Learning Mathematics From Examples and by Doing

This article demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of teaching several mathematical skills by presenting students with carefully chosen sequences of worked-out examples and problems - without lectures or other direct instruction. Thinking-aloud protocols of 20 students learning factorization by this method are analyzed to determine the kinds and depth of understanding students attained. Students did not simply memorize procedures but were able to recognize when the procedures were applicable and to apply them. Most students were also able to use their understanding of the concept of factorization to help learn the procedures and to check their results. The method of learning from examples has now been tested successfully with a class covering the entire 3-year curriculum in algebra and geometry in a Chinese middle school.     

Guided Search: The Effects of Learning

The previous report (Efron & Yund, 1996) offered an interpretation of the results of a number of search experiments within the theoretical context of the guided search model of Cave and Wolfe (1990) and Wolfe (1994). The present report extends this interpretation to the effects of extended practice when subjects search for a target defined by its orientation in the presence of a number of heterogeneous distractor items having differing orientations. Three experiments are described: The first revealed that over the course of 21 experimental sessions extending for a period of 6 weeks there were marked decreases in the magnitude of the reaction time gradient (RTG) and the right visual field superiority observed in the previous experiments. This learning persisted for more than 3 years. The second experiment revealed an interference in the capacity to learn to detect a target of one orientation when subjects had previously learned to detect a target of a different orientation at the same locations. The third experiment revealed that the learning was restricted to the area of the visual field where the target had been presented and that subjects could learn to detect two different targets concurrently. The results of these experiments indicate that the learning is orientation-specific and location-specific and is consistent with a localized increase in the selectivity of the top-down selection mechanism of the guided search model.     

小学生数学示例学习的信息加工过程实验研究

该研究试图让小学生通过示例学习的方式学习小数乘小数知识。口语报告分析及后测表明,小学四年级学生已具备示例学习的能力。实验还通过口语报告的个案分析,揭示示例学习的信息加工过程,并探讨了经过改进的口语报告分析法的应用问题。     

Peer Tutoring: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities to Deliver Time Delay Instruction

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a peer-mediated constant time delay procedure for teaching written spelling to fourth- and fifth-grade students identified as learning disabled. The six peer tutors (each with learning disabilities) taught each other to produce the written spelling for 15 five- to eight-letter words using a 3-s delay and a visual model prompt. A multiple probe design across behaviors (word sets) was used to evaluate the procedure. Data were collected on the number of sessions to criterion, trials to criterion, number and percent of errors, and direct instructional time. The classroom teacher prepared students to serve as tutors using a describe-model-guided practice-feedback sequence. Pre- and post-measures were conducted of generalization of the tutoring procedure as well as observational learning by the tutors. Results indicated that (a) peer tutors reliably implemented the time delay procedure, and (b) the tutor-implemented time delay procedure was effective in teaching written spelling to students identified as learning disabled.     

“做中学”科学教育对儿童情绪表现的影响

儿童所具有的情绪能力在其以后发展过程中的重要作用,鉴于此,本文在总结国内外研究的基础上编制了儿童情绪表现的教师问卷,通过他评法对汕头市参与"做中学"科学教育项目的四所幼儿园的277名儿童进行随机抽查,结果显示"做中学"科学教育课程对儿童在确信度上具有非常显著的积极作用.儿童入园时间越长,代表他所接受的"做中学"课程培训的时甸也就越长,其确信度得分也越高.     

Teaching Vocabulary with Students with Learning Disabilities Using Classwide Peer Tutoring and Constant Time Delay

This study examined the effectiveness and efficiency of combining classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) and constant time delay (CTD) on the academic performance of 3 students with learning disabilities (LD) and 15 students without LD enrolled in an inclusive sixth-grade language arts class. Treatment integrity checklists were used to measure the extent to which the tutors with LD used the constant time delay procedure correctly. A multiple-probe design across behaviors replicated across students was used to examine the effectiveness of the CTD peer tutoring procedures. The results indicated that students with LD reliably implemented the CTD peer tutoring procedures with a high degree of treatment integrity. When implemented by students without LD, the procedures were effective and efficient for teaching targeted vocabulary words to students with LD. Similarly, students without LD mastered the targeted vocabulary words when tutored by peers with LD and by peers without LD using the CTD peer tutoring procedures. Additionally, students with LD and without LD maintained the targeted vocabulary words over time, generalized the words across context, and generalized the CTD peer tutoring procedures across content. Finally, measures of social validity indicate that students and teachers involved in this study were satisfied with the CTD peer tutoring procedures.     

