do not explain the widening achievement gap, determining TRPE contributions is warranted. Study objectives were to (1) assess the...

Leadership development in UK medical training: pedagogical theory and practice.

PubMed

Bekas, Stavros

2015-01-01

PHENOMENON: The central role of clinical leadership in achieving the vision of quality and productivity could be attained by investing in its development in postgraduate medical education. A critical review of selected literature is presented. The author identifies some of the main theoretical constructs related to leadership; the pedagogical underpinning of medical leadership programs; their learning objectives; and the mixture of methods, individual and collective, to achieve them. INSIGHTS: How to best develop leadership through medical education remains an open debate. Experiential learning, reflective practice, action learning, and mentoring could provide the foundations of leadership development. Application of the aforementioned should be cautious due to limitations of the concept of leadership as currently promoted and lack of robust evaluation methodologies.

Procrastinating Behavior in Computer-Based Learning Environments to Predict Performance: A Case Study in Moodle

PubMed Central

Cerezo, Rebeca; Esteban, María; Sánchez-Santillán, Miguel; Núñez, José C.

2017-01-01

Introduction: Research about student performance has traditionally considered academic procrastination as a behavior that has negative effects on academic achievement. Although there is much evidence for this in class-based environments, there is a lack of research on Computer-Based Learning Environments (CBLEs). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate student behavior in a blended learning program and specifically procrastination behavior in relation to performance through Data Mining techniques. Materials and Methods: A sample of 140 undergraduate students participated in a blended learning experience implemented in a Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Developmental Learning Environment) Management System. Relevant interaction variables were selected for the study, taking into account student achievement and analyzing data by means of association rules, a mining technique. The association rules were arrived at and filtered through two selection criteria: 1, rules must have an accuracy over 0.8 and 2, they must be present in both sub-samples. Results: The findings of our study highlight the influence of time management in online learning environments, particularly on academic achievement, as there is an association between procrastination variables and student performance. Conclusion: Negative impact of procrastination in learning outcomes has been observed again but in virtual learning environments where practical implications, prevention of, and intervention in, are different from class-based learning. These aspects are discussed to help resolve student difficulties at various ages. PMID:28883801

Procrastinating Behavior in Computer-Based Learning Environments to Predict Performance: A Case Study in Moodle.

PubMed

Cerezo, Rebeca; Esteban, María; Sánchez-Santillán, Miguel; Núñez, José C

2017-01-01

Introduction: Research about student performance has traditionally considered academic procrastination as a behavior that has negative effects on academic achievement. Although there is much evidence for this in class-based environments, there is a lack of research on Computer-Based Learning Environments (CBLEs) . Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate student behavior in a blended learning program and specifically procrastination behavior in relation to performance through Data Mining techniques. Materials and Methods: A sample of 140 undergraduate students participated in a blended learning experience implemented in a Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Developmental Learning Environment) Management System. Relevant interaction variables were selected for the study, taking into account student achievement and analyzing data by means of association rules, a mining technique. The association rules were arrived at and filtered through two selection criteria: 1, rules must have an accuracy over 0.8 and 2, they must be present in both sub-samples. Results: The findings of our study highlight the influence of time management in online learning environments, particularly on academic achievement, as there is an association between procrastination variables and student performance. Conclusion: Negative impact of procrastination in learning outcomes has been observed again but in virtual learning environments where practical implications, prevention of, and intervention in, are different from class-based learning. These aspects are discussed to help resolve student difficulties at various ages.

Identifying the Behavior Patterns That Influence on Students' Achievement in Psychological Foundations of Learning and Development: A Case of Mekelle University, Ethiopia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sekar, J. Master Arul; Eyasu, Mengesha

2018-01-01

Generally, the behavior patterns concerns a social significance of values. This paper highlights the various behavior patterns like planner behavior, solution oriented behavior, and prescriptive behavior patterns. The main objective of the present study is to identify the behavior patterns that influence on students' achievement in psychological…

Nonlinear Motion Tracking by Deep Learning Architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, Arnav; Samaiya, Devesh; Gupta, Karunesh K.

2018-03-01

In the world of Artificial Intelligence, object motion tracking is one of the major problems. The extensive research is being carried out to track people in crowd. This paper presents a unique technique for nonlinear motion tracking in the absence of prior knowledge of nature of nonlinear path that the object being tracked may follow. We achieve this by first obtaining the centroid of the object and then using the centroid as the current example for a recurrent neural network trained using real-time recurrent learning. We have tweaked the standard algorithm slightly and have accumulated the gradient for few previous iterations instead of using just the current iteration as is the norm. We show that for a single object, such a recurrent neural network is highly capable of approximating the nonlinearity of its path.

Designing Inquiry Starters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kluger-Bell, B.

2010-12-01

The term "Inquiry Starter" comes from the Institute for Inquiry's model for teaching and learning science through inquiry. It refers to the first phase of an inquiry activity where learners engage in actions that stimulate their curiosity and generate questions for further investigation. In the Professional Development Program, staff and participants have designed a wide variety of inquiry activities with a number of variations on the inquiry starter. This has provided a laboratory for examining inquiry starter design. In this paper, I describe and examine in detail the elements of this design and how the design of those elements is related to achieving learning objectives. There are a number of important common objectives in all inquiry starters. For example, all starters must define a domain for investigation and engage the learner's curiosity in that domain. There are also critical differences in learning objectives depending on the content area being studied, the learners' background knowledge and skills, and many other factors. In this paper I examine designs for both of these types of objectives.

Using optimization models to demonstrate the need for structural changes in training programs for surgical medical residents.

PubMed

Turner, Jonathan; Kim, Kibaek; Mehrotra, Sanjay; DaRosa, Debra A; Daskin, Mark S; Rodriguez, Heron E

2013-09-01

The primary goal of a residency program is to prepare trainees for unsupervised care. Duty hour restrictions imposed throughout the prior decade require that residents work significantly fewer hours. Moreover, various stakeholders (e.g. the hospital, mentors, other residents, educators, and patients) require them to prioritize very different activities, often conflicting with their learning goals. Surgical residents' learning goals include providing continuity throughout a patient's pre-, peri-, and post-operative care as well as achieving sufficient surgical experience levels in various procedure types and participating in various formal educational activities, among other things. To complicate matters, senior residents often compete with other residents for surgical experience. This paper features experiments using an optimization model and a real dataset. The experiments test the viability of achieving the above goals at a major academic center using existing models of delivering medical education and training to surgical residents. It develops a detailed multi-objective, two-stage stochastic optimization model with anticipatory capabilities solved over a rolling time horizon. A novel feature of the models is the incorporation of learning curve theory in the objection function. Using a deterministic version of the model, we identify bounds on the achievement of learning goals under existing training paradigms. The computational results highlight the structural problems in the current surgical resident educational system. These results further corroborate earlier findings and suggest an educational system redesign is necessary for surgical medical residents.

A case study of full integration of the arts into core subject area instruction in one East Texas secondary school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leysath, Maggie

This exploratory phenomenological case study investigated the influence the full integration of the arts into core subject instruction has on classroom environment, student academic achievement, and student engagement as perceived by administrators, teachers, and students in one East Texas secondary school. Participant interviews were analyzed using Creswell's (2012) six-step method for analyzing phenomenological studies. The researcher implemented three learning activities in which ceramics learning objectives were fully integrated with chemistry learning objectives. The first activity combined clay properties and pottery wheel throwing with significant numbers. The second activity combined glaze formulation with moles. The third combined stoichiometry with the increased glaze formula for students to glaze the bowls they made. Findings suggest the full integration of art in core subject area instruction has numerous positive effects. Participants reported improved academic achievement for all students including reluctant learners. Students, teachers, and the administrator reported greater participation in the art integrated activities. Participants perceived a need for further training for teachers and administrators for greater success.

Place preference and vocal learning rely on distinct reinforcers in songbirds.

PubMed

Murdoch, Don; Chen, Ruidong; Goldberg, Jesse H

2018-04-30

In reinforcement learning (RL) agents are typically tasked with maximizing a single objective function such as reward. But it remains poorly understood how agents might pursue distinct objectives at once. In machines, multiobjective RL can be achieved by dividing a single agent into multiple sub-agents, each of which is shaped by agent-specific reinforcement, but it remains unknown if animals adopt this strategy. Here we use songbirds to test if navigation and singing, two behaviors with distinct objectives, can be differentially reinforced. We demonstrate that strobe flashes aversively condition place preference but not song syllables. Brief noise bursts aversively condition song syllables but positively reinforce place preference. Thus distinct behavior-generating systems, or agencies, within a single animal can be shaped by correspondingly distinct reinforcement signals. Our findings suggest that spatially segregated vocal circuits can solve a credit assignment problem associated with multiobjective learning.

Transformative governance of urban social-ecological systems

EPA Science Inventory

A central aspect of adaptive governance is a learning process that can help communities achieve environmental objectives. Adaptive governance is a framework for managing social-ecological systems, and is the precursor to transformative governance. Adaptive governance accounts for...

3 CFR 13579 - Executive Order 13579 of July 11, 2011. Regulation and Independent Regulatory Agencies

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

..., streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned. Such retrospective analyses... agency's regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives. Sec...

Leadership Styles of Lecturer's Technical and Vocational in Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razak, Nur Afifah Binti Abdul; Jaafar, Siti Norain Bt; Hamidon, Nur Izeanty Binti; Zakaria, Normah Binti

2015-01-01

Leadership style is a way of using the power of a leader held as a tool to influence the students and to achieve the objectives in the classroom and affect the election approaches in teaching and learning process. The purpose of this research is to study the style of lecturer's leadership in UTHM Technical and Vocational (TVeT). The study focuses…

Learning anatomy via mobile augmented reality: Effects on achievement and cognitive load.

PubMed

Küçük, Sevda; Kapakin, Samet; Göktaş, Yüksel

2016-10-01

Augmented reality (AR), a new generation of technology, has attracted the attention of educators in recent years. In this study, a MagicBook was developed for a neuroanatomy topic by using mobile augmented reality (mAR) technology. This technology integrates virtual learning objects into the real world and allow users to interact with the environment using mobile devices. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of learning anatomy via mAR on medical students' academic achievement and cognitive load. The mixed method was applied in the study. The random sample consisted of 70 second-year undergraduate medical students: 34 in an experimental group and 36 in a control group. Academic achievement test and cognitive load scale were used as data collection tool. A one-way MANOVA test was used for analysis. The experimental group, which used mAR applications, reported higher achievement and lower cognitive load. The use of mAR applications in anatomy education contributed to the formation of an effective and productive learning environment. Student cognitive load decreased as abstract information became concrete in printed books via multimedia materials in mAR applications. Additionally, students were able to access the materials in the MagicBook anytime and anywhere they wanted. The mobile learning approach helped students learn better by exerting less cognitive effort. Moreover, the sensory experience and real time interaction with environment may provide learning satisfaction and enable students to structure their knowledge to complete the learning tasks. Anat Sci Educ 9: 411-421. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.

An Alternative to Mapping a Word onto a Concept in Language Acquisition: Pragmatic Frames

PubMed Central

Rohlfing, Katharina J.; Wrede, Britta; Vollmer, Anna-Lisa; Oudeyer, Pierre-Yves

2016-01-01

The classic mapping metaphor posits that children learn a word by mapping it onto a concept of an object or event. However, we believe that a mapping metaphor cannot account for word learning, because even though children focus attention on objects, they do not necessarily remember the connection between the word and the referent unless it is framed pragmatically, that is, within a task. Our theoretical paper proposes an alternative mechanism for word learning. Our main premise is that word learning occurs as children accomplish a goal in cooperation with a partner. We follow Bruner’s (1983) idea and further specify pragmatic frames as the learning units that drive language acquisition and cognitive development. These units consist of a sequence of actions and verbal behaviors that are co-constructed with a partner to achieve a joint goal. We elaborate on this alternative, offer some initial parametrizations of the concept, and embed it in current language learning approaches. PMID:27148105

The Effect of Online Gaming, Cognition and Feedback Type in Facilitating Delayed Achievement of Different Learning Objectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cameron, Brian; Dwyer, Francis

2005-01-01

Online and computer-based instructional gaming is becoming a viable instructional strategy at all levels of education. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of (a) gaming, (b) gaming plus embedded questions, and (c) gaming plus questions plus feedback on delayed retention of different types of educational objectives for students…

Students' and teachers' perceptions: initial achievements of a Project-Based Engineering School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Terrón-López, María-José; Velasco-Quintana, Paloma-Julia; García-García, María-José; Ocampo, Jared R.

2017-11-01

A unified academic model based on the project-based learning (PBL) methodology was implemented, in the 2012-2013 period, in the School of Engineering at Universidad Europea de Madrid. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether teachers and students participating in the capstone projects feel that the objectives for which this methodology was designed for are being achieved. The data were collected through interviews to participants at the end of the PBL experience. The results are encouraging, as students seem to be more motivated, and they say that they are experiencing deeper learning, and have developed key competitive skills required for their professional lives. Findings also suggest that teachers face positively the PBL as a learning approach since they perceive that students obtain a deeper learning, develop transversal skills with the projects and are more engaged with their studies. Implications and recommendations for the future of the model are also discussed.

A serious gaming/immersion environment to teach clinical cancer genetics.

PubMed

Nosek, Thomas M; Cohen, Mark; Matthews, Anne; Papp, Klara; Wolf, Nancy; Wrenn, Gregg; Sher, Andrew; Coulter, Kenneth; Martin, Jessica; Wiesner, Georgia L

2007-01-01

We are creating an interactive, simulated "Cancer Genetics Tower" for the self-paced learning of Clinical Cancer Genetics by medical students (go to: http://casemed.case.edu/cancergenetics). The environment uses gaming theory to engage the students into achieving specific learning objectives. The first few levels contain virtual laboratories where students achieve the basic underpinnings of Cancer Genetics. The next levels apply these principles to clinical practice. A virtual attending physician and four virtual patients, available for questioning through virtual video conferencing, enrich each floor. The pinnacle clinical simulation challenges the learner to integrate all information and demonstrate mastery, thus "winning" the game. A pilot test of the program by 17 medical students yielded very favorable feedback; the students found the Tower a "great way to teach", it held their attention, and it made learning fun. A majority of the students preferred the Tower over other resources to learn Cancer Genetics.

Long-term Effectiveness of Online Anaphylaxis Education for Pharmacists

PubMed Central

Vale, Sandra; Sanfilippo, Frank M; Loh, Richard; Clifford, Rhonda M

2014-01-01

Objective. To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of an Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) anaphylaxis e-learning program compared to lectures or no training. Design. A controlled interrupted-time-series study of Australian pharmacists and pharmacy students who completed ASCIA anaphylaxis e-learning or lecture programs was conducted during 2011-2013. Effectiveness was measured using a validated test administered pretraining, posttraining, and 3 and 7 months after training. Assessment. All learning groups performed significantly better on all posttests compared to the pretest, and compared to a control group (p<0.001). The proportion of e-learners achieving the minimum standard for anaphylaxis knowledge improved from 45% at pretest to 87% at 7 months. Conclusion. The ASCIA e-learning program significantly increased anaphylaxis knowledge. The high proportion of participants achieving the minimum standard at 7 months indicates long-term knowledge change. PMID:25258441

Facilitated Learning to Advance Geriatrics: Increasing the Capacity of Nurse Faculty to Teach Students About Caring for Older Adults.

PubMed

Krichbaum, Kathleen; Kaas, Merrie J; Wyman, Jean F; Van Son, Catherine R

2015-06-01

The Facilitated Learning to Advance Geriatrics program (FLAG) was designed to increase the numbers of nurse faculty in prelicensure programs with basic knowledge about aging and teaching effectiveness to prepare students to provide safe, high quality care for older adults. Using a framework to improve transfer of learning, FLAG was designed to include: (a) a workshop to increase basic knowledge of aging and common geriatric syndromes, and effective use of evidence-based teaching/learning strategies; (b) a year-long mentoring program to support application of workshop learning and leading change in participants' schools to ensure that geriatrics is a priority. Both formative and summative evaluation methods were used, and included self-assessment of objectives, program satisfaction, and teaching self-efficacy. FLAG achieved its overall purpose by enrolling 152 participants from 19 states including 23 faculty from associate degree programs and 102 from baccalaureate programs. Self-rated teaching effectiveness improved significantly from pre- to post-workshop each year. Achievement of learning objectives was rated highly as was satisfaction. Transfer of learning was evidenced by implementation of educational projects in home schools supported by mentoring. The FLAG program provided opportunities for nurse educators to learn to teach geriatrics more effectively and to transfer learning to their work environment. Future FLAG programs will be offered in a shortened format, incorporating online content and strategies, adding other health professionals to the audience with the same goal of increasing the knowledge and abilities of educators to prepare learners to provide competent care for older adults. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The development of mathematics courseware for learning line and angle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halim, Noor Dayana Abd; Han, Ong Boon; Abdullah, Zaleha; Yusup, Junaidah

2015-05-01

Learning software is a teaching aid which is often used in schools to increase students' motivation, attract students' attention and also improve the quality of teaching and learning process. However, the development of learning software should be followed the phases in Instructional Design (ID) Model, therefore the process can be carried out systematic and orderly. Thus, this concept paper describes the application of ADDIE model in the development of mathematics learning courseware for learning Line and Angle named CBL-Math. ADDIE model consists of five consecutive phases which are Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Each phase must be properly planned in order to achieve the objectives stated. Other than to describe the processes occurring in each phase, this paper also demonstrating how cognitive theory of multimedia learning principles are integrated in the developed courseware. The principles that applied in the courseware reduce the students' cognitive load while learning the topic of line and angle. With well prepared development process and the integration of appropriate principles, it is expected that the developed software can help students learn effectively and also increase students' achievement in the topic of Line and Angle.

Building machines that learn and think like people.

PubMed

Lake, Brenden M; Ullman, Tomer D; Tenenbaum, Joshua B; Gershman, Samuel J

2017-01-01

Recent progress in artificial intelligence has renewed interest in building systems that learn and think like people. Many advances have come from using deep neural networks trained end-to-end in tasks such as object recognition, video games, and board games, achieving performance that equals or even beats that of humans in some respects. Despite their biological inspiration and performance achievements, these systems differ from human intelligence in crucial ways. We review progress in cognitive science suggesting that truly human-like learning and thinking machines will have to reach beyond current engineering trends in both what they learn and how they learn it. Specifically, we argue that these machines should (1) build causal models of the world that support explanation and understanding, rather than merely solving pattern recognition problems; (2) ground learning in intuitive theories of physics and psychology to support and enrich the knowledge that is learned; and (3) harness compositionality and learning-to-learn to rapidly acquire and generalize knowledge to new tasks and situations. We suggest concrete challenges and promising routes toward these goals that can combine the strengths of recent neural network advances with more structured cognitive models.

Teaching and learning apheresis medicine: The Bermuda Triangle in Education.

PubMed

Crookston, Kendall P; Richter, Deana M

2010-01-01

Apheresis Medicine has evolved markedly due to an explosion of knowledge and technology, whereas the time available for training has shrunk as curricula have become increasingly overloaded. Apheresis teaching has inherited a strong clinical context where real patient problems are used in a hands-on environment. To optimize instruction, those involved in the education of apheresis professionals need to have (1) knowledge of how clinical laboratory medicine education has developed as a field, (2) an understanding of what is known from theory and research about how people learn, and (3) the skills to design teaching/learning activities in ways consistent with literature-based principles of adult education. These developments in education provide a context for curriculum projects currently underway by the American Society for Apheresis. Teachers must determine which competencies are central to the essence of a trained professional. Specific, robust, learning objectives targeted toward the development of higher levels of thinking, professional attitudes, and requisite skills are formulated to guide the learner toward mastering those competencies. Curriculum is developed for each objective, consisting of content and the best teaching/learning methods to help learners attain the objective. Appropriate assessment strategies are identified to determine whether the objective is being achieved. The integration of objectives, curriculum, and assessment creates The Bermuda Triangle of Education (Richter, The Circle of Learning and Bermuda Triangle in Education, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 2004). When educators do not effectively navigate The Bermuda Triangle of Education, learning may disappear into the murky depths of confusion and apathy. When successfully navigated, the result will be a significant learning experience that leads to transformation through education. 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The Degree of Employment of Faculty Members for Assessment Standards Defined by the American Educational Organizations in Assessing Student Learning at the University of Najran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kabil, Raafat; Abduh, Yahya Bani

2017-01-01

This study investigates the faculty members' employment of assessment standards defined by the American educational organizations (NCME, AFT and NEA) to assessing student learning at the University of Najran from the students' point of view. To achieve the objective of the study, the questionnaire which consisted of 38 items distributed to seven…

Single and multiple object tracking using log-euclidean Riemannian subspace and block-division appearance model.

PubMed

Hu, Weiming; Li, Xi; Luo, Wenhan; Zhang, Xiaoqin; Maybank, Stephen; Zhang, Zhongfei

2012-12-01

Object appearance modeling is crucial for tracking objects, especially in videos captured by nonstationary cameras and for reasoning about occlusions between multiple moving objects. Based on the log-euclidean Riemannian metric on symmetric positive definite matrices, we propose an incremental log-euclidean Riemannian subspace learning algorithm in which covariance matrices of image features are mapped into a vector space with the log-euclidean Riemannian metric. Based on the subspace learning algorithm, we develop a log-euclidean block-division appearance model which captures both the global and local spatial layout information about object appearances. Single object tracking and multi-object tracking with occlusion reasoning are then achieved by particle filtering-based Bayesian state inference. During tracking, incremental updating of the log-euclidean block-division appearance model captures changes in object appearance. For multi-object tracking, the appearance models of the objects can be updated even in the presence of occlusions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed tracking algorithm obtains more accurate results than six state-of-the-art tracking algorithms.

Minding and mending the gap: Social psychological interventions to reduce educational disparities.

PubMed

Spitzer, Brian; Aronson, Joshua

2015-03-01

Achievement gaps continue to garner a great deal of attention both in academic and in popular circles. Many students continue to struggle despite broad educational reforms aimed at narrowing these gaps in learning and performance. In this article, we review a number of social psychological interventions that show promise in reducing gaps in achievement, not by addressing structural barriers to achievement, but by helping students cope with threats to their identity that impair intellectual functioning and motivation. For example, interventions involving meditation, role models, emotional reappraisal, growth mindsets, imagining possible selves, self-affirmations, belongingness and cooperative learning have been shown to ameliorate threats to identity and raise achievement. We describe and evaluate these social psychological interventions. Many achievement gaps involve a psychological predicament: a threat to one's social identity or to one's sense of belonging. Students' implicit theories - how they mind the gap - can act as barriers to their success. By helping students cope with these threats, these theory-based interventions represent a genuine advance in the way schools may reduce gaps in achievement. These interventions show how students' educational success depends partly on fluid aspects of context - how tasks are framed, who else is in the room, or what they believe about intelligence. Because of this fluidity, these interventions may not work in all settings. Achievement gaps are ultimately caused by a variety of factors, both objective and subjective that produce inequality. The research reviewed here suggests that even without changes in objective barriers to success, brief psychological interventions can narrow what many see as intractable gaps in academic achievement. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Assessment of Creativity-Based Learning Environment for Major Instrument Courses: A Case Study of Buca Faculty of Education, Department of Music Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaya, Asli; Bilen, Sermin

2016-01-01

The development of the creative potential of individuals is considered to be one of the requirements of modern education. As in all areas, the development of students' creative potential is also among the objectives of education programs in music education. The ability of music teachers to achieve this objective and create creative learning…

CONFERENCE ON SYSTEMS APPROACHES TO CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION IN THE OPEN-DOOR COLLEGE (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, JULY 18-20, 1966).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

JOHNSON, BYRON LAMAR

THE SYSTEMS APPROACH TO INSTRUCTION INVOLVES A CAREFUL SPECIFICATION OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES IN BEHAVIORAL AND MEASURABLE FORM, FOLLOWED BY A SUCCESSION OF EVALUATION-REVISION CYCLES IN THE INSTRUCTIONAL PROCESS, UNTIL NEW STUDENTS EXPOSED TO THE PROCESS ACHIEVE THE DESIRED OBJECTIVES. SEVEN MAJOR PAPERS WERE PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE--(1) THE…

A High Intensity, Short-Term, Tutorial/Enrichment Program in Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Rita J.; And Others.

1981-01-01

The Summer Adventure in Learning (SAIL) program was developed to train prospective teachers in tutorial methods intended to improve reading achievement. The program's primary instructional objective was to decrease the pupil reading rate resulting in improved reading comprehension. (JN)

Interactive knowledge networks for interdisciplinary course navigation within Moodle.

PubMed

Scherl, Andre; Dethleffsen, Kathrin; Meyer, Michael

2012-12-01

Web-based hypermedia learning environments are widely used in modern education and seem particularly well suited for interdisciplinary learning. Previous work has identified guidance through these complex environments as a crucial problem of their acceptance and efficiency. We reasoned that map-based navigation might provide straightforward and effortless orientation. To achieve this, we developed a clickable and user-oriented concept map-based navigation plugin. This tool is implemented as an extension of Moodle, a widely used learning management system. It visualizes inner and interdisciplinary relations between learning objects and is generated dynamically depending on user set parameters and interactions. This plugin leaves the choice of navigation type to the user and supports direct guidance. Previously developed and evaluated face-to-face interdisciplinary learning materials bridging physiology and physics courses of a medical curriculum were integrated as learning objects, the relations of which were defined by metadata. Learning objects included text pages, self-assessments, videos, animations, and simulations. In a field study, we analyzed the effects of this learning environment on physiology and physics knowledge as well as the transfer ability of third-term medical students. Data were generated from pre- and posttest questionnaires and from tracking student navigation. Use of the hypermedia environment resulted in a significant increase of knowledge and transfer capability. Furthermore, the efficiency of learning was enhanced. We conclude that hypermedia environments based on Moodle and enriched by concept map-based navigation tools can significantly support interdisciplinary learning. Implementation of adaptivity may further strengthen this approach.

CAVIAR: a 45k neuron, 5M synapse, 12G connects/s AER hardware sensory-processing- learning-actuating system for high-speed visual object recognition and tracking.

PubMed

Serrano-Gotarredona, Rafael; Oster, Matthias; Lichtsteiner, Patrick; Linares-Barranco, Alejandro; Paz-Vicente, Rafael; Gomez-Rodriguez, Francisco; Camunas-Mesa, Luis; Berner, Raphael; Rivas-Perez, Manuel; Delbruck, Tobi; Liu, Shih-Chii; Douglas, Rodney; Hafliger, Philipp; Jimenez-Moreno, Gabriel; Civit Ballcels, Anton; Serrano-Gotarredona, Teresa; Acosta-Jimenez, Antonio J; Linares-Barranco, Bernabé

2009-09-01

This paper describes CAVIAR, a massively parallel hardware implementation of a spike-based sensing-processing-learning-actuating system inspired by the physiology of the nervous system. CAVIAR uses the asychronous address-event representation (AER) communication framework and was developed in the context of a European Union funded project. It has four custom mixed-signal AER chips, five custom digital AER interface components, 45k neurons (spiking cells), up to 5M synapses, performs 12G synaptic operations per second, and achieves millisecond object recognition and tracking latencies.

The dark and bright sides of self-efficacy in predicting learning, innovative and risky performances.

PubMed

Salanova, Marisa; Lorente, Laura; Martínez, Isabel M

2012-11-01

The objective of this study is to analyze the different role that efficacy beliefs play in the prediction of learning, innovative and risky performances. We hypothesize that high levels of efficacy beliefs in learning and innovative performances have positive consequences (i.e., better academic and innovative performance, respectively), whereas in risky performances they have negative consequences (i.e., less safety performance). To achieve this objective, three studies were conducted, 1) a two-wave longitudinal field study among 527 undergraduate students (learning setting), 2) a three-wave longitudinal lab study among 165 participants performing innovative group tasks (innovative setting), and 3) a field study among 228 construction workers (risky setting). As expected, high levels of efficacy beliefs have positive or negative consequences on performance depending on the specific settings. Unexpectedly, however, we found no time x self-efficacy interaction effect over time in learning and innovative settings. Theoretical and practical implications within the social cognitive theory of A. Bandura framework are discussed.

Lessons Learned from Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) Mission Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sindiy, Oleg V.; Abrahamson, Matthew J.; Biswas, Abhijit; Wright, Malcolm W.; Padams, Jordan H.; Konyha, Alexander L.

2015-01-01

This paper provides an overview of Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) activities and lessons learned during mission operations. Activities described cover the periods of commissioning, prime, and extended mission operations, during which primary and secondary mission objectives were achieved for demonstrating space-to-ground optical communications. Lessons learned cover Mission Operations System topics in areas of: architecture verification and validation, staffing, mission support area, workstations, workstation tools, interfaces with support services, supporting ground stations, team training, procedures, flight software upgrades, post-processing tools, and public outreach.

Twelve tips for blueprinting.

PubMed

Coderre, Sylvain; Woloschuk, Wayne; McLaughlin, Kevin

2009-04-01

Content validity is a requirement of every evaluation and is achieved when the evaluation content is congruent with the learning objectives and the learning experiences. Congruence between these three pillars of education can be facilitated by blueprinting. Here we describe an efficient process for creating a blueprint and explain how to use this tool to guide all aspects of course creation and evaluation. A well constructed blueprint is a valuable tool for medical educators. In addition to validating evaluation content, a blueprint can also be used to guide selection of curricular content and learning experiences.

Autonomous mental development with selective attention, object perception, and knowledge representation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ban, Sang-Woo; Lee, Minho

2008-04-01

Knowledge-based clustering and autonomous mental development remains a high priority research topic, among which the learning techniques of neural networks are used to achieve optimal performance. In this paper, we present a new framework that can automatically generate a relevance map from sensory data that can represent knowledge regarding objects and infer new knowledge about novel objects. The proposed model is based on understating of the visual what pathway in our brain. A stereo saliency map model can selectively decide salient object areas by additionally considering local symmetry feature. The incremental object perception model makes clusters for the construction of an ontology map in the color and form domains in order to perceive an arbitrary object, which is implemented by the growing fuzzy topology adaptive resonant theory (GFTART) network. Log-polar transformed color and form features for a selected object are used as inputs of the GFTART. The clustered information is relevant to describe specific objects, and the proposed model can automatically infer an unknown object by using the learned information. Experimental results with real data have demonstrated the validity of this approach.

The ambiguous and bewitching power of knowledge, skills and attitudes leads to confusing statements of learning objectives.

PubMed

Guilbert, J-J

2002-01-01

The words "knowledge", "skills" and "attitudes" are given different meanings by health personnel when discussing educational issues. Ambiguity is known as a handicap to efficient communication. In the design of a curriculum the quality of the definition of learning objectives plays a fundamental role. If learning objectives lack clarity, learners and teachers will face operational difficulties. As Robert Mager said, "If you are not certain of where you are going you may very well end up somewhere else and not even know it". Knowledge is not only memory of facts but what you do with it. The complexity of human behaviour should not be underestimated. This is why educational objectives need active non-ambiguous verbs in order to achieve better communication between teachers and learners and to assess that complexity. This is why I suggest using the expression intellectual skill (or competence) as meaning "a rational decision or act". Sensomotor skill (or competence) would replace "skills" as presently used and cover only "acts which require a neuromuscular coordination". Interpersonal communication skill (or competence) would replace "attitude(s)" and be limited to "verbal and non-verbal relation between persons". As the level of validity of assessment of learners' competencies is linked to the clarity of learning objectives, it is hoped that the above suggestions will raise the overall level of validity of the evaluation system. This is why it is important that everybody understands, in the same manner, the meaning of a learning objective. It will help learners to focus their learning efforts on the right target. It will help teachers to ensure the relevance to health needs of their teaching and the validity of assessment instruments. In both cases it will be beneficial to the health of the population.

Addition of fornix transection to frontal-temporal disconnection increases the impairment in object-in-place memory in macaque monkeys.

