Search results for: handbook writing for innovative learning
576 Co-Design of Accessible Speech Recognition for Users with Dysarthric Speech
Authors: Elizabeth Howarth, Dawn Green, Sean Connolly, Geena Vabulas, Sara Smolley
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Through the EU Horizon 2020 Nuvoic Project, the project team recruited 70 individuals in the UK and Ireland to test the Voiceitt speech recognition app and provide user feedback to developers. The app is designed for people with dysarthric speech, to support communication with unfamiliar people and access to speech-driven technologies such as smart home equipment and smart assistants. Participants with atypical speech, due to a range of conditions such as cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury, Down syndrome, stroke and hearing impairment, were recruited, primarily through organisations supporting disabled people. Most had physical or learning disabilities in addition to dysarthric speech. The project team worked with individuals, their families and local support teams, to provide access to the app, including through additional assistive technologies where needed. Testing was user-led, with participants asked to identify and test use cases most relevant to their daily lives over a period of three months or more. Ongoing technical support and training were provided remotely and in-person throughout the testing period. Structured interviews were used to collect feedback on users' experiences, with delivery adapted to individuals' needs and preferences. Informal feedback was collected through ongoing contact between participants, their families and support teams and the project team. Focus groups were held to collect feedback on specific design proposals. User feedback shared with developers has led to improvements to the user interface and functionality, including faster voice training, simplified navigation, the introduction of gamification elements and of switch access as an alternative to touchscreen access, with other feature requests from users still in development. This work offers a case-study in successful and inclusive co-design with the disabled community.Keywords: co-design, assistive technology, dysarthria, inclusive speech recognition
Procedia PDF Downloads 95575 Teaching Non-Euclidean Geometries to Learn Euclidean One: An Experimental Study
Authors: Silvia Benvenuti, Alessandra Cardinali
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In recent years, for instance, in relation to the Covid 19 pandemic and the evidence of climate change, it is becoming quite clear that the development of a young kid into an adult citizen requires a solid scientific background. Citizens are required to exert logical thinking and know the methods of science in order to adapt, understand, and develop as persons. Mathematics sits at the core of these required skills: learning the axiomatic method is fundamental to understand how hard sciences work and helps in consolidating logical thinking, which will be useful for the entire life of a student. At the same time, research shows that the axiomatic study of geometry is a problematic topic for students, even for those with interest in mathematics. With this in mind, the main goals of the research work we will describe are: (1) to show whether non-Euclidean geometries can be a tool to allow students to consolidate the knowledge of Euclidean geometries by developing it in a critical way; (2) to promote the understanding of the modern axiomatic method in geometry; (3) to give students a new perspective on mathematics so that they can see it as a creative activity and a widely discussed topic with a historical background. One of the main issues related to the state-of-the-art in this topic is the shortage of experimental studies with students. For this reason, our aim is to show further experimental evidence of the potential benefits of teaching non-Euclidean geometries at high school, based on data collected from a study started in 2005 in the frame of the Italian National Piano Lauree Scientifiche, continued by a teacher training organized in September 2018, perfected in a pilot study that involved 77 high school students during the school years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. and finally implemented through an experimental study conducted in 2020-21 with 87 high school students. Our study shows that there is potential for further research to challenge current conceptions of the school mathematics curriculum and of the capabilities of high school mathematics students.Keywords: Non-Euclidean geometries, beliefs about mathematics, questionnaires, modern axiomatic method
Procedia PDF Downloads 68574 Effect of Blood Sugar Levels on Short Term and Working Memory Status in Type 2 Diabetics
Authors: Mythri G., Manjunath ML, Girish Babu M., Shireen Swaliha Quadri
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Background: The increase in diabetes among the elderly is of concern because in addition to the wide range of traditional diabetes complications, evidence has been growing that diabetes is associated with increased risk of cognitive decline. Aims and Objectives: To find out if there is any association between blood sugar levels and short-term and working memory status in patients of type 2 diabetes. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out in 200 individuals aged between 40-65 years consisting of 100 diagnosed cases of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and 100 non-diabetics from OPD of Mc Gann Hospital, Shivamogga. Rye’s Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Verbal Fluency Test and Visual Reproduction Test, Working Digit Span Test and Validation Span Test were used to assess short-term and working memory. Fasting and Post Prandial blood sugar levels were estimated. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 21. Results: Memory test scores of type 2 diabetics were significantly reduced (p < 0.001) when compared to the memory scores of age and gender matched non-diabetics. Fasting blood sugar levels were found to have a negative correlation with memory scores for all 5 tests: AVLT (r=-0.837), VFT (r=-0.888), VRT(r=-0.787), WDST (r=-0.795) and VST (r=-0.943). Post- Prandial blood sugar levels were found to have a negative correlation with memory scores for all 5 tests: AVLT (r=-0.922), VFT (r=-0.848), VRT(r=-0.707),WDST (r=-0.729) and VST (r=-0.880) Memory scores in all 5 tests were found to be negatively correlated with the FBS and PPBS levels in diabetic patients (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The decreased memory status in diabetic patients may be due to many factors like hyperglycemia, vascular disease, insulin resistance, amyloid deposition and also some of the factor combine to produce additive effects like, type of diabetes, co-morbidities, age of onset, duration of the disease and type of therapy. These observed effects of blood sugar levels of diabetics on memory status are of potential clinical importance because even mild cognitive impairment could interfere with todays’ activities.Keywords: diabetes, cognition, diabetes, HRV, respiratory medicine
Procedia PDF Downloads 272573 Effectiveness of Project Grit in Building Resilience among At-Risk Adolescents: A Case Study
Authors: Narash Narasimman, Calvin Leong Jia Jun, Raksha Karthik, Paul Englert