"做中学"科学教育对幼儿情绪能力发展的影响

本文旨在探讨"做中学"科学教育方法对儿童情绪能力发展的影响.研究采用访谈法和问卷法,对象是幼儿家长和老师.问卷调查使用自编儿童情绪能力发展他评问卷,包括教师、对幼儿情绪不同维度的指标进行评分.实验采用2×3设计.实验组60名.问卷用spss10.0统计处理,结果表明实验组儿童情绪能力发展优于对照组参加"做中学"实验活动时间越长,情绪能力发展越好.     

Participant modelling training programme: Tutoring the paraprofessional

A participant modelling training programme designed to improve self-efficacy and the ability to cope effectively with stressful situations was implemented with paraprofessional young counsellors who work in conjunction with youth advancement counsellors. Self-efficacy was measured by assessing their beliefs about their ability to cope effectively and successfully with various situations. Their motivation to engage in such a task was also assessed before and after the training programme. Contrary to prediction, following the training the self-efficacy of subjects decreased significantly. However, their motivation to get started and become involved with the disadvantaged youth significantly increased. The results are discussed in terms of reality perception and participant modelling training.     

Tutoring Techniques in Algebra

Although one-to-one tutoring has been regarded as the most effective method of teaching (Bloom, 1984), surprisingly little is understood about tutoring expertise. Much educational research focuses on classroom teaching, whereas the few studies that focus on one-to-one tutoring do not offer a precise information-processing account of this skill. This article describes our initial attempts to study one-to-one tutoring. The goal of our research is to construct a detailed cognitive model of the reasoning and knowledge of an expert human tutor. The method we have employed is a variant of knowledge engineering. We videotaped tutoring sessions with expert teachers, subjecting them to a detailed analysis aimed at abstracting the tutor's knowledge structures. In this article, we describe some important tutoring techniques we have isolated using these methods. We discuss several dimensions along which tutors appear to be intelligent planners and problem solvers. Finally, we note several implications of our research, including its potential impact on the construction of intelligent computer-based tutoring systems.     

Doing Right by Our Animal Companions

The philosophical literature on the moral status of nonhuman animals, which is bounteous, diverse, and sophisticated, contains a glaring omission. There is little discussion of human responsibilities to companion animals, such as dogs and cats. The assumption seems to be that animals are an undifferentiated mass – that whatever responsibilities one has to any animal are had to all animals. It is significant that we do not think this way about humans. Most of us (all but extreme impartialists) acknowledge the existence of special responsibilities to humans. We believe, for instance, that our children, friends, and compatriots have special claims on our attention, time, energy, and resources. This is not at all incompatible (although it is sometimes thought to be) with the view that we have obligations to strangers. My aim in this essay is to fill the lacuna in the literature. I argue that the act of taking an animal into one's life or home, through purchase, gift, or adoption, generates responsibilities to it, the main one being to provide for its needs, which, in the case of dogs (for example), are many and varied. Since this thesis is shrouded in misconception, I devote part of the essay to clarifying it. I then diagnose its philosophical neglect, which stems from both practical concerns and theoretical commitments. I argue that the practical concerns are groundless and that the theoretical commitments do not have the implications they are thought to have.     

Doing with Very Little:

No abstract available for this article.     

Doing it again: Obsessions

This paper gives three readings of psychoanalysis based on differing understandings of the repetition compulsion as instanced in the case of Freud's rat man. the first reading is an interpretation of Freud's official analytic theory and practice and can be called the ordinary or naive reading. the second reading brackets the natural standpoint assumed by the first reading, hence requiring scare quotes over the word ‘psychoanalysis'. the second reading is constructed from the perspective of the structuralist and quasi-existential orientation of Lacan. the third and final reading is a sketch of the rat man as if seen through the anasemic lens of Nicolas Abraham. the title of this paper - ‘Doing it again' - refers to our ‘numbers' or symptoms, i.e. the compulsive and repetitive ways in which we relate to others and the potential of each of these psychoanalytic approaches to enable us to catch ourselves at it.     

Adolescent Literacy Tutoring: Face-to-Face and Via Webcam Technology

The purpose of this research project was to examine the effectiveness of supervised literacy tutoring delivered by 25 secondary teacher candidates to middle and high school students via webcam technology and in person. The results stem from two semester-long studies of technology-delivered tutoring from a university to middle and high school settings. Findings support the effectiveness of delivering literacy tutoring components through 18 one-hour tutoring sessions using webcam technology with secondary teacher candidates as instructors. In addition, the data revealed that there was no significant difference in the literacy growth among those students who received tutoring in person or via webcam technology.     