PubMed

Wilson, C R E; Baxter, M G; Easton, A; Gaffan, D

2008-04-01

Both frontal-inferotemporal disconnection and fornix transection (Fx) in the monkey impair object-in-place scene learning, a model of human episodic memory. If the contribution of the fornix to scene learning is via interaction with or modulation of frontal-temporal interaction--that is, if they form a unitary system--then Fx should have no further effect when added to frontal-temporal disconnection. However, if the contribution of the fornix is to some extent distinct, then fornix lesions may produce an additional deficit in scene learning beyond that caused by frontal-temporal disconnection. To distinguish between these possibilities, we trained three male rhesus monkeys on the object-in-place scene-learning task. We tested their learning on the task following frontal-temporal disconnection, achieved by crossed unilateral aspiration of the frontal cortex in one hemisphere and the inferotemporal cortex in the other, and again following the addition of Fx. The monkeys were significantly impaired in scene learning following frontal-temporal disconnection, and furthermore showed a significant increase in this impairment following the addition of Fx, from 32.8% error to 40.5% error (chance = 50%). The increased impairment following the addition of Fx provides evidence that the fornix and frontal-inferotemporal interaction make distinct contributions to episodic memory.

Evaluation of a distance-learning immunology and pathology module in a postgraduate biomedical science course.

PubMed

Ryan, M T; Mulholland, C W

2005-01-01

An electronic presentation of materials for a distance-learning immunology and pathology module from a postgraduate biomedical science course is evaluated. Two different electronic presentation formats for the delivery of the educational material to distance learners are assessed. Responses from users of this material highlighted a preference for a format that has a design tailored to distance learning. There was no significant difference in learning outcome between those taking the module on campus and by distance learning. This suggests that the prerequisites for entry, learning materials and direction given to the students studying by distance learning are adequate for these students to achieve the learning objectives outlined in the course. The evaluation also gave direction for areas within the (CAL) application that can be improved for future students.

Medical Assisting Competencies. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Beverly; And Others

This document contains medical assisting competencies and competency-based performance objectives, learning activities, resources, and levels of achievement for each competency that were adapted and developed by instructors of medical assisting to suit the needs and legal parameters of Pennsylvania. The competencies and associated elements are…

[E-learning and problem based learning integration in cardiology education].

PubMed

Gürpinar, Erol; Zayim, Neşe; Başarici, Ibrahim; Gündüz, Filiz; Asar, Mevlüt; Oğuz, Nurettin

2009-06-01

The aim of this study was to determine students' satisfaction with an e-learning environment which is developed to support classical problem-based learning (PBL) in medical education and its effect on academic achievement. In this cross-sectional study, students were provided with a web-based learning environment including learning materials related to objectives of the subject of PBL module, which could be used during independent study period. The study group comprised of all of the second year students (164 students) of Akdeniz University, Medical Faculty, during 2007-2008 education period. In order to gather data about students' satisfaction with learning environment, a questionnaire was administered to the students. Comparison of students' academic achievement was based on their performance score in PBL exam. Statistical analyses were performed using unpaired t test and Mann Whitney U test. Findings indicated that 72.6% of the students used e-learning practice. There is no statistically significant difference between mean PBL performance scores of users and non-users of e-learning practice (103.58 vs. 100.88) (t=-0.998, p=0.320). It is found that frequent users of e-learning application had statistically significant higher scores than non-frequent users (106.28 vs. 100.59) (t=-2.373, p=0.01). In addition, 72.6% of the students declared they were satisfied with the application. Our study demonstrated that the most of the students use e-learning application and are satisfied with it. In addition, it is observed that e-learning application positively affects the academic achievement of the students. This study gains special importance by providing contribution to limited literature in the area of instructional technology in PBL and Cardiology teaching.

The Effect of Gender on Motivation and Student Achievement in Digital Game-Based Learning: A Case Study of a Contented-Based Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, Liang-Yi; Chang, Rong-Chi

2017-01-01

This study attempts to probe into the impact of learners' gender on learning outcomes and motivation. A digital game focusing on the topic of emergency first aid is designed for the purpose of this present study, according to the curriculum objectives for a content-based instruction (CBI) course as part of the experiment. In the process of playing…

Adaptive planning for applications with dynamic objectives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hadavi, Khosrow; Hsu, Wen-Ling; Pinedo, Michael

1992-01-01

We devise a qualitative control layer to be integrated into a real-time multi-agent reactive planner. The reactive planning system consists of distributed planning agents attending to various perspectives of the task environment. Each perspective corresponds to an objective. The set of objectives considered are sometimes in conflict with each other. Each agent receives information about events as they occur, and a set of actions based on heuristics can be taken by the agents. Within the qualitative control scheme, we use a set of qualitative feature vectors to describe the effects of applying actions. A qualitative transition vector is used to denote the qualitative distance between the current state and the target state. We will then apply on-line learning at the qualitative control level to achieve adaptive planning. Our goal is to design a mechanism to refine the heuristics used by the reactive planner every time an action is taken toward achieving the objectives, using feedback from the results of the actions. When the outcome is compared with expectations, our prior objectives may be modified and a new set of objectives (or a new assessment of the relative importance of the different objectives) can be introduced. Because we are able to obtain better estimates of the time-varying objectives, the reactive strategies can be improved and better prediction can be achieved.

Active-Learning Implementation in an Advanced Elective Course on Infectious Diseases

PubMed Central

Patel, Shreya; Veltri, Keith

2012-01-01

Objectives. To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of an advanced elective course on infectious diseases using active-learning strategies. Design. Pedagogy for active learning was incorporated by means of mini-lecture, journal club, and debate with follow-up discussion. Forty-eight students were enrolled in this 4-week elective course, in which 30% of course time was allocated for active-learning exercises. All activities were fundamentally designed as a stepwise approach in complementing each active-learning exercise. Assessment. Achievement of the course learning objectives was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale survey instrument. Students’ awareness of the significance of antimicrobial resistance was improved (p ≤ 0.05). Students’ ability to critically evaluate the infectious-disease literature and its application in informed clinical judgments was also enhanced through these active-learning exercises (p ≤ 0.05). Students agreed that active learning should be part of the pharmacy curriculum and that active-learning exercises improved their critical-thinking, literature-evaluation, and self-learning skills. Conclusion. An elective course using active-learning strategies allowed students to combine information gained from the evaluation of infectious-disease literature, critical thinking, and informed clinical judgment. This blended approach ultimately resulted in an increased knowledge and awareness of infectious diseases. PMID:22761528

Applying interprofessional Team-Based Learning in patient safety: a pilot evaluation study.

PubMed

Lochner, Lukas; Girardi, Sandra; Pavcovich, Alessandra; Meier, Horand; Mantovan, Franco; Ausserhofer, Dietmar

2018-03-27

Interprofessional education (IPE) interventions are not always successful in achieving learning outcomes. Team-Based Learning (TBL) would appear to be a suitable pedagogical method for IPE, as it focuses on team performance; however, little is known about interprofessional TBL as an instructional framework for patient safety. In this pilot-study, we aimed to (1) describe participants' reactions to TBL, (2) observe their achievement with respect to interprofessional education learning objectives, and (3) document their attitudinal shifts with regard to patient safety behaviours. We developed and implemented a three-day course for pre-qualifying, non-medical healthcare students to give instruction on non-technical skills related to 'learning from errors'. The course consisted of three sequential modules: 'Recognizing Errors', 'Analysing Errors', and 'Reporting Errors'. The evaluation took place within a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test study design. Participants completed self-assessments through valid and reliable instruments such as the Mennenga's TBL Student Assessment Instrument and the University of the West of England's Interprofessional Questionnaire. The mean scores of the individual readiness assurance tests were compared with the scores of the group readiness assurance test in order to explore if students learned from each other during group discussions. Data was analysed using descriptive (i.e. mean, standard deviation), parametric (i.e. paired t-test), and non-parametric (i.e. Wilcoxon signed-rank test) methods. Thirty-nine students from five different bachelor's programs attended the course. The participants positively rated TBL as an instructional approach. All teams outperformed the mean score of their individual members during the readiness assurance process. We observed significant improvements in 'communication and teamwork' and 'interprofessional learning' but not in 'interprofessional interaction' and 'interprofessional relationships.' Findings on safety attitudes and behaviours were mixed. TBL was well received by the students. Our first findings indicate that interprofessional TBL seems to be a promising pedagogical method to achieve patient safety learning objectives. It is crucial to develop relevant clinical cases that involve all professions. Further research with larger sample sizes (e.g. including medical students) and more rigorous study designs (e.g. pre-test post-test with a control group) is needed to confirm our preliminary findings.

Object-Location-Aware Hashing for Multi-Label Image Retrieval via Automatic Mask Learning.

PubMed

Huang, Chang-Qin; Yang, Shang-Ming; Pan, Yan; Lai, Han-Jiang

2018-09-01

Learning-based hashing is a leading approach of approximate nearest neighbor search for large-scale image retrieval. In this paper, we develop a deep supervised hashing method for multi-label image retrieval, in which we propose to learn a binary "mask" map that can identify the approximate locations of objects in an image, so that we use this binary "mask" map to obtain length-limited hash codes which mainly focus on an image's objects but ignore the background. The proposed deep architecture consists of four parts: 1) a convolutional sub-network to generate effective image features; 2) a binary "mask" sub-network to identify image objects' approximate locations; 3) a weighted average pooling operation based on the binary "mask" to obtain feature representations and hash codes that pay most attention to foreground objects but ignore the background; and 4) the combination of a triplet ranking loss designed to preserve relative similarities among images and a cross entropy loss defined on image labels. We conduct comprehensive evaluations on four multi-label image data sets. The results indicate that the proposed hashing method achieves superior performance gains over the state-of-the-art supervised or unsupervised hashing baselines.

How to confidently teach EBM on foot: development and evaluation of a web-based e-learning course.

PubMed

Weberschock, Tobias; Sorinola, Olanrewaju; Thangaratinam, Shakila; Oude Rengerink, Katrien; Arvanitis, Theodoros N; Khan, Khalid S

2013-10-01

Scarcity of well-trained clinical tutors is a key constraint in integrating teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) into clinical activities. We developed a web-based educational course for clinical trainers to confidently teach EBM principles in everyday practice. Its e-learning modules defined the learning objectives and incorporated video clips of practical and effective EBM teaching methods for exploiting educational opportunities in six different clinical settings. We evaluated the course with clinical tutors in different specialties across six European countries using a questionnaire to capture learning achievement against preset objectives. Among 56 tutors, 47 participants (84%) improved their scores from baseline. The mean pre-course score was 69.2 (SD=10.4), which increased to 77.3 (SD=11.7) postcourse (p<0.0001). The effect size was moderate with a Cohen's d of 0.73. An e-learning approach incorporating videos of applied EBM teaching and learning based on real clinical scenarios in the workplace can be useful in facilitating EBM teaching on foot. It can be integrated in the continuing professional development programmes for clinical trainers.

3D interactive augmented reality-enhanced digital learning systems for mobile devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Kai-Ten; Tseng, Po-Hsuan; Chiu, Pei-Shuan; Yang, Jia-Lin; Chiu, Chun-Jie

2013-03-01

With enhanced processing capability of mobile platforms, augmented reality (AR) has been considered a promising technology for achieving enhanced user experiences (UX). Augmented reality is to impose virtual information, e.g., videos and images, onto a live-view digital display. UX on real-world environment via the display can be e ectively enhanced with the adoption of interactive AR technology. Enhancement on UX can be bene cial for digital learning systems. There are existing research works based on AR targeting for the design of e-learning systems. However, none of these work focuses on providing three-dimensional (3-D) object modeling for en- hanced UX based on interactive AR techniques. In this paper, the 3-D interactive augmented reality-enhanced learning (IARL) systems will be proposed to provide enhanced UX for digital learning. The proposed IARL systems consist of two major components, including the markerless pattern recognition (MPR) for 3-D models and velocity-based object tracking (VOT) algorithms. Realistic implementation of proposed IARL system is conducted on Android-based mobile platforms. UX on digital learning can be greatly improved with the adoption of proposed IARL systems.

Objective structured brainstorming questions (OSBQs) in PBL tutorial sessions: Evidence based pilot study

PubMed Central

AlHoqail, Ibrahim A.; Badr, Fouad M.

2010-01-01

The fact that faculty tutors do have different backgrounds and specialty has been a concern as a factor that contributes to disparity in the delivery of brainstorming session outcomes. This paper aims to introduce a road map in the form of a set of focused objective structured questions (OSBQs) for tutors to follow in brainstorming. Methods Objectively structured questions were generated by the block planning committees. A pilot study was conducted from February 2008 – March 2009 and included groups (44 students) of second and third year undergraduate students of the Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City. Four indicators were considered to check the validity of the proposed OSBQs; (i) feed back on the perception of medical students experiencing different types of tutorial sessions, (ii) learning objectives achieved under both systems, (iii) student’s performance under the OSBQs and the unguided tutorials and (iv) proper utilization of the time allocated to brainstorming sessions. Results The student’s perception of their satisfaction of implementation of OSBQs was unanimous. Student’s performances were much better in blocks implementing OSBQs. The time allocated for brainstorming sessions was efficiently utilized with the introduction of OSBQs. Conclusion Implementation of OSBQs leads to standardization of tutorial sessions and allows more interaction between students to achieve their learning objectives and score better in their exams. Concern over the role of tutors will diminish. PMID:21475549

Objective structured brainstorming questions (OSBQs) in PBL tutorial sessions: Evidence based pilot study.

PubMed

Alhoqail, Ibrahim A; Badr, Fouad M

2010-11-01

The fact that faculty tutors do have different backgrounds and specialty has been a concern as a factor that contributes to disparity in the delivery of brainstorming session outcomes. This paper aims to introduce a road map in the form of a set of focused objective structured questions (OSBQs) for tutors to follow in brainstorming. Objectively structured questions were generated by the block planning committees. A pilot study was conducted from February 2008 - March 2009 and included groups (44 students) of second and third year undergraduate students of the Faculty of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City. Four indicators were considered to check the validity of the proposed OSBQs; (i) feed back on the perception of medical students experiencing different types of tutorial sessions, (ii) learning objectives achieved under both systems, (iii) student's performance under the OSBQs and the unguided tutorials and (iv) proper utilization of the time allocated to brainstorming sessions. The student's perception of their satisfaction of implementation of OSBQs was unanimous. Student's performances were much better in blocks implementing OSBQs. The time allocated for brainstorming sessions was efficiently utilized with the introduction of OSBQs. Implementation of OSBQs leads to standardization of tutorial sessions and allows more interaction between students to achieve their learning objectives and score better in their exams. Concern over the role of tutors will diminish.

V-TECS Guide for Commercial Foods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, Ronald T.; Benson, Robert T.

This guide is designed to provide job-relevant tasks, performance objectives, performance guides, resources, teaching activities, evaluation standards, and achievement testing for commercial foods occupations. It can be used with any teaching method, and it addresses all three domains of learning: psychomotor, cognitive, and affective. The guide…

Monohybrid Cross.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henderson, Paula

This autoinstructional lesson deals with the study of genetics. It is a learning activity for so-called middle achievers in grade 10 biology classes. Previous knowledge of the process of mitosis and meiosis are important requirements. Behavioral objectives are suggested. Approximately 20 minutes are needed to complete the instructional unit. The…

The relationship between autonomous motivation and autonomy support in medical students’ academic achievement

PubMed Central

Soemantri, Diantha; Jusuf, Anwar

2016-01-01

Objectives This study applied self-determination theory (SDT) to investigate the relationship between students’ autonomous motivation and tutors’ autonomy support in medical students’ academic achievement. Methods This was a cross-sectional study. Out of 204 students in a fundamental medical science course, 199 participated in the study. Data was collected using two questionnaires: the Learning Self-Regulation and Learning Climate Questionnaires. The score of the course assessment was the measure of academic achievement. Data was analyzed and reported with descriptive and inferential statistics (mean, standard deviation and multiple regression analysis).  Results Mean score (±standard deviation) of the autonomous motivation, tutors’ autonomy support, and academic achievement were 5.48±0.89, 5.22±0.92, and 5.22±0.92. Multiple regression results reported students’ autonomous motivation was associated with improvement of students’ academic achievement (β=15.2, p=0.004). However, augmentation of tutors’ autonomy support was not reflected in the improvement of students’ academic achievement (β = -12.6, p = 0.019). Both students’ autonomous motivation and tutors’ autonomy support had a contribution of about 4.2% students’ academic achievement (F = 4.343, p = 0.014, R2 = 0.042). Conclusions Due to the unique characteristic of our medical students’ educational background, our study shows that tutors’ autonomy support is inconsistent with students’ academic achievement. However, both autonomous motivation and support are essential to students’ academic achievement. Further study is needed to explore students’ educational background and self-regulated learning competence to improve students’ academic achievement.               PMID:28035054

Incremental Structured Dictionary Learning for Video Sensor-Based Object Tracking

PubMed Central

Xue, Ming; Yang, Hua; Zheng, Shibao; Zhou, Yi; Yu, Zhenghua

2014-01-01

To tackle robust object tracking for video sensor-based applications, an online discriminative algorithm based on incremental discriminative structured dictionary learning (IDSDL-VT) is presented. In our framework, a discriminative dictionary combining both positive, negative and trivial patches is designed to sparsely represent the overlapped target patches. Then, a local update (LU) strategy is proposed for sparse coefficient learning. To formulate the training and classification process, a multiple linear classifier group based on a K-combined voting (KCV) function is proposed. As the dictionary evolves, the models are also trained to timely adapt the target appearance variation. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations on challenging image sequences compared with state-of-the-art algorithms demonstrate that the proposed tracking algorithm achieves a more favorable performance. We also illustrate its relay application in visual sensor networks. PMID:24549252

Salient object detection based on multi-scale contrast.

PubMed

Wang, Hai; Dai, Lei; Cai, Yingfeng; Sun, Xiaoqiang; Chen, Long

2018-05-01

Due to the development of deep learning networks, a salient object detection based on deep learning networks, which are used to extract the features, has made a great breakthrough compared to the traditional methods. At present, the salient object detection mainly relies on very deep convolutional network, which is used to extract the features. In deep learning networks, an dramatic increase of network depth may cause more training errors instead. In this paper, we use the residual network to increase network depth and to mitigate the errors caused by depth increase simultaneously. Inspired by image simplification, we use color and texture features to obtain simplified image with multiple scales by means of region assimilation on the basis of super-pixels in order to reduce the complexity of images and to improve the accuracy of salient target detection. We refine the feature on pixel level by the multi-scale feature correction method to avoid the feature error when the image is simplified at the above-mentioned region level. The final full connection layer not only integrates features of multi-scale and multi-level but also works as classifier of salient targets. The experimental results show that proposed model achieves better results than other salient object detection models based on original deep learning networks. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of experts' perception of the effectiveness of teaching methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kindra, Gurprit S.

1984-03-01

The present study attempts to shed light on the perceptions of business educators regarding the effectiveness of six methodologies in achieving Gagné's five learning outcomes. Results of this study empirically confirm the oft-stated contention that no one method is globally effective for the attainment of all objectives. Specifically, business games, traditional lecture, and case study methods are perceived to be most effective for the learning of application, knowledge acquisition, and analysis and application, respectively.

Intelligence Virtual Analyst Capability: Governing Concepts and Science and Technology Roadmap

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

system’s perspective. That is to say : what is the information the user needs to achieve his tasks and objective; and what information does the system need...be able to learn from demonstration, which is to say by looking at examples of how a given task is usually performed. Learning is an important part...address, and phone number. Finally it can also include biometric and genetic information such as face attributes, fingerprints, handwriting , DNA. Time

Visual object recognition for mobile tourist information systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paletta, Lucas; Fritz, Gerald; Seifert, Christin; Luley, Patrick; Almer, Alexander

2005-03-01

We describe a mobile vision system that is capable of automated object identification using images captured from a PDA or a camera phone. We present a solution for the enabling technology of outdoors vision based object recognition that will extend state-of-the-art location and context aware services towards object based awareness in urban environments. In the proposed application scenario, tourist pedestrians are equipped with GPS, W-LAN and a camera attached to a PDA or a camera phone. They are interested whether their field of view contains tourist sights that would point to more detailed information. Multimedia type data about related history, the architecture, or other related cultural context of historic or artistic relevance might be explored by a mobile user who is intending to learn within the urban environment. Learning from ambient cues is in this way achieved by pointing the device towards the urban sight, capturing an image, and consequently getting information about the object on site and within the focus of attention, i.e., the users current field of view.

Factors Influencing Learning of Classical Mechanics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Champagne, Audrey B.; And Others

Beginning college physics students' misconceptions about moving objects, their mathematics skills, and formal reasoning ability, are all believed to be related to their achievement in physics. It is hypothesized that students whose knowledge structures include misconceptions that are in conflict with concepts in the lectures and text will have…

The Impact of a Standalone, Patient-centered Communication Course Series on Student Achievement, Preparedness, and Attitudes.

PubMed

Trujillo, Jennifer M; McNair, Chelsea D; Linnebur, Sunny A; Valdez, Connie; Trujillo, Toby C

2016-12-25

Objective. To evaluate the impact of a standalone, patient-centered communication (PCC) course series on student achievement of and perceived preparedness for PCC skills and to assess student attitudes regarding learning methods used. Design. During curriculum renewal, a standalone PCC course series that integrated horizontally and vertically within the curriculum was developed. Student achievement of outcomes was evaluated by aggregate performance on simulated evaluations. Students who completed the PCC series were surveyed to assess preparedness and attitudes. Students in the prior curriculum were also surveyed. Assessment. The majority of students who completed the PCC series met or exceeded expectations for the simulated evaluations. Preparedness responses were more positive from students who completed the PCC series than from those who completed the prior curriculum. Student attitudes about the learning methods use in the courses also were more positive. Conclusion. The standalone PCC course series effectively achieved PCC outcomes and improved student preparedness for communication-based activities.

The Reflection on the Domestic Research Status of Language Learning Strategies Used by Foreign Students Learning Chinese

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Min, M. A.

Learning strategy is a psychological concept influenced by cognitive theory. It is a hot spot in the field of second language acquisition. This article analyses the research findings on Chinese learning strategies published by the domestic publications over the past ten years. The article introduces research achievements in the field of Chinese learning strategies, summarizes the research characteristic, and points out the shortcomings of the researches in three ways: the type of the research findings, research teams and research objects. The article suggests the researchers should enhance team cooperation, communicate with the researchers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, establish the better academic platform and focus on the contrastive research on Chinese learner from different backgrounds.

Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: Object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding

PubMed Central

Foley, Nicholas C.; Grossberg, Stephen; Mingolla, Ennio

2015-01-01

How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued locations? What factors underlie individual differences in the timing and frequency of such attentional shifts? How do transient and sustained spatial attentional mechanisms work and interact? How can volition, mediated via the basal ganglia, influence the span of spatial attention? A neural model is developed of how spatial attention in the where cortical stream coordinates view-invariant object category learning in the what cortical stream under free viewing conditions. The model simulates psychological data about the dynamics of covert attention priming and switching requiring multifocal attention without eye movements. The model predicts how “attentional shrouds” are formed when surface representations in cortical area V4 resonate with spatial attention in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), while shrouds compete among themselves for dominance. Winning shrouds support invariant object category learning, and active surface-shroud resonances support conscious surface perception and recognition. Attentive competition between multiple objects and cues simulates reaction-time data from the two-object cueing paradigm. The relative strength of sustained surface-driven and fast-transient motion-driven spatial attention controls individual differences in reaction time for invalid cues. Competition between surface-driven attentional shrouds controls individual differences in detection rate of peripheral targets in useful-field-of-view tasks. The model proposes how the strength of competition can be mediated, though learning or momentary changes in volition, by the basal ganglia. A new explanation of crowding shows how the cortical magnification factor, among other variables, can cause multiple object surfaces to share a single surface-shroud resonance, thereby preventing recognition of the individual objects. PMID:22425615

Neural dynamics of object-based multifocal visual spatial attention and priming: object cueing, useful-field-of-view, and crowding.

PubMed

Foley, Nicholas C; Grossberg, Stephen; Mingolla, Ennio

2012-08-01

How are spatial and object attention coordinated to achieve rapid object learning and recognition during eye movement search? How do prefrontal priming and parietal spatial mechanisms interact to determine the reaction time costs of intra-object attention shifts, inter-object attention shifts, and shifts between visible objects and covertly cued locations? What factors underlie individual differences in the timing and frequency of such attentional shifts? How do transient and sustained spatial attentional mechanisms work and interact? How can volition, mediated via the basal ganglia, influence the span of spatial attention? A neural model is developed of how spatial attention in the where cortical stream coordinates view-invariant object category learning in the what cortical stream under free viewing conditions. The model simulates psychological data about the dynamics of covert attention priming and switching requiring multifocal attention without eye movements. The model predicts how "attentional shrouds" are formed when surface representations in cortical area V4 resonate with spatial attention in posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC), while shrouds compete among themselves for dominance. Winning shrouds support invariant object category learning, and active surface-shroud resonances support conscious surface perception and recognition. Attentive competition between multiple objects and cues simulates reaction-time data from the two-object cueing paradigm. The relative strength of sustained surface-driven and fast-transient motion-driven spatial attention controls individual differences in reaction time for invalid cues. Competition between surface-driven attentional shrouds controls individual differences in detection rate of peripheral targets in useful-field-of-view tasks. The model proposes how the strength of competition can be mediated, though learning or momentary changes in volition, by the basal ganglia. A new explanation of crowding shows how the cortical magnification factor, among other variables, can cause multiple object surfaces to share a single surface-shroud resonance, thereby preventing recognition of the individual objects. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

South Dakota Student Learning Objectives Handbook

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Matt; Outka, Janeen; McCorkle, Mary

2015-01-01

Student growth is one of two essential components of South Dakota's Teacher and Principal Effectiveness Systems. In the state systems, student growth is defined as a positive change in student achievement between two or more points in time. "The South Dakota SLO Handbook" provides support and guidance to public schools and school…

Differentiated Instruction in a Calculus Curriculum for College Students in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Jing-Hua; Chen, Yi-Chou

2018-01-01

Objectives: To explore differentiated instruction within a calculus curriculum. For college students to learn concentration, motivation and the impact of academic achievement; explore the attitudes and ideas of students on differentiated instruction within a calculus curriculum; build up the diversity of mathematics education within varied…

Environmental Control System Installer/Servicer (Residential Air Conditioning Mechanic). V-TECS Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyer, Calvin F.; Benson, Robert T.

This guide provides job relevant tasks, performance objectives, performance guides, resources, learning activitites, evaluation standards, and achievement testing in the occupation of environmental control system installer/servicer (residential air conditioning mechanic). It is designed to be used with any chosen teaching method. The course…

Learning Objects and the FATIH Project: Proposal of a Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eryilmaz, Selami

2014-01-01

Globalization together with new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and accelerated changes in society affect the economic and social life to a great extent. In order to achieve the goals mentioned in the strategy document, the necessary arrangements were made and FATIH (Increasing the opportunities and Technology Improvement…

Assessment at AACSB Schools: A Survey of Deans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheeling, Barbara M.; Miller, Donald S.; Slocombe, Thomas E.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this research was to document the extent to which Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)-accredited business schools have implemented strategies to improve students' ability to achieve program learning objectives. Assessment of academic programs is increasingly important at AACSB schools. Compliance with…

New Horizons in Entrepreneurship: From Teacher-Led to Student-Centered Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Sarah; Neergaard, Helle; Tanggaard, Lene; Krueger, Norris

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the complexity and heterogeneity of entrepreneurship education. In order to achieve this objective, this paper combines educational psychology with perspectives from entrepreneurship education research to make explicit educators tacit assumptions in order to understand how…

Concept Mapping and Pupils' Learning in Primary Science in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ling, Yuan; Boo, Hong Kwen

2007-01-01

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study which examined the effectiveness of concept mapping as a revision tool in enhancing pupils' examination performances in primary science. The research objective seeks to determine whether there are significant differences in achievement between the concept mapping and traditional method of revision…

Teaching Quality Object-Oriented Programming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldman, Yishai A.

2005-01-01

Computer science students need to learn how to write high-quality software. An important methodology for achieving quality is design-by-contract, in which code is developed together with its specification, which is given as class invariants and method pre- and postconditions. This paper describes practical experience in teaching design-by-contract…

Telecourse Study Guide to "Here's to Your Health."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Donna

This study guide was prepared to accompany "Here's to Your Health," a telecourse focusing on lifestyle factors influencing health, which was designed to provide the tools necessary for achieving and maintaining an optimal, healthy lifestyle. For each of 27 lessons, the study guide presents learning objectives, an overview of content, study…

What Works in Enhancing HRD Effectiveness?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wognum, Ida

A study was conducted to determine what factors of human resource development (HRD) or other learning interventions impede or enhance improved performance. A review of the literature suggested theories of HRD effectiveness, where HRD effectiveness is perceived as the extent to which HRD goals and objectives are achieved. Various authors state that…

42 CFR Appendix C to Part 75 - Standards for Accreditation of Dental Radiography Training for Dental Assistants

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... curriculum in terms of program goals, instructional objectives, learning experiences designed to achieve... must be provided during a student's radiographic technique experience. Students must demonstrate... provide opportunity to make a variety of radiographs and radiographic surveys, including primary, mixed...

42 CFR Appendix C to Part 75 - Standards for Accreditation of Dental Radiography Training for Dental Assistants

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... curriculum in terms of program goals, instructional objectives, learning experiences designed to achieve... must be provided during a student's radiographic technique experience. Students must demonstrate... provide opportunity to make a variety of radiographs and radiographic surveys, including primary, mixed...

42 CFR Appendix C to Part 75 - Standards for Accreditation of Dental Radiography Training for Dental Assistants

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... curriculum in terms of program goals, instructional objectives, learning experiences designed to achieve... must be provided during a student's radiographic technique experience. Students must demonstrate... provide opportunity to make a variety of radiographs and radiographic surveys, including primary, mixed...

42 CFR Appendix C to Part 75 - Standards for Accreditation of Dental Radiography Training for Dental Assistants

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... curriculum in terms of program goals, instructional objectives, learning experiences designed to achieve... must be provided during a student's radiographic technique experience. Students must demonstrate... provide opportunity to make a variety of radiographs and radiographic surveys, including primary, mixed...

Evaluation of Public Fundamental Schools in Hampton, Virginia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Larry J.; McBee, Janice K.

Findings are presented which provide information about the extent to which fundamental schools (learning in a highly structured setting with instructional emphasis placed on "basic" subjects) at the elementary and junior high school levels in a large school system in Virginia have achieved their objectives. In this report, four schools…

Achieving Competency in Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Model Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dolenc, Tamara J.; Philbrick, Kemuel L.

2007-01-01

Objective: This article illustrates a model electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) curriculum with specific parameters of both practice-based learning and medical knowledge. Method: The authors review the recommendations of the APA Task Force on ECT as they relate to training in ECT in psychiatry residency programs, and discuss diverse educational…

Association of Perceived Interest Major Fit and Objective Interest Major Fit with Academic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vahidi, Naghmeh; Roslan, Samsilah; Abdullah, Maria Chong; Omar, Zoharah

2016-01-01

Recently, despite the high budget allocating for education in Malaysia, the educational performance among students is low (Blueprint, 2013). Pascarella and Terenzini (2005; 1991) have identified four theories and models that affect students' learning: (a) psychosocial, (b) cognitive-structural, (c) typological, and (d) person-environment…

The use of a mobile assistant learning system for health education based on project-based learning.

PubMed

Wu, Ting-Ting

2014-10-01

With the development of mobile devices and wireless technology, mobile technology has gradually infiltrated nursing practice courses to facilitate instruction. Mobile devices save manpower and reduce errors while enhancing nursing students' professional knowledge and skills. To achieve teaching objectives and address the drawbacks of traditional education, this study presents a mobile assistant learning system to help nursing students prepare health education materials. The proposed system is based on a project-based learning strategy to assist nursing students with internalizing professional knowledge and developing critical thinking skills. Experimental results show that the proposed mobile system and project-based learning strategy can promote learning effectiveness and efficiency. Most nursing students and nursing educators showed positive attitudes toward this mobile learning system and looked forward to using it again in related courses in the future.

How Games are Designed to Increase Students’ Motivation in Learning Physics? A Literature Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tinedi, V.; Yohandri, Y.; Djamas, D.

2018-04-01

Game is a promising tool to help students in understanding physics concept. It can motivate and provide the opportunities for students to become independent in learning. In order to fulfil these functions, games should be carefully designed. Thus, the objective of this paper is to present how games are designed to increase students’ motivation in learning physics based on several literature reviews. The results showed that there are several ways to increase students’ motivation in learning physics and to achieve that, game dimensions are needed to be considered when designing a game. This literature review may have useful to assist teachers and contribute in improving the design of games.