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Background: Project Grit, a 12-week youth resilience program implemented by Impart and Spartans Boxing Club, aimed to help at-risk adolescents develop resilience through psychoeducation and mental health techniques for dealing with everyday stressors and adversity. The programme consists of two parts-1.5 hours of group therapy followed by 1 hour of boxing. Due to the novelty of the study, 6 male participants, aged 13 to 18, were recruited to participate in the study. Aim: This case study aims to examine the effectiveness of Project Grit in building resilience among at-risk adolescents. Methods: A case study design was employed to capture the complexity and uniqueness of the intervention, without oversimplifying or generalizing it. A 15-year-old male participant with a history of behavioural challenges, delinquency and gang involvement was selected for the study. Teacher, parent and child versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were administered to the facilitators, parents and participants respectively before and after the programme. Relevant themes from the qualitative interviews will be discussed. Results: Scores from all raters revealed improvements in most domains of the SDQ. Total difficulties scores across all raters improved from “very high” to “close to average”. High interrater reliability was observed (κ= .81). The participant reported learning methods to effectively deal with his everyday concerns using healthy coping strategies, developing a supportive social network, and building on his self efficacy. Themes from the subject’s report concurred with the improvement in SDQ scores. Conclusions: The findings suggest that Project Grit is a promising intervention for promoting resilience among at-risk adolescents. The teleological behaviourism framework and the combination of sports engagement and future orientation may be particularly effective in fostering resilience among this population. Further studies need to be conducted with a larger sample size to further validate the effectiveness of Project Grit.Keywords: resilience, project grit, adolescents, at-risk, boxing, future orientation
Procedia PDF Downloads 49572 Discerning Divergent Nodes in Social Networks
Authors: Mehran Asadi, Afrand Agah
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In data mining, partitioning is used as a fundamental tool for classification. With the help of partitioning, we study the structure of data, which allows us to envision decision rules, which can be applied to classification trees. In this research, we used online social network dataset and all of its attributes (e.g., Node features, labels, etc.) to determine what constitutes an above average chance of being a divergent node. We used the R statistical computing language to conduct the analyses in this report. The data were found on the UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository. This research introduces the basic concepts of classification in online social networks. In this work, we utilize overfitting and describe different approaches for evaluation and performance comparison of different classification methods. In classification, the main objective is to categorize different items and assign them into different groups based on their properties and similarities. In data mining, recursive partitioning is being utilized to probe the structure of a data set, which allow us to envision decision rules and apply them to classify data into several groups. Estimating densities is hard, especially in high dimensions, with limited data. Of course, we do not know the densities, but we could estimate them using classical techniques. First, we calculated the correlation matrix of the dataset to see if any predictors are highly correlated with one another. By calculating the correlation coefficients for the predictor variables, we see that density is strongly correlated with transitivity. We initialized a data frame to easily compare the quality of the result classification methods and utilized decision trees (with k-fold cross validation to prune the tree). The method performed on this dataset is decision trees. Decision tree is a non-parametric classification method, which uses a set of rules to predict that each observation belongs to the most commonly occurring class label of the training data. Our method aggregates many decision trees to create an optimized model that is not susceptible to overfitting. When using a decision tree, however, it is important to use cross-validation to prune the tree in order to narrow it down to the most important variables.Keywords: online social networks, data mining, social cloud computing, interaction and collaboration
Procedia PDF Downloads 144571 Prospective Mathematics Teachers' Content Knowledge on the Definition of Limit and Derivative
Authors: Reyhan Tekin Sitrava
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Teachers should have robust and comprehensive content knowledge for effective mathematics teaching. It was explained that content knowledge includes knowing the facts, truths, and concepts; explaining the reasons behind these facts, truths and concepts, and making relationship between the concepts and other disciplines. By virtue of its importance, it will be significant to explore teachers and prospective teachers’ content knowledge related to variety of topics in mathematics. From this point of view, the purpose of this study was to investigate prospective mathematics teachers’ content knowledge. Particularly, it was aimed to reveal the prospective teachers’ knowledge regarding the definition of limit and derivate. To achieve the purpose and to get in-depth understanding, a qualitative case study method was used. The data was collected from 34 prospective mathematics teachers through a questionnaire containing 2 questions. The first question required the prospective teachers to define the limit and the second one required to define the derivative. The data was analyzed using content analysis method. Based on the analysis of the data, although half of the prospective teachers (50%) could write the definition of the limit, nine prospective teachers (26.5%) could not define limit. However, eight prospective teachers’ definition was regarded as partially correct. On the other hand, twenty-seven prospective teachers (79.5%) could define derivative, but seven of them (20.5%) defined it partially. According to the findings, most of the prospective teachers have robust content knowledge on limit and derivative. This result is important because definitions have a virtual role in learning and teaching of mathematics. More specifically, definition is starting point to understand the meaning of a concept. From this point of view, prospective teachers should know the definitions of the concepts to be able to teach them correctly to the students. In addition, they should have knowledge about the relationship between limit and derivative so that they can explain these concepts conceptually. Otherwise, students may memorize the rules of calculating the derivative and the limit. In conclusion, the present study showed that most of the prospective mathematics teachers had enough knowledge about the definition of derivative and limit. However, the rest of them should learn their definition conceptually. The examples of correct, partially correct, and incorrect definition of both concepts will be presented and discussed based on participants’ statements. This study has some implications for instructors. Instructors should be careful about whether students learn the definition of these concepts or not. In order to this, the instructors may give prospective teachers opportunities to discuss the definition of these concepts and the relationship between the concepts.Keywords: content knowledge, derivative, limit, prospective mathematics teachers
Procedia PDF Downloads 214570 Using Industry Projects to Modernize Business Education
Authors: Marie Sams, Kate Barnett-Richards, Jacqui Speculand, Gemma Tombs