The Influence of Guided Error-Based Learning on Motor Skills Self-Efficacy and Achievement

The authors investigated the role of errors in motor skills teaching, specifically the influence of errors on skills self-efficacy and achievement. The participants were 75 undergraduate students enrolled in pétanque courses. The experimental group (guided error-based learning, n = 37) received a 6-week period of instruction based on the students' errors, whereas the control group (correct motion instruction, n = 38) received a 6-week period of instruction emphasizing correct motor skills. The experimental group had significantly higher scores in motor skills self-efficacy and outcomes than did the control group. Novices' errors reflect their schema in motor skills learning, which provides a basis for instructors to implement student-centered instruction and to facilitate the learning process. Guided error-based learning can effectively enhance beginners' skills self-efficacy and achievement in precision sports such as pétanque.     

Guided by Intention: Preschoolers' Imitation Reflects Inferences of Causation

Object use is a ubiquitous characteristic of the human species, and learning how objects function is a fundamental part of development. In this article the authors examine the role that intentionality plays in children's understanding of causal relationships during observational learning of object use. Children observed demonstrations in which causally irrelevant and causally relevant actions were performed to achieve a desired goal. The intentionality of these actions was manipulated using verbal markers. Irrelevant actions were performed either intentionally (“There!”) or accidentally (“Whoops! I didn't mean to do that!”). Three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds, but not 2-year-olds, were less likely to imitate causally irrelevant actions performed accidentally than when they were performed intentionally. This suggests that older children used intentionality to guide causal inference and perceived intentional actions as causally effective and accidental actions as causally ineffective. Findings are discussed from an evolutionary perspective in relation to the cultural transmission of tool-use knowledge.     

众善奉行 诸恶莫作

<太上感应篇>是太上道祖金口宣说.道祖大慈大悲,为劝诫世人断恶修善,明示天道好还之理,而启世人敬畏之心.     

Doing Ontology and Doing Justice: What Feminist Philosophy Can Teach Us About Meta-Metaphysics

Abstract

Feminist philosophy has recently become recognised as a self-standing philosophical sub-discipline. Still, metaphysics has remained largely dismissive of feminist insights. Here I make the case for the value of feminist insights in metaphysics: taking them seriously makes a difference to our ontological theory choice and feminist philosophy can provide helpful methodological tools to regiment ontological theories. My examination goes as follows. Contemporary ontology is not done via conceptual analysis, but via quasi-scientific means. This takes different ontological positions to be competing hypotheses about reality’s fundamental structure that are then assessed with a loose battery of criteria for theory choice. Such criteria make up the constitutive values of ontology (e.g. providing a unified, coherent, non-circular, simple, parsimonious total theory). These values are distinguished from contextual values of a practice: the political and moral values embedded in the social context of inquiry. Although we may be frank about some meta-metaphysical value commitments, bringing in feminist contextual values is viewed as an unacceptable move when thinking about ontological theory choice. This paper then asks: is this move unacceptable? I think not and I aim to motivate this methodological insight here by examining recent work on grounding.     

Hidden in Plain View: Feminists Doing Engineering Ethics, Engineers Doing Feminist Ethics

How has engineering ethics addressed gender concerns to date? How have the ideas of feminist philosophers and feminist ethicists made their way into engineering ethics? What might an explicitly feminist engineering ethics look like? This paper reviews some major themes in feminist ethics and then considers three areas in which these themes have been taken up in engineering ethics to date. First, Caroline Whitbeck’s work in engineering ethics integrates considerations from her own earlier writings and those of other feminist philosophers, but does not use the feminist label. Second, efforts to incorporate the Ethic of Care and principles of Social Justice into engineering have drawn on feminist scholarship and principles, but these commitments can be lost in translation to the broader engineering community. Third, the film Henry’s Daughters brings gender considerations into the mainstream of engineering ethics, but does not draw on feminist ethics per se; despite the best intentions in broaching a difficult subject, the film unfortunately does more harm than good when it comes to sexual harassment education. I seek not only to make the case that engineers should pay attention to feminist ethics and engineering ethicists make more use of feminist ethics traditions in the field, but also to provide some avenues for how to approach integrating feminist ethics in engineering. The literature review and analysis of the three examples point to future work for further developing what might be called feminist engineering ethics.