The development of learning material using learning cycle 5E model based stem to improve students’ learning outcomes in Thermochemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

sugiarti, A. C.; suyatno, S.; Sanjaya, I. G. M.

2018-04-01

The objective of this study is describing the feasibility of Learning Cycle 5E STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) based learning material which is appropriate to improve students’ learning achievement in Thermochemistry. The study design used 4-D models and one group pretest-posttest design to obtain the information about the improvement of sudents’ learning outcomes. The subject was learning cycle 5E based STEM learning materials which the data were collected from 30 students of Science class at 11th Grade. The techniques used in this study were validation, observation, test, and questionnaire. Some result attain: (1) all the learning materials contents were valid, (2) the practicality and the effectiveness of all the learning materials contents were classified as good. The conclution of this study based on those three condition, the Learnig Cycle 5E based STEM learning materials is appropriate to improve students’ learning outcomes in studying Thermochemistry.

Object recognition through a multi-mode fiber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takagi, Ryosuke; Horisaki, Ryoichi; Tanida, Jun

2017-04-01

We present a method of recognizing an object through a multi-mode fiber. A number of speckle patterns transmitted through a multi-mode fiber are provided to a classifier based on machine learning. We experimentally demonstrated binary classification of face and non-face targets based on the method. The measurement process of the experimental setup was random and nonlinear because a multi-mode fiber is a typical strongly scattering medium and any reference light was not used in our setup. Comparisons between three supervised learning methods, support vector machine, adaptive boosting, and neural network, are also provided. All of those learning methods achieved high accuracy rates at about 90% for the classification. The approach presented here can realize a compact and smart optical sensor. It is practically useful for medical applications, such as endoscopy. Also our study indicated a promising utilization of artificial intelligence, which has rapidly progressed, for reducing optical and computational costs in optical sensing systems.

Mathematics education and learning disabilities in Spain.

PubMed

Casas, Ana Miranda; Castellar, Rosa García

2004-01-01

In the first part of this article, we describe the basic objectives of the math curriculum in Spain as well as the basic contents, teacher resources, and obstacles perceived in mathematics instruction. Second, we briefly describe the concept of learning disabilities (LD) as they are currently defined in Spain. As stated in the recent educational reform, a student with LD is any student with special educational needs. The emphasis is placed on the educational resources that these students need in order to achieve the curricular objectives that correspond to their age group or grade. Third, we comment specifically on the educational services model and the evaluation and instructional procedures for students with math learning disabilities. Finally, we describe some lines of research that have appeared in the last few years in Spain that have led to the development of new evaluation and intervention procedures for students with LD in computation and problem solving.

Using the Knowledge, Process, Practice (KPP) model for driving the design and development of online postgraduate medical education.

PubMed

Shaw, Tim; Barnet, Stewart; Mcgregor, Deborah; Avery, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Online learning is a primary delivery method for continuing health education programs. It is critical that programs have curricula objectives linked to educational models that support learning. Using a proven educational modelling process ensures that curricula objectives are met and a solid basis for learning and assessment is achieved. To develop an educational design model that produces an educationally sound program development plan for use by anyone involved in online course development. We have described the development of a generic educational model designed for continuing health education programs. The Knowledge, Process, Practice (KPP) model is founded on recognised educational theory and online education practice. This paper presents a step-by-step guide on using this model for program development that encases reliable learning and evaluation. The model supports a three-step approach, KPP, based on learning outcomes and supporting appropriate assessment activities. It provides a program structure for online or blended learning that is explicit, educationally defensible, and supports multiple assessment points for health professionals. The KPP model is based on best practice educational design using a structure that can be adapted for a variety of online or flexibly delivered postgraduate medical education programs.

Medical professionalism in the formal curriculum: 5th year medical students' experiences.

PubMed

Stockley, Amelia J; Forbes, Karen

2014-11-30

The standards and outcomes outlined in the General Medical Council's publication 'Tomorrow's Doctors' include proposals that medical professionalism be included in undergraduate curricula. Learning the values and attitudes necessary to become a 'doctor as a professional' has traditionally been left largely to the informal and hidden curricula. There remains no consensus or confirmed evidence upon which to base best practice for teaching in this area. In 2010, as part of a revision of the fifth year curriculum the University of Bristol Medical School introduced tutorials which focused on students' achievement of the learning objectives in 'Tomorrow's Doctors Outcomes 3: the doctor as a professional'. This study sought to explore the students' experiences of these tutorials in order to develop the evidence base further. Sixteen medical students participated in three focus-group interviews exploring their experiences of medical professionalism tutorials. A course evaluation questionnaire to all fifth year students also provided data. Data were analysed using the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four main themes were identified: students' aversion to 'ticking-boxes', lack of engagement by the students, lack of engagement by the tutors and students' views on how medical professionalism should be taught. A curriculum innovation which placed the achievement of medical professionalism in the formal curriculum was not unanimously embraced by students or faculty. Further consideration of the students' aversion to 'ticking-boxes' is warranted. With continued demand for increased accountability and transparency in medical education, detailed check-lists of specific learning objectives will continue to feature as a means by which medical schools and learners demonstrate attainment. Students' experiences and acceptance of these check-lists deserves attention in order to inform teaching and learning in this area. Learner and faculty 'buy in' are imperative to the success of curriculum change and vital if the students are to attain the intended learning objectives. Effective faculty development and student induction programmes could be employed to facilitate engagement by both parties.

The implementation of discovery learning model based on lesson study to increase student's achievement in colloid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suyanti, Retno Dwi; Purba, Deby Monika

2017-03-01

The objectives of this research are to get the increase student's achievement on the discovery learning model based on lesson study. Beside of that, this research also conducted to know the cognitive aspect. This research was done in three school that are SMA N 3 Medan. Population is all the students in SMA N 11 Medan which taken by purposive random sampling. The research instruments are achievement test instruments that have been validated. The research data analyzed by statistic using Ms Excell. The result data shows that the student's achievement taught by discovery learning model based on Lesson study higher than the student's achievement taught by direct instructional method. It can be seen from the average of gain and also proved with t-test, the normalized gain in experimental class of SMA N 11 is (0.74±0.12) and control class (0.45±0.12), at significant level α = 0.05, Ha is received and Ho is refused where tcount>ttable in SMA N 11 (9.81>1,66). Then get the improvement cognitive aspect from three of school is C2 where SMA N 11 is 0.84(high). Then the observation sheet result of lesson study from SMA N 11 92 % of student working together while 67% less in active using media.

A Three-Year Reflective Writing Program as Part of Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences

PubMed Central

Vaughn, Jessica; Kerr, Kevin; Zielenski, Christopher; Toppel, Brianna; Johnson, Lauren; McCauley, Patrina; Turner, Christopher J.

2013-01-01

Objectives. To implement and evaluate a 3-year reflective writing program incorporated into introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) in the first- through third-year of a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. Design. Reflective writing was integrated into 6 IPPE courses to develop students’ lifelong learning skills. In their writing, students were required to self-assess their performance in patient care activities, identify and describe how they would incorporate learning opportunities, and then evaluate their progress. Practitioners, faculty members, and fourth-year PharmD students served as writing preceptors. Assessment. The success of the writing program was assessed by reviewing class performance and surveying writing preceptor’s opinions regarding the student’s achievement of program objectives. Class pass rates averaged greater than 99% over the 8 years of the program and the large majority of the writing preceptors reported that student learning objectives were met. A support pool of 99 writing preceptors was created. Conclusions. A 3-year reflective writing program improved pharmacy students’ reflection and reflective writing skills. PMID:23788811

Real-time object detection and semantic segmentation for autonomous driving

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Baojun; Liu, Shun; Xu, Weichao; Qiu, Wei

2018-02-01

In this paper, we proposed a Highly Coupled Network (HCNet) for joint objection detection and semantic segmentation. It follows that our method is faster and performs better than the previous approaches whose decoder networks of different tasks are independent. Besides, we present multi-scale loss architecture to learn better representation for different scale objects, but without extra time in the inference phase. Experiment results show that our method achieves state-of-the-art results on the KITTI datasets. Moreover, it can run at 35 FPS on a GPU and thus is a practical solution to object detection and semantic segmentation for autonomous driving.

Unsupervised segmentation with dynamical units.

PubMed

Rao, A Ravishankar; Cecchi, Guillermo A; Peck, Charles C; Kozloski, James R

2008-01-01

In this paper, we present a novel network to separate mixtures of inputs that have been previously learned. A significant capability of the network is that it segments the components of each input object that most contribute to its classification. The network consists of amplitude-phase units that can synchronize their dynamics, so that separation is determined by the amplitude of units in an output layer, and segmentation by phase similarity between input and output layer units. Learning is unsupervised and based on a Hebbian update, and the architecture is very simple. Moreover, efficient segmentation can be achieved even when there is considerable superposition of the inputs. The network dynamics are derived from an objective function that rewards sparse coding in the generalized amplitude-phase variables. We argue that this objective function can provide a possible formal interpretation of the binding problem and that the implementation of the network architecture and dynamics is biologically plausible.

A Mobile Outdoor Augmented Reality Method Combining Deep Learning Object Detection and Spatial Relationships for Geovisualization

PubMed Central

Rao, Jinmeng; Qiao, Yanjun; Ren, Fu; Wang, Junxing; Du, Qingyun

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a robust, fast and markerless mobile augmented reality method for registration, geovisualization and interaction in uncontrolled outdoor environments. We propose a lightweight deep-learning-based object detection approach for mobile or embedded devices; the vision-based detection results of this approach are combined with spatial relationships by means of the host device’s built-in Global Positioning System receiver, Inertial Measurement Unit and magnetometer. Virtual objects generated based on geospatial information are precisely registered in the real world, and an interaction method based on touch gestures is implemented. The entire method is independent of the network to ensure robustness to poor signal conditions. A prototype system was developed and tested on the Wuhan University campus to evaluate the method and validate its results. The findings demonstrate that our method achieves a high detection accuracy, stable geovisualization results and interaction. PMID:28837096

A Mobile Outdoor Augmented Reality Method Combining Deep Learning Object Detection and Spatial Relationships for Geovisualization.

PubMed

Rao, Jinmeng; Qiao, Yanjun; Ren, Fu; Wang, Junxing; Du, Qingyun

2017-08-24

The purpose of this study was to develop a robust, fast and markerless mobile augmented reality method for registration, geovisualization and interaction in uncontrolled outdoor environments. We propose a lightweight deep-learning-based object detection approach for mobile or embedded devices; the vision-based detection results of this approach are combined with spatial relationships by means of the host device's built-in Global Positioning System receiver, Inertial Measurement Unit and magnetometer. Virtual objects generated based on geospatial information are precisely registered in the real world, and an interaction method based on touch gestures is implemented. The entire method is independent of the network to ensure robustness to poor signal conditions. A prototype system was developed and tested on the Wuhan University campus to evaluate the method and validate its results. The findings demonstrate that our method achieves a high detection accuracy, stable geovisualization results and interaction.

There is No Free Lunch: Tradeoffs in the Utility of Learned Knowledge

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kedar, Smadar T.; McKusick, Kathleen B.

1992-01-01

With the recent introduction of learning in integrated systems, there is a need to measure the utility of learned knowledge for these more complex systems. A difficulty arrises when there are multiple, possibly conflicting, utility metrics to be measured. In this paper, we present schemes which trade off conflicting utility metrics in order to achieve some global performance objectives. In particular, we present a case study of a multi-strategy machine learning system, mutual theory refinement, which refines world models for an integrated reactive system, the Entropy Reduction Engine. We provide experimental results on the utility of learned knowledge in two conflicting metrics - improved accuracy and degraded efficiency. We then demonstrate two ways to trade off these metrics. In each, some learned knowledge is either approximated or dynamically 'forgotten' so as to improve efficiency while degrading accuracy only slightly.

Applying learning theories and instructional design models for effective instruction.

PubMed

Khalil, Mohammed K; Elkhider, Ihsan A

2016-06-01

Faculty members in higher education are involved in many instructional design activities without formal training in learning theories and the science of instruction. Learning theories provide the foundation for the selection of instructional strategies and allow for reliable prediction of their effectiveness. To achieve effective learning outcomes, the science of instruction and instructional design models are used to guide the development of instructional design strategies that elicit appropriate cognitive processes. Here, the major learning theories are discussed and selected examples of instructional design models are explained. The main objective of this article is to present the science of learning and instruction as theoretical evidence for the design and delivery of instructional materials. In addition, this article provides a practical framework for implementing those theories in the classroom and laboratory. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

Making time for learning-oriented leadership in multidisciplinary hospital management groups.

PubMed

Singer, Sara J; Hayes, Jennifer E; Gray, Garry C; Kiang, Mathew V

2015-01-01

Although the clinical requirements of health care delivery imply the need for interdisciplinary management teams to work together to promote frontline learning, such interdisciplinary, learning-oriented leadership is atypical. We designed this study to identify behaviors enabling groups of diverse managers to perform as learning-oriented leadership teams on behalf of quality and safety. We randomly selected 12 of 24 intact groups of hospital managers from one hospital to participate in a Safety Leadership Team Training program. We collected primary data from March 2008 to February 2010 including pre- and post-staff surveys, multiple interviews, observations, and archival data from management groups. We examined the level and trend in frontline perceptions of managers' learning-oriented leadership following the intervention and ability of management groups to achieve objectives on targeted improvement projects. Among the 12 intervention groups, we identified higher- and lower-performing intervention groups and behaviors that enabled higher performers to work together more successfully. Management groups that achieved more of their performance goals and whose staff perceived more and greater improvement in their learning-oriented leadership after participation in Safety Leadership Team Training invested in structures that created learning capacity and conscientiously practiced prescribed learning-oriented management and problem-solving behaviors. They made the time to do these things because they envisioned the benefits of learning, valued the opportunity to learn, and maintained an environment of mutual respect and psychological safety within their group. Learning in management groups requires vision of what learning can accomplish; will to explore, practice, and build learning capacity; and mutual respect that sustains a learning environment.

Enhancing an introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience at free medical clinics.

PubMed

Morello, Candis M; Singh, Renu F; Chen, Karen J; Best, Brookie M

2010-02-01

The aim of the study was to assess and improve first-year student pharmacists' satisfaction and learning experience in a Student-Run Free Medical Clinic Project (SFMCP) providing medical care to an underserved population. Two consecutive classes of first-year student pharmacists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences participated in an Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) at the UCSD SFMCP. This IPPE involved two inter-professional evening free clinics which provide medical care to an underserved population and opportunities for healthcare professional training and service. Year 1 students completed a self-assessment survey instrument and year 2 students completed the survey instrument plus a new competency checklist tool. Average scores from the self-assessment survey instrument were compared between years 1 and 2. Initial survey results showed that students felt the SFMCP was worthwhile; however, they did not experience enough involvement in the patient assistance programme or non-pharmacy-related clinic activities. After the competency checklist tool implementation, overall student pharmacist satisfaction of the SFMCP IPPE remained high (88%), participation in identified weak areas improved and students agreed that the tool helped focus their clinic experience. Areas of improvement were identified with the survey instrument and the competency checklist tool increased achievement of learning objectives. Overall, student pharmacists felt the SFMCP IPPE was a good learning experience. Practising pharmacists can employ these or similar tools in specific practice settings, to evaluate and help ensure that student pharmacists or interns are achieving applicable learning objectives.

The connection between students' out-of-school experiences and science learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, Natalie A.

This study sought to understand the connection between students' out-of-school experiences and their learning in science. This study addresses the following questions: (a) What effects does contextualized information have on student achievement and engagement in science? (b) To what extent do students use their out-of-school activities to construct their knowledge and understanding about science? (c) To what extent do science teachers use students' skills and knowledge acquired in out-of-school settings to inform their instructional practices? This study integrates mixed methods using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer the research questions. It involves the use of survey questionnaire and science assessment and features two-level hierarchical analyses of student achievement outcomes nested within classrooms. Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) analyses were used to account for the cluster effect of students nested within classrooms. Interviews with students and teachers were also conducted to provide information about how learning opportunities that take place in out-of-school settings can be used to facilitate student learning in science classrooms. The results of the study include the following: (a) Controlling for student and classroom factors, students' ability to transfer science learning across contexts is associated with positive learning outcomes such as achievement, interest, career in science, self-efficacy, perseverance, and effort. Second, teacher practice using students' out-of-school experiences is associated with decrease in student achievement in science. However, as teachers make more connection to students' out-of-school experiences, the relationship between student effort and perseverance in science learning and transfer gets weaker, thus closing the gaps on these outcomes between students who have more ability to establish the transfer of learning across contexts and those who have less ability to do so. Third, science teachers have limited information about students' out-of-school experiences thus rarely integrate these experiences into their instructional practices. Fourth, the lack of learning objectives for activities structured in out-of-school settings coupled with the limited opportunities to integrate students' out of school experiences into classroom instructions are factors that may prevent students from making further connection of science learning across contexts.

Pedagogical Tools to Address Clinical Anatomy and Athletic Training Student Learning Styles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazerolle, Stephanie; Yeargin, Susan

2010-01-01

Context: A thorough knowledge of anatomy is needed in four of the six domains of athletic training: prevention, injury/condition recognition, immediate care, and treatment/rehabilitation. Students with a solid foundation can achieve competency in these specific domains. Objective: To provide educators with pedagogical tools to promote a deeper…

The Use of BookshelF in Teaching Students of Information and Library Management.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowley, Jenny E.; Fisher, Shelagh

1992-01-01

Describes how BookshelF software, a library management system, has been integrated into the library and information management curriculum at Manchester Polytechnic (England), and discusses the learning objectives that have been achieved. The use of BookshelF modules for ordering, circulation control, cataloging, OPAC (online public access…

"Water and Environmental Systems": Achieving Student-Centered Learning Objectives with an Undergraduate Journal.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charlesworth, Susanne M.; Foster, Ian D. L.

1996-01-01

Describes and evaluates an unusual and innovative assessment procedure used in an undergraduate hydrology and oceanography class. Working in teams, English students produce research articles published by an in-house, though refereed, academic journal. Professors and students agree that the process stimulates students to perform at their highest…

A Flexible Response: Person-Centred Support and Social Inclusion for People with Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviour

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnaby, Steven; Roberts, Bron; Lang, Janet; Nielsen, Prue

2011-01-01

Social inclusion and citizenship form the key objective of "Valuing People Now" (2009), but achieving this meaningfully with people whose behaviour can challenge services remains elusive for many services. This article describes the philosophy, development, operationalisation and evaluation of a person-centred day opportunities and supported…

Learning to Teach Inquiry with ICT

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Trinh-Ba; van den Berg, Ed; Ellermeijer, Ton; Beishuizen, Jos

2018-01-01

Research has shown that the objectives for laboratory teaching--just as with other teaching methods--are often not achieved and that many laboratory sessions are ineffective and yet expensive in terms of pupil and teacher time, and facilities. There are several reasons for this, but one reason is that instructions for many lab activities are too…

Effectiveness of Layered Instructional Strategy for Teaching English at Secondary Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Shafqat; Idrees, Muhammad; Ahmed, Iftikhar

2009-01-01

This study was conducted to find out the effectiveness of Layered Instructional Strategy (LIS) based on the Elaboration Theory given by Charles M. Reigeluth on the learning achievement of secondary school students in the subject of English. Main objectives were to develop an understanding about instructional strategy, to ascertain the difference…

TEXAS EDUCATIONAL MICROWAVE PROJECT, TEMP III.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SCHENKKAN, R.F.; AND OTHERS

MICROWAVE TRANSMITTERS WERE USED TO LINK 11 INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING IN THE CENTRAL TEXAS AREA. THIS DEMONSTRATION WAS PLANNED AS A PILOT PROGRAM FOR THE USE OF MICROWAVE CHANNELS TO ACHIEVE A SINGLE CLOSED-CIRCUIT SYSTEM AMONG A NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS. THE OBJECTIVES WERE (1) TO DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY, BOTH ECONOMIC AND PROGRAMMATIC,…

Increasing Critical Thinking in Web-Based Graduate Management Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Condon, Conna; Valverde, Raul

2014-01-01

A common approach for demonstrating learning in online classrooms is through submittal of research essays of a discussion topic followed by classroom participation. Issues arose at an online campus of a university regarding the originality and quality of critical thinking in the original submittals. Achievement of new course objectives oriented to…

Effect of CAI on Achievement of LD Students in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sivaram, R. T.; Ramar, R.

2014-01-01

The present experimental study was undertaken with three objectives in view, (i) to identify students with language learning disabilities (ii) to develop CAI software to teach LD students through computer-assisted instruction and (iii) to measure the effectiveness of CAI with special reference to LD students. Two matched groups of LD students were…

Preparing Principals to Improve Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corcoran, Roisin P.

2017-01-01

Background: The growing interest in principal effectiveness as a means of improving teaching and student learning has led to a focus on the quality of principal preparation programs (PPPs) with calls for the adoption of PPP accountability systems similar to those of teacher preparation programs. Objective: The purpose of the present study is to…

Creating a Technology-Rich Learning Environment for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Judge, Sharon; Floyd, Kim; Wood-Fields, Colleen

2010-01-01

Assistive technology offers infants and toddlers with disabilities a set of tools to assist in achieving developmental goals while interacting with objects, materials, adults, and other children in their environment. This article focuses on assistive technology devices that can promote young children's participation in activities and routines in…

A Home Visiting Asthma Education Program: Challenges to Program Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Josephine V.; Demi, Alice S.; Celano, Marianne P.; Bakeman, Roger; Kobrynski, Lisa; Wilson, Sandra R.

2005-01-01

This study describes the implementation of a nurse home visiting asthma education program for low-income African American families of young children with asthma. Of 55 families, 71% completed the program consisting of eight lessons. The achievement of learning objectives was predicted by caregiver factors, such as education, presence of father or…

Student Access of Supplemental Multimedia and Success in an Online Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Nathan B.

2013-01-01

Institutions are developing online courses that contain rich multimedia, but research shows there is little difference in student achievement when these types of materials are included. However, many studies report the results of the presence, not the access, of multimedia learning objects. In addition, they do not categorize the multimedia as…

Project Author: Visionary Training with Far Reaching Consequences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seabrook, Jan

2008-01-01

In the 1980s a government initiative was made to meet the need for instructional designers for the emerging Technology Based Training needs of industry and commerce. The course achieved its objectives but also sparked the development of current UK e-learning because the course developed people who were skilled at adaptability and flexibility with…

A Curriculum-Based Health Service Program in Hypertension, Diabetes, Venereal Diseases and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coker, Samuel T.; Janer, Ann L.

1978-01-01

Special screening and education courses in hypertension, diabetes, venereal disease, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation were added as electives at the Auburn University School of Pharmacy. Applied learning experiences for students and services to the community are achieved. Course goals and content and behavioral objectives in each area are…

Integrating Wikis as Educational Tools for the Development of a Community of Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eteokleous, Nikleia; Ktoridou, Despo; Orphanou, Maria

2014-01-01

This article describes a study that attempted to evaluate the integration of wikis as an educational tool in successfully achieving the learning objectives of a fifth-grade linguistics and literature course. A mixed-method approach was employed--data were collected via questionnaires, reflective journals, observations, and interviews. The results…

Implementation of Standards-Based Grading at the Middle School Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Urich, Laura Jill

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to learn about the experiences of teachers as they transition from traditional grading practices to standards-based reporting (SBR). In order to achieve this overall objective, the following research questions framed this qualitative study: (1) What understandings related to practices do middle school teachers have as…

Proceedings of Conference V: communicating earthquake hazard reduction information: convened under auspices of National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program 22-24 May, 1978

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hays, Walter W.

1978-01-01

(11) achieving landslide hazard reduction. The objective was to identify the most significant lessons learned during the course of each experience and to develop recommendations for improving communication that might be incorporated in the search program of the USGS.

The Best Colors for Audio-Visual Materials for More Effective Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Start, Jay

A number of variables may affect the ability of students to perceive, and learn from, instructional materials. The objectives of the study presented here were to determine the projected color that provided the best visual acuity for the viewer, and the necessary minimum exposure time for achieving maximum visual acuity. Fifty…

Studying Teaching Methods, Strategies and Best Practices for Young Children with Special Educational Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tzivinikou, S.; Papoutsaki, K.

2016-01-01

Teaching objectives in special education are different from those in the ordinary classroom. Educational programmes for special needs students are focused on individual learning, achievement and progress. Thus, the instruction in special education classrooms and resource rooms in inclusive schools has to be specific, directed and individualised.…

A Review of Research and a Meta-Analysis of the Seductive Detail Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rey, Gunter Daniel

2012-01-01

Seductive details constitute interesting but irrelevant information that are not necessary to achieve the instructional objective. The seductive detail effect occurs when people learn more deeply from instructional messages that exclude rather than include these details. This effect is mainly explained by assuming an overloading of the working…

Harnessing Spatial Thinking to Support STEM Learning. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 161

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newcombe, Nora

2017-01-01

Spatial intelligence concerns the locations of objects, their shapes, their relations, and the paths they take as they move. Recognition of spatial skills enriches the traditional educational focus on developing literacy and numerical skills to include a cognitive domain particularly relevant to achievement in science, technology, engineering and…

Economic Education for Arkansas Elementary Schools. Teaching Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nixon, Ila M., Ed.

The primary objective of this guide is to set forth goals of learning that will contribute to student achievement of economic literacy, suggest activities, and resources. It is a skeletal structure which teachers can incorporate into a continuous social studies curriculum, and other appropriate studies. The main purpose of economic education is to…

Lesson Imaging in Math and Science: Anticipating Student Ideas and Questions for Deeper STEM Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephan, Michelle; Pugalee, David; Cline, Julie; Cline, Chris

2016-01-01

Help turn students into problem solvers. With lesson imaging, teachers anticipate how chosen activities will unfold in real time--what solutions, questions, and misconceptions students might have and how teachers can promote deeper reasoning. When lesson imaging occurs before instruction, students achieve lesson objectives more naturally and…

Effect of Visualization (Job Aids) in Facilitating Cognitive Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spaulding, Karen L.; Dwyer, Francis

This study examined the instructional effectiveness with which different job aid types facilitated learner achievement of different types of learning objectives and identified the degree to which low and high prior knowledge individuals profit from different job aid types. The instructional content used in the study was an instructional module on…

Total Environment Education: An Open Design to Real Life Learning Experiences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Indiana State Dept. of Public Instruction, Indianapolis.

Six global objectives--energy, earth resources, waste disposal, population, interdependence, and quality of life--are used as a framework in preparing this open design for environmental education, one which emphasizes behavioral change in the affective domain. To aid classroom teachers in achieving these goals, the guide is divided into five…

The Challenge of Teaching Psychopharmacology in the New Millennium: The Role of Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glick, Ira D.; Zisook, Sidney

2005-01-01

Objective: For a variety of pedagogical, political and financial reasons, there are major problems in achieving effective teaching of cutting-edge psychopharmacology for psychiatric residents. This article focuses on ways to improve the teaching/learning process, in part through the use of structured curricula. The authors review 1) attempted…

Critical Success Factor for Implementing Vocational Blended Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dewi, K. C.; Ciptayani, P. I.; Surjono, H. D.; Priyanto

2018-01-01

Blended learning provides many benefits to the flexibility of time, place and situation constraints. The research’s objectives was describing the factors that determine the successful implementation of blended learning in vocational higher education. The research used a qualitative approach, data collected through observations and interviews by questionnare based on the CSFs indicators refers to TAM and Kliger. Data analysis was inductive method. The result provided an illustration that the success of vocational blended learning implementation was largely determined by the selection of instructional models that are inline with learning achievement target. The effectiveness of blended learning required the existence of policy support, readiness of IT infrastructure. Changing lecturer’s culture by utilizing ICT can also encourage the accelerated process of successful implementation. It can concluded that determinant factor of successful implementation of blended learning in vocational education is determined by teacher’s ability in mastering the pedagogical knowledge of designing instructional models.

On the Safety of Machine Learning: Cyber-Physical Systems, Decision Sciences, and Data Products.

PubMed

Varshney, Kush R; Alemzadeh, Homa

2017-09-01

Machine learning algorithms increasingly influence our decisions and interact with us in all parts of our daily lives. Therefore, just as we consider the safety of power plants, highways, and a variety of other engineered socio-technical systems, we must also take into account the safety of systems involving machine learning. Heretofore, the definition of safety has not been formalized in a machine learning context. In this article, we do so by defining machine learning safety in terms of risk, epistemic uncertainty, and the harm incurred by unwanted outcomes. We then use this definition to examine safety in all sorts of applications in cyber-physical systems, decision sciences, and data products. We find that the foundational principle of modern statistical machine learning, empirical risk minimization, is not always a sufficient objective. We discuss how four different categories of strategies for achieving safety in engineering, including inherently safe design, safety reserves, safe fail, and procedural safeguards can be mapped to a machine learning context. We then discuss example techniques that can be adopted in each category, such as considering interpretability and causality of predictive models, objective functions beyond expected prediction accuracy, human involvement for labeling difficult or rare examples, and user experience design of software and open data.

The influence of chronotype and intelligence on academic achievement in primary school is mediated by conscientiousness, midpoint of sleep and motivation.

PubMed

Arbabi, Talat; Vollmer, Christian; Dörfler, Tobias; Randler, Christoph

2015-04-01

Individuals differ in their timing of sleep (bed times, rise times) and in their preference for morning or evening hours. Previous work focused on the relationship between academic achievement and these variables in secondary school students. The main aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between chronotype and academic achievement in 10-year-old children (n = 1125) attending 4th grade of primary school. They filled a cognitive test (Culture Fair Intelligence Test, CFT 20-R) and questions about rise times and bed times, academic achievement, conscientiousness and motivation. We used the "scales for the assessment of learning and performance motivation" (SELLMO; Skalen zur Erfassung der Lern- und Leistungsmotivation for motivation), the short version of the Five-Factor Personality Inventory Children (FFPI-C) to measure conscientiousness, and the Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) to assess morningness-eveningness. Mean CSM score was 37.84 ± 6.66, midpoint of sleep was 1:36 ± 00:25 and average sleep duration (time in bed) was 10:15 ± 0:48. Morningness orientation was positively related to intelligence, conscientiousness and learning objectives. Eveningness orientation was related to avoidance performance objectives and work avoidance. Early midpoint of sleep, conscientiousness and intelligence were associated with better grades. The multivariate model showed that intelligence was the strongest predictor of good grades. Conscientiousness, motivation, younger age and an earlier midpoint of sleep were positively related to good grades. This is the first study in primary school pupils, and it shows that the relationship between evening orientation and academic achievement is already prevalent at this age even when controlling for important predictors of achievement.

Discovery learning model with geogebra assisted for improvement mathematical visual thinking ability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Juandi, D.; Priatna, N.

2018-05-01

The main goal of this study is to improve the mathematical visual thinking ability of high school student through implementation the Discovery Learning Model with Geogebra Assisted. This objective can be achieved through study used quasi-experimental method, with non-random pretest-posttest control design. The sample subject of this research consist of 62 senior school student grade XI in one of school in Bandung district. The required data will be collected through documentation, observation, written tests, interviews, daily journals, and student worksheets. The results of this study are: 1) Improvement students Mathematical Visual Thinking Ability who obtain learning with applied the Discovery Learning Model with Geogebra assisted is significantly higher than students who obtain conventional learning; 2) There is a difference in the improvement of students’ Mathematical Visual Thinking ability between groups based on prior knowledge mathematical abilities (high, medium, and low) who obtained the treatment. 3) The Mathematical Visual Thinking Ability improvement of the high group is significantly higher than in the medium and low groups. 4) The quality of improvement ability of high and low prior knowledge is moderate category, in while the quality of improvement ability in the high category achieved by student with medium prior knowledge.

Improve Student Understanding Ability Through Gamification in Instructional Media Based Explicit Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Firdausi, N.; Prabawa, H. W.; Sutarno, H.

2017-02-01

In an effort to maximize a student’s academic growth, one of the tools available to educators is the explicit instruction. Explicit instruction is marked by a series of support or scaffold, where the students will be guided through the learning process with a clear statement of purpose and a reason for learning new skills, a clear explanation and demonstration of learning targets, supported and practiced with independent feedback until mastery has been achieved. The technology development trend of todays, requires an adjustment in the development of learning object that supports the achievement of explicit instruction targets. This is where the gamification position is. In the role as a pedagogical strategy, the use of gamification preformance study class is still relatively new. Gamification not only use the game elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts, but also to empower and engage learners with the ability of motivation on learning approach and maintains a relaxed atmosphere. With using Reseach and Development methods, this paper presents the integration of technology (which in this case using the concept of gamification) in explicit instruction settings and the impact on the improvement of students’ understanding.