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Business education in the United Kingdom has seen a number of improvements over the years in moving from delivering traditional chalk and talk lectures to using digital technologies and inviting guest lectures from industry to deliver sessions for students. Engaging topical industry talks to enhance course delivery is generally seen as a positive aspect of enhancing curriculum, however it is acknowledged that perhaps there are better ways in which industry can contribute to the quality of business programmes. Additionally, there is a consensus amongst UK industry managers that a bigger involvement in designing and inputting into business curriculum will have a greater impact on the quality of business ready graduates. Funded by the Disruptive Media Learning Lab at Coventry University in the UK, a project (SOPI - Student Online Projects with Industry) was initiated to enable students to work in project teams to respond and engage with real problems and challenges faced by five managers in various industries including retail, events and manufacturing. Over a semester, approximately 200 students were given the opportunity to develop their management, facilitation, problem solving and reflective skills, whilst having some exposure to real challenges in industry with a focus on supply chain and project management. Face to face seminars were re-designed to enable students to work on live issues in a competitive environment, and were guided to consider the theoretical aspects of their module delivery to underpin the solutions that they were generating. Dialogue between student groups and managers took place using Google+ community; an online social media tool which enables private discussions to take place and can be accessed on mobile devices. Results of the project will be shared in how this development has added value to students experience and understanding of the two subject areas. Student reflections will be analysed and evaluated to assess how the project has contributed to their perception of how the theoretical nature of these two business subjects are applied in practical situations.Keywords: business, education, industry, projects
Procedia PDF Downloads 175569 Algorithm for Improved Tree Counting and Detection through Adaptive Machine Learning Approach with the Integration of Watershed Transformation and Local Maxima Analysis
Authors: Jigg Pelayo, Ricardo Villar
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The Philippines is long considered as a valuable producer of high value crops globally. The country’s employment and economy have been dependent on agriculture, thus increasing its demand for the efficient agricultural mechanism. Remote sensing and geographic information technology have proven to effectively provide applications for precision agriculture through image-processing technique considering the development of the aerial scanning technology in the country. Accurate information concerning the spatial correlation within the field is very important for precision farming of high value crops, especially. The availability of height information and high spatial resolution images obtained from aerial scanning together with the development of new image analysis methods are offering relevant influence to precision agriculture techniques and applications. In this study, an algorithm was developed and implemented to detect and count high value crops simultaneously through adaptive scaling of support vector machine (SVM) algorithm subjected to object-oriented approach combining watershed transformation and local maxima filter in enhancing tree counting and detection. The methodology is compared to cutting-edge template matching algorithm procedures to demonstrate its effectiveness on a demanding tree is counting recognition and delineation problem. Since common data and image processing techniques are utilized, thus can be easily implemented in production processes to cover large agricultural areas. The algorithm is tested on high value crops like Palm, Mango and Coconut located in Misamis Oriental, Philippines - showing a good performance in particular for young adult and adult trees, significantly 90% above. The s inventories or database updating, allowing for the reduction of field work and manual interpretation tasks.Keywords: high value crop, LiDAR, OBIA, precision agriculture
Procedia PDF Downloads 392568 A Genre-Based Approach to the Teaching of Pronunciation
Authors: Marden Silva, Danielle Guerra
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Some studies have indicated that pronunciation teaching hasn’t been paid enough attention by teachers regarding EFL contexts. In particular, segmental and suprasegmental features through genre-based approach may be an opportunity on how to integrate pronunciation into a more meaningful learning practice. Therefore, the aim of this project was to carry out a survey on some aspects related to English pronunciation that Brazilian students consider more difficult to learn, thus enabling the discussion of strategies that can facilitate the development of oral skills in English classes by integrating the teaching of phonetic-phonological aspects into the genre-based approach. Notions of intelligibility, fluency and accuracy were proposed by some authors as an ideal didactic sequence. According to their proposals, basic learners should be exposed to activities focused on the notion of intelligibility as well as intermediate students to the notion of fluency, and finally more advanced ones to accuracy practices. In order to test this hypothesis, data collection was conducted during three high school English classes at Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG), in Brazil, through questionnaires and didactic activities, which were recorded and transcribed for further analysis. The genre debate was chosen to facilitate the oral expression of the participants in a freer way, making them answering questions and giving their opinion about a previously selected topic. The findings indicated that basic students demonstrated more difficulty with aspects of English pronunciation than the others. Many of the intelligibility aspects analyzed had to be listened more than once for a better understanding. For intermediate students, the speeches recorded were considerably easier to understand, but nevertheless they found it more difficult to pronounce the words fluently, often interrupting their speech to think about what they were going to say and how they would talk. Lastly, more advanced learners seemed to express their ideas more fluently, but still subtle errors related to accuracy were perceptible in speech, thereby confirming the proposed hypothesis. It was also seen that using genre-based approach to promote oral communication in English classes might be a relevant method, considering the socio-communicative function inherent in the suggested approach.Keywords: EFL, genre-based approach, oral skills, pronunciation
Procedia PDF Downloads 122567 The Noun-Phrase Elements on the Usage of the Zero Article
Authors: Wen Zhen
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Compared to content words, function words have been relatively overlooked by English learners especially articles. The article system, to a certain extent, becomes a resistance to know English better, driven by different elements. Three principal factors can be summarized in term of the nature of the articles when referring to the difficulty of the English article system. However, making the article system more complex are difficulties in the second acquisition process, for [-ART] learners have to create another category, causing even most non-native speakers at proficiency level to make errors. According to the sequences of acquisition of the English article, it is showed that the zero article is first acquired and in high inaccuracy. The zero article is often overused in the early stages of L2 acquisition. Although learners at the intermediate level move to underuse the zero article for they realize that the zero article does not cover any case, overproduction of the zero article even occurs among advanced L2 learners. The aim of the study is to investigate noun-phrase factors which give rise to incorrect usage or overuse of the zero article, thus providing suggestions for L2 English acquisition. Moreover, it enables teachers to carry out effective instruction that activate conscious learning of students. The research question will be answered through a corpus-based, data- driven approach to analyze the noun-phrase elements from the semantic context and countability of noun-phrases. Based on the analysis of the International Thurber Thesis corpus, the results show that: (1) Although context of [-definite,-specific] favored the zero article, both[-definite,+specific] and [+definite,-specific] showed less influence. When we reflect on the frequency order of the zero article , prototypicality plays a vital role in it .(2)EFL learners in this study have trouble classifying abstract nouns as countable. We can find that it will bring about overuse of the zero article when learners can not make clear judgements on countability altered from (+definite ) to (-definite).Once a noun is perceived as uncountable by learners, the choice would fall back on the zero article. These findings suggest that learners should be engaged in recognition of the countability of new vocabulary by explaining nouns in lexical phrases and explore more complex aspects such as analysis dependent on discourse.Keywords: noun phrase, zero article, corpus, second language acquisition