Evaluation of a Modified Debate Exercise Adapted to the Pedagogy of Team-Based Learning

PubMed Central

Yang, Haoshu; Gupta, Vasudha

2018-01-01

Objective. To assess the impact of a debate exercise on self-reported evidence of student learning in literature evaluation, evidence-based decision making, and oral presentation. Methods. Third-year pharmacy students in a required infectious disease therapeutics course participated in a modified debate exercise that included a reading assignment and readiness assessment tests consistent with team-based learning (TBL) pedagogy. Peer and faculty assessment of student learning was accomplished with a standardized rubric. A pre- and post-debate survey was used to assess self-reported perceptions of abilities to perform skills outlined by the learning objectives. Results. The average individual readiness assessment score was 93.5% and all teams scored 100% on their team readiness assessments. Overall student performance on the debates was also high with an average score of 88.2% prior to extra credit points. Of the 95 students, 88 completed both pre- and post-surveys (93% participation rate). All learning objectives were associated with a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-debate surveys with the majority of students reporting an improvement in self-perceived abilities. Approximately two-thirds of students enjoyed the debates exercise and believed it improved their ability to make and defend clinical decisions. Conclusion. A debate format adapted to the pedagogy of TBL was well-received by students, documented high achievement in assessment of skills, and improved students’ self-reported perceptions of abilities to evaluate the literature, develop evidence-based clinical decisions, and deliver an effective oral presentation.

Hypersonic propulsion flight tests as essential to air-breathing aerospace plane development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mehta, U.

Hypersonic air-breathing propulsion utilizing scramjets can fundamentally change transatmospheric acclerators for transportation from low Earth orbits (LEOs). The value and limitations of ground tests, of flight tests, and of computations are presented, and scramjet development requirements are discussed. Near-full-scale hypersonic propulsion flight tests are essential for developing a prototype hypersonic propulsion system and for developing computation-design technology that can be used in designing that system. In order to determine how these objectives should be achieved, some lessons learned from past programs are presented. A conceptual two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) prototype/experimental aerospace plane is recommended as a means of providing access-to-space and for conducting flight tests. A road map for achieving these objectives is also presented.

Spatial ability of slow learners based on Hubert Maier theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Permatasari, I.; Pramudya, I.; Kusmayadi, T. A.

2018-03-01

Slow learners are children who have low learning achievement (under the average of normal children) in one or all of the academic field, but they are not classified as a mentally retarded children. Spatial ability developed according to age and level of knowledge possessed, both from the neighborhood and formal education. Analyzing the spatial ability of students is important for teachers, as an effort to improve the quality of learning for slow learners. Especially on the implementation of inclusion school which is developing in Indonesia. This research used a qualitative method and involved slow learner students as the subject. Based on the data analysis it was found the spatial ability of slow learners, there were: spatial perception, students were able to describe the other shape of object when its position changed; spatial visualisation, students were able to describe the materials that construct an object; mental rotation, students cannot describe the object being rotated; spatial relation, students cannot describe the relations of same objects; spatial orientation, students were able to describe object from the others perspective.

Effects of Improving Primary Health Care Workers’ Knowledge About Public Health Services in Rural China: A Comparative Study of Blended Learning and Pure E-Learning

PubMed Central

Zhan, Xingxin; Zhang, Zhixia; Sun, Fang; Liu, Qian; Peng, Weijun; Zhang, Heng

2017-01-01

Background Primary health care workers (PHCWs) are a major force in delivering basic public health services (BPHS) in rural China. It is necessary to take effective training approaches to improve PHCWs’ competency on BPHS. Both electronic learning (e-learning) and blended learning have been widely used in the health workers’ education. However, there is limited evidence on the effects of blended learning in comparison with pure e-learning. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a blended-learning approach for rural PHCWs in improving their knowledge about BPHS as well as training satisfaction in comparison with a pure e-learning approach. Methods The study was conducted among PHCWs in 6 rural counties of Hubei Province, China, between August 2013 and April 2014. Three counties were randomly allocated blended-learning courses (29 township centers or 612 PHCWs—the experimental group), and three counties were allocated pure e-learning courses (31 township centers or 625 PHCWs—the control group). Three course modules were administered for 5 weeks, with assessments at baseline and postcourse. Primary outcomes were score changes in courses’ knowledge. Secondary outcome was participant satisfaction (5-point Likert scale anchored between 1 [strongly agree] and 5 [strongly disagree]). Results The experimental group had higher mean scores than the control group in knowledge achievement in three course modules: (1) module 1: 93.21 (95% CI 92.49-93.93) in experimental group versus 88.29 (95% CI 87.19-89.40) in the control group; adjusted difference, 4.92 (95% CI 2.61-7.24; P<.001); (2) module 2: 94.05 (95% CI 93.37-94.73) in the experimental group vs 90.22 (95% CI 89.12-91.31) in the control group; adjusted difference, 3.67 (95% CI 1.17-6.18; P=.004); (3) module 3: 93.88 (95% CI 93.08-94.68) in the experimental group versus 89.09 (95% CI 87.89-90.30) in control group; adjusted difference, 4.63 (95% CI 2.12-7.14; P<.001). The participants in the experimental learning group gave more positive responses with the four issues than control group participants: (1) the increase of interest in learning, 1.85 (95% CI 1.22-2.80; P=.003); (2) the increase of interaction with others, 1.77 (95% CI 1.20-2.60; P=.004); (3) the satisfaction with learning experience, 1.78 (95% CI 1.11-2.88; P=.02); and (4) achievement of learning objectives, 1.63 (95% CI 1.08-2.48; P=.02). Conclusions Among PHCWs in rural China, a blended-learning approach to BPHS training could result in a higher knowledge achievement and satisfaction level compared with a pure e-learning approach. The findings of the study will contribute knowledge to improve the competency of PHCWs in similar settings. PMID:28461286

Adaptive Correlation Model for Visual Tracking Using Keypoints Matching and Deep Convolutional Feature.

PubMed

Li, Yuankun; Xu, Tingfa; Deng, Honggao; Shi, Guokai; Guo, Jie

2018-02-23

Although correlation filter (CF)-based visual tracking algorithms have achieved appealing results, there are still some problems to be solved. When the target object goes through long-term occlusions or scale variation, the correlation model used in existing CF-based algorithms will inevitably learn some non-target information or partial-target information. In order to avoid model contamination and enhance the adaptability of model updating, we introduce the keypoints matching strategy and adjust the model learning rate dynamically according to the matching score. Moreover, the proposed approach extracts convolutional features from a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to accurately estimate the position and scale of the target. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed tracker has achieved satisfactory performance in a wide range of challenging tracking scenarios.

Nursing students evaluation of problem based learning and the impact of culture on the learning process and outcomes: a pilot project.

PubMed

Al-Kloub, Manal Ibrahim; Salameh, Taghreed Nayel; Froelicher, Erika Sivarajan

2014-03-01

This study evaluates students' learning experiences in a clinical pediatric nursing course adopting Problem Based Learning (PBL) and investigates how students' cultural background impacts on self directed learning. A mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods was utilized to answer the research objectives. An observational technique for the PBL teaching sessions was employed; and 226 third-year students were asked to complete PBL evaluation questionnaire. Fifty seven percent (n = 130) responses to the questionnaire were analyzed. Overall, students considered PBL to be moderately effective in their learning experience, with a mean of 3.64 (S.D = 1.18). Students qualitative responses fell within four thematic categories including: developing cognitive abilities, independent learning, motivation to learn, and group learning. Difficulties encountered by students were: it is time-consuming, it has unclear objectives, it is a stressful process, and it results in an increased workload. A small number of students indicated that PBL tutorials were boring and complained about lack of contribution from instructors and limited recourses. Learning is intertwined with culture; students' previous educational experiences, uncertainty, English language proficiency, computer resources, gender, and achievement were identified as the most important cultural issues that impact the learning process and outcomes. Successful implementation of PBL does not come easily; teachers should be alert to the issues of culture in designing curriculum. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of discovery learning and problem-based learning on middle school students’ self-regulated learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miatun, A.; Muntazhimah

2018-01-01

The aim of this research was to determine the effect of learning models on mathematics achievement viewed from student’s self-regulated learning. The learning model compared were discovery learning and problem-based learning. The population was all students at the grade VIII of Junior High School in Boyolali regency. The samples were students of SMPN 4 Boyolali, SMPN 6 Boyolali, and SMPN 4 Mojosongo. The instruments used were mathematics achievement tests and self-regulated learning questionnaire. The data were analyzed using unbalanced two-ways Anova. The conclusion was as follows: (1) discovery learning gives better achievement than problem-based learning. (2) Achievement of students who have high self-regulated learning was better than students who have medium and low self-regulated learning. (3) For discovery learning, achievement of students who have high self-regulated learning was better than students who have medium and low self-regulated learning. For problem-based learning, students who have high and medium self-regulated learning have the same achievement. (4) For students who have high self-regulated learning, discovery learning gives better achievement than problem-based learning. Students who have medium and low self-regulated learning, both learning models give the same achievement.

How do children learn to follow gaze, share joint attention, imitate their teachers, and use tools during social interactions?

PubMed

Grossberg, Stephen; Vladusich, Tony

2010-01-01

How does an infant learn through visual experience to imitate actions of adult teachers, despite the fact that the infant and adult view one another and the world from different perspectives? To accomplish this, an infant needs to learn how to share joint attention with adult teachers and to follow their gaze towards valued goal objects. The infant also needs to be capable of view-invariant object learning and recognition whereby it can carry out goal-directed behaviors, such as the use of tools, using different object views than the ones that its teachers use. Such capabilities are often attributed to "mirror neurons". This attribution does not, however, explain the brain processes whereby these competences arise. This article describes the CRIB (Circular Reactions for Imitative Behavior) neural model of how the brain achieves these goals through inter-personal circular reactions. Inter-personal circular reactions generalize the intra-personal circular reactions of Piaget, which clarify how infants learn from their own babbled arm movements and reactive eye movements how to carry out volitional reaches, with or without tools, towards valued goal objects. The article proposes how intra-personal circular reactions create a foundation for inter-personal circular reactions when infants and other learners interact with external teachers in space. Both types of circular reactions involve learned coordinate transformations between body-centered arm movement commands and retinotopic visual feedback, and coordination of processes within and between the What and Where cortical processing streams. Specific breakdowns of model processes generate formal symptoms similar to clinical symptoms of autism. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Object instance recognition using motion cues and instance specific appearance models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schumann, Arne

2014-03-01

In this paper we present an object instance retrieval approach. The baseline approach consists of a pool of image features which are computed on the bounding boxes of a query object track and compared to a database of tracks in order to find additional appearances of the same object instance. We improve over this simple baseline approach in multiple ways: 1) we include motion cues to achieve improved robustness to viewpoint and rotation changes, 2) we include operator feedback to iteratively re-rank the resulting retrieval lists and 3) we use operator feedback and location constraints to train classifiers and learn an instance specific appearance model. We use these classifiers to further improve the retrieval results. The approach is evaluated on two popular public datasets for two different applications. We evaluate person re-identification on the CAVIAR shopping mall surveillance dataset and vehicle instance recognition on the VIVID aerial dataset and achieve significant improvements over our baseline results.

Robust continuous clustering

PubMed Central

Shah, Sohil Atul

2017-01-01

Clustering is a fundamental procedure in the analysis of scientific data. It is used ubiquitously across the sciences. Despite decades of research, existing clustering algorithms have limited effectiveness in high dimensions and often require tuning parameters for different domains and datasets. We present a clustering algorithm that achieves high accuracy across multiple domains and scales efficiently to high dimensions and large datasets. The presented algorithm optimizes a smooth continuous objective, which is based on robust statistics and allows heavily mixed clusters to be untangled. The continuous nature of the objective also allows clustering to be integrated as a module in end-to-end feature learning pipelines. We demonstrate this by extending the algorithm to perform joint clustering and dimensionality reduction by efficiently optimizing a continuous global objective. The presented approach is evaluated on large datasets of faces, hand-written digits, objects, newswire articles, sensor readings from the Space Shuttle, and protein expression levels. Our method achieves high accuracy across all datasets, outperforming the best prior algorithm by a factor of 3 in average rank. PMID:28851838

Using Primary Literature to Teach Science Literacy to Introductory Biology Students

PubMed Central

Krontiris-Litowitz, Johanna

2013-01-01

Undergraduate students struggle to read the scientific literature and educators have suggested that this may reflect deficiencies in their science literacy skills. In this two-year study we develop and test a strategy for using the scientific literature to teach science literacy skills to novice life science majors. The first year of the project served as a preliminary investigation in which we evaluated student science literacy skills, created a set of science literacy learning objectives aligned with Bloom’s taxonomy, and developed a set of homework assignments that used peer-reviewed articles to teach science literacy. In the second year of the project the effectiveness of the assignments and the learning objectives were evaluated. Summative student learning was evaluated in the second year on a final exam. The mean score was 83.5% (±20.3%) and there were significant learning gains (p < 0.05) in seven of nine of science literacy skills. Project data indicated that even though students achieved course-targeted lower-order science literacy objectives, many were deficient in higher-order literacy skills. Results of this project suggest that building scientific literacy is a continuing process which begins in first-year science courses with a set of fundamental skills that can serve the progressive development of literacy skills throughout the undergraduate curriculum. PMID:23858355

Your teaching strategy matters: how engagement impacts application in health information literacy instruction *

PubMed Central

Johnson, Heather A.; Barrett, Laura

2017-01-01

Objective The purpose of this study was to compare two pedagogical methods, active learning and passive instruction, to determine which is more useful in helping students to achieve the learning outcomes in a one-hour research skills instructional session. Methods Two groups of high school students attended an instructional session to learn about consumer health resources and strategies to enhance their searching skills. The first group received passive instruction, and the second engaged in active learning. We assessed both groups’ learning using 2 methods with differing complexity. A total of 59 students attended the instructional sessions (passive instruction, n=28; active learning, n=31). Results We found that the active learning group scored more favorably in four assessment categories. Conclusions Active learning may help students engage with and develop a meaningful understanding of several resources in a single session. Moreover, when using a complex teaching strategy, librarians should be mindful to gauge learning using an equally complex assessment method. PMID:28096745

Teaching Foreign Trade in English through the Modalities Based on Competences and Using Moodle (Enseñanza del régimen de comercio exterior a través de las modalidades centradas en el desarrollo de competencias y con el uso de Moodle)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Correa Díaz, Ana María

2012-01-01

With the new approach to guide the learning process of students with a model based on the development of competences, and in comparison with the traditional lecture-based learning, it is necessary to start working with the teaching modalities that help to achieve this objective. With that in mind, the aim of the study reported in this article was…

Academic standards and changing patterns of medical school admissions: a Malaysian study.

PubMed

Tan, C M

1990-07-01

Changing social demands made it necessary for the Medical Faculty of the University of Malaya to accommodate students with a wider range of academic experience than before. However, teachers sought to achieve comparable academic standards to those in the West by striving to maintain a close resemblance to the Western model of medical education in other respects. As a result teachers failed to adapt their teaching methods, assessment techniques and curriculum design to meet the educational needs of the students, thus compromising academic standards. Many students lack basic academic skills and do not know how to learn effectively. In order to help students overcome their learning difficulties innovative teaching was required during the first year at university, designed to foster the joint development of knowledge and basic skills. In the case of less well-prepared students who lack self-confidence, a caring and supportive learning environment is crucial to the achievement of meaningful learning. Lecturers needed to become facilitators of learning rather than transmitters of knowledge. However, teachers' objective to retain international recognition of the degree, which presumably reflected the importance of teaching, was not operationalized in terms of its incentive structure such that teachers were constrained not to try to fill the new roles demanded of them. It was assumed that academic distinction accrued through scientific research was essential for the achievement of academic excellence. However, under the prevailing circumstances the two aims were mutually exclusive and incompatible and teaching quality deteriorated.

Assessing Complex Learning Objectives through Analytics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horodyskyj, L.; Mead, C.; Buxner, S.; Semken, S. C.; Anbar, A. D.

2016-12-01

A significant obstacle to improving the quality of education is the lack of easy-to-use assessments of higher-order thinking. Most existing assessments focus on recall and understanding questions, which demonstrate lower-order thinking. Traditionally, higher-order thinking is assessed with practical tests and written responses, which are time-consuming to analyze and are not easily scalable. Computer-based learning environments offer the possibility of assessing such learning outcomes based on analysis of students' actions within an adaptive learning environment. Our fully online introductory science course, Habitable Worlds, uses an intelligent tutoring system that collects and responds to a range of behavioral data, including actions within the keystone project. This central project is a summative, game-like experience in which students synthesize and apply what they have learned throughout the course to identify and characterize a habitable planet from among hundreds of stars. Student performance is graded based on completion and accuracy, but two additional properties can be utilized to gauge higher-order thinking: (1) how efficient a student is with the virtual currency within the project and (2) how many of the optional milestones a student reached. In the project, students can use the currency to check their work and "unlock" convenience features. High-achieving students spend close to the minimum amount required to reach these goals, indicating a high-level of concept mastery and efficient methodology. Average students spend more, indicating effort, but lower mastery. Low-achieving students were more likely to spend very little, which indicates low effort. Differences on these metrics were statistically significant between all three of these populations. We interpret this as evidence that high-achieving students develop and apply efficient problem-solving skills as compared to lower-achieving student who use more brute-force approaches.

Comparison of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) versus traditional textbook methods for training in abdominal examination (Japanese experience).

PubMed

Qayumi, A K; Kurihara, Y; Imai, M; Pachev, G; Seo, H; Hoshino, Y; Cheifetz, R; Matsuura, K; Momoi, M; Saleem, M; Lara-Guerra, H; Miki, Y; Kariya, Y

2004-10-01

This study aimed to compare the effects of computer-assisted, text-based and computer-and-text learning conditions on the performances of 3 groups of medical students in the pre-clinical years of their programme, taking into account their academic achievement to date. A fourth group of students served as a control (no-study) group. Participants were recruited from the pre-clinical years of the training programmes in 2 medical schools in Japan, Jichi Medical School near Tokyo and Kochi Medical School near Osaka. Participants were randomly assigned to 4 learning conditions and tested before and after the study on their knowledge of and skill in performing an abdominal examination, in a multiple-choice test and an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), respectively. Information about performance in the programme was collected from school records and students were classified as average, good or excellent. Student and faculty evaluations of their experience in the study were explored by means of a short evaluation survey. Compared to the control group, all 3 study groups exhibited significant gains in performance on knowledge and performance measures. For the knowledge measure, the gains of the computer-assisted and computer-assisted plus text-based learning groups were significantly greater than the gains of the text-based learning group. The performances of the 3 groups did not differ on the OSCE measure. Analyses of gains by performance level revealed that high achieving students' learning was independent of study method. Lower achieving students performed better after using computer-based learning methods. The results suggest that computer-assisted learning methods will be of greater help to students who do not find the traditional methods effective. Explorations of the factors behind this are a matter for future research.

Applying active learning to supervised word sense disambiguation in MEDLINE

PubMed Central

Chen, Yukun; Cao, Hongxin; Mei, Qiaozhu; Zheng, Kai; Xu, Hua

2013-01-01

Objectives This study was to assess whether active learning strategies can be integrated with supervised word sense disambiguation (WSD) methods, thus reducing the number of annotated samples, while keeping or improving the quality of disambiguation models. Methods We developed support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to disambiguate 197 ambiguous terms and abbreviations in the MSH WSD collection. Three different uncertainty sampling-based active learning algorithms were implemented with the SVM classifiers and were compared with a passive learner (PL) based on random sampling. For each ambiguous term and each learning algorithm, a learning curve that plots the accuracy computed from the test set as a function of the number of annotated samples used in the model was generated. The area under the learning curve (ALC) was used as the primary metric for evaluation. Results Our experiments demonstrated that active learners (ALs) significantly outperformed the PL, showing better performance for 177 out of 197 (89.8%) WSD tasks. Further analysis showed that to achieve an average accuracy of 90%, the PL needed 38 annotated samples, while the ALs needed only 24, a 37% reduction in annotation effort. Moreover, we analyzed cases where active learning algorithms did not achieve superior performance and identified three causes: (1) poor models in the early learning stage; (2) easy WSD cases; and (3) difficult WSD cases, which provide useful insight for future improvements. Conclusions This study demonstrated that integrating active learning strategies with supervised WSD methods could effectively reduce annotation cost and improve the disambiguation models. PMID:23364851

Classifying Structures in the ISM with Machine Learning Techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beaumont, Christopher; Goodman, A. A.; Williams, J. P.

2011-01-01

The processes which govern molecular cloud evolution and star formation often sculpt structures in the ISM: filaments, pillars, shells, outflows, etc. Because of their morphological complexity, these objects are often identified manually. Manual classification has several disadvantages; the process is subjective, not easily reproducible, and does not scale well to handle increasingly large datasets. We have explored to what extent machine learning algorithms can be trained to autonomously identify specific morphological features in molecular cloud datasets. We show that the Support Vector Machine algorithm can successfully locate filaments and outflows blended with other emission structures. When the objects of interest are morphologically distinct from the surrounding emission, this autonomous classification achieves >90% accuracy. We have developed a set of IDL-based tools to apply this technique to other datasets.

Distributed learning or medical tourism? A Canadian residency program's experience in global health.

PubMed

Kelly, Kate; McCarthy, Anne; McLean, Laurie

2015-01-01

Global health experiences (GHEs) are becoming increasingly prevalent in surgical residency education. Although it may seem intuitive that participation in GHEs develops CanMEDS competencies, this has not been studied in depth in surgery. The purpose of this study is (1) to explore if and how otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (OHNS) resident participation in GHEs facilitates the development of CanMEDS competencies and (2) to develop an OHNS GHE tool to facilitate the integration of CanMEDS into GHE participation and evaluation. An online survey explored the GHEs of current and past OHNS residents in Canada. Based on the data collected and a literature review, a foundational tool was then created to (1) enable OHNS residents to structure their GHEs into CanMEDS-related learning objectives and (2) enable OHNS program directors to more effectively evaluate residents' GHEs with respect to CanMEDS competencies. Participants' GHEs varied widely. These experiences often contributed informally to the development of several CanMEDS competencies. However, few residents had concrete objectives, rarely were CanMEDS roles clearly incorporated, and most residents were not formally evaluated during their experience. Residents felt they achieved greater learning when predeparture objectives and postexperience reflections were integrated into their GHEs. Although GHEs vary widely, they can serve as valuable forums for developing CanMEDS competencies among participating residents. Without clear objectives that adhere to the CanMEDS framework or formal assessment methods however, residents in GHEs risk becoming medical tourists. The use of an objective and evaluation tool may facilitate the creation of predeparture learning objectives, encourage self-reflection on their GHE, and better enable program directors to evaluate residents participating in GHEs. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning invariance from natural images inspired by observations in the primary visual cortex.

PubMed

Teichmann, Michael; Wiltschut, Jan; Hamker, Fred

2012-05-01

The human visual system has the remarkable ability to largely recognize objects invariant of their position, rotation, and scale. A good interpretation of neurobiological findings involves a computational model that simulates signal processing of the visual cortex. In part, this is likely achieved step by step from early to late areas of visual perception. While several algorithms have been proposed for learning feature detectors, only few studies at hand cover the issue of biologically plausible learning of such invariance. In this study, a set of Hebbian learning rules based on calcium dynamics and homeostatic regulations of single neurons is proposed. Their performance is verified within a simple model of the primary visual cortex to learn so-called complex cells, based on a sequence of static images. As a result, the learned complex-cell responses are largely invariant to phase and position.

Development of Geriatric Mental Health Learning Objectives for Medical Students: A Response to the Institute of Medicine 2012 Report.

PubMed

Lehmann, Susan W; Brooks, William B; Popeo, Dennis; Wilkins, Kirsten M; Blazek, Mary C

2017-10-01

America is aging as the population of older adults increases. The shortage of geriatric mental health specialists means that most geriatric mental healthcare will be provided by physicians who do not have specialty training in geriatrics. The Institute of Medicine Report of 2012 highlighted the urgent need for development of national competencies and curricula in geriatric mental health for all clinicians. Virtually all physicians can expect to treat older patients with mental health symptoms, yet currently there are no widely accepted learning objectives in geriatric mental health specific for medical students. The authors describe the development of a set of such learning objectives that all medical students should achieve by graduation. The iterative process included initial drafting by content experts from five medical schools with input and feedback from a wider group of geriatric psychiatrists, geriatricians, internists, and medical educators. The final document builds upon previously published work and includes specific knowledge, attitudes and skills in six key domains: Normal Aging, Mental Health Assessment of the Geriatric Patient, Psychopharmacology, Delirium, Depression, and Dementia. These objectives address a pressing need, providing a framework for national standards and curriculum development. Copyright © 2017 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Methods of Stimulating the Students' Creativity in the Study of Geometrical Optics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florian, Gabriel; Trocaru, Sorin; Florian, Aurelia-Daniela; Bâna, Alexandru-Dumitru

2015-01-01

The aim of the present article is to focus on the operational aspects referring to the actions--strategies and on the defined modalities of establishing educational objectives/competences. In the achievement of our work a special attention has been paid to the operational aspects of the learning process of the optical phenomena. There were carried…

Interest in Mathematics = Interest in Mathematics? What General Measures of Interest Reflect When the Object of Interest Changes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ufer, Stefan; Rach, Stefanie; Kosiol, Timo

2017-01-01

Students' motivational characteristics, e.g., subject-related interest, are considered important predictors for successful learning processes. However, few empirical studies provide evidence for the assumed chain of effects between high interest and high achievement in mathematics. One reason for this result might be that the applied measures of…

Capital Area Education and Careers Partnership School-to-Career Grant: An Assessment of Year Three Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Shea, Dan

Based on interviews and document analysis, an evaluation of Year 3 of the Capital Area Education and Careers Partnership (CAECP) assessed its initiatives to help youth and young adults advance their educational and workplace achievements in pursuit of satisfying, productive careers. CAECP improved school-based learning activity objectives by…

Mathematics Curriculum Guide Algebra I. Bulletin 1987, No. 48.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alabama State Dept. of Education, Montgomery.

This guide is designed to help classroom teachers implement the Alabama Course of Study: Mathematics K-12. It is inclusive also of the objectives tested by the Stanford Achievement Tests and the Alabama Basic Competency Tests. One characteristic of the curriculum guide is that it clearly states what students should learn in each grade level. These…

Intercultural Communication Competence through Experiential Learning: The Importance of Student-Initiated Strategies and Dialogic Encounters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Josephine Ann

2007-01-01

Approaches to intercultural communication competence (ICC) generally argue the need for objective knowledge about another culture as well as knowledge about and the ability to achieve appropriate behaviors of that target culture. Most of these approaches continue to base themselves on a conception of culture as comprehensive but static.…

A Comparative View of Aging. An Experimental Unit, Second Edition, Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Gary R.

Showing a variety of learned behavior about aging, activities in this unit are designed to help high-school students become aware that their views (preconceptions) on aging are not universally held. Objectives of the unit include achievement of global perspective on aging and its problems, understanding of the effects of population growth and…

Improving Academic Achievement of Students with Problematic Attendance by Implementing a Multisystemic School-Based Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kay, James Edward

2010-01-01

This study addressed the problem of poor attendance adversely affecting grades and learning. Current school policies do not address problematic attendance for all school-aged children, perpetuating trends of academic failure. The research objective was to determine if unexcused absences had a greater negative impact on a high-stakes test compared…

Building Academic Quality in Distance Higher Education. A Monograph in Higher Education Evaluation and Policy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chacon-Duque, Fabio J.

The factors that determine course completion and achievement in college distance education were investigated using a sample of 25 courses offered through the Independent Learning Program at the Pennsylvania State University. The main objective was to develop a multivariate model to explain and predict outcomes of distance education. Additional…

Non-Symbolic Arithmetic Abilities and Mathematics Achievement in the First Year of Formal Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilmore, Camilla K.; McCarthy, Shannon E.; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

2010-01-01

Children take years to learn symbolic arithmetic. Nevertheless, non-human animals, human adults with no formal education, and human infants represent approximate number in arrays of objects and sequences of events, and they use these capacities to perform approximate addition and subtraction. Do children harness these abilities when they begin to…

Learning-Related Cognitive Self-Regulation Measures for Prekindergarten Children with Predictive Validity for Academic Achievement. Working Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lipsey, Mark W.; Nesbitt, Kimberly Turner; Farran, Dale C.; Dong, Nianbo; Fuhs, Mary Wagner; Wilson, Sandra Jo

2014-01-01

Identifying and understanding the foundational skills children need to participate effectively in formal schooling is an important objective for research in early childhood education. One component of school readiness is cognitive self-regulation (CSR). The question this study addresses is how to assess CSR with prekindergarten-aged children in a…

Parents, Expertise and Identity Work: The Media Conceptualised as a Lifelong Learning Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aarsand, Liselott Assarsson

2011-01-01

Parenting is a recurring topic in books, newspapers, magazines and TV shows in Western societies. Often it involves experts giving advice to adults. Hence, parenting is made visible, categorised, evaluated and corrected in public. Judgements on what is desirable are demonstrated, and objectives to be achieved are pointed out. In the present study,…

Influence of Speech Anxiety on Oral Communication Skills among ESL/EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khan, Said Muhammad

2015-01-01

The realization of speech anxiety among ESL/EFL learners is important. Once understood, these feelings of fear or nervousness may be relieved and the desired objectives of learning the target language may be achieved. The study has attempted to measure the level of anxiety among ESL/EFL learners at HITEC University, Taxila, Pakistan. The current…

Science Communication Through Art: Objectives, Challenges, and Outcomes.

PubMed

Lesen, Amy E; Rogan, Ama; Blum, Michael J

2016-09-01

The arts are becoming a favored medium for conveying science to the public. Tracking trending approaches, such as community-engaged learning, alongside challenges and goals can help establish metrics to achieve more impactful outcomes, and to determine the effectiveness of arts-based science communication for raising awareness or shaping public policy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Art in the Elementary Schools: A Manual for Teachers. Curriculum Bulletin Number Eight. 1963-1964 Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Olive L.; And Others

This manual is intended to help elementary teachers: (1) recognize and achieve the objectives of the art program; (2) organize the classroom (including the equipment, art materials, and tools) to provide an atmosphere conducive to congenial living, and efficient working and learning; (3) plan painting, drawing, and craft activities so that…

Picture Chem: Playing a Game to Identify Laboratory Equipment Items and Describe Their Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kavak, Nusret; Yamak, Havva

2016-01-01

Laboratory activities are an important means of instruction in science; as such, they have been used in chemistry education since the 1880s. Many learning objectives can be achieved through the use of laboratory activities undertaken by chemistry students. In student-centered laboratory activities, students should know how to use an apparatus in…

On-Line Role-Play as a Teaching Method in Engineering Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cobo, Adolfo; Conde, Olga Ma.; Quintela, Ma. Ángeles; Mirapéix, Jesús Ma.; López-Higuera, José Miguel

2011-01-01

In this paper we propose adapting role-play teaching methodology to engineering studies. The role of a maintenance technician, a relevant job profile for engineering graduates is has chosen. The interaction is based on email exchange, with the instructor included in the simulation to help guide the activity and achieve learning objectives. In this…

Use of Mobile Phones for Project Based Learning by Undergraduate Students of Nigerian Private Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Utulu, Samuel C.; Alonge, Ayodele

2012-01-01

A university's objective is to educate its students using information and communication technologies (ICTs) and teaching techniques that would enable its graduates become flexible and life-long learners that can easily adapt to the changes eminent in the information society. Achieving this aim requires among other factors, the adoption of…

A Comprehensive Examination of Preschool Teachers' Implementation Fidelity When Using a Supplemental Language and Literacy Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piasta, Shayne B.; Justice, Laura M.; McGinty, Anita; Mashburn, Andrew; Slocum, Laura

2015-01-01

Background: Recent curriculum studies raise a number of questions concerning teachers' implementation fidelity, including the extent to which fidelity to multiple curriculum components is achieved and measured and the extent to which fidelity serves as a mechanism for impacting children's learning. Objective: Within the context of a language and…

Using business intelligence to improve performance.