Procedia PDF Downloads 242566 Analysis of Barbell Kinematics of Snatch Technique among Women Weightlifters in India
Authors: Manish Kumar Pillai, Madhavi Pathak Pillai, Rajender Lal, Dinesh P. Sharma
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India has not yet been able to produce many weightlifters in the past years. Karnam Malleshwari is the only woman to win a medal for India in Olympics. When we try to introspect, there seem to be different reasons. One of the probable cause could be the lack of biomechanical analysis for technique improvements. The analysis of motion in sports has gained prime importance for technical improvement. It helps an athlete to develop a better understanding of his own skills and increasing the rate of technical learning process. Kinematics is concerned with describing and quantifying both the linear and angular position of bodies and their time derivatives. The techniques analysis of barbell movement is very important in weightlifting. But women weightlifting has a shorter history than men’s. Research on women weightlifting based on video analysis is less; there is a lack of scientific evidence based on kinematic analysis of especially on Indian weightlifters at national level are limited. Hence, the present investigation was aimed to analyze the barbell kinematics of women weightlifters in India. The study was delimited to the medal winners of 69-kilogram weight category in the All India Inter-University Competition, age ranging between 18 and 28 years. The variables selected for the mechanical analysis of Barbell kinematics included barbell trajectory, velocity, acceleration, potential energy, kinetic energy, mechanical energy, and average power output. The performance was captured during the competition by two DV PC-60 Digital cameras (Panasonic Company, Ltd). Two cameras were placed 6-meters perpendicular to the plane of the motion, 130 cm. above the ground to record/capture the frontal and lateral view of the lifters simultaneously. Video recordings were analyzed by using Dartfish software, and barbell kinematics were analyzed with the information derived with the help of software. The result documented on the basis of the finding of the study clearly states that there are differences in the selected kinematic variables in all three lifters in respect to their technique in five phases during snatch technique using by them.Keywords: dartfish, digital camera, kinematic, snatch, weightlifting
Procedia PDF Downloads 128565 “CheckPrivate”: Artificial Intelligence Powered Mobile Application to Enhance the Well-Being of Sextual Transmitted Diseases Patients in Sri Lanka under Cultural Barriers
Authors: Warnakulasuriya Arachichige Malisha Ann Rosary Fernando, Udalamatta Gamage Omila Chalanka Jinadasa, Bihini Pabasara Amandi Amarasinghe, Manul Thisuraka Mandalawatta, Uthpala Samarakoon, Manori Gamage
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The surge in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has become a critical public health crisis demanding urgent attention and action. Like many other nations, Sri Lanka is grappling with a significant increase in STDs due to a lack of education and awareness regarding their dangers. Presently, the available applications for tracking and managing STDs cover only a limited number of easily detectable infections, resulting in a significant gap in effectively controlling their spread. To address this gap and combat the rising STD rates, it is essential to leverage technology and data. Employing technology to enhance the tracking and management of STDs is vital to prevent their further propagation and to enable early intervention and treatment. This requires adopting a comprehensive approach that involves raising public awareness about the perils of STDs, improving access to affordable healthcare services for early detection and treatment, and utilizing advanced technology and data analysis. The proposed mobile application aims to cater to a broad range of users, including STD patients, recovered individuals, and those unaware of their STD status. By harnessing cutting-edge technologies like image detection, symptom-based identification, prevention methods, doctor and clinic recommendations, and virtual counselor chat, the application offers a holistic approach to STD management. In conclusion, the escalating STD rates in Sri Lanka and across the globe require immediate action. The integration of technology-driven solutions, along with comprehensive education and healthcare accessibility, is the key to curbing the spread of STDs and promoting better overall public health.Keywords: STD, machine learning, NLP, artificial intelligence
Procedia PDF Downloads 74564 Patient Safety Culture in Brazilian Hospitals from Nurse's Team Perspective
Authors: Carmen Silvia Gabriel, Dsniele Bernardi da Costa, Andrea Bernardes, Sabrina Elias Mikael, Daniele da Silva Ramos
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The goal of this quantitative study is to investigate patient safety culture from the perspective of professional from the hospital nursing team.It was conducted in two Brazilian hospitals,.The sample included 282 nurses Data collection occurred in 2013, through the questionnaire Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.Based on the assessment of the dimensions is stressed that, in the dimension teamwork across hospital units, 69.4% of professionals agree that when a lot of work needs to be done quickly, they work together as a team; about the dimension supervisor/ manager expectations and actions promoting safety, 70.2% agree that their supervisor overlooks patient safety problems.Related to organizational learning and continuous improvement, 56.5% agree that there is evaluation of the effectiveness of the changes after its implementation.On hospital management support for patient safety, 52.8% refer that the actions of hospital management show that patient safety is a top priority.On the overall perception of patient safety, 57.2% disagree that patient safety is never compromised due to higher amount of work to be completed.In what refers to feedback and communication about error, 57.7% refer that always and usually receive such information. Relative to communication openness, 42.9% said they never or rarely feel free to question the decisions / actions of their superiors.On frequency of event reporting, 64.7% said often and always notify events with no damages to patients..About teamwork across hospital units is noted similarity between the percentages of agreement and disagreement, as on the item there is a good cooperation among hospital units that need to work together, that indicates 41.4% and 40.5% respectively.Related to adequacy of professionals, 77.8 % disagree on the existence of sufficient amount of employees to do the job, 52.4% agree that shift changes are problematic for patients. On nonpunitive response to errors, 71.7% indicate that when an event is reported it seems that the focus is on the person.On the patient safety grade of the institution, 41.6 % classified it as very good. it is concluded that there are positive points in the safety culture, and some weaknesses as a punitive culture and impaired patient safety due to work overload .Keywords: quality of health care, health services evaluation, safety culture, patient safety, nursing team
Procedia PDF Downloads 291563 Public Space Appropriation of a Public Peripheric Library in El Agustino, Lima Metropolitana: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Camila Freire Barrios, Gonzalo Rivera Talavera
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The importance of public spaces has been shown for many years, and in different disciplines, with one example being their ability for developing a sustainable social environment, especially in mega cities like Lima. The aim of this study was to explore the process of space appropriation that occurs in the Peripheral Library of the district El Agustino in Lima, Peru. Space appropriation is a process by which people develop a link with a place within a specific sociocultural context. This process has been related to positive outcomes, such as: participation and in the development of compassionate behaviors with these places. To achieve the purpose of the research, a qualitative design was selected because this will allowed exploring in deep the process in an specific context. The study interviewed six adults, all of whom were deliberately chosen to have the longest residence time in the district and also utilized the library the most. In a complementary manner, two children and one adolescent were interviewed. Likewise, two observations were made on a weekday and weekend, and public documentation information was collected. As a result, five categories linked to this process were identified. It was found that the process of space appropriation begins with the needs of the people who arrive at the library, which provides benefits to these people by fulfilling them. Next in the process, through the construction of meanings, the library is then valued as a pleasant, productive, safe and regulated place; as a result, people become identified with the library. The identification generated is subsequently reflected in the level of participation that the person has in the library, which may go in a continuum from no participating at all to a more direct involvement in the library activities, as well as voluntary and altruistic work. Finally, this process leads to the library becoming part of the neighborhood. This study allows having a better understanding of how sociospatial processes work in a Latinamerican context and in cities like Lima, where the third of the country’s population lives. Also, Lima has grown in the past 50 years in a excessively way and with lack of planification. Therefore, these results brings new research questions and highlights the importance of learning how to design public spaces in order to promote these processes to develop.Keywords: bond with the place, place identity, public spaces, space appropriation
Procedia PDF Downloads 229562 The Active Role of Teacher's in Managing Effective Classroom Environment for High School Students from the Viewpoint of the Teachers
Authors: Majda Ibrahim Aljaroudi, Jwaher Alburake
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The study aimed to identify the active role of the teacher in the management of the effective classroom environment for high school students from the viewpoint of the teachers, and to identify whether there were statistically significant differences between the averages of the respondents regarding the active role of the high school teachers in managing effective classroom environment in Riyadh, and also the total score depending on the variables of the study (qualifications, years of experience, training and development programs). This study used the descriptive survey approach where a questionnaire has been built and consisted of (35) items about five areas as a tool to measure the teacher's role in the management of effective classroom environment for high school students. The study population consisted of (1313) high school teachers in the government schools in south of Riyadh. It consisted of (70) teachers who were selected randomly. It used the appropriate statistical methods to analyze data by using statistical packages (SPSS). The study found the following results: • Most of the study sample members agreed on their role in the effective classroom environment management for high school students in government schools in Riyadh with an average (3.91 out of 5), which falls in the fifth category of Quintet scale (from 3.41 to 4.20) that refers to the option "often". • There are statistically significant differences between the mean responses of the study sample about the active role of the teacher in the effective classroom environment management for high school students regarding the concept of order in the classroom depending on the variable of years of experience for the benefit of teachers who have over 10 years of experience. There are statistically significant differences between the mean responses of the study sample about the teacher's active role in the effective classroom environment management for high school students regarding the educational process for maintaining the order in the classroom depending on the variable of training and development programs for the benefit of the teachers who have more than (5) courses. Due to the results of the study the researcher recommended a number of recommendations to improve the teacher's role in the effective classroom environment management for high school students.Keywords: effective management, active learning, educational sciences, pedagogical sciences
Procedia PDF Downloads 435561 Classification of Forest Types Using Remote Sensing and Self-Organizing Maps
Authors: Wanderson Goncalves e Goncalves, José Alberto Silva de Sá
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Human actions are a threat to the balance and conservation of the Amazon forest. Therefore the environmental monitoring services play an important role as the preservation and maintenance of this environment. This study classified forest types using data from a forest inventory provided by the 'Florestal e da Biodiversidade do Estado do Pará' (IDEFLOR-BIO), located between the municipalities of Santarém, Juruti and Aveiro, in the state of Pará, Brazil, covering an area approximately of 600,000 hectares, Bands 3, 4 and 5 of the TM-Landsat satellite image, and Self - Organizing Maps. The information from the satellite images was extracted using QGIS software 2.8.1 Wien and was used as a database for training the neural network. The midpoints of each sample of forest inventory have been linked to images. Later the Digital Numbers of the pixels have been extracted, composing the database that fed the training process and testing of the classifier. The neural network was trained to classify two forest types: Rain Forest of Lowland Emerging Canopy (Dbe) and Rain Forest of Lowland Emerging Canopy plus Open with palm trees (Dbe + Abp) in the Mamuru Arapiuns glebes of Pará State, and the number of examples in the training data set was 400, 200 examples for each class (Dbe and Dbe + Abp), and the size of the test data set was 100, with 50 examples for each class (Dbe and Dbe + Abp). Therefore, total mass of data consisted of 500 examples. The classifier was compiled in Orange Data Mining 2.7 Software and was evaluated in terms of the confusion matrix indicators. The results of the classifier were considered satisfactory, and being obtained values of the global accuracy equal to 89% and Kappa coefficient equal to 78% and F1 score equal to 0,88. It evaluated also the efficiency of the classifier by the ROC plot (receiver operating characteristics), obtaining results close to ideal ratings, showing it to be a very good classifier, and demonstrating the potential of this methodology to provide ecosystem services, particularly in anthropogenic areas in the Amazon.Keywords: artificial neural network, computational intelligence, pattern recognition, unsupervised learning
Procedia PDF Downloads 353560 Mitigating Self-Regulation Issues in the Online Instruction of Math
Authors: Robert Vanderburg, Michael Cowling, Nicholas Gibson