PubMed

Wadsworth, Tom; Graves, Brian; Glass, Steve; Harrison, A Marc; Donovan, Chris; Proctor, Andrew

2009-10-01

Cleveland Clinic's enterprise performance management program offers proof that comparisons of actual performance against strategic objectives can enable healthcare organization to achieve rapid organizational change. Here are four lessons Cleveland Clinic learned from this initiative: Align performance metrics with strategic initiatives. Structure dashboards for the CEO. Link performance to annual reviews. Customize dashboard views to the specific user.

Cognitive Load Theory and the Role of Learner Experience: An Abbreviated Review for Educational Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Artino, Anthony R., Jr.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this review is to provide educational practitioners with a brief overview of cognitive load theory (CLT) and its major implications for learning. To achieve this objective, the article includes a short description of human cognitive architecture as conceived by cognitive load theorists. Following this overview, the article provides…

Learning object-to-class kernels for scene classification.

PubMed

Zhang, Lei; Zhen, Xiantong; Shao, Ling

2014-08-01

High-level image representations have drawn increasing attention in visual recognition, e.g., scene classification, since the invention of the object bank. The object bank represents an image as a response map of a large number of pretrained object detectors and has achieved superior performance for visual recognition. In this paper, based on the object bank representation, we propose the object-to-class (O2C) distances to model scene images. In particular, four variants of O2C distances are presented, and with the O2C distances, we can represent the images using the object bank by lower-dimensional but more discriminative spaces, called distance spaces, which are spanned by the O2C distances. Due to the explicit computation of O2C distances based on the object bank, the obtained representations can possess more semantic meanings. To combine the discriminant ability of the O2C distances to all scene classes, we further propose to kernalize the distance representation for the final classification. We have conducted extensive experiments on four benchmark data sets, UIUC-Sports, Scene-15, MIT Indoor, and Caltech-101, which demonstrate that the proposed approaches can significantly improve the original object bank approach and achieve the state-of-the-art performance.

Deep learning methods to guide CT image reconstruction and reduce metal artifacts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gjesteby, Lars; Yang, Qingsong; Xi, Yan; Zhou, Ye; Zhang, Junping; Wang, Ge

2017-03-01

The rapidly-rising field of machine learning, including deep learning, has inspired applications across many disciplines. In medical imaging, deep learning has been primarily used for image processing and analysis. In this paper, we integrate a convolutional neural network (CNN) into the computed tomography (CT) image reconstruction process. Our first task is to monitor the quality of CT images during iterative reconstruction and decide when to stop the process according to an intelligent numerical observer instead of using a traditional stopping rule, such as a fixed error threshold or a maximum number of iterations. After training on ground truth images, the CNN was successful in guiding an iterative reconstruction process to yield high-quality images. Our second task is to improve a sinogram to correct for artifacts caused by metal objects. A large number of interpolation and normalization-based schemes were introduced for metal artifact reduction (MAR) over the past four decades. The NMAR algorithm is considered a state-of-the-art method, although residual errors often remain in the reconstructed images, especially in cases of multiple metal objects. Here we merge NMAR with deep learning in the projection domain to achieve additional correction in critical image regions. Our results indicate that deep learning can be a viable tool to address CT reconstruction challenges.

Comparison of Pharmaceutical Calculations Learning Outcomes Achieved Within a Traditional Lecture or Flipped Classroom Andragogy.

PubMed

Anderson, H Glenn; Frazier, Lisa; Anderson, Stephanie L; Stanton, Robert; Gillette, Chris; Broedel-Zaugg, Kim; Yingling, Kevin

2017-05-01

Objective. To compare learning outcomes achieved from a pharmaceutical calculations course taught in a traditional lecture (lecture model) and a flipped classroom (flipped model). Methods. Students were randomly assigned to the lecture model and the flipped model. Course instructors, content, assessments, and instructional time for both models were equivalent. Overall group performance and pass rates on a standardized assessment (Pcalc OSCE) were compared at six weeks and at six months post-course completion. Results. Student mean exam scores in the flipped model were higher than those in the lecture model at six weeks and six months later. Significantly more students passed the OSCE the first time in the flipped model at six weeks; however, this effect was not maintained at six months. Conclusion. Within a 6 week course of study, use of a flipped classroom improves student pharmacy calculation skill achievement relative to a traditional lecture andragogy. Further study is needed to determine if the effect is maintained over time.

Comparison of Pharmaceutical Calculations Learning Outcomes Achieved Within a Traditional Lecture or Flipped Classroom Andragogy

PubMed Central

Frazier, Lisa; Anderson, Stephanie L.; Stanton, Robert; Gillette, Chris; Broedel-Zaugg, Kim; Yingling, Kevin

2017-01-01

Objective. To compare learning outcomes achieved from a pharmaceutical calculations course taught in a traditional lecture (lecture model) and a flipped classroom (flipped model). Methods. Students were randomly assigned to the lecture model and the flipped model. Course instructors, content, assessments, and instructional time for both models were equivalent. Overall group performance and pass rates on a standardized assessment (Pcalc OSCE) were compared at six weeks and at six months post-course completion. Results. Student mean exam scores in the flipped model were higher than those in the lecture model at six weeks and six months later. Significantly more students passed the OSCE the first time in the flipped model at six weeks; however, this effect was not maintained at six months. Conclusion. Within a 6 week course of study, use of a flipped classroom improves student pharmacy calculation skill achievement relative to a traditional lecture andragogy. Further study is needed to determine if the effect is maintained over time. PMID:28630511

Matching medical student achievement to learning objectives and outcomes: a paradigm shift for an implemented teaching module.

PubMed

Atta, Ihab Shafek; AlQahtani, Fahd Nasser

2018-01-01

Low student achievement in a basic imaging module was the impetus for an assessment of the module. A valid, reliable, and structured Likert scale was designed to measure the degree of student satisfaction with the domains of the module, including learning objectives (LO), teaching strategy and tools (TT), assessment tools (AT), and allotted credit hours (CH). Further analysis was conducted of student dissatisfaction to determine the subdomain in which module improvement was to be implemented. Statistical analysis of data among Likert scale domains was conducted. Likert scale data showed the TT domain to be the major reason for low student achievement. Statistical studies revealed 57/117 students (48.6%) were dissatisfied with TT, compared with LO 16/117 (13.6%), AT 54/117 (46.1%), and CH 12/117 (10.2%). Significant P -values were obtained for LO vs TT ( P <0.0001), LO vs AT ( P <0.0001), LO vs CH ( P <0.03), TT vs CH ( P <0.0001), and AT vs CH ( P <0.0001). No significant difference was observed between TT and AT ( P <0.29). Regarding TT, 41/117 (34.9%) students were dissatisfied with lectures (L) compared to hospital-based teaching (HPT) 24/117 (20%), problem-based learning (PBL) 8/117 (6.8%), self-directed learning (SDL) 3/117 (2.5%), and seminars (S) 4/117 (3.4%). Significant P -values were obtained for L vs HPT ( P <0.0001), L vs PBL ( P <0.0001), L vs SDL ( P <0.0001), L vs S ( P <0.0001), HPT vs PBL ( P <0.002), HPT vs SDL ( P <0.0001), and HPT vs S ( P <0.0001). Regarding lecture modifications, student satisfaction was 78.3% compared to 52% before modification. A significant P -value ( P <0.0001) was obtained between Likert scale domains before and after modification. Lecture modification resulted in a good student response and satisfaction. The major reason for low student achievement was the teaching tools, particularly the lectures. Major modifications to lectures improved student achievement. The students and most of the teaching staff were highly satisfied with the modifications, which provided for reciprocal discussion and interaction. These results should encourage and guide other medical schools to investigate the points of weakness in their curriculum.

Perceptions of a mobile technology on learning strategies in the anatomy laboratory.

PubMed

Mayfield, Chandler H; Ohara, Peter T; O'Sullivan, Patricia S

2013-01-01

Mobile technologies offer new opportunities to improve dissection learning. This study examined the effect of using an iPad-based multimedia dissection manual during anatomy laboratory instruction on learner's perception of anatomy dissection activities and use of time. Three experimental dissection tables used iPads and three tables served as a control for two identical sessions. Trained, non-medical school anatomy faculty observers recorded use of resources at two-minute intervals for 20 observations per table. Students completed pre- and post-perception questionnaires. We used descriptive and inferential analyses. Twenty-one control and 22 experimental students participated. Compared with controls, experimental students reported significantly (P < 0.05) less reliance on paper and instructor resources, greater ability to achieve anatomy laboratory objectives, and clarity of the role of dissection in learning anatomy. Experimental students indicated that the iPad helped them in dissection. We observed experimental students more on task (93% vs. 83% of the time) and less likely to be seeking an instructor (2% vs. 32%). The groups received similar attention from instructors (33% vs. 37%). Fifty-nine percent of the time at least one student was looking at the iPad. Groups clustered around the iPad a third of their time. We conclude that the iPad-manual aided learner engagement, achieved instructional objectives, and enhanced the effectiveness and efficiency of dissection education. Copyright © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING FOR PROFESSIONALISM AND ETHICS TRAINING OF BIOMEDICAL GRADUATE STUDENTS: PROCESS EVALUATION

PubMed Central

Jones, Nancy L.; Peiffer, Ann M.; Lambros, Ann; Eldridge, J. Charles

2013-01-01

Purpose A process evaluation was conducted to assess whether the newly developed Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum designed to teach professionalism and ethics to biomedical graduate students was achieving its objectives. The curriculum was chosen to present realistic cases and issues in the practice of science, to promote skill development and to acculturate students to professional norms of science. Method The perception to which the objectives for the curriculum and courses were being reached was assessed using 5-step Likert-scaled questions, open-ended questions and interviews of students and facilitators. Results Process evaluation indicated that both facilitators and students perceived course objectives were being met. For example, active learning was preferred over lectures; both faculty and students percieved that the curriculum increased their understanding of norms, role obligations, and responsibilities of professional scientists; their ability to identify ethical situations was increased; skills in moral reasoning and effective group work were developed. Conclusions Information gathered was used to improve course implementation and instructional material. For example, a negative perception as an “ethics” course was addressed by redesigning case debriefing activities that reinforced learning objectives and important skills. Cases were refined to be more engaging and relevant for students, and facilitators were given more specific training and resources for each case. The PBL small group strategy can stimulate an environment more aware of ethical implications of science and increase socialization and open communication about professional behavior. PMID:20663754

Cartoon versus traditional self-study handouts for medical students: CARTOON randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Junhasavasdikul, Detajin; Sukhato, Kanokporn; Srisangkaew, Suthan; Theera-Ampornpunt, Nawanan; Anothaisintawee, Thunyarat; Dellow, Alan

2017-08-01

The objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of a "cartoon-style" handout with a "traditional-style" handout in a self-study assignment for preclinical medical students. Third-year medical students (n = 93) at the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, took a pre-learning assessment of their knowledge of intercostal chest drainage. They were then randomly allocated to receive either a "cartoon-style" or a "traditional-style" handout on the same topic. After studying these over a 2-week period, students completed a post-learning assessment and estimated their levels of reading completion. Of the 79 participants completing the post-learning test, those in the cartoon-style group achieved a score 13.8% higher than the traditional-style group (p = 0.018). A higher proportion of students in the cartoon-style group reported reading ≥75% of the handout content (70.7% versus 42.1%). In post-hoc analyses, students whose cumulative grade point averages (GPA) from previous academic assessments were in the middle and lower range achieved higher scores with the cartoon-style handout than with the traditional one. In the lower-GPA group, the use of a cartoon-style handout was independently associated with a higher score. Students given a cartoon-style handout reported reading more of the material and achieved higher post-learning test scores than students given a traditional handout.

Toward a science of learning systems: a research agenda for the high-functioning Learning Health System

PubMed Central

Friedman, Charles; Rubin, Joshua; Brown, Jeffrey; Buntin, Melinda; Corn, Milton; Etheredge, Lynn; Gunter, Carl; Musen, Mark; Platt, Richard; Stead, William; Sullivan, Kevin; Van Houweling, Douglas

2015-01-01

Objective The capability to share data, and harness its potential to generate knowledge rapidly and inform decisions, can have transformative effects that improve health. The infrastructure to achieve this goal at scale—marrying technology, process, and policy—is commonly referred to as the Learning Health System (LHS). Achieving an LHS raises numerous scientific challenges. Materials and methods The National Science Foundation convened an invitational workshop to identify the fundamental scientific and engineering research challenges to achieving a national-scale LHS. The workshop was planned by a 12-member committee and ultimately engaged 45 prominent researchers spanning multiple disciplines over 2 days in Washington, DC on 11–12 April 2013. Results The workshop participants collectively identified 106 research questions organized around four system-level requirements that a high-functioning LHS must satisfy. The workshop participants also identified a new cross-disciplinary integrative science of cyber-social ecosystems that will be required to address these challenges. Conclusions The intellectual merit and potential broad impacts of the innovations that will be driven by investments in an LHS are of great potential significance. The specific research questions that emerged from the workshop, alongside the potential for diverse communities to assemble to address them through a ‘new science of learning systems’, create an important agenda for informatics and related disciplines. PMID:25342177

Three visual techniques to enhance interprofessional learning.

PubMed

Parsell, G; Gibbs, T; Bligh, J

1998-07-01

Many changes in the delivery of healthcare in the UK have highlighted the need for healthcare professionals to learn to work together as teams for the benefit of patients. Whatever the profession or level, whether for postgraduate education and training, continuing professional development, or for undergraduates, learners should have an opportunity to learn about and with, other healthcare practitioners in a stimulating and exciting way. Learning to understand how people think, feel, and react, and the parts they play at work, both as professionals and individuals, can only be achieved through sensitive discussion and exchange of views. Teaching and learning methods must provide opportunities for this to happen. This paper describes three small-group teaching techniques which encourage a high level of learner collaboration and team-working. Learning content is focused on real-life health-care issues and strong visual images are used to stimulate lively discussion and debate. Each description includes the learning objectives of each exercise, basic equipment and resources, and learning outcomes.

[Community immersion program at Geneva medical school: a fifteen-year experience].

PubMed

Chastonay, Philippe; Klohn, Axel Max; Zesiger, Véronique; Soguel, Ludivine; Kabengele, Emmanuel; Vu, Nu Viet; Bernheim, Laurent

2013-02-20

Over the past decades there have been many new developments in medical education due to new public health challenges and to new learning theories. Medical schools throughout the world have adapted to these challenges in adopting community-based learning activities, an approach that the World Health Organization has promoted. The aim of the present article is to describe the characteristics, as well as the evolution, of such a community-based training program which has been implemented over 15 years at the Faculty of medicine of the University of Geneva and to present some evaluation data addressing students' perception, achievement of learning objectives as well as interactions between students and the community.

A three-year reflective writing program as part of introductory pharmacy practice experiences.

PubMed

Nuffer, Wesley; Vaughn, Jessica; Kerr, Kevin; Zielenski, Christopher; Toppel, Brianna; Johnson, Lauren; McCauley, Patrina; Turner, Christopher J

2013-06-12

To implement and evaluate a 3-year reflective writing program incorporated into introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs) in the first- through third-year of a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. Reflective writing was integrated into 6 IPPE courses to develop students' lifelong learning skills. In their writing, students were required to self-assess their performance in patient care activities, identify and describe how they would incorporate learning opportunities, and then evaluate their progress. Practitioners, faculty members, and fourth-year PharmD students served as writing preceptors. The success of the writing program was assessed by reviewing class performance and surveying writing preceptor's opinions regarding the student's achievement of program objectives. Class pass rates averaged greater than 99% over the 8 years of the program and the large majority of the writing preceptors reported that student learning objectives were met. A support pool of 99 writing preceptors was created. A 3-year reflective writing program improved pharmacy students' reflection and reflective writing skills.

Scaffolding in geometry based on self regulated learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayuningsih, A. S.; Usodo, B.; Subanti, S.

2017-12-01

This research aim to know the influence of problem based learning model by scaffolding technique on junior high school student’s learning achievement. This research took location on the junior high school in Banyumas. The research data obtained through mathematic learning achievement test and self-regulated learning (SRL) questioner. Then, the data analysis used two ways ANOVA. The results showed that scaffolding has positive effect to the mathematic learning achievement. The mathematic learning achievement use PBL-Scaffolding model is better than use PBL. The high SRL category student has better mathematic learning achievement than middle and low SRL categories, and then the middle SRL category has better than low SRL category. So, there are interactions between learning model with self-regulated learning in increasing mathematic learning achievement.

Cumulative sum analysis score and phacoemulsification competency learning curve.

PubMed

Vedana, Gustavo; Cardoso, Filipe G; Marcon, Alexandre S; Araújo, Licio E K; Zanon, Matheus; Birriel, Daniella C; Watte, Guilherme; Jun, Albert S

2017-01-01

To use the cumulative sum analysis score (CUSUM) to construct objectively the learning curve of phacoemulsification competency. Three second-year residents and an experienced consultant were monitored for a series of 70 phacoemulsification cases each and had their series analysed by CUSUM regarding posterior capsule rupture (PCR) and best-corrected visual acuity. The acceptable rate for PCR was <5% (lower limit h) and the unacceptable rate was >10% (upper limit h). The acceptable rate for best-corrected visual acuity worse than 20/40 was <10% (lower limit h) and the unacceptable rate was >20% (upper limit h). The area between lower limit h and upper limit h is called the decision interval. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean age, sex or cataract grades between groups. The first trainee achieved PCR CUSUM competency at his 22 nd case. His best-corrected visual acuity CUSUM was in the decision interval from his third case and stayed there until the end, never reaching competency. The second trainee achieved PCR CUSUM competency at his 39 th case. He could reach best-corrected visual acuity CUSUM competency at his 22 nd case. The third trainee achieved PCR CUSUM competency at his 41 st case. He reached best-corrected visual acuity CUSUM competency at his 14 th case. The learning curve of competency in phacoemulsification is constructed by CUSUM and in average took 38 cases for each trainee to achieve it.

Guided discovery learning in geometry learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khasanah, V. N.; Usodo, B.; Subanti, S.

2018-03-01

Geometry is a part of the mathematics that must be learned in school. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of Guided Discovery Learning (GDL) toward geometry learning achievement. This research had conducted at junior high school in Sukoharjo on academic years 2016/2017. Data collection was done based on student’s work test and documentation. Hypothesis testing used two ways analysis of variance (ANOVA) with unequal cells. The results of this research that GDL gave positive effect towards mathematics learning achievement. GDL gave better mathematics learning achievement than direct learning. There was no difference of mathematics learning achievement between male and female. There was no an interaction between sex differences and learning models toward student’s mathematics learning achievement. GDL can be used to improve students’ mathematics learning achievement in geometry.

Air-breathing aerospace plane development essential: Hypersonic propulsion flight tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mehta, Unmeel B.

1994-01-01

Hypersonic air-breathing propulsion utilizing scramjets can fundamentally change transatmospheric accelerators for low earth-to-orbit and return transportation. The value and limitations of ground tests, of flight tests, and of computations are presented, and scramjet development requirements are discussed. It is proposed that near full-scale hypersonic propulsion flight tests are essential for developing a prototype hypersonic propulsion system and for developing computational-design technology so that it can be used for designing this system. In order to determine how these objectives should be achieved, some lessons learned from past programs are presented. A conceptual two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) prototype/experimental aerospace plane is recommended as a means of providing access-to-space and for conducting flight tests. A road map for achieving these objectives is also presented.

The effect of inquiry-based, hands-on labs on achievement in middle school science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Donna Kaye Green

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to measure the difference in science achievement between students who had been taught with an inquiry-based, hands-on pedagogical approach and those who had not. Improving student academic achievement and standardized test scores is the major objective of teachers, parents, school administrators, government entities, and students themselves. One major barrier to this academic success in Georgia, and the entire United States, has been the paucity of success in middle level science classes. Many studies have been conducted to determine the learning approaches that will best enable students to not only acquire a deeper understanding of science concepts, but to equip them to apply that new knowledge in their daily activities. Inquiry-based, hands-on learning involves students participating in activities that reflect methods of scientific investigation. The effective utilization of the inquiry-based learning approach demands inclusion of learners in a self-directed learning environment, the ability to think critically, and an understanding of how to reflect and reason scientifically. The treatment group using an inquiry-based, hands-on program did score slightly higher on the CRCT. However, the results revealed that there was not a significant difference in student achievement. This study showed that the traditionally instructed control group had slightly higher interest in science than the inquiry-based treatment group. The findings of this research study indicated that the NCLB mandates might need to be altered if there are no significant academic gains that result from the use of inquiry-based strategies.

The difference in learning culture and learning performance between a traditional clinical placement, a dedicated education unit and work-based learning.

PubMed

Claeys, Maureen; Deplaecie, Monique; Vanderplancke, Tine; Delbaere, Ilse; Myny, Dries; Beeckman, Dimitri; Verhaeghe, Sofie

2015-09-01

An experiment was carried out on the bachelor's degree course in nursing with two new clinical placement concepts: workplace learning and the dedicated education centre. The aim was to establish a learning culture that creates a sufficiently high learning performance for students. The objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to look for a difference in the "learning culture" and "learning performance" in traditional clinical placement departments and the new clinical placement concepts, the "dedicated education centre" and "workplace learning"; (2) to assess factors influencing the learning culture and learning performance; and (3) to investigate whether there is a link between the learning culture and the learning performance. A non-randomised control study was carried out. The experimental group consisted of 33 final-year nursing undergraduates who were following clinical placements at dedicated education centres and 70 nursing undergraduates who undertook workplace learning. The control group consisted of 106 students who followed a traditional clinical placement. The "learning culture" outcome was measured using the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher scale. The "learning performance" outcome consisting of three competencies was measured using the Nursing Competence Questionnaire. The traditional clinical placement concept achieved the highest score for learning culture (p<0.001). The new concepts scored higher for learning performance of which the dedicated education centres achieved the highest scores. The 3 clinical placement concepts showed marked differences in learning performance for the "assessment" competency (p<0.05) and for the "interventions" competency (p<0.05). Traditional clinical placement, a dedicated education centre and workplace learning can be seen as complementary clinical placement concepts. The organisation of clinical placements under the dedicated education centre concept and workplace learning is recommended for final-year undergraduate nursing students. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Framework for Hierarchical Perception-Action Learning Utilizing Fuzzy Reasoning.

PubMed

Windridge, David; Felsberg, Michael; Shaukat, Affan

2013-02-01

Perception-action (P-A) learning is an approach to cognitive system building that seeks to reduce the complexity associated with conventional environment-representation/action-planning approaches. Instead, actions are directly mapped onto the perceptual transitions that they bring about, eliminating the need for intermediate representation and significantly reducing training requirements. We here set out a very general learning framework for cognitive systems in which online learning of the P-A mapping may be conducted within a symbolic processing context, so that complex contextual reasoning can influence the P-A mapping. In utilizing a variational calculus approach to define a suitable objective function, the P-A mapping can be treated as an online learning problem via gradient descent using partial derivatives. Our central theoretical result is to demonstrate top-down modulation of low-level perceptual confidences via the Jacobian of the higher levels of a subsumptive P-A hierarchy. Thus, the separation of the Jacobian as a multiplying factor between levels within the objective function naturally enables the integration of abstract symbolic manipulation in the form of fuzzy deductive logic into the P-A mapping learning. We experimentally demonstrate that the resulting framework achieves significantly better accuracy than using P-A learning without top-down modulation. We also demonstrate that it permits novel forms of context-dependent multilevel P-A mapping, applying the mechanism in the context of an intelligent driver assistance system.

Comparing physical activity and sedentary time among overweight and nonoverweight preschoolers enrolled in early learning programs: a cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Tucker, Patricia; Maltby, Alana M; Burke, Shauna M; Vanderloo, Leigh M; Irwin, Jennifer D

2016-09-01

Establishing appropriate physical activity and sedentary behaviours during early childhood is important to ensure children accrue the many associated health benefits. While physical activity levels have been reported as low within early learning programs, little research has explored the physical activity and sedentary time of Canadian preschoolers classified as overweight within these facilities. The purpose of this study was to compare objectively measured physical activity and sedentary time among preschoolers classified as overweight and nonoverweight in early learning programs. Direct assessment of physical activity and sedentary time of 216 preschool-aged children was collected via Actical accelerometers during early learning hours, while body mass index percentile was calculated based on preschoolers' objectively measured height and weight. Results of three 3-way ANOVAs suggest that rates of moderate to vigorous physical activity, total physical activity, and sedentary time (p > 0.05) did not significantly differ based on weight status, sex, and type of early learning facility. This study is one of few that has examined differences in overweight and nonoverweight preschoolers' sedentary time, and adds to the limited research exploring physical activity levels among overweight and nonoverweight preschoolers during early learning hours. Given the high rates of sedentary time reported, programming within early learning facilities is necessary to support preschoolers, regardless of weight status, to achieve increased physical activity levels and decreased sedentary time.

The nursing educator's role in e-learning: a literature review.

PubMed

Koch, Lee F

2014-11-01

e-Learning is becoming more commonplace in nursing and healthcare professional education. Research has shown that e-learning can be just as effective at helping students achieve cognitive learning objectives as traditional face-to-face courses, provided that certain quality criteria are met. However, the decentralized, asynchronous nature of e-learning precludes spontaneous, personal interaction between the instructor and the learner. In addition to this, learning objectives in nursing and other healthcare professions are not only within the cognitive, but also within the affective and psychomotor domains. This article seeks to answer the following question: How does e-learning transform the role of nurse educators? Narrative literature review. A comprehensive database search was conducted using the English and German key words "teacher," "educator," "role," "e-learning," and "nursing" to identify literature that examined the role of (nurse) educators in e-learning. The search strategy resulted in the inclusion of 40 sources. The majority of the literature is expert opinion and examines the educator's role in e-learning from a theoretical point of view (n=30). There is a paucity of empirical research pertaining directly to the educator's role (n=10). Only four sources deal specifically with the nurse educator's role. The literature agrees on the need for a new role definition in light of e-learning. This role is more complex than the educator's traditional role. The literature does not provide any indication of how the educator's role can be adapted to the specific needs of online nurse education. There is a need for more empirical research on this subject. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fast automated segmentation of multiple objects via spatially weighted shape learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chandra, Shekhar S.; Dowling, Jason A.; Greer, Peter B.; Martin, Jarad; Wratten, Chris; Pichler, Peter; Fripp, Jurgen; Crozier, Stuart

2016-11-01

Active shape models (ASMs) have proved successful in automatic segmentation by using shape and appearance priors in a number of areas such as prostate segmentation, where accurate contouring is important in treatment planning for prostate cancer. The ASM approach however, is heavily reliant on a good initialisation for achieving high segmentation quality. This initialisation often requires algorithms with high computational complexity, such as three dimensional (3D) image registration. In this work, we present a fast, self-initialised ASM approach that simultaneously fits multiple objects hierarchically controlled by spatially weighted shape learning. Prominent objects are targeted initially and spatial weights are progressively adjusted so that the next (more difficult, less visible) object is simultaneously initialised using a series of weighted shape models. The scheme was validated and compared to a multi-atlas approach on 3D magnetic resonance (MR) images of 38 cancer patients and had the same (mean, median, inter-rater) Dice’s similarity coefficients of (0.79, 0.81, 0.85), while having no registration error and a computational time of 12-15 min, nearly an order of magnitude faster than the multi-atlas approach.

Fast automated segmentation of multiple objects via spatially weighted shape learning.

PubMed

Chandra, Shekhar S; Dowling, Jason A; Greer, Peter B; Martin, Jarad; Wratten, Chris; Pichler, Peter; Fripp, Jurgen; Crozier, Stuart

2016-11-21

Active shape models (ASMs) have proved successful in automatic segmentation by using shape and appearance priors in a number of areas such as prostate segmentation, where accurate contouring is important in treatment planning for prostate cancer. The ASM approach however, is heavily reliant on a good initialisation for achieving high segmentation quality. This initialisation often requires algorithms with high computational complexity, such as three dimensional (3D) image registration. In this work, we present a fast, self-initialised ASM approach that simultaneously fits multiple objects hierarchically controlled by spatially weighted shape learning. Prominent objects are targeted initially and spatial weights are progressively adjusted so that the next (more difficult, less visible) object is simultaneously initialised using a series of weighted shape models. The scheme was validated and compared to a multi-atlas approach on 3D magnetic resonance (MR) images of 38 cancer patients and had the same (mean, median, inter-rater) Dice's similarity coefficients of (0.79, 0.81, 0.85), while having no registration error and a computational time of 12-15 min, nearly an order of magnitude faster than the multi-atlas approach.

A mediation analysis of achievement motives, goals, learning strategies, and academic achievement.

PubMed

Diseth, Age; Kobbeltvedt, Therese

2010-12-01

Previous research is inconclusive regarding antecedents and consequences of achievement goals, and there is a need for more research in order to examine the joint effects of different types of motives and learning strategies as predictors of academic achievement. To investigate the relationship between achievement motives, achievement goals, learning strategies (deep, surface, and strategic), and academic achievement in a hierarchical model. Participants were 229 undergraduate students (mean age: 21.2 years) of psychology and economics at the University of Bergen, Norway. Variables were measured by means of items from the Achievement Motives Scale (AMS), the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students, and an achievement goal scale. Correlation analysis showed that academic achievement (examination grade) was positively correlated with performance-approach goal, mastery goal, and strategic learning strategies, and negatively correlated with performance-avoidance goal and surface learning strategy. A path analysis (structural equation model) showed that achievement goals were mediators between achievement motives and learning strategies, and that strategic learning strategies mediated the relationship between achievement goals and academic achievement. This study integrated previous findings from several studies and provided new evidence on the direct and indirect effects of different types of motives and learning strategies as predictors of academic achievement.

Future NASA Power Technologies for Space and Aero Propulsion Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soeder, James F.

2015-01-01

To achieve the ambitious goals that NASA has outlined for the next decades considerable development of power technology will be necessary. This presentation outlines the development objectives for both space and aero applications. It further looks at the various power technologies that support these objectives and examines drivers that will be a driving force for future development. Finally, the presentation examines what type of non-traditional learning areas should be emphasized in student curriculum so that the engineering needs of the third decade of the 21st Century are met.

Unsupervised classification of variable stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valenzuela, Lucas; Pichara, Karim

2018-03-01

During the past 10 years, a considerable amount of effort has been made to develop algorithms for automatic classification of variable stars. That has been primarily achieved by applying machine learning methods to photometric data sets where objects are represented as light curves. Classifiers require training sets to learn the underlying patterns that allow the separation among classes. Unfortunately, building training sets is an expensive process that demands a lot of human efforts. Every time data come from new surveys; the only available training instances are the ones that have a cross-match with previously labelled objects, consequently generating insufficient training sets compared with the large amounts of unlabelled sources. In this work, we present an algorithm that performs unsupervised classification of variable stars, relying only on the similarity among light curves. We tackle the unsupervised classification problem by proposing an untraditional approach. Instead of trying to match classes of stars with clusters found by a clustering algorithm, we propose a query-based method where astronomers can find groups of variable stars ranked by similarity. We also develop a fast similarity function specific for light curves, based on a novel data structure that allows scaling the search over the entire data set of unlabelled objects. Experiments show that our unsupervised model achieves high accuracy in the classification of different types of variable stars and that the proposed algorithm scales up to massive amounts of light curves.

Discovery learning with SAVI approach in geometry learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahara, R.; Mardiyana; Saputro, D. R. S.

2018-05-01

Geometry is one branch of mathematics that an important role in learning mathematics in the schools. This research aims to find out about Discovery Learning with SAVI approach to achievement of learning geometry. This research was conducted at Junior High School in Surakarta city. Research data were obtained through test and questionnaire. Furthermore, the data was analyzed by using two-way Anova. The results showed that Discovery Learning with SAVI approach gives a positive influence on mathematics learning achievement. Discovery Learning with SAVI approach provides better mathematics learning outcomes than direct learning. In addition, students with high self-efficacy categories have better mathematics learning achievement than those with moderate and low self-efficacy categories, while student with moderate self-efficacy categories are better mathematics learning achievers than students with low self-efficacy categories. There is an interaction between Discovery Learning with SAVI approach and self-efficacy toward student's mathematics learning achievement. Therefore, Discovery Learning with SAVI approach can improve mathematics learning achievement.

Learning an intrinsic-variable preserving manifold for dynamic visual tracking.

PubMed

Qiao, Hong; Zhang, Peng; Zhang, Bo; Zheng, Suiwu

2010-06-01

Manifold learning is a hot topic in the field of computer science, particularly since nonlinear dimensionality reduction based on manifold learning was proposed in Science in 2000. The work has achieved great success. The main purpose of current manifold-learning approaches is to search for independent intrinsic variables underlying high dimensional inputs which lie on a low dimensional manifold. In this paper, a new manifold is built up in the training step of the process, on which the input training samples are set to be close to each other if the values of their intrinsic variables are close to each other. Then, the process of dimensionality reduction is transformed into a procedure of preserving the continuity of the intrinsic variables. By utilizing the new manifold, the dynamic tracking of a human who can move and rotate freely is achieved. From the theoretical point of view, it is the first approach to transfer the manifold-learning framework to dynamic tracking. From the application point of view, a new and low dimensional feature for visual tracking is obtained and successfully applied to the real-time tracking of a free-moving object from a dynamic vision system. Experimental results from a dynamic tracking system which is mounted on a dynamic robot validate the effectiveness of the new algorithm.

Experimentation of cooperative learning model Numbered Heads Together (NHT) type by concept maps and Teams Games Tournament (TGT) by concept maps in terms of students logical mathematics intellegences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irawan, Adi; Mardiyana; Retno Sari Saputro, Dewi

2017-06-01

This research is aimed to find out the effect of learning model towards learning achievement in terms of students’ logical mathematics intelligences. The learning models that were compared were NHT by Concept Maps, TGT by Concept Maps, and Direct Learning model. This research was pseudo experimental by factorial design 3×3. The population of this research was all of the students of class XI Natural Sciences of Senior High School in all regency of Karanganyar in academic year 2016/2017. The conclusions of this research were: 1) the students’ achievements with NHT learning model by Concept Maps were better than students’ achievements with TGT model by Concept Maps and Direct Learning model. The students’ achievements with TGT model by Concept Maps were better than the students’ achievements with Direct Learning model. 2) The students’ achievements that exposed high logical mathematics intelligences were better than students’ medium and low logical mathematics intelligences. The students’ achievements that exposed medium logical mathematics intelligences were better than the students’ low logical mathematics intelligences. 3) Each of student logical mathematics intelligences with NHT learning model by Concept Maps has better achievement than students with TGT learning model by Concept Maps, students with NHT learning model by Concept Maps have better achievement than students with the direct learning model, and the students with TGT by Concept Maps learning model have better achievement than students with Direct Learning model. 4) Each of learning model, students who have logical mathematics intelligences have better achievement then students who have medium logical mathematics intelligences, and students who have medium logical mathematics intelligences have better achievement than students who have low logical mathematics intelligences.

The Columbia-Bronx VA amalgamative clerkship: an effective, 12-week, integrated, longitudinal clinical experience

PubMed Central

Diuguid-Gerber, Jillian; Porter, Samuel; Quiah, Samuel C.; Nickerson, Katherine; Jones, Deborah; Audi, Zeena; Richards, Boyd F.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Background: Many medical schools have adopted the longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) model in response to calls for increased continuity in clinical learning environments. However, because of implementation challenges, such programs are not feasible at some institutions or are limited to a small number of students. Objective: In January 2014, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) recognized the need to explore different LIC formats and began offering four, 12-week amalgamative clerkships (AC). Students within this curricular track experienced primary care, internal medicine ‘away’, orthopedic surgery, urology, and an elective in an integrated format. Design: P&S developed the AC in partnership with the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in Bronx, NY (BVA). All patient care and educational conferences took place at the BVA during the 12-week experience. The learning objectives of the AC were aligned to the learning objectives of a 52-week LIC also offered at Columbia. An evaluation process was developed to determine student learning experiences and preliminary outcomes, including how well the LIC-related objectives could be achieved in a shorter period of time. Results: In 2015, P&S collected AC evaluation data through three student feedback sessions. Students reported that the AC provided opportunity for patient continuity, patient-centered care approaches, meaningful roles for students, career development opportunities, and health systems awareness. Conclusions: Early outcomes indicate that the BVA AC provides a degree of longitudinality that can influence student perceptions of patient care, career development, and health systems, consistent with the larger LIC. The team continues to gather additional data on students’ experiences and investigate additional sites that have potential to serve as future AC learning environments. PMID:28317473

Good Features to Correlate for Visual Tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gundogdu, Erhan; Alatan, A. Aydin

2018-05-01

During the recent years, correlation filters have shown dominant and spectacular results for visual object tracking. The types of the features that are employed in these family of trackers significantly affect the performance of visual tracking. The ultimate goal is to utilize robust features invariant to any kind of appearance change of the object, while predicting the object location as properly as in the case of no appearance change. As the deep learning based methods have emerged, the study of learning features for specific tasks has accelerated. For instance, discriminative visual tracking methods based on deep architectures have been studied with promising performance. Nevertheless, correlation filter based (CFB) trackers confine themselves to use the pre-trained networks which are trained for object classification problem. To this end, in this manuscript the problem of learning deep fully convolutional features for the CFB visual tracking is formulated. In order to learn the proposed model, a novel and efficient backpropagation algorithm is presented based on the loss function of the network. The proposed learning framework enables the network model to be flexible for a custom design. Moreover, it alleviates the dependency on the network trained for classification. Extensive performance analysis shows the efficacy of the proposed custom design in the CFB tracking framework. By fine-tuning the convolutional parts of a state-of-the-art network and integrating this model to a CFB tracker, which is the top performing one of VOT2016, 18% increase is achieved in terms of expected average overlap, and tracking failures are decreased by 25%, while maintaining the superiority over the state-of-the-art methods in OTB-2013 and OTB-2015 tracking datasets.

Design of Ontology-Based Sharing Mechanism for Web Services Recommendation Learning Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Hong-Ren

The number of digital learning websites is growing as a result of advances in computer technology and new techniques in web page creation. These sites contain a wide variety of information but may be a source of confusion to learners who fail to find the information they are seeking. This has led to the concept of recommendation services to help learners acquire information and learning resources that suit their requirements. Learning content like this cannot be reused by other digital learning websites. A successful recommendation service that satisfies a certain learner must cooperate with many other digital learning objects so that it can achieve the required relevance. The study proposes using the theory of knowledge construction in ontology to make the sharing and reuse of digital learning resources possible. The learning recommendation system is accompanied by the recommendation of appropriate teaching materials to help learners enhance their learning abilities. A variety of diverse learning components scattered across the Internet can be organized through an ontological process so that learners can use information by storing, sharing, and reusing it.

Brewing for Students: An Inquiry-Based Microbiology Lab †

PubMed Central

Sato, Brian K.; Alam, Usman; Dacanay, Samantha J.; Lee, Amanda K.; Shaffer, Justin F.

2015-01-01

In an effort to improve and assess student learning, there has been a push to increase the incorporation of discovery-driven modules and those that contain real-world relevance into laboratory curricula. To further this effort, we have developed, implemented, and assessed an undergraduate microbiology laboratory experiment that requires students to use the scientific method while brewing beer. The experiment allows students to brew their own beer and characterize it based on taste, alcohol content, calorie content, pH, and standard reference method. In addition, we assessed whether students were capable of achieving the module learning objectives through a pre-/posttest, student self-evaluation, exam-embedded questions, and an associated worksheet. These objectives included describing the role of the brewing ingredients and predicting how altering the ingredients would affect the characteristics of the beer, amongst others. By completing this experimental module, students accomplished the module objectives, had greater interest in brewing, and were more likely to view beer in scientific terms. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education PMID:26753030

Brewing for Students: An Inquiry-Based Microbiology Lab.

PubMed

Sato, Brian K; Alam, Usman; Dacanay, Samantha J; Lee, Amanda K; Shaffer, Justin F

2015-12-01

In an effort to improve and assess student learning, there has been a push to increase the incorporation of discovery-driven modules and those that contain real-world relevance into laboratory curricula. To further this effort, we have developed, implemented, and assessed an undergraduate microbiology laboratory experiment that requires students to use the scientific method while brewing beer. The experiment allows students to brew their own beer and characterize it based on taste, alcohol content, calorie content, pH, and standard reference method. In addition, we assessed whether students were capable of achieving the module learning objectives through a pre-/posttest, student self-evaluation, exam-embedded questions, and an associated worksheet. These objectives included describing the role of the brewing ingredients and predicting how altering the ingredients would affect the characteristics of the beer, amongst others. By completing this experimental module, students accomplished the module objectives, had greater interest in brewing, and were more likely to view beer in scientific terms. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education.

Deep learning in the small sample size setting: cascaded feed forward neural networks for medical image segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gaonkar, Bilwaj; Hovda, David; Martin, Neil; Macyszyn, Luke

2016-03-01

Deep Learning, refers to large set of neural network based algorithms, have emerged as promising machine- learning tools in the general imaging and computer vision domains. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs), a specific class of deep learning algorithms, have been extremely effective in object recognition and localization in natural images. A characteristic feature of CNNs, is the use of a locally connected multi layer topology that is inspired by the animal visual cortex (the most powerful vision system in existence). While CNNs, perform admirably in object identification and localization tasks, typically require training on extremely large datasets. Unfortunately, in medical image analysis, large datasets are either unavailable or are extremely expensive to obtain. Further, the primary tasks in medical imaging are organ identification and segmentation from 3D scans, which are different from the standard computer vision tasks of object recognition. Thus, in order to translate the advantages of deep learning to medical image analysis, there is a need to develop deep network topologies and training methodologies, that are geared towards medical imaging related tasks and can work in a setting where dataset sizes are relatively small. In this paper, we present a technique for stacked supervised training of deep feed forward neural networks for segmenting organs from medical scans. Each `neural network layer' in the stack is trained to identify a sub region of the original image, that contains the organ of interest. By layering several such stacks together a very deep neural network is constructed. Such a network can be used to identify extremely small regions of interest in extremely large images, inspite of a lack of clear contrast in the signal or easily identifiable shape characteristics. What is even more intriguing is that the network stack achieves accurate segmentation even when it is trained on a single image with manually labelled ground truth. We validate this approach,using a publicly available head and neck CT dataset. We also show that a deep neural network of similar depth, if trained directly using backpropagation, cannot acheive the tasks achieved using our layer wise training paradigm.

Learning by Explaining Examples to Oneself: A Computational Model

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-02-01

rules. of which 28 rep~resented common senise phtysirs (e.g.. a taut rope tied to a object pulls onl it ) and 17 represented ()vr-gnerlizt inssuch as...the ,mii~ jduid( ii ot refer to anl examiplle to achieve tilie goal. thliu we cla-si tied lie goalI as beingp resolved bY EIIL( * llliimi v all mlv 1i e

The Effect of Classroom and Clinical Learning Approaches on Academic Achievement in Associate Degree Nursing Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrick, Jo Anne

2010-01-01

While many students compete aggressively to enter into nursing schools, those who succeed have no guarantee they will be successful in their nursing studies, graduating, and passing the National Council Licensing Exam for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN[R]). This study's objective was to gain a better understanding of how nursing students approach…

Research on the Healthy Lifestyle Model, Active Ageing, and Loneliness of Senior Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Jui-Ying; Lu, Kuo-Song

2014-01-01

Taiwan has the fastest ageing population in the world. Thus, the government and local policy makers need to formulate policies not just for the nursing and care needs of the aged. They also need to actively promote the need for lifelong learning among seniors in order to achieve elderly-friendly objectives, such as health promotion and delays in…

Evaluation of Use of Library Services and Technology Act Funding in California, 1997/98-2001/02.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Will, Barbara

This report describes the impact of Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding in California for 1997-2002 on Californians of all ages as served by their libraries of all types. The first section summarizes the results in achieving the following goals and their related objectives: (1) free and convenient access to learning and information…

Learning Extrema Problems Using a Non-Differential Approach in a Digital Dynamic Environment: The Case of High-Track yet Low-Achievers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dvir, Assaf; Tabach, Michal

2017-01-01

High schools commonly use a differential approach to teach minima and maxima geometric problems. Although calculus serves as a systematic and powerful technique, this rigorous instrument might hinder students' ability to understand the behavior and constraints of the objective function. The proliferation of digital environments allowed us to adopt…

Students' and Teachers' Perceptions: Initial Achievements of a Project-Based Engineering School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terrón-López, María-José; Velasco-Quintana, Paloma-Julia; García-García, María-José; Ocampo, Jared R.

2017-01-01

A unified academic model based on the project-based learning (PBL) methodology was implemented, in the 2012-2013 period, in the School of Engineering at Universidad Europea de Madrid. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether teachers and students participating in the capstone projects feel that the objectives for which this methodology was…

Chase: Control of Heterogeneous Autonomous Sensors for Situational Awareness

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-03

remained the discovery and analysis of new foundational methodology for information collection and fusion that exercises rigorous feedback control over...simultaneously achieve quantified information and physical objectives. New foundational methodology for information collection and fusion that exercises...11.2.1. In the general area of novel stochastic systems analysis it seems appropriate to mention the pioneering work on non -Bayesian distributed learning

Right of Knowing and Using Mother Tongue: A Mixed Method Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozfidan, Burhan

2017-01-01

Language is a crucial factor for the academic achievement of minority people. Speaking the mother tongue in school increases self-confidence and thinking skills, and conveys freedom of speech. Mother tongue is an inseparable element of his or her culture and that everyone has the right to learn his or her mother tongue. The main objective of this…

Do I Really Teach for America? Reflections of a Teach for America Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamond, Alex

2010-01-01

If one knows what to look for, it is not hard to spot a Teach for America (TFA) classroom. Typically, on one wall, a "Big Goal" poster proclaims the class objective: "Students will, on average, achieve 80 percent of their learning goals based on state standards." On another, tracking charts show the progress of individual students toward meeting…

An Integrated Contextual and Web-Based Issue Quest Approach to Improving Students' Learning Achievements, Attitudes and Critical Thinking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Han-Yu; Hwang, Gwo-Jen; Chang, Hong-Sheng

2015-01-01

In the era of computer and communication technologies, fostering students' high-level thinking abilities has become an important educational objective. Engaging students in web information searching to answer a series of questions related to a target issue has been recognized as a helpful approach for promoting students' thinking processes. In…

Double Blending: Online Theory with On-Campus Practice in Photography Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abrahmov, Shlomo Lee; Ronen, Miky

2008-01-01

This paper presents a blended learning model in which the online component is not used to replace some of the traditional on-campus activities of a course but to "introduce new teaching objectives" that would not have been possible to achieve, because of class time limitations and the nature of the course. The instructional model was aimed at…

A Study of Socioeconomic Status and Performance on Physical Science Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Robert B.

2009-01-01

When the federal government passed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation into law, its main objective was to improve the education in America's schools so that all students will be learning at the proficient level by the year 2014. However, not all students may be able to achieve at the same levels in some science classes, especially…

STEM Learning Opportunities Providing Equity (SLOPE): An Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant. Final Evaluation Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Carole; Huang, Kevin; Van Matre, Joseph

2015-01-01

This five-year evaluation examined the effectiveness of a promising middle-school mathematics intervention funded through an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant. Evaluation objectives were to: (1) study the impact of an intervention aimed at increasing the academic achievement of students in Algebra I--a gate-keeping course--as measured…

Helping learners level up with cognitive supports.

PubMed

Malenczak, Derek; Nemec, Patricia B

2017-03-01

This column describes strategies for helping educators and trainers address common problems with executive functioning and memory for their audiences, to better facilitate learning. The purpose of the article is to suggest strategies for maximizing learning and goal achievement for students in academic settings, as well as for building employee knowledge and skills in the psychiatric rehabilitation workforce through worksite-based training. The content in this column is drawn from the professional experience of the authors as well as available literature. Educators and trainers encounter many challenges when assisting people to achieve desired learning objectives. Attending to the cognitive needs of all learners, by supporting their planning, attention, memory, and reasoning skills, can minimize some of these challenges. Educators and trainers may implement the strategies described to better engage with their audiences, whether in an academic or clinical practice environment. Implementation of specific strategies to offset limitations will positively affect all learners, who benefit both from maximized knowledge and skill acquisition as well as improved job performance. Improved learning will likely translate to better practitioner skill over time, which should lead to improved outcomes for service users in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Impact of network aided platforms as educational tools on academic performance and attitude of pharmacology students

PubMed Central

Khan, Aftab Ahmed; Siddiqui, Adel Zia; Mohsin, Syed Fareed; Momani, Mohammed Mahmoud Al; Mirza, Eraj Humayun

2017-01-01

Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the impact of learning management system and WhatsApp application as educational tools on students’ academic achievement and attitude. Methods: The sample population was the students of six medical colleges of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia attending Medical Pharmacology’s semester course in Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program from September 2016 to January 2017. An exploratory approach was adopted based on a comparison between students exposed to only in-class lectures (Group-N), in-class lectures together with WhatsApp platform to disseminate the lecture slides (Group-W) and students group with in-class lectures facility blended with Learning Management System (LMS) and WhatsApp platform (Group-WL). The students’ grades were assessed using unified multiple choice questions at the end of the semester. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation (p<0.01). Results: Using learning management system (LMS) and/or WhatsApp messenger tool showed a significant positive correlation in improving students’ grades. Additionally, use of WhatsApp enhances students’ in-class attendance though statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The results are pivotal for a paradigm shift of in-class lectures and discussion to mobile learning (M-learning). M-learning through WhatsApp may be as an alternative, innovative, and collaborative tool in achieving the required goals in medical education. PMID:29492081

Re-engineering the process of medical imaging physics and technology education and training.

PubMed

Sprawls, Perry

2005-09-01

The extensive availability of digital technology provides an opportunity for enhancing both the effectiveness and efficiency of virtually all functions in the process of medical imaging physics and technology education and training. This includes degree granting academic programs within institutions and a wide spectrum of continuing education lifelong learning activities. Full achievement of the advantages of technology-enhanced education (e-learning, etc.) requires an analysis of specific educational activities with respect to desired outcomes and learning objectives. This is followed by the development of strategies and resources that are based on established educational principles. The impact of contemporary technology comes from its ability to place learners into enriched learning environments. The full advantage of a re-engineered and implemented educational process involves changing attitudes and functions of learning facilitators (teachers) and resource allocation and sharing both within and among institutions.

A European Languages Virtual Network Proposal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

García-Peñalvo, Francisco José; González-González, Juan Carlos; Murray, Maria

ELVIN (European Languages Virtual Network) is a European Union (EU) Lifelong Learning Programme Project aimed at creating an informal social network to support and facilitate language learning. The ELVIN project aims to research and develop the connection between social networks, professional profiles and language learning in an informal educational context. At the core of the ELVIN project, there will be a web 2.0 social networking platform that connects employees/students for language practice based on their own professional/academic needs and abilities, using all relevant technologies. The ELVIN remit involves the examination of both methodological and technological issues inherent in achieving a social-based learning platform that provides the user with their own customized Personal Learning Environment for EU language acquisition. ELVIN started in November 2009 and this paper presents the project aims and objectives as well as the development and implementation of the web platform.

Adaptive learning compressive tracking based on Markov location prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Xingyu; Fu, Dongmei; Yang, Tao; Shi, Yanan

2017-03-01

Object tracking is an interdisciplinary research topic in image processing, pattern recognition, and computer vision which has theoretical and practical application value in video surveillance, virtual reality, and automatic navigation. Compressive tracking (CT) has many advantages, such as efficiency and accuracy. However, when there are object occlusion, abrupt motion and blur, similar objects, and scale changing, the CT has the problem of tracking drift. We propose the Markov object location prediction to get the initial position of the object. Then CT is used to locate the object accurately, and the classifier parameter adaptive updating strategy is given based on the confidence map. At the same time according to the object location, extract the scale features, which is able to deal with object scale variations effectively. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has better tracking accuracy and robustness than current advanced algorithms and achieves real-time performance.

Teaching veterinary radiography by e-learning versus structured tutorial: a randomized, single-blinded controlled trial.

PubMed

Vandeweerd, Jean-Michel E F; Davies, John C; Pinchbeck, Gina L; Cotton, Jo C

2007-01-01

Case-based e-learning may allow effective teaching of veterinary radiology in the field of equine orthopedics. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a new case-based e-learning tool, compared with a standard structured tutorial, in altering students' knowledge and skills about interpretation of radiographs of the digit in the horse. It was also designed to assess students' attitudes toward the two educational interventions. A randomized, single-blinded, controlled trial of 96 fourth-year undergraduate veterinary students, involving an educational intervention of either structured tutorial or case-based e-learning, was performed. A multiple-choice examination based on six learning outcomes was carried out in each group after the session, followed by an evaluation of students' attitudes toward their session on a seven-point scale. Text blanks were available to students to allow them to comment on the educational interventions and on their learning outcomes. Students also rated, on a Likert scale from 1 to 7, their performance for each specific learning outcome and their general ability to use a systematic approach in interpreting radiographs. Data were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test, the t-test, and the equivalence test. There was no significant difference in student achievement on course tests. The results of the survey suggest positive student attitudes toward the e-learning tool and illustrate the difference between objective ratings and subjective assessments by students in testing a new educational intervention.

Siamese convolutional networks for tracking the spine motion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Yuan; Sui, Xiubao; Sun, Yicheng; Liu, Chengwei; Hu, Yong

2017-09-01

Deep learning models have demonstrated great success in various computer vision tasks such as image classification and object tracking. However, tracking the lumbar spine by digitalized video fluoroscopic imaging (DVFI), which can quantitatively analyze the motion mode of spine to diagnose lumbar instability, has not yet been well developed due to the lack of steady and robust tracking method. In this paper, we propose a novel visual tracking algorithm of the lumbar vertebra motion based on a Siamese convolutional neural network (CNN) model. We train a full-convolutional neural network offline to learn generic image features. The network is trained to learn a similarity function that compares the labeled target in the first frame with the candidate patches in the current frame. The similarity function returns a high score if the two images depict the same object. Once learned, the similarity function is used to track a previously unseen object without any adapting online. In the current frame, our tracker is performed by evaluating the candidate rotated patches sampled around the previous frame target position and presents a rotated bounding box to locate the predicted target precisely. Results indicate that the proposed tracking method can detect the lumbar vertebra steadily and robustly. Especially for images with low contrast and cluttered background, the presented tracker can still achieve good tracking performance. Further, the proposed algorithm operates at high speed for real time tracking.

Integration of e-learning technologies in an interprofessional health science course.

PubMed

Carbonaro, Mike; King, Sharla; Taylor, Elizabeth; Satzinger, Franziska; Snart, Fern; Drummond, Jane

2008-02-01

Advances in information and communication technology are influencing instructional formats and delivery modes for post secondary teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to determine whether interprofessional team process skills traditionally taught in a small group face-to-face classroom setting could be taught in a blended learning environment; without compromising the pedagogical approach and collaborative Group Investigation Model (Sharan & Sharan 1992) used in the course. A required interprofessional team development course designed to teach health science students (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Dentistry, Dental Hygiene, Medical Laboratory Science, and Nutrition) team process skills was redesigned from a 100% face-to-face delivery format to a blended learning format where 70% of the instruction was delivered using a new synchronous virtual classroom technology (Elluminate www.elluminate.com) in conjunction with asynchronous technology (WebCT). It was hypothesized there would be no significant difference between the blended learning format and the traditional face-to-face format in the development of interprofessional team knowledge, skills and attitudes. The two formats were evaluated on demographic information, computer experience, and interprofessional team attitudes, knowledge and skills. The three main findings are: (a) no significant differences between student groups on achieving team process skills, (b) an observation of differences between the groups on team dynamics, and (c) a more positive achievement of course learning objectives perceived by students in the blended learning class. The results provide evidence to support our blended learning format without compromising pedagogy. They also suggest that this format enhances students' perceptions of their learning.

Effectiveness of flipped classroom with Poll Everywhere as a teaching-learning method for pharmacy students

PubMed Central

Gubbiyappa, Kumar Shiva; Barua, Ankur; Das, Biswadeep; Vasudeva Murthy, C. R.; Baloch, Hasnain Zafar

2016-01-01

Objectives: Flipped classroom (FC) is a pedagogical model to engage students in learning process by replacing the didactic lectures. Using technology, lectures are moved out of the classroom and delivered online as means to provide interaction and collaboration. Poll Everywhere is an audience response system (ARS) which can be used in an FC to make the activities more interesting, engaging, and interactive. This study aims to study the perception of undergraduate pharmacy students on FC activity using Poll Everywhere ARS and to study the effectiveness of FC activity as a teaching-learning tool for delivering complementary medicine module in the undergraduate pharmacy program. Materials and Methods: In this nonrandomized trial on interrupted time series study, flipped class was conducted on group of 112 students of bachelor of pharmacy semester V. The topic selected was popular herbal remedies of the complementary medicine module. Flipped class was conducted with audio and video presentation in the form of a quiz using ten one-best-answer type of multiple-choice questions covering the learning objectives. Audience response was captured using web-based interaction with Poll Everywhere. Feedback was obtained from participants at the end of FC activity and debriefing was done. Results: Randomly selected 112 complete responses were included in the final analysis. There were 47 (42%) male and 65 (58%) female respondents. The overall Cronbach’s alpha of feedback questionnaire was 0.912. The central tendencies and dispersions of items in the questionnaire indicated the effectiveness of FC. The low or middle achievers of quiz session (pretest) during the FC activity were three times (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1–8.9) at the risk of providing neutral or negative feedback than high achievers (P = 0.040). Those who gave neutral or negative feedback on FC activity were 3.9 times (95% CI = 1.3–11.8) at the risk of becoming low or middle achievers during the end of semester examination (P = 0.013). The multivariate analysis of “Agree” or “Disagree” and “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” was statistically significant. Conclusion: This study provides insight on how the pharmacy students learn and develop their cognitive functions. The results revealed that the FC activity with Poll Everywhere is an effective teaching-learning method. PMID:28031607

Geophysics field school: A team-based learning experience for students and faculty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karchewski, B.; Innanen, K. A.; Lauer, R. M.; Pidlisecky, A.

2016-12-01

The core challenge facing a modern science educator is to deliver a curriculum that reaches broadly and deeply into the technical domain, while also helping students to develop fundamental scientific skills such as inquiry, critical thinking and technical communication. That is, our aim is for students to achieve significant learning at all levels summarized by Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. It is not always clear how to achieve the full spectrum of goals, with much debate over which component is more important in a science education. Team-based and experiential learning are research-supported approaches that aim to reach across the spectrum by placing students in a setting where they solve practical problems in teams of peers. This learning mode modifies the role of the instructor to a guide or facilitator, and students take a leadership role in their own education. We present a case study of our team's implementation of team-based learning in a geophysics field school, an inherently experiential learning environment. The core philosophies behind our implementation are to present clearly defined learning outcomes, to recognize that students differ in their learning modalities and to strive to engage students through a range of evidence-based learning experiences. We discuss the techniques employed to create functional teams, the key learning activities involved in a typical day of field school and data demonstrating the learning activities that showed the strongest correlation to overall performance in the course. In the process, we also realized that our team-based approach to course design and implementation also enhanced our skillsets as educators, and our institution recently recognized our efforts with a team teaching award. Therefore, we conclude with some of our observations of best practices for team teaching in a field setting to initiate discussions with colleagues engaged in similar activities.

Prediction of drug synergy in cancer using ensemble-based machine learning techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Harpreet; Rana, Prashant Singh; Singh, Urvinder

2018-04-01

Drug synergy prediction plays a significant role in the medical field for inhibiting specific cancer agents. It can be developed as a pre-processing tool for therapeutic successes. Examination of different drug-drug interaction can be done by drug synergy score. It needs efficient regression-based machine learning approaches to minimize the prediction errors. Numerous machine learning techniques such as neural networks, support vector machines, random forests, LASSO, Elastic Nets, etc., have been used in the past to realize requirement as mentioned above. However, these techniques individually do not provide significant accuracy in drug synergy score. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper is to design a neuro-fuzzy-based ensembling approach. To achieve this, nine well-known machine learning techniques have been implemented by considering the drug synergy data. Based on the accuracy of each model, four techniques with high accuracy are selected to develop ensemble-based machine learning model. These models are Random forest, Fuzzy Rules Using Genetic Cooperative-Competitive Learning method (GFS.GCCL), Adaptive-Network-Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) and Dynamic Evolving Neural-Fuzzy Inference System method (DENFIS). Ensembling is achieved by evaluating the biased weighted aggregation (i.e. adding more weights to the model with a higher prediction score) of predicted data by selected models. The proposed and existing machine learning techniques have been evaluated on drug synergy score data. The comparative analysis reveals that the proposed method outperforms others in terms of accuracy, root mean square error and coefficient of correlation.

Non-linear learning in online tutorial to enhance students’ knowledge on normal distribution application topic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kartono; Suryadi, D.; Herman, T.

2018-01-01

This study aimed to analyze the enhancement of non-linear learning (NLL) in the online tutorial (OT) content to students’ knowledge of normal distribution application (KONDA). KONDA is a competence expected to be achieved after students studied the topic of normal distribution application in the course named Education Statistics. The analysis was performed by quasi-experiment study design. The subject of the study was divided into an experimental class that was given OT content in NLL model and a control class which was given OT content in conventional learning (CL) model. Data used in this study were the results of online objective tests to measure students’ statistical prior knowledge (SPK) and students’ pre- and post-test of KONDA. The statistical analysis test of a gain score of KONDA of students who had low and moderate SPK’s scores showed students’ KONDA who learn OT content with NLL model was better than students’ KONDA who learn OT content with CL model. Meanwhile, for students who had high SPK’s scores, the gain score of students who learn OT content with NLL model had relatively similar with the gain score of students who learn OT content with CL model. Based on those findings it could be concluded that the NLL model applied to OT content could enhance KONDA of students in low and moderate SPK’s levels. Extra and more challenging didactical situation was needed for students in high SPK’s level to achieve the significant gain score.

The effectiveness of physics learning material based on South Kalimantan local wisdom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartini, Sri; Misbah, Helda, Dewantara, Dewi

2017-08-01

The local wisdom is essential element incorporated into learning process. However, there are no learning materials in Physics learning process which contain South Kalimantan local wisdom. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a Physics learning material based on South Kalimantan local wisdom. The objective of this research is to produce products in the form of learning material based on South Kalimantan local wisdom that is feasible and effective based on the validity, practicality, effectiveness of learning material and achievement of waja sampai kaputing (wasaka) character. This research is a research and development which refers to the ADDIE model. Data were obtained through the validation sheet of learning material, questionnaire, the test of learning outcomes and the sheet of character assesment. The research results showed that (1) the validity category of the learning material was very valid, (2) the practicality category of the learning material was very practical, (3) the effectiveness category of thelearning material was very effective, and (4) the achivement of wasaka characters was very good. In conclusion, the Physics learning materials based on South Kalimantan local wisdom are feasible and effective to be used in learning activities.

Improving orbit prediction accuracy through supervised machine learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peng, Hao; Bai, Xiaoli

2018-05-01

Due to the lack of information such as the space environment condition and resident space objects' (RSOs') body characteristics, current orbit predictions that are solely grounded on physics-based models may fail to achieve required accuracy for collision avoidance and have led to satellite collisions already. This paper presents a methodology to predict RSOs' trajectories with higher accuracy than that of the current methods. Inspired by the machine learning (ML) theory through which the models are learned based on large amounts of observed data and the prediction is conducted without explicitly modeling space objects and space environment, the proposed ML approach integrates physics-based orbit prediction algorithms with a learning-based process that focuses on reducing the prediction errors. Using a simulation-based space catalog environment as the test bed, the paper demonstrates three types of generalization capability for the proposed ML approach: (1) the ML model can be used to improve the same RSO's orbit information that is not available during the learning process but shares the same time interval as the training data; (2) the ML model can be used to improve predictions of the same RSO at future epochs; and (3) the ML model based on a RSO can be applied to other RSOs that share some common features.

Student Needs to Practicum Guidance in Physiology of Animals Based on Guided Inquiry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Widiana, R.; Susanti, S.; Susanti, D.