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Mathematics is one of the core subjects taught in the Australian K-12 education system and is considered an important component for future studies in areas such as engineering and technology. In addition to this, Australia has been a world leader in distance education due to the vastness of its geographic landscape. Despite this, research is still needed on distance math instruction. Even though delivery of curriculum has given way to online studies, and there is a resultant push for computer-based (PC, tablet, smartphone) math instruction, much instruction still involves practice problems similar to those original curriculum packs, without the ability for students to self-regulate their learning using the full interactive capabilities of these devices. Given this need, this paper addresses issues students have during online instruction. This study consists of 32 students struggling with mathematics enrolled in a math tutorial conducted in an online setting. The study used a case study design to understand some of the blockades hindering the students’ success. Data was collected by tracking students practice and quizzes, tracking engagement of the site, recording one-on-one tutorials, and collecting data from interviews with the students. Results revealed that when students have cognitively straining tasks in an online instructional setting, the first thing to dissipate was their ability to self-regulate. The results also revealed that instructors could ameliorate the situation and provided useful data on strategies that could be used for designing future online tasks. Specifically, instructors could utilize cognitive dissonance strategies to reduce the cognitive drain of the tasks online. They could segment the instruction process to reduce the cognitive demands of the tasks and provide in-depth self-regulatory training, freeing mental capacity for the mathematics content. Finally, instructors could provide specific scheduling and assignment structure changes to reduce the amount of student centered self-regulatory tasks in the class. These findings will be discussed in more detail and summarized in a framework that can be used for future work.Keywords: digital education, distance education, mathematics education, self-regulation
Procedia PDF Downloads 125559 Formation Flying Design Applied for an Aurora Borealis Monitoring Mission
Authors: Thais Cardoso Franco, Caio Nahuel Sousa Fagonde, Willer Gomes dos Santos
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Aurora Borealis is an optical phenomenon composed of luminous events observed in the night skies in the polar regions resulting from disturbances in the magnetosphere due to the impact of solar wind particles with the Earth's upper atmosphere, channeled by the Earth's magnetic field, which causes atmospheric molecules to become excited and emit electromagnetic spectrum, leading to the display of lights in the sky. However, there are still different implications of this phenomenon under study: high intensity auroras are often accompanied by geomagnetic storms that cause blackouts on Earth and impair the transmission of signals from the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Auroras are also known to occur on other planets and exoplanets, so the activity is an indication of active space weather conditions that can aid in learning about the planetary environment. In order to improve understanding of the phenomenon, this research aims to design a satellite formation flying solution for collecting and transmitting data for monitoring aurora borealis in northern hemisphere, an approach that allows studying the event with multipoint data collection in a reduced time interval, in order to allow analysis from the beginning of the phenomenon until its decline. To this end, the ideal number of satellites, the spacing between them, as well as the ideal topology to be used will be analyzed. From an orbital study, approaches from different altitudes, eccentricities and inclinations will also be considered. Given that at large relative distances between satellites in formation, controllers tend to fail, a study on the efficiency of nonlinear adaptive control methods from the point of view of position maintenance and propellant consumption will be carried out. The main orbital perturbations considered in the simulation: non-homogeneity terrestrial, atmospheric drag, gravitational action of the Sun and the Moon, accelerations due to solar radiation pressure and relativistic effects.Keywords: formation flying, nonlinear adaptive control method, aurora borealis, adaptive SDRE method
Procedia PDF Downloads 22558 Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment, Simulation for the Nurse Practitioner Student
Authors: Helen Coronel, Will Brewer, Peggy Bergeron, Clarissa Hall, Victoria Casson
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Simulation-based training provides the nurse practitioner (NP) student with a safe and controlled environment in which they can practice a real-life scenario. This type of learning fosters critical thinking skills essential to practice. The expectation of this study was that students would have an increase in their competency and confidence after performing the simulation. Approximately 8.4% of Americans suffer from depression. The state of Alabama is ranked 47th out of 50 for access to mental health care. As a result of this significant shortage of mental health providers, primary care providers are frequently put in the position of screening for and treating mental health conditions, such as depression. Family nurse practitioners are often utilized as primary care providers, making their ability to assess, diagnose and treat these disorders a necessary skill. The expected outcome of this simulation is an increase in confidence, competency and the empowerment of the nurse practitioner student’s ability to assess, diagnose and treat a common mood disorder they may encounter in practice. The Kirkpatrick Module was applied for this study. A non-experimental design using descriptive statistical analysis was utilized. The simulation was based on a common psychiatric mood disorder frequently observed in primary care and mental health clinics. Students were asked to watch a voiceover power point presentation prior to their on-campus simulation. The presentation included training on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of a patient with depression. Prior to the simulation, the students completed a pre-test, then participated in the simulation, and completed a post-test when done. Apple iPads were utilized to access a simulated health record. Major findings of the study support an increase in students’ competency and confidence when assessing, diagnosing, and treating an adult patient with depression.Keywords: advanced practice, nurse practitioner, simulation, primary care, depression
Procedia PDF Downloads 89557 Usage of Internet Technology in Financial Education and Financial Inclusion by Students of Economics Universities
Authors: B. Frączek
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The paper analyses the usage of the Internet by university students in Visegrad Countries (4V Countries) who study economic fields in their formal and informal financial education and captures the areas of untapped potential of Internet in educational processes. Higher education and training, technological readiness, and the financial market development are in the group of pillars, that are key for efficiency driven economies. These three pillars have become an inspiration to the research on using the Internet in the financial education among economic university students as the group of the best educated people in finance. The financial education is a process that allows for improving the level of financial literacy. In turn, the financial literacy it is the set of financial knowledge, skills, awareness and patterns influencing the financial decisions. The level of financial literacy influences the level of financial well-being of individuals, determines the scale of saving of households and at the same time gives the greater chance for sustainable and more predictable development of the financial market with the positive impact on economy. The financial literacy is necessary for each group of society but its appropriate level is desirable especially in respect of economics students as future participants of financial markets as well as the experts and advisors in financial decision making. The low level of financial literacy is the great problem of many target groups in both developing and developed countries and the financial education is seen as the best way of improving this situation. Also the financial inclusion plays the special role in enhancing the level of financial literacy in the aspect of education by practice as well as due to interrelation between level of financial literacy and degree of financial inclusion. Despite many initiatives under financial education, the level of financial literacy is still very low. Scientists still search for new ways of solving this problem. One of the proposal is more effective usage of the new technology in financial education, especially the Internet, because of the growing popularity of e-learning and the increasing number of Internet users, especially among young people who are called the Generation Net. Due to special role of the university students studying the economics fields for the future financial markets, students of four universities from Visegrad Countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) were invited to participate in the survey. The aim of the article is to present the level and ways of using the Internet technology in financial education and indicating the so far unused or underused opportunities.Keywords: financial education, financial inclusion, financial literacy, internet and university education
Procedia PDF Downloads 307556 From Makers to Maker Communities: A Survey on Turkish Makerspaces
Authors: Dogan Can Hatunoglu, Cengiz Hakan Gurkanlı, Hatice Merve Demirci
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Today, the maker movement is regarded as a socio-cultural movement that represents designing and building objects for innovations. In these creativity-based activities of the movement, individuals from different backgrounds such as; inventors, programmers, craftspeople, DIY’ers, tinkerers, engineers, designers, and hackers, form a community and work collaboratively for mutual, open-source innovations. Today, with the accessibility of recently emerged technologies and digital fabrication tools, the Maker Movement is continuously expanding its scope and has evolved into a new experience, and for many, it is now considered as new kind of industrial revolution. In this new experience, makers create new things within their community by using new digital tools and technologies in spots called makerspaces. In these makerspaces, activities of learning, experience sharing, and mentoring are evolved into maker events. Makers who share common interests in making benefit from makerspaces as meeting and working spots. In literature, there are many sources on Maker Movement, maker communities, and their activities, especially in the field of business administration. However, there is a gap in the literature about the maker communities in Turkey. This research aims to be an information source on the dynamics and process design of “making” activities in Turkish maker communities and also aims to provide insights to sustain and enhance local maker communities in the future. Within this aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with founders and facilitators from selected Turkish maker communities. (1) The perception towards Maker Movement, makers, activity of making, and current situation of maker communities, (2) motivations of individuals who participate the maker communities, and (3) key drivers (collaboration and decision-making in design processes) of maker activities from the perspectives of main actors (founders, facilitators) are all examined deeply with question on personal experiences and perspectives. After a qualitative approached data analysis concerning the maker communities in Turkey, this research reveals that there are two main conclusions regarding (1) the foundation of the Turkish maker mindset and (2) emergence of self-sustaining communities.Keywords: Maker Movement, maker community, makerspaces, open-source design, sustainability
Procedia PDF Downloads 137555 Computational Linguistic Implications of Gender Bias: Machines Reflect Misogyny in Society
Authors: Irene Yi
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Machine learning, natural language processing, and neural network models of language are becoming more and more prevalent in the fields of technology and linguistics today. Training data for machines are at best, large corpora of human literature and at worst, a reflection of the ugliness in society. Computational linguistics is a growing field dealing with such issues of data collection for technological development. Machines have been trained on millions of human books, only to find that in the course of human history, derogatory and sexist adjectives are used significantly more frequently when describing females in history and literature than when describing males. This is extremely problematic, both as training data, and as the outcome of natural language processing. As machines start to handle more responsibilities, it is crucial to ensure that they do not take with them historical sexist and misogynistic notions. This paper gathers data and algorithms from neural network models of language having to deal with syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and text classification. Computational analysis on such linguistic data is used to find patterns of misogyny. Results are significant in showing the existing intentional and unintentional misogynistic notions used to train machines, as well as in developing better technologies that take into account the semantics and syntax of text to be more mindful and reflect gender equality. Further, this paper deals with the idea of non-binary gender pronouns and how machines can process these pronouns correctly, given its semantic and syntactic context. This paper also delves into the implications of gendered grammar and its effect, cross-linguistically, on natural language processing. Languages such as French or Spanish not only have rigid gendered grammar rules, but also historically patriarchal societies. The progression of society comes hand in hand with not only its language, but how machines process those natural languages. These ideas are all extremely vital to the development of natural language models in technology, and they must be taken into account immediately.Keywords: computational analysis, gendered grammar, misogynistic language, neural networks
Procedia PDF Downloads 111554 The Gender Digital Divide in Education: The Case of Students from Rural Area from Republic of Moldova
Authors: Bărbuță Alina
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The inter-causal relationship between social inequalities and the digital divide raises the relation issue of gender and information and communication technologies (ICT) - a key element in achieving sustainable development. In preparing generations as future digital citizens and for active socio-economic participation, ICT plays a key role in respecting gender equality. Although several studies over the years have shown that gender plays an important role in digital exclusion, in recent years, many studies with a focus on economically developed or developing countries identify an improvement in these aspects and a gap narrowing. By measuring students' digital competencies level, this paper aims to identify and analyse the existing gender digital inequalities among students. Our analyses are based on a sample of 1526 middle school students residing in rural areas from Republic of Moldova (54.2% girls, mean age 14,00, SD = 1.02). During the online survey they filled in a questionnaire adapted from the (yDSI) ”The Youth Digital Skills Indicator”. The instrument measures the level of five digital competence areas indicated in The European Digital Competence Framework (DigiCom 2.3.). Our results, based on t-test, indicate that depending on gender, there are no statistically significant differences regarding the levels of digital skills in 3 areas: Information navigation and processing; Communication and interaction; Problem solving. However, were identified significant differences in the level of digital skills in the area of ”Digital content creation” [t(1425) = 4.20, p = .000] and ”Safety” [t(1421) = 2.49, p = .000], with higher scores recorded by girls. Our results contradicts the general stereotype regarding the low level of digital competence among girls, in our sample girls scores being on pear with boys and even bigger in knowledge related to digital content creation and online safety skills. Additional investigations related to boys competence on digital safety are necessary as the implication of their low scores on this dimension may suggest boys exposure to digital threats.Keywords: digital divide, education, gender digital divide, digital literacy, remote learning
Procedia PDF Downloads 92553 Spontaneous Eruption of Impacted Teeth While Awaiting Surgical Intervention
Authors: Alison Ryan, Himani Chhabra, Mohammed Dungarwalla, Judith Jones
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Background: Impacted and ectopic teeth present in 1-2% of orthodontic patients and often require joint surgical and orthodontic management. The authors present two patients undergoing orthodontic treatment, where the impacted teeth, in a hopeless position, spontaneously erupted during the period of cessation of general anaesthetic lists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient information: A healthy 11-year-old boy was referred to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery for the management of a mesioangular impacted LR7. The patient was seen by the joint oral surgery/orthodontic team, who planned for the removal of the LR7 under general anaesthetic. A healthy 13-year-old boy was referred to the same Department and team for surgical extraction of unerupted and buccally impacted UL3 and UR3 under general anaesthetic. Management and outcome: The majority of elective dental-alveolar work ceased as a result of the global pandemic. On resumption of activity, the first patient was reviewed in July 2021. The LR7 had spontaneously erupted in a favourable position, and following MDT review, a decision was made to forgo any further surgical intervention. The second patient was reviewed in July 2021. The UL3 had clinically erupted, and there was radiographic evidence of favourable movement of UR3. Due to the nature of the patient’s malocclusion, the decision was made to proceed with the extractions as previously planned. Key Learning Points: Severely impacted teeth do have a prospect of spontaneous eruption or alignment without clinical intervention, and current literature states the initial location, axial inclination, degree of root formation, and relation of the impacted tooth to adjacent teeth roots may influence spontaneous eruption. There is potential to introduce a period of observation to account for this possibility in the developing dentition, with the aim of reducing the unnecessary need for surgical intervention. This could help prevent episodes of general anaesthetic and allocate theatre space more appropriately.Keywords: spontaneous eruption, impaction, observation, hopeless position, surgical, orthodontic, change in treatment plan
Procedia PDF Downloads 72552 Optimizing the Use of Google Translate in Translation Teaching: A Case Study at Prince Sultan University
Authors: Saadia Elamin
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The quasi-universal use of smart phones with internet connection available all the time makes it a reflex action for translation undergraduates, once they encounter the least translation problem, to turn to the freely available web resource: Google Translate. Like for other translator resources and aids, the use of Google Translate needs to be moderated in such a way that it contributes to developing translation competence. Here, instead of interfering with students’ learning by providing ready-made solutions which might not always fit into the contexts of use, it can help to consolidate the skills of analysis and transfer which students have already acquired. One way to do so is by training students to adhere to the basic principles of translation work. The most important of these is that analyzing the source text for comprehension comes first and foremost before jumping into the search for target language equivalents. Another basic principle is that certain translator aids and tools can be used for comprehension, while others are to be confined to the phase of re-expressing the meaning into the target language. The present paper reports on the experience of making a measured and reasonable use of Google Translate in translation teaching at Prince Sultan University (PSU), Riyadh. First, it traces the development that has taken place in the field of translation in this age of information technology, be it in translation teaching and translator training, or in the real-world practice of the profession. Second, it describes how, with the aim of reflecting this development onto the way translation is taught, senior students, after being trained on post-editing machine translation output, are authorized to use Google Translate in classwork and assignments. Third, the paper elaborates on the findings of this case study which has demonstrated that Google Translate, if used at the appropriate levels of training, can help to enhance students’ ability to perform different translation tasks. This help extends from the search for terms and expressions, to the tasks of drafting the target text, revising its content and finally editing it. In addition, using Google Translate in this way fosters a reflexive and critical attitude towards web resources in general, maximizing thus the benefit gained from them in preparing students to meet the requirements of the modern translation job market.Keywords: Google Translate, post-editing machine translation output, principles of translation work, translation competence, translation teaching, translator aids and tools
Procedia PDF Downloads 463551 Quality Assessment of SSRU Program in Education
Authors: Rossukhon Makaramani, Supanan Sittilerd, Wipada Prasarnsaph
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The study aimed to 1) examine management status of a Program in Education at the Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU); 2) determine main components, indicators and criteria for constructing quality assessment framework; 3) assess quality of a SSRU Program in Education; and 4) provide recommendations to promote academic excellence. The program to be assessed was Bachelor of Education Program in Education (5 years), Revised Version 2009. Population and samples were stakeholders involving implementation of this program during an academic year 2012. Results were: 1) Management status of the Program in Education showed that the Faculty of Education depicted good level (4.20) in the third cycle of external quality assessment by the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment (ONESQA). There were 1,192 students enrolling in the program, divided into 5 major fields of study. There were 50 faculty members, 37 holding master’s degrees and 13 holding doctorate degrees. Their academic position consisted of 35 lecturers, 10 assistant professors, and 5 associate professors. For program management, there was a committee of 5 members for the program and also a committee of 4 or 5 members for each major field of study. Among the faculty members, 41 persons taught in this program. The ratio between faculty and student was 1:26. The result of 2013 internal quality assessment indicated that system and mechanism of the program development and management was at fair level. However, the overall result yielded good level either by criteria of the Office of Higher Education Commission (4.29) or the NESQA (4.37); 2) Framework for assessing the quality of the program consisted of 4 dimensions and 15 indicators; 3) Assessment of the program yielded Good level of quality (4.04); 4) Recommendations to promote academic excellence included management and development of the program focusing on teacher reform toward highly recognized profession; cultivation of values, moral, ethics, and spirits of being a teacher; construction of specialized programs; development of faculty potentials; enhancement of the demonstration school’s readiness level; and provision of dormitories for learning.Keywords: quality assessment, education program, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, academic excellence
Procedia PDF Downloads 288550 Towards Developing A Rural South African Child Into An Engineering Graduates With Conceptual And Critical Thinking Skills
Authors: Betty Kibirige
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Students entering the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) Science Faculty mostly come with skills that allow them to prepare for exams and pass them in order to satisfy requirements for entry into a tertiary Institution. Some students hail from