2017-09-01

The achievement of the subject of animal physiology requires that the students actively and creatively find their knowledge independently in understanding the concepts, theories, physiological processes, decompose, assemble, compare and modify physiological processes in relation to the fluctuation of environmental factors through practicum activities. The achievement of this lesson has not been fully realized because the learning resources used can’t guide, direct and make the independent students achieve their learning achievement and the practical handbook used has not been able to lead the students active and creative in finding their own knowledge. The practical handbook used so far consists only of the introduction of materials, work steps and questions. For that, we need to develop guided inquiry guide based on the needs of students. Objectives this study produces a practical handbook that fits the needs of the students. The research was done by using 4-D models and limited to define stage that is student requirement analysis. Data obtained from the questionnaire and analysed descriptively. The questionnaire obtained an average of 88.16%. So the needs of students will guide guided inquiry based inquiry both to be developed.

Recognition of abstract objects via neural oscillators: interaction among topological organization, associative memory and gamma band synchronization.

PubMed

Ursino, Mauro; Magosso, Elisa; Cuppini, Cristiano

2009-02-01

Synchronization of neural activity in the gamma band is assumed to play a significant role not only in perceptual processing, but also in higher cognitive functions. Here, we propose a neural network of Wilson-Cowan oscillators to simulate recognition of abstract objects, each represented as a collection of four features. Features are ordered in topological maps of oscillators connected via excitatory lateral synapses, to implement a similarity principle. Experience on previous objects is stored in long-range synapses connecting the different topological maps, and trained via timing dependent Hebbian learning (previous knowledge principle). Finally, a downstream decision network detects the presence of a reliable object representation, when all features are oscillating in synchrony. Simulations performed giving various simultaneous objects to the network (from 1 to 4), with some missing and/or modified properties suggest that the network can reconstruct objects, and segment them from the other simultaneously present objects, even in case of deteriorated information, noise, and moderate correlation among the inputs (one common feature). The balance between sensitivity and specificity depends on the strength of the Hebbian learning. Achieving a correct reconstruction in all cases, however, requires ad hoc selection of the oscillation frequency. The model represents an attempt to investigate the interactions among topological maps, autoassociative memory, and gamma-band synchronization, for recognition of abstract objects.

The legacy of care as reflexive learning

PubMed Central

García, Marta Rodríguez; Moya, Jose Luis Medina

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective: to analyze whether the tutor's use of reflexive strategies encourages the students to reflect. The goal is to discover what type of strategies can help to achieve this and how tutors and students behave in the practical context. Method: a qualitative and ethnographic focus was adopted. Twenty-seven students and 15 tutors from three health centers participated. The latter had received specific training on reflexive clinical tutoring. The analysis was developed through constant comparisons of the categories. Results: the results demonstrate that the tutors' use of reflexive strategies such as didactic questioning, didactic empathy and pedagogical silence contributes to encourage the students' reflection and significant learning. Conclusions: reflexive practice is key to tutors' training and students' learning. PMID:27305180

Developing Built Environment Programs in Local Health Departments: Lessons Learned From a Nationwide Mentoring Program

PubMed Central

Rube, Kate; Veatch, Maggie; Huang, Katy; Lent, Megan; Goldstein, Gail P.; Lee, Karen K.

2014-01-01

Local health departments (LHDs) have a key role to play in developing built environment policies and programs to encourage physical activity and combat obesity and related chronic diseases. However, information to guide LHDs’ effective engagement in this arena is lacking. During 2011–2012, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) facilitated a built environment peer mentoring program for 14 LHDs nationwide. Program objectives included supporting LHDs in their efforts to achieve built environment goals, offering examples from DOHMH’s built environment work to guide LHDs, and building a healthy built environment learning network. We share lessons learned that can guide LHDs in developing successful healthy built environment agendas. PMID:24625166

The Course Syllabus: Legal Contract or Operator's Manual?

PubMed

Rumore, Martha M

2016-12-25

A course syllabus provides a roadmap for pharmacy students to achieve course learning objectives and develop lifelong learning skills. For several decades the literature has referred to syllabi as legal documents and/or contracts between students and professors. A review of the legal precedents reveals that syllabi are not considered contracts because the courts refuse thus far to recognize educational malpractice or breach of contract as a cause of action. Syllabi do, however, represent a triggering agent for instructional dissent and grade appeals, may be binding in student appeal proceedings, and are used in judicial hearings. Pharmacy faculty members should review their syllabi and follow process improvement strategies to construct legally sound syllabi that can both enhance learning and minimize risks of student grievances and appeals.

Learning viewpoint invariant object representations using a temporal coherence principle.

PubMed

Einhäuser, Wolfgang; Hipp, Jörg; Eggert, Julian; Körner, Edgar; König, Peter

2005-07-01

Invariant object recognition is arguably one of the major challenges for contemporary machine vision systems. In contrast, the mammalian visual system performs this task virtually effortlessly. How can we exploit our knowledge on the biological system to improve artificial systems? Our understanding of the mammalian early visual system has been augmented by the discovery that general coding principles could explain many aspects of neuronal response properties. How can such schemes be transferred to system level performance? In the present study we train cells on a particular variant of the general principle of temporal coherence, the "stability" objective. These cells are trained on unlabeled real-world images without a teaching signal. We show that after training, the cells form a representation that is largely independent of the viewpoint from which the stimulus is looked at. This finding includes generalization to previously unseen viewpoints. The achieved representation is better suited for view-point invariant object classification than the cells' input patterns. This property to facilitate view-point invariant classification is maintained even if training and classification take place in the presence of an--also unlabeled--distractor object. In summary, here we show that unsupervised learning using a general coding principle facilitates the classification of real-world objects, that are not segmented from the background and undergo complex, non-isomorphic, transformations.

Introducing Interactive Teaching Styles into Astronomy Lectures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deming, G. L.

1997-12-01

The majority of undergraduate students who take an astronomy class are non-science majors attempting to satisfy a science requirement. Often in these "scientific literacy" courses, facts are memorized for the exam and forgotten shortly afterwards. Scientific literacy courses should advance student skills toward processing information and applying higher order thinking rather than simple recall and memorization of facts. Thinking about material as it is presented, applying new knowledge to solve problems, and thinking critically about topics are objectives that many astronomy instructors hope their students are achieving. A course in astronomy is more likely to achieve such goals if students routinely participate in their learning. Interactive techniques can be quite effective even in large classes. Examples of activities are presented that involve using cooperative learning techniques, writing individual and group "minute papers," identifying and correcting misconceptions, including the whole class in a demonstration, and applying knowledge to new situations.

Problem solving performance and learning strategies of undergraduate students who solved microbiology problems using IMMEX educational software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ebomoyi, Josephine Itota

The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) Determine the relationship between learning strategies and performance in problem solving, (2) Explore the role of a student's declared major on performance in problem solving, (3) Understand the decision making process of high and low achievers during problem solving. Participants (N = 65) solved problems using the Interactive multimedia exercise (IMMEX) software. All participants not only solved "Microquest," which focuses on cellular processes and mode of action of antibiotics, but also "Creeping Crud," which focuses on the cause, origin and transmission of diseases. Participants also responded to the "Motivated Strategy Learning Questionnaire" (MSLQ). Hierarchical multiple regression was used for analysis with GPA (Gracie point average) as a control. There were 49 (78.6%) that successfully solved "Microquest" while 52 (82.5%) successfully solved "Creeping Crud". Metacognitive self regulation strategy was significantly (p < .10) related to ability to solve "Creeping Crud". Peer learning strategy showed a positive significant (p < .10) relationship with scores obtained from solving "Creeping Crud". Students' declared major made a significant (p < .05) difference on the ability to solve "Microquest". A subset (18) volunteered for a think aloud method to determine decision-making process. High achievers used fewer steps, and had more focused approach than low achievers. Common strategies and attributes included metacognitive skills, writing to keep track, using prior knowledge. Others included elements of frustration/confusion and self-esteem problems. The implications for educational and relevance to real life situations are discussed.

Equity Gains in Bangladesh Primary Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chowdhury, A. Mushtaque R.; Nath, Samir R.; Choudhury, Rasheda K.

2003-11-01

Although equity is a desirable objective of any form of development intervention, including education, not many studies dwell upon this important area. Information on related trends is even more rare. This essay uses field-level data from Bangladesh to examine equity levels and trends in primary education, including enrolment and quality of learning, focusing on equity for different gender, urban or rural, economic and ethnic groups. The study shows that while some disparity between girls and boys has been eliminated, girls are still far behind boys in terms of learning achievement. Children belonging to poorer families and ethnic minority groups lag behind the respective dominant groups in terms of both enrolment and learning achievement. At the same time, there have been some improvements for hitherto excluded groups such as rural girls and children of the poor. These changes are attributed mainly to 'positive discriminatory' steps taken by the government and non-governmental organizations in favour of such groups. If this trend continues, Bangladesh can look forward to establishing itself as a more equitable society than it is now.

Automated volumetric lung segmentation of thoracic CT images using fully convolutional neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Negahdar, Mohammadreza; Beymer, David; Syeda-Mahmood, Tanveer

2018-02-01

Deep Learning models such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have achieved state-of-the-art performance in 2D medical image analysis. In clinical practice; however, most analyzed and acquired medical data are formed of 3D volumes. In this paper, we present a fast and efficient 3D lung segmentation method based on V-net: a purely volumetric fully CNN. Our model is trained on chest CT images through volume to volume learning, which palliates overfitting problem on limited number of annotated training data. Adopting a pre-processing step and training an objective function based on Dice coefficient addresses the imbalance between the number of lung voxels against that of background. We have leveraged Vnet model by using batch normalization for training which enables us to use higher learning rate and accelerates the training of the model. To address the inadequacy of training data and obtain better robustness, we augment the data applying random linear and non-linear transformations. Experimental results on two challenging medical image data show that our proposed method achieved competitive result with a much faster speed.

Animal-Centered Learning Activities in Pharmacy Education

PubMed Central

Lust, Elaine

2006-01-01

Objectives To assess the contribution of animal-centered activities to students achieving learning outcomes in a veterinary therapeutics course. Design Qualitative methods were used to assess the outcome of using “hands-on” animal interactions as tools of engagement in the course. Reflective commentary on animal-centered activities was collected and analyzed. Assessment Animal-centered learning activities are effective tools for engaging students and facilitating their understanding and application of veterinary therapeutic knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Analysis of qualitative data revealed themes of professional caring and caring behaviors as a direct result of animal-centered activities. Elements of empathy, caring, compassion, and self-awareness were strong undercurrents in student's comments. Conclusions Animal-centered learning activities provide an innovative learning environment for the application of veterinary pharmacy knowledge, skills, and attitudes directly to animal patients. The use of animals in the course is a successful active-learning technique to engage pharmacy students and assist them in developing caring attitudes and behaviors beneficial to future health care providers. PMID:17149415

Evaluating and redesigning teaching learning sequences at the introductory physics level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guisasola, Jenaro; Zuza, Kristina; Ametller, Jaume; Gutierrez-Berraondo, José

2017-12-01

In this paper we put forward a proposal for the design and evaluation of teaching and learning sequences in upper secondary school and university. We will connect our proposal with relevant contributions on the design of teaching sequences, ground it on the design-based research methodology, and discuss how teaching and learning sequences designed according to our proposal relate to learning progressions. An iterative methodology for evaluating and redesigning the teaching and learning sequence (TLS) is presented. The proposed assessment strategy focuses on three aspects: (a) evaluation of the activities of the TLS, (b) evaluation of learning achieved by students in relation to the intended objectives, and (c) a document for gathering the difficulties found when implementing the TLS to serve as a guide to teachers. Discussion of this guide with external teachers provides feedback used for the TLS redesign. The context of our implementation and evaluation is an innovative calculus-based physics course for first-year engineering and science degree students at the University of the Basque Country.

Multi-objective optimization of radiotherapy: distributed Q-learning and agent-based simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jalalimanesh, Ammar; Haghighi, Hamidreza Shahabi; Ahmadi, Abbas; Hejazian, Hossein; Soltani, Madjid

2017-09-01

Radiotherapy (RT) is among the regular techniques for the treatment of cancerous tumours. Many of cancer patients are treated by this manner. Treatment planning is the most important phase in RT and it plays a key role in therapy quality achievement. As the goal of RT is to irradiate the tumour with adequately high levels of radiation while sparing neighbouring healthy tissues as much as possible, it is a multi-objective problem naturally. In this study, we propose an agent-based model of vascular tumour growth and also effects of RT. Next, we use multi-objective distributed Q-learning algorithm to find Pareto-optimal solutions for calculating RT dynamic dose. We consider multiple objectives and each group of optimizer agents attempt to optimise one of them, iteratively. At the end of each iteration, agents compromise the solutions to shape the Pareto-front of multi-objective problem. We propose a new approach by defining three schemes of treatment planning created based on different combinations of our objectives namely invasive, conservative and moderate. In invasive scheme, we enforce killing cancer cells and pay less attention about irradiation effects on normal cells. In conservative scheme, we take more care of normal cells and try to destroy cancer cells in a less stressed manner. The moderate scheme stands in between. For implementation, each of these schemes is handled by one agent in MDQ-learning algorithm and the Pareto optimal solutions are discovered by the collaboration of agents. By applying this methodology, we could reach Pareto treatment plans through building different scenarios of tumour growth and RT. The proposed multi-objective optimisation algorithm generates robust solutions and finds the best treatment plan for different conditions.

Learning Problems in Kindergarten Students with Extremely Preterm Birth

PubMed Central

Taylor, H. Gerry; Klein, Nancy; Anselmo, Marcia G.; Minich, Nori; Espy, Kimberly A.; Hack, Maureen

2012-01-01

Objective To assess learning problems in extremely preterm children in kindergarten and identify risk factors. Design Cohort study. Setting Children’s hospital. Participants A cohort of extremely preterm children born January 2001 – December 2003 (n=148), defined as <28 weeks gestation and/or <1000 g birth weight, and term-born normal birth weight classmate controls (n=111). Main Interventions The children were enrolled during their first year in kindergarten and assessed on measures of learning progress. Main Outcome Measures Achievement testing, teacher ratings of learning progress, and individual educational assistance. Results The extremely preterm children had lower mean standard scores than controls on tests of spelling (8.52 points, 95% CI: 4.58, 12.46) and applied mathematics (11.02 points, 95% CI: 6.76, 15.28). They also had higher rates of substandard learning progress by teacher report in written language (OR = 4.23, 95% CI: 2.32, 7.73) and mathematics (OR = 7.08, 95% CI: 2.79, 17.95). Group differences on mathematics achievement and in teacher ratings of learning progress were significant even in children without neurosensory deficits or low global cognitive ability. Neonatal risk factors, early childhood neurodevelopmental impairment, and socioeconomic status predicted learning problems in extremely preterm children, yet many of the children with problems were not in a special education program. Conclusion Learning problems in extremely preterm children are evident in kindergarten and are associated with neonatal and early childhood risk factors. The findings support efforts to provide more extensive monitoring and interventions both prior to and during the first year in school. PMID:21893648

STENCIL: Science Teaching European Network for Creativity and Innovation in Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cattadori, M.; Magrefi, F.

2013-12-01

STENCIL is an european educational project funded with support of the European Commission within the framework of LLP7 (Lifelong Learning Programme) for a period of 3 years (2011 - 2013). STENCIL includes 21 members from 9 European countries (Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey.) working together to contribute to the general objective of improving science teaching, by promoting innovative methodologies and creative solutions. Among the innovative methods adept a particolar interest is a joint partnership between a wide spectrum of type of institutions such as schools, school authorities, research centres, universities, science museums, and other organizations, representing differing perspectives on science education. STENCIL offers to practitioners in science education from all over Europe, a platform; the web portal - www.stencil-science.eu - that provides high visibility to schools and institutions involved in Comenius and other similar European funded projects in science education. STENCIL takes advantage of the positive results achieved by the former European projects STELLA - Science Teaching in a Lifelong Learning Approach (2007 - 2009) and GRID - Growing interest in the development of teaching science (2004-2006). The specific objectives of the project are : 1) to identify and promote innovative practices in science teaching through the publication of Annual Reports on Science Education; 2) to bring together science education practitioners to share different experiences and learn from each other through the organisation of periodical study visits and workshops; 3) to disseminate materials and outcomes coming from previous EU funded projects and from isolated science education initiatives through the STENCIL web portal, as well as through international conferences and national events. This contribution aims at explaining the main features of the project together with the achieved results during the project's 3 year lifetime-span.

The Role of the Instructor in Business Games: A Comparison of Face-to-Face and Online Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hernandez, Ana Beatriz; Gorjup, Maria Tatiana; Cascon, Rosalia

2010-01-01

This study analyses the role of the instructor in the e-learning process fostered by a business game. To achieve this objective, a comparative analysis was conducted with two groups of students regarding their perceptions of the instructor's role in a business game. The first group was composed of 33 participants and facilitated by an instructor…

Words Can Help Manage Emotions: Using Research-Based Strategies for Vocabulary Instruction to Teach Emotion Words to Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallingane, Caitlin; Han, Heejeong Sophia

2015-01-01

One of the key objectives of childhood education is to build empathy and understanding in students. Young children with the ability to comprehend and regulate their own emotions--and empathize with the emotions and experiences of others--go on to achieve greater learning outcomes and more positive relationships than children who do not develop…

Finding Support in Moodle: A Face-to-Face Chemistry Course for Engineers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Vega, Carolina Armijo; McAnally-Salas, Lewis

2011-01-01

The aim of this paper was to know the students' perceptions of using online support in a chemistry course. To achieve this objective, a qualitative research was conducted over a chemistry course that was imparted in a face-to-face modality using a LMS (learning management system) for on-line support. The supports available in the LMS were forums,…

Evaluating Learners's Ability to Use Technology in Distance Education: The Case of External Degree Programme of the University of Nairobi

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omito, Ouma

2016-01-01

The study was aimed at investigating the students' ability to use technology for distance education with specific reference to the University of Nairobi's External Degree Program. To achieve this, one specific objective was formulated: To find out the student teacher's readiness to accept and utilize technology for learning purposes in relation to…

The Pedagogical Role of Language in Science Teaching and Learning in South Africa: A Review of Research 1990-2015

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Msimanga, Audrey; Denley, Paul; Gumede, Nhlakanipho

2017-01-01

One of the objectives of the South African science curriculum is to provide equal access to science for students from all backgrounds. However, this goal remains elusive as many students, particularly those from low socio-economic backgrounds, continue to perform poorly in science. One of the reasons for the persistent differential achievement in…

Review of Aircraft Engine Fan Noise Reduction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanZante, Dale

2008-01-01

Aircraft turbofan engines incorporate multiple technologies to enhance performance and durability while reducing noise emissions. Both careful aerodynamic design of the fan and proper installation of the fan into the system are requirements for achieving the performance and acoustic objectives. The design and installation characteristics of high performance aircraft engine fans will be discussed along with some lessons learned that may be applicable to spaceflight fan applications.

Investigating Consistency of Questions in Primary and Middle School Science Textbooks with Objectives in Science Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yaman, Süleyman

2017-01-01

Due to problems related their content and use; textbooks do not achieve the expected effect in learning although they are one of the most important elements of the science curriculum. Questions in textbooks are also important criteria in determining the effect of textbooks. In this study, it was aimed to compare questions in four different science…

How Cognitive Engagement Fluctuates during a Team-Based Learning Session and How It Predicts Academic Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rotgans, Jerome I.; Schmidt, Henk G.; Rajalingam, Preman; Hao, Joey Wong Ying; Canning, Claire Ann; Ferenczi, Michael A.; Low-Beer, Naomi

2018-01-01

The objective of the paper is to report findings of two studies that attempted to find answers to the following questions: (1) What are the levels of cognitive engagement in TBL?; (2) Are there differences between students who were more exposed to TBL than students who were less exposed to TBL?; (3) To which extent does cognitive engagement…

Learning the Language of Healthcare Enabling Semantic Web Technology in CHCS

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

tuples”, (subject, predicate, object), to relate data and achieve semantic interoperability . Other similar technologies exist, but their... Semantic Healthcare repository [5]. Ultimately, both of our data approaches were successful. However, our current test system is based on the CPRS demo...to extract system dependencies and workflows; to extract semantically related patient data ; and to browse patient- centric views into the system . We

Formalization of software requirements for information systems using fuzzy logic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yegorov, Y. S.; Milov, V. R.; Kvasov, A. S.; Sorokoumova, S. N.; Suvorova, O. V.

2018-05-01

The paper considers an approach to the design of information systems based on flexible software development methodologies. The possibility of improving the management of the life cycle of information systems by assessing the functional relationship between requirements and business objectives is described. An approach is proposed to establish the relationship between the degree of achievement of business objectives and the fulfillment of requirements for the projected information system. It describes solutions that allow one to formalize the process of formation of functional and non-functional requirements with the help of fuzzy logic apparatus. The form of the objective function is formed on the basis of expert knowledge and is specified via learning from very small data set.

Active-learning implementation in an advanced elective course on infectious diseases.

PubMed

Hidayat, Levita; Patel, Shreya; Veltri, Keith

2012-06-18

To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of an advanced elective course on infectious diseases using active-learning strategies. Pedagogy for active learning was incorporated by means of mini-lecture, journal club, and debate with follow-up discussion. Forty-eight students were enrolled in this 4-week elective course, in which 30% of course time was allocated for active-learning exercises. All activities were fundamentally designed as a stepwise approach in complementing each active-learning exercise. Achievement of the course learning objectives was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale survey instrument. Students' awareness of the significance of antimicrobial resistance was improved (p ≤ 0.05). Students' ability to critically evaluate the infectious-disease literature and its application in informed clinical judgments was also enhanced through these active-learning exercises (p ≤ 0.05). Students agreed that active learning should be part of the pharmacy curriculum and that active-learning exercises improved their critical-thinking, literature-evaluation, and self-learning skills. An elective course using active-learning strategies allowed students to combine information gained from the evaluation of infectious-disease literature, critical thinking, and informed clinical judgment. This blended approach ultimately resulted in an increased knowledge and awareness of infectious diseases.

Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning-based Deep Neural Networks for Cognitive Space Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ferreria, Paulo; Paffenroth, Randy; Wyglinski, Alexander M.; Hackett, Timothy; Bilen, Sven; Reinhart, Richard; Mortensen, Dale

2017-01-01

Future communication subsystems of space exploration missions can potentially benefit from software-defined radios (SDRs) controlled by machine learning algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid radio resource allocation management control algorithm that integrates multi-objective reinforcement learning and deep artificial neural networks. The objective is to efficiently manage communications system resources by monitoring performance functions with common dependent variables that result in conflicting goals. The uncertainty in the performance of thousands of different possible combinations of radio parameters makes the trade-off between exploration and exploitation in reinforcement learning (RL) much more challenging for future critical space-based missions. Thus, the system should spend as little time as possible on exploring actions, and whenever it explores an action, it should perform at acceptable levels most of the time. The proposed approach enables on-line learning by interactions with the environment and restricts poor resource allocation performance through virtual environment exploration. Improvements in the multiobjective performance can be achieved via transmitter parameter adaptation on a packet-basis, with poorly predicted performance promptly resulting in rejected decisions. Simulations presented in this work considered the DVB-S2 standard adaptive transmitter parameters and additional ones expected to be present in future adaptive radio systems. Performance results are provided by analysis of the proposed hybrid algorithm when operating across a satellite communication channel from Earth to GEO orbit during clear sky conditions. The proposed approach constitutes part of the core cognitive engine proof-of-concept to be delivered to the NASA Glenn Research Center SCaN Testbed located onboard the International Space Station.

Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning-Based Deep Neural Networks for Cognitive Space Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ferreria, Paulo Victor R.; Paffenroth, Randy; Wyglinski, Alexander M.; Hackett, Timothy M.; Bilen, Sven G.; Reinhart, Richard C.; Mortensen, Dale J.

2017-01-01

Future communication subsystems of space exploration missions can potentially benefit from software-defined radios (SDRs) controlled by machine learning algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid radio resource allocation management control algorithm that integrates multi-objective reinforcement learning and deep artificial neural networks. The objective is to efficiently manage communications system resources by monitoring performance functions with common dependent variables that result in conflicting goals. The uncertainty in the performance of thousands of different possible combinations of radio parameters makes the trade-off between exploration and exploitation in reinforcement learning (RL) much more challenging for future critical space-based missions. Thus, the system should spend as little time as possible on exploring actions, and whenever it explores an action, it should perform at acceptable levels most of the time. The proposed approach enables on-line learning by interactions with the environment and restricts poor resource allocation performance through virtual environment exploration. Improvements in the multiobjective performance can be achieved via transmitter parameter adaptation on a packet-basis, with poorly predicted performance promptly resulting in rejected decisions. Simulations presented in this work considered the DVB-S2 standard adaptive transmitter parameters and additional ones expected to be present in future adaptive radio systems. Performance results are provided by analysis of the proposed hybrid algorithm when operating across a satellite communication channel from Earth to GEO orbit during clear sky conditions. The proposed approach constitutes part of the core cognitive engine proof-of-concept to be delivered to the NASA Glenn Research Center SCaN Testbed located onboard the International Space Station.

Relationship between the Learning Styles Preferences and Academic Achievement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Awang, H.; Samad, N. Abd; Faiz, N. S. Mohd; Roddin, R.; Kankia, J. D.

2017-08-01

The individual learning differences that have been much explored relate to differences in personality, learning styles, strategies and conceptual of learning. This article studies the learning style profile exhibited by students towards the academic achievement in Malaysian Polytechnic. The relationship between learning styles of Polytechnic students and their academic achievement based on VARK learning styles model. The target population was international business students of Malaysian Polytechnic. By means of randomly sampling method, 103 students were selected as sample of research. By descriptive - survey research method and a questionnaire adapted from VARK Learning Style Index, required data were collected. According to the results, no significantly difference between learning style and academic achievement of students. Students academic achievement was quite similar to their individual learning styles. These facts reveal that each learning style has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Learning Object Repositories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lehman, Rosemary

2007-01-01

This chapter looks at the development and nature of learning objects, meta-tagging standards and taxonomies, learning object repositories, learning object repository characteristics, and types of learning object repositories, with type examples. (Contains 1 table.)

A novel collaborative e-learning platform for medical students - ALERT STUDENT

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The increasing complexity of medical curricula would benefit from adaptive computer supported collaborative learning systems that support study management using instructional design and learning object principles. However, to our knowledge, there are scarce reports regarding applications developed to meet this goal and encompass the complete medical curriculum. The aim of ths study was to develop and assess the usability of an adaptive computer supported collaborative learning system for medical students to manage study sessions. Results A study platform named ALERT STUDENT was built as a free web application. Content chunks are represented as Flashcards that hold knowledge and open ended questions. These can be created in a collaborative fashion. Multiple Flashcards can be combined into custom stacks called Notebooks that can be accessed in study Groups that belong to the user institution. The system provides a Study Mode that features text markers, text notes, timers and color-coded content prioritization based on self-assessment of open ended questions presented in a Quiz Mode. Time spent studying and Perception of knowledge are displayed for each student and peers using charts. Computer supported collaborative learning is achieved by allowing for simultaneous creation of Notebooks and self-assessment questions by many users in a pre-defined Group. Past personal performance data is retrieved when studying new Notebooks containing previously studied Flashcards. Self-report surveys showed that students highly agreed that the system was useful and were willing to use it as a reference tool. Conclusions The platform employs various instructional design and learning object principles in a computer supported collaborative learning platform for medical students that allows for study management. The application broadens student insight over learning results and supports informed decisions based on past learning performance. It serves as a potential educational model for the medical education setting that has gathered strong positive feedback from students at our school. This platform provides a case study on how effective blending of instructional design and learning object principles can be brought together to manage study, and takes an important step towards bringing information management tools to support study decisions and improving learning outcomes. PMID:25017028

A novel collaborative e-learning platform for medical students - ALERT STUDENT.

PubMed

Taveira-Gomes, Tiago; Saffarzadeh, Areo; Severo, Milton; Guimarães, M Jorge; Ferreira, Maria Amélia

2014-07-14

The increasing complexity of medical curricula would benefit from adaptive computer supported collaborative learning systems that support study management using instructional design and learning object principles. However, to our knowledge, there are scarce reports regarding applications developed to meet this goal and encompass the complete medical curriculum. The aim of ths study was to develop and assess the usability of an adaptive computer supported collaborative learning system for medical students to manage study sessions. A study platform named ALERT STUDENT was built as a free web application. Content chunks are represented as Flashcards that hold knowledge and open ended questions. These can be created in a collaborative fashion. Multiple Flashcards can be combined into custom stacks called Notebooks that can be accessed in study Groups that belong to the user institution. The system provides a Study Mode that features text markers, text notes, timers and color-coded content prioritization based on self-assessment of open ended questions presented in a Quiz Mode. Time spent studying and Perception of knowledge are displayed for each student and peers using charts. Computer supported collaborative learning is achieved by allowing for simultaneous creation of Notebooks and self-assessment questions by many users in a pre-defined Group. Past personal performance data is retrieved when studying new Notebooks containing previously studied Flashcards. Self-report surveys showed that students highly agreed that the system was useful and were willing to use it as a reference tool. The platform employs various instructional design and learning object principles in a computer supported collaborative learning platform for medical students that allows for study management. The application broadens student insight over learning results and supports informed decisions based on past learning performance. It serves as a potential educational model for the medical education setting that has gathered strong positive feedback from students at our school.This platform provides a case study on how effective blending of instructional design and learning object principles can be brought together to manage study, and takes an important step towards bringing information management tools to support study decisions and improving learning outcomes.

Thinking Outside of Outpatient: Underutilized Settings for Psychotherapy Education.

PubMed

Blumenshine, Philip; Lenet, Alison E; Havel, Lauren K; Arbuckle, Melissa R; Cabaniss, Deborah L

2017-02-01

Although psychiatry residents are expected to achieve competency in conducting psychotherapy during their training, it is unclear how psychotherapy teaching is integrated across diverse clinical settings. Between January and March 2015, 177 psychiatry residency training directors were sent a survey asking about psychotherapy training practices in their programs, as well as perceived barriers to psychotherapy teaching. Eighty-two training directors (44%) completed the survey. While 95% indicated that psychotherapy was a formal learning objective for outpatient clinic rotations, fifty percent or fewer noted psychotherapy was a learning objective in other settings. Most program directors would like to see psychotherapy training included (particularly supportive psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy) on inpatient (82%) and consultation-liaison settings (57%). The most common barriers identified to teaching psychotherapy in these settings were time and perceived inadequate staff training and interest. Non-outpatient rotations appear to be an underutilized setting for psychotherapy teaching.

Teaching clinical pharmacology and therapeutics with an emphasis on the therapeutic reasoning of undergraduate medical students

PubMed Central

Richir, Milan C.; Tichelaar, Jelle; Geijteman, Eric C. T.

2008-01-01

Background The rational prescribing of drugs is an essential skill of medical doctors. Clinical pharmacologists play an important role in the development of these skills by teaching clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CP&T) to undergraduate medical students. Although the approaches to teaching CP&T have undergone many changes over the last decennia, it is essential that the actual teaching of CP&T continues to be a major part of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Objectives The learning objectives of CP&T teaching in terms of developing the therapeutic competencies of undergraduate medical students are described, with an emphasis on therapeutic decision-making. On the basis of current theories of cognitive psychology and medical education, context-learning is presented as an effective approach by which to achieve therapeutic competencies. An example of a CP&T curriculum is presented. PMID:18228012

Active Learning in a Neuroethics Course Positively Impacts Moral Judgment Development in Undergraduates

PubMed Central

Abu-Odeh, Desiree; Dziobek, Derek; Jimenez, Nathalia Torres; Barbey, Christopher; Dubinsky, Janet M

2015-01-01

The growing neuroscientific understanding of the biological basis of behaviors has profound social and ethical implications. To address the need for public awareness of the consequences of these advances, we developed an undergraduate neuroethics course, Neuroscience and Society, at the University of Minnesota. Course evolution, objectives, content, and impact are described here. To engage all students and facilitate undergraduate ethics education, this course employed daily reading, writing, and student discussion, case analysis, and team presentations with goals of fostering development of moral reasoning and judgment and introducing application of bioethical frameworks to topics raised by neuroscience. Pre- and post-course Defining Issues Test (DIT) scores and student end-of-course reflections demonstrated that course objectives for student application of bioethical frameworks to neuroethical issues were met. The active-learning, student-centered pedagogical approaches used to achieve these goals serve as a model for how to effectively teach neuroethics at the undergraduate level. PMID:25838802

Creating technical heritage object replicas in a virtual environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Egorova, Olga; Shcherbinin, Dmitry

2016-03-01

The paper presents innovative informatics methods for creating virtual technical heritage replicas, which are of significant scientific and practical importance not only to researchers but to the public in general. By performing 3D modeling and animation of aircrafts, spaceships, architectural-engineering buildings, and other technical objects, the process of learning is achieved while promoting the preservation of the replicas for future generations. Modern approaches based on the wide usage of computer technologies attract a greater number of young people to explore the history of science and technology and renew their interest in the field of mechanical engineering.

Field Testing of Utility Robots for Lunar Surface Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fong, Terrence; Bualat, Maria; Deans, Matt; Allan, Mark; Bouyssounouse, Xavier; Broxton, Michael; Edwards, Laurence; Lee, Pascal; Lee, Susan Y.; Lees, David;

Effects of implementation of problem-based learning tutorials on fifth-year pharmacy students and future issues.

PubMed

Sato, Atsuko; Morone, Mieko; Azuma, Yutaka

2011-01-01

At Tohoku Pharmaceutical University, problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials were incorporated into "prescription analysis" and "case analysis" for fifth-year students in 2010 with the following objectives: ① application and confirmation of acquired knowledge and skills, and acquisition of ② communication ability, ③ presentation ability, ④ cooperativeness through groupwork, and ⑤ information collecting ability. In the present study, we conducted a questionnaire survey on a total of 158 fifth-year students in order to investigate the educational benefits of PBL tutorials. The results showed that the above five objectives of PBL tutorials were being achieved, and confirmed the educational benefits expected of PBL tutorials. In contrast, it was found to be necessary to improve the contents of scenarios and lectures, time allocation regarding schedules, the learning environment, the role of tutors, and other matters. In order to maximize the educational benefits of PBL tutorials, it will be necessary in the future to continue to conduct surveys on students and make improvements to the curriculum based on survey results.

On the potential for using immersive virtual environments to support laboratory experiment contextualisation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Machet, Tania; Lowe, David; Gütl, Christian

2012-12-01

This paper explores the hypothesis that embedding a laboratory activity into a virtual environment can provide a richer experimental context and hence improve the understanding of the relationship between a theoretical model and the real world, particularly in terms of the model's strengths and weaknesses. While an identified learning objective of laboratories is to support the understanding of the relationship between models and reality, the paper illustrates that this understanding is hindered by inherently limited experiments and that there is scope for improvement. Despite the contextualisation of learning activities having been shown to support learning objectives in many fields, there is traditionally little contextual information presented during laboratory experimentation. The paper argues that the enhancing laboratory activity with contextual information affords an opportunity to improve students' understanding of the relationship between the theoretical model and the experiment (which is effectively a proxy for the complex real world), thereby improving their understanding of the relationship between the model and reality. The authors propose that these improvements can be achieved by setting remote laboratories within context-rich virtual worlds.

Higher-order neural network software for distortion invariant object recognition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reid, Max B.; Spirkovska, Lilly

1991-01-01

The state-of-the-art in pattern recognition for such applications as automatic target recognition and industrial robotic vision relies on digital image processing. We present a higher-order neural network model and software which performs the complete feature extraction-pattern classification paradigm required for automatic pattern recognition. Using a third-order neural network, we demonstrate complete, 100 percent accurate invariance to distortions of scale, position, and in-plate rotation. In a higher-order neural network, feature extraction is built into the network, and does not have to be learned. Only the relatively simple classification step must be learned. This is key to achieving very rapid training. The training set is much smaller than with standard neural network software because the higher-order network only has to be shown one view of each object to be learned, not every possible view. The software and graphical user interface run on any Sun workstation. Results of the use of the neural software in autonomous robotic vision systems are presented. Such a system could have extensive application in robotic manufacturing.

How does the high school mathematics teacher prepares the learning process based on the 2013 curriculum 2017 revision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Latif, I. A.; Saputro, D. R. S.; Riyadi

2018-03-01

2013 Curriculum (K13) provides an opportunity for students to develop the potential attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary for life and society and contribute to the welfare of human life. The K13 2017 revision requires teachers to integrate 21st-century skills in the learning process. They are consist of critical thinking and problem-solving, communication, creativity and innovation, and collaboration (4C skills), Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), literacy movement, and character education. This study is a qualitative research that aims to describe the steps performed by a high school mathematics teacher in preparing the Lesson Plan (RPP) in accordance with K13 2017 revision. The subject of this study is a Civil Servant Mathematics teacher at SMAN 1 Wuryantoro, Wonogiri Regency. This study used interview method with time triangulation technique to obtain valid data. Based on the interviews it is concluded that in preparing the RPP in accordance with K13 revision 2017, the teacher is guided by The Minister of Education and Culture Regulation (Permendikbud) Number 22 of 2016 and Pedoman Penyusunan RPP Abad 21. The first step taken by the teacher in preparing and developing RPP is quoting KI from Permendikbud Number 21 2016 and KD from Permendikbud Number 24 of 2016. After that, teacher formulates Indicators of Competency Achievement (IPK) in accordance with KD, learning objectives in accordance with IPK, learning materials in accordance with IPK, learning activities integrating 21st-century skills and in line with learning objectives, learning assessment instruments, and learning reflection activities.

Aligning Theory and Design: The Development of an Online Learning Intervention to Teach Evidence-based Practice for Maximal Reach.

PubMed

Delagran, Louise; Vihstadt, Corrie; Evans, Roni

2015-09-01

Online educational interventions to teach evidence-based practice (EBP) are a promising mechanism for overcoming some of the barriers to incorporating research into practice. However, attention must be paid to aligning strategies with adult learning theories to achieve optimal outcomes. We describe the development of a series of short self-study modules, each covering a small set of learning objectives. Our approach, informed by design-based research (DBR), involved 6 phases: analysis, design, design evaluation, redesign, development/implementation, and evaluation. Participants were faculty and students in 3 health programs at a complementary and integrative educational institution. We chose a reusable learning object approach that allowed us to apply 4 main learning theories: events of instruction, cognitive load, dual processing, and ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction). A formative design evaluation suggested that the identified theories and instructional approaches were likely to facilitate learning and motivation. Summative evaluation was based on a student survey (N=116) that addressed how these theories supported learning. Results suggest that, overall, the selected theories helped students learn. The DBR approach allowed us to evaluate the specific intervention and theories for general applicability. This process also helped us define and document the intervention at a level of detail that covers almost all the proposed Guideline for Reporting Evidence-based practice Educational intervention and Teaching (GREET) items. This thorough description will facilitate the interpretation of future research and implementation of the intervention. Our approach can also serve as a model for others considering online EBP intervention development.

Aligning Theory and Design: The Development of an Online Learning Intervention to Teach Evidence-based Practice for Maximal Reach

PubMed Central

Vihstadt, Corrie; Evans, Roni

2015-01-01

Background: Online educational interventions to teach evidence-based practice (EBP) are a promising mechanism for overcoming some of the barriers to incorporating research into practice. However, attention must be paid to aligning strategies with adult learning theories to achieve optimal outcomes. Methods: We describe the development of a series of short self-study modules, each covering a small set of learning objectives. Our approach, informed by design-based research (DBR), involved 6 phases: analysis, design, design evaluation, redesign, development/implementation, and evaluation. Participants were faculty and students in 3 health programs at a complementary and integrative educational institution. Results: We chose a reusable learning object approach that allowed us to apply 4 main learning theories: events of instruction, cognitive load, dual processing, and ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction). A formative design evaluation suggested that the identified theories and instructional approaches were likely to facilitate learning and motivation. Summative evaluation was based on a student survey (N=116) that addressed how these theories supported learning. Results suggest that, overall, the selected theories helped students learn. Conclusion: The DBR approach allowed us to evaluate the specific intervention and theories for general applicability. This process also helped us define and document the intervention at a level of detail that covers almost all the proposed Guideline for Reporting Evidence-based practice Educational intervention and Teaching (GREET) items. This thorough description will facilitate the interpretation of future research and implementation of the intervention. Our approach can also serve as a model for others considering online EBP intervention development. PMID:26421233

Mere exposure alters category learning of novel objects.

PubMed

Folstein, Jonathan R; Gauthier, Isabel; Palmeri, Thomas J

2010-01-01

We investigated how mere exposure to complex objects with correlated or uncorrelated object features affects later category learning of new objects not seen during exposure. Correlations among pre-exposed object dimensions influenced later category learning. Unlike other published studies, the collection of pre-exposed objects provided no information regarding the categories to be learned, ruling out unsupervised or incidental category learning during pre-exposure. Instead, results are interpreted with respect to statistical learning mechanisms, providing one of the first demonstrations of how statistical learning can influence visual object learning.

Mere Exposure Alters Category Learning of Novel Objects

PubMed Central

Folstein, Jonathan R.; Gauthier, Isabel; Palmeri, Thomas J.

2010-01-01

We investigated how mere exposure to complex objects with correlated or uncorrelated object features affects later category learning of new objects not seen during exposure. Correlations among pre-exposed object dimensions influenced later category learning. Unlike other published studies, the collection of pre-exposed objects provided no information regarding the categories to be learned, ruling out unsupervised or incidental category learning during pre-exposure. Instead, results are interpreted with respect to statistical learning mechanisms, providing one of the first demonstrations of how statistical learning can influence visual object learning. PMID:21833209

Intensive training program for ultrasound diagnosis of adnexal masses: protocol and preliminary results.

PubMed

Alcázar, J L; Díaz, L; Flórez, P; Guerriero, S; Jurado, M

2013-08-01

To assess the feasibility of a specific training program for ultrasound diagnosis of adnexal masses. A 2-month intensive training program was developed. The program protocol consisted of a 1-day intensive theoretical course focused on clinical and sonographic issues related to adnexal masses and ovarian cancer, followed by a 4-week real-time ultrasound training program in a tertiary center (25-30 adnexal masses evaluated per month) and a final 4-week period for offline assessment of three-dimensional (3D) volumes from adnexal masses. In this final period, each trainee evaluated five sets of 100 3D volumes. 3D volumes contained gray-scale and power Doppler information, and the trainee was provided with clinical data for each case (patient age, menopausal status and reported symptoms). 3D volumes were obtained from surgically removed masses that had undergone histological diagnosis or from masses that had been followed up until resolution. After assessment of each set, the trainee's diagnostic performance was calculated (sensitivity and specificity) and each incorrectly classified mass was evaluated with the trainer. The objective was to achieve a sensitivity of > 95% and a specificity of > 90%. Learning curve cumulative summation (LC-CUSUM) graphs were plotted to assess the learning curve for the trainees. One trainer and two trainees with little experience in gynecological ultrasound (one gynecologist and one radiologist) participated in this study. LC-CUSUM graphs showed that competence was achieved after 170 or 185 examinations. The objectives for diagnostic performance were achieved after assessment of the second set of 3D volumes (200 cases) for each trainee. The proposed training program appears to be feasible. High diagnostic performance can be achieved after analysis of 200 cases and maintained thereafter. Copyright © 2013 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Learning styles and academic achievement among undergraduate medical students in Thailand.

PubMed

Jiraporncharoen, Wichuda; Angkurawaranon, Chaisiri; Chockjamsai, Manoch; Deesomchok, Athavudh; Euathrongchit, Juntima

2015-01-01

This study aimed to explore the associations between learning styles and high academic achievement and to ascertain whether the factors associated with high academic achievement differed between preclinical and clinical students. A survey was conducted among undergraduate medical students in Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The Index of Learning Styles questionnaire was used to assess each student's learning style across four domains. High academic achievement was defined as a grade point average of at least 3.0. Of the 1,248 eligible medical students, 1,014 (81.3%) participated. Learning styles differed between the preclinical and clinical students in the active/reflective domain. A sequential learning style was associated with high academic achievement in both preclinical and clinical students. A reflective learning style was only associated with high academic achievement among preclinical students. The association between learning styles and academic achievement may have differed between preclinical and clinical students due to different learning content and teaching methods. Students should be encouraged to be flexible in their own learning styles in order to engage successfully with various and changing teaching methods across the curriculum. Instructors should be also encouraged to provide a variety of teaching materials and resources to suit different learning styles.

Expected energy-based restricted Boltzmann machine for classification.

PubMed

Elfwing, S; Uchibe, E; Doya, K

2015-04-01

In classification tasks, restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) have predominantly been used in the first stage, either as feature extractors or to provide initialization of neural networks. In this study, we propose a discriminative learning approach to provide a self-contained RBM method for classification, inspired by free-energy based function approximation (FE-RBM), originally proposed for reinforcement learning. For classification, the FE-RBM method computes the output for an input vector and a class vector by the negative free energy of an RBM. Learning is achieved by stochastic gradient-descent using a mean-squared error training objective. In an earlier study, we demonstrated that the performance and the robustness of FE-RBM function approximation can be improved by scaling the free energy by a constant that is related to the size of network. In this study, we propose that the learning performance of RBM function approximation can be further improved by computing the output by the negative expected energy (EE-RBM), instead of the negative free energy. To create a deep learning architecture, we stack several RBMs on top of each other. We also connect the class nodes to all hidden layers to try to improve the performance even further. We validate the classification performance of EE-RBM using the MNIST data set and the NORB data set, achieving competitive performance compared with other classifiers such as standard neural networks, deep belief networks, classification RBMs, and support vector machines. The purpose of using the NORB data set is to demonstrate that EE-RBM with binary input nodes can achieve high performance in the continuous input domain. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Repeated testing improves achievement in a blended learning approach for risk competence training of medical students: results of a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Spreckelsen, C; Juenger, J

2017-09-26

Adequate estimation and communication of risks is a critical competence of physicians. Due to an evident lack of these competences, effective training addressing risk competence during medical education is needed. Test-enhanced learning has been shown to produce marked effects on achievements. This study aimed to investigate the effect of repeated tests implemented on top of a blended learning program for risk competence. We introduced a blended-learning curriculum for risk estimation and risk communication based on a set of operationalized learning objectives, which was integrated into a mandatory course "Evidence-based Medicine" for third-year students. A randomized controlled trial addressed the effect of repeated testing on achievement as measured by the students' pre- and post-training score (nine multiple-choice items). Basic numeracy and statistical literacy were assessed at baseline. Analysis relied on descriptive statistics (histograms, box plots, scatter plots, and summary of descriptive measures), bootstrapped confidence intervals, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and effect sizes (Cohen's d, r) based on adjusted means and standard deviations. All of the 114 students enrolled in the course consented to take part in the study and were assigned to either the intervention or control group (both: n = 57) by balanced randomization. Five participants dropped out due to non-compliance (control: 4, intervention: 1). Both groups profited considerably from the program in general (Cohen's d for overall pre vs. post scores: 2.61). Repeated testing yielded an additional positive effect: while the covariate (baseline score) exhibits no relation to the post-intervention score, F(1, 106) = 2.88, p > .05, there was a significant effect of the intervention (repeated tests scenario) on learning achievement, F(1106) = 12.72, p < .05, d = .94, r = .42 (95% CI: [.26, .57]). However, in the subgroup of participants with a high initial numeracy score no similar effect could be observed. Dedicated training can improve relevant components of risk competence of medical students. An already promising overall effect of the blended learning approach can be improved significantly by implementing a test-enhanced learning design, namely repeated testing. As students with a high initial numeracy score did not profit equally from repeated testing, target-group specific opt-out may be offered.

Influence of Strategy of Learning and Achievement Motivation of Learning Achievement Class VIII Students of State Junior High School in District Blitar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ayundawati, Dyah; Setyosari, Punaji; Susilo, Herawati; Sihkabuden

2016-01-01

This study aims for know influence of problem-based learning strategies and achievement motivation on learning achievement. The method used in this research is quantitative method. The instrument used in this study is two fold instruments to measure moderator variable (achievement motivation) and instruments to measure the dependent variable (the…

Problem based learning with scaffolding technique on geometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bayuningsih, A. S.; Usodo, B.; Subanti, S.

2018-05-01

Geometry as one of the branches of mathematics has an important role in the study of mathematics. This research aims to explore the effectiveness of Problem Based Learning (PBL) with scaffolding technique viewed from self-regulation learning toward students’ achievement learning in mathematics. The research data obtained through mathematics learning achievement test and self-regulated learning (SRL) questionnaire. This research employed quasi-experimental research. The subjects of this research are students of the junior high school in Banyumas Central Java. The result of the research showed that problem-based learning model with scaffolding technique is more effective to generate students’ mathematics learning achievement than direct learning (DL). This is because in PBL model students are more able to think actively and creatively. The high SRL category student has better mathematic learning achievement than middle and low SRL categories, and then the middle SRL category has better than low SRL category. So, there are interactions between learning model with self-regulated learning in increasing mathematic learning achievement.

The internationalisation of prehospital education: a merging of ideologies between Australia and the USA.

PubMed

Williams, B; Upchurch, J

2006-07-01

The aim of this project was to promote internationalisation of prehospital education collaboratively between students and teachers from EMS Education and Training, Montana, USA, and Monash University Centre for Ambulance and Paramedic Studies (MUCAPS), Victoria, Australia. The project required students and teachers to engage in a series of face to face lectures, which was reinforced through distance education strategies, such as online learning. The overall project aim was to establish an objective and descriptive view of the internationalisation of prehospital and community based emergency health education using e-learning as the educational approach. A cross sectional survey design using paper based evaluation was adopted in this project. Results revealed a positive student reaction, with flexible pedagogical processes broadening student learning and facilitating an international dimension otherwise not achievable. Given the current state of globalisation, internationalisation has the capacity to improve educational standards, quality, student interactions and specific learning outcomes in prehospital education.

Hypermedia or Hyperchaos: Using HyperCard to Teach Medical Decision Making

PubMed Central

Smith, W.R.; Hahn, J.S.

1989-01-01

HyperCard presents an uncoventional instructional environment for educators and students, in that it is nonlinear, nonsequential, and it provides innumerable choices of learning paths to learners. The danger of this environment is that it may frustrate learners whose cognitive and learning styles do not match this environment. Leaners who prefer guided learning rather than independent exploration may become distracted or disoriented by this environment, lost in “hyperspace.” In the context of medical education, these ill-matched styles may produce some physicians who have not mastered skills essential to the practice of medicine. The authors have sought to develop a HyperCard learning environment consisting of related programs that teach medical decision making. The environment allows total learner control until the learner demonstrates a need for guidance in order to achieve the essential objectives of the program. A discussion follows of the implications of hypermedia for instructional design and medical education.

Component Pin Recognition Using Algorithms Based on Machine Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Yang; Hu, Hong; Liu, Ze; Xu, Jiangchang

2018-04-01

The purpose of machine vision for a plug-in machine is to improve the machine’s stability and accuracy, and recognition of the component pin is an important part of the vision. This paper focuses on component pin recognition using three different techniques. The first technique involves traditional image processing using the core algorithm for binary large object (BLOB) analysis. The second technique uses the histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), to experimentally compare the effect of the support vector machine (SVM) and the adaptive boosting machine (AdaBoost) learning meta-algorithm classifiers. The third technique is the use of an in-depth learning method known as convolution neural network (CNN), which involves identifying the pin by comparing a sample to its training. The main purpose of the research presented in this paper is to increase the knowledge of learning methods used in the plug-in machine industry in order to achieve better results.

Simple Learned Weighted Sums of Inferior Temporal Neuronal Firing Rates Accurately Predict Human Core Object Recognition Performance

PubMed Central

Hong, Ha; Solomon, Ethan A.; DiCarlo, James J.

2015-01-01

To go beyond qualitative models of the biological substrate of object recognition, we ask: can a single ventral stream neuronal linking hypothesis quantitatively account for core object recognition performance over a broad range of tasks? We measured human performance in 64 object recognition tests using thousands of challenging images that explore shape similarity and identity preserving object variation. We then used multielectrode arrays to measure neuronal population responses to those same images in visual areas V4 and inferior temporal (IT) cortex of monkeys and simulated V1 population responses. We tested leading candidate linking hypotheses and control hypotheses, each postulating how ventral stream neuronal responses underlie object recognition behavior. Specifically, for each hypothesis, we computed the predicted performance on the 64 tests and compared it with the measured pattern of human performance. All tested hypotheses based on low- and mid-level visually evoked activity (pixels, V1, and V4) were very poor predictors of the human behavioral pattern. However, simple learned weighted sums of distributed average IT firing rates exactly predicted the behavioral pattern. More elaborate linking hypotheses relying on IT trial-by-trial correlational structure, finer IT temporal codes, or ones that strictly respect the known spatial substructures of IT (“face patches”) did not improve predictive power. Although these results do not reject those more elaborate hypotheses, they suggest a simple, sufficient quantitative model: each object recognition task is learned from the spatially distributed mean firing rates (100 ms) of ∼60,000 IT neurons and is executed as a simple weighted sum of those firing rates. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We sought to go beyond qualitative models of visual object recognition and determine whether a single neuronal linking hypothesis can quantitatively account for core object recognition behavior. To achieve this, we designed a database of images for evaluating object recognition performance. We used multielectrode arrays to characterize hundreds of neurons in the visual ventral stream of nonhuman primates and measured the object recognition performance of >100 human observers. Remarkably, we found that simple learned weighted sums of firing rates of neurons in monkey inferior temporal (IT) cortex accurately predicted human performance. Although previous work led us to expect that IT would outperform V4, we were surprised by the quantitative precision with which simple IT-based linking hypotheses accounted for human behavior. PMID:26424887

The Course Syllabus: Legal Contract or Operator’s Manual?

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

A course syllabus provides a roadmap for pharmacy students to achieve course learning objectives and develop lifelong learning skills. For several decades the literature has referred to syllabi as legal documents and/or contracts between students and professors. A review of the legal precedents reveals that syllabi are not considered contracts because the courts refuse thus far to recognize educational malpractice or breach of contract as a cause of action. Syllabi do, however, represent a triggering agent for instructional dissent and grade appeals, may be binding in student appeal proceedings, and are used in judicial hearings. Pharmacy faculty members should review their syllabi and follow process improvement strategies to construct legally sound syllabi that can both enhance learning and minimize risks of student grievances and appeals. PMID:28179726

A theoretical framework for improving education in geriatric medicine.

PubMed

Boreham, N C

1983-01-01

Alternative concepts of learning include a formal system in which part of the medical curriculum is designated as that for geriatric medicine; a non-formal system including conferences, lectures, broadcasts, available to both medical students and physicians; and thirdly, an informal system in which doctors learn medicine through their experience practising the profession. While the most emphasis in medical schools would seem to be on the formal system it is essential that medical educators (if they wish their students in later life to maintain high levels of self-initiated learning) must use all three strategies. The structure of a system of formal teaching for geriatric medicine is examined. An important objective is attitude change and it is in achieving this that geriatricians must be particularly involved in non-formal and informal systems.

Innovation in pediatric clinical education: application of the essential competencies.

PubMed

Kenyon, Lisa K; Birkmeier, Marisa; Anderson, Deborah K; Martin, Kathy

2015-01-01

At the Section on Pediatrics Education Summit in July 2012, consensus was achieved on 5 essential core competencies (ECCs) that represent a knowledge base essential to all graduates of professional physical therapist education programs. This article offers suggestions for how clinical instructors (CIs) might use the ECCs to identify student needs and guide student learning during a pediatric clinical education experience. Pediatric CIs potentially might choose to use the ECCs as a reference tool in clinical education to help (1) organize and develop general, clinic-specific clinical education objectives, (2) develop and plan individualized student learning experiences, (3) identify student needs, and (4) show progression of student learning from beginner to intermediate to entry level. The ECCs may offer CIs insights into the role of pediatric clinical education in professional physical therapist education.

A comparative study for chest radiograph image retrieval using binary texture and deep learning classification.

PubMed

Anavi, Yaron; Kogan, Ilya; Gelbart, Elad; Geva, Ofer; Greenspan, Hayit

2015-08-01

In this work various approaches are investigated for X-ray image retrieval and specifically chest pathology retrieval. Given a query image taken from a data set of 443 images, the objective is to rank images according to similarity. Different features, including binary features, texture features, and deep learning (CNN) features are examined. In addition, two approaches are investigated for the retrieval task. One approach is based on the distance of image descriptors using the above features (hereon termed the "descriptor"-based approach); the second approach ("classification"-based approach) is based on a probability descriptor, generated by a pair-wise classification of each two classes (pathologies) and their decision values using an SVM classifier. Best results are achieved using deep learning features in a classification scheme.

[How to design workshops to promote health in community groups].

PubMed

Hernández-Díaz, Josefina; Paredes-Carbonell, Joan J; Marín Torrens, Rosa

2014-01-01

One of the strategies of health promotion is to develop life skills people considering themselves as the main health resource. A workshop has to get its participants become «asset» to make decisions and create health, focusing on the development and acquisition of skills in a motivating group and in order to achieve health objectives. The concepts behind the design of a workshop are: participatory planning, training, meaningful learning, group learning and participatory techniques. The steps to follow to design a workshop and facilitate their application are: Stage 0, founding; initial stage, host and initial evaluation; central or construction stage based learning in the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills, and final stage or evaluation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Application of active learning modalities to achieve medical genetics competencies and their learning outcome assessments

PubMed Central

Hagiwara, Nobuko

2017-01-01

The steadily falling costs of genome sequencing, coupled with the growing number of genetic tests with proven clinical validity, have made the use of genetic testing more common in clinical practice. This development has necessitated nongeneticist physicians, especially primary care physicians, to become more responsible for assessing genetic risks for their patients. Providing undergraduate medical students a solid foundation in genomic medicine, therefore, has become all the more important to ensure the readiness of future physicians in applying genomic medicine to their patient care. In order to further enhance the effectiveness of instructing practical skills in medical genetics, the emphasis of active learning modules in genetics curriculum at medical schools has increased in recent years. This is because of the general acceptance of a better efficacy of active learner-centered pedagogy over passive lecturer-centered pedagogy. However, an objective standard to evaluate students’ skill levels in genomic medicine achieved by active learning is currently missing. Recently, entrustable professional activities (EPAs) in genomic medicine have been proposed as a framework for developing physician competencies in genomic medicine. EPAs in genomic medicine provide a convenient guideline for not only developing genomic medicine curriculum but also assessing students’ competency levels in practicing genomic medicine. In this review, the efficacy of different types of active learning modules reported for medical genetics curricula is discussed using EPAs in genomic medicine as a common evaluation standard for modules’ learning outcomes. The utility of the EPAs in genomic medicine for designing active learning modules in undergraduate medical genetics curricula is also discussed. PMID:29276425

Application of active learning modalities to achieve medical genetics competencies and their learning outcome assessments.

PubMed

Hagiwara, Nobuko

2017-01-01

The steadily falling costs of genome sequencing, coupled with the growing number of genetic tests with proven clinical validity, have made the use of genetic testing more common in clinical practice. This development has necessitated nongeneticist physicians, especially primary care physicians, to become more responsible for assessing genetic risks for their patients. Providing undergraduate medical students a solid foundation in genomic medicine, therefore, has become all the more important to ensure the readiness of future physicians in applying genomic medicine to their patient care. In order to further enhance the effectiveness of instructing practical skills in medical genetics, the emphasis of active learning modules in genetics curriculum at medical schools has increased in recent years. This is because of the general acceptance of a better efficacy of active learner-centered pedagogy over passive lecturer-centered pedagogy. However, an objective standard to evaluate students' skill levels in genomic medicine achieved by active learning is currently missing. Recently, entrustable professional activities (EPAs) in genomic medicine have been proposed as a framework for developing physician competencies in genomic medicine. EPAs in genomic medicine provide a convenient guideline for not only developing genomic medicine curriculum but also assessing students' competency levels in practicing genomic medicine. In this review, the efficacy of different types of active learning modules reported for medical genetics curricula is discussed using EPAs in genomic medicine as a common evaluation standard for modules' learning outcomes. The utility of the EPAs in genomic medicine for designing active learning modules in undergraduate medical genetics curricula is also discussed.

DeepSkeleton: Learning Multi-Task Scale-Associated Deep Side Outputs for Object Skeleton Extraction in Natural Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, Wei; Zhao, Kai; Jiang, Yuan; Wang, Yan; Bai, Xiang; Yuille, Alan

2017-11-01

Object skeletons are useful for object representation and object detection. They are complementary to the object contour, and provide extra information, such as how object scale (thickness) varies among object parts. But object skeleton extraction from natural images is very challenging, because it requires the extractor to be able to capture both local and non-local image context in order to determine the scale of each skeleton pixel. In this paper, we present a novel fully convolutional network with multiple scale-associated side outputs to address this problem. By observing the relationship between the receptive field sizes of the different layers in the network and the skeleton scales they can capture, we introduce two scale-associated side outputs to each stage of the network. The network is trained by multi-task learning, where one task is skeleton localization to classify whether a pixel is a skeleton pixel or not, and the other is skeleton scale prediction to regress the scale of each skeleton pixel. Supervision is imposed at different stages by guiding the scale-associated side outputs toward the groundtruth skeletons at the appropriate scales. The responses of the multiple scale-associated side outputs are then fused in a scale-specific way to detect skeleton pixels using multiple scales effectively. Our method achieves promising results on two skeleton extraction datasets, and significantly outperforms other competitors. Additionally, the usefulness of the obtained skeletons and scales (thickness) are verified on two object detection applications: Foreground object segmentation and object proposal detection.

Anatomy meets dentistry! Linking anatomy and clinical practice in the preclinical dental curriculum.

PubMed

Rafai, Nicole; Lemos, Martin; Kennes, Lieven Nils; Hawari, Ayichah; Gerhardt-Szép, Susanne; Classen-Linke, Irmgard

2016-11-25

Establishing a strong link early on between preclinical coursework and the clinical context is necessary for students to be able to recognize the practical relevance of the curriculum during their preclinical anatomical courses and to transfer knowledge more easily. Our objective was to enhance the clinical relevance of a preclinical anatomy course for second-year medical students of dentistry by implementing an interdisciplinary skills training course on "Palpation of the Head and Neck Muscles" and to measure the learning outcomes. For the curricular development of the expanded course module, Kern's 6-step approach was applied including subjective evaluation. We used a peer-teaching format supported by an e-learning application. A randomized control study measured effects of the two components (skills training, e-module) on learning outcomes. Four learning methods were compared: (1) lecture, (2) lecture + e-module, (3) lecture + skills training, (4) lecture + skills training + e-module. An objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was used to measure and compare learning outcomes. The two-way variance analysis demonstrated that participation in the skills training had a statistically significant effect on the OSCE results (p = 0.0007). Students who participated in the skills training did better (φ 107.4 ± 14.4 points) than students who only attended the lecture (φ 88.8 ± 26.2 points). Students who used the e-module but did not attend the skills training earned a slightly but not significantly higher average number of points (φ 91.8 ± 31.3 points) than those who only attended the lecture. The learning outcomes of the skills training were again significantly increased when the training was combined with the e-module (φ 121.8 ± 21.8 points), thus making it the ideal method for achieving the learning objectives defined in this study. The "Palpation of the Head and Neck Muscles" interdisciplinary skills training course linking basic anatomical knowledge and clinical skills led to clearly improved learning outcomes for both, anatomical knowledge and clinical skills. The additional use of an e-learning tool (e-module) improved the learning effect.

On the Way to 2020: Data for Vocational Education and Training Policies. Country Statistical Overviews--2016 Update. Cedefop Research Paper. No 61

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cedefop - European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, 2017

2017-01-01

European policy-making in vocational education and training (VET) needs to be supported by sound evidence. In this report, Cedefop has selected 36 indicators to quantify key aspects of VET and lifelong learning. The selection is based on their policy relevance and their importance in achieving the Europe 2020 objectives. The report accounts for…

The Effect of Using Learning Strategy Mastery in the Collection of the Ninth-Grade Students in the Study of Islamic Education in Ma'an

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AlKhateeb, Omar; Abu-shreah, Mohammad; Al-khattab, Ahmed

2015-01-01

The educational curriculum considered as one of the main education tools in achieving its objectives, it's a tool for interaction between the teacher and the learner; therefore the civilized nations takes great importance to the design process on a sound basis, and to oversee their implementation in adequacy and effectiveness, and evaluation and…

The Effect of a Computer Program Designed with Constructivist Principles for College Non-Science Majors on Understanding of Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wielard, Valerie Michelle

2013-01-01

The primary objective of this project was to learn what effect a computer program would have on academic achievement and attitude toward science of college students enrolled in a biology class for non-science majors. It became apparent that the instructor also had an effect on attitudes toward science. The researcher designed a computer program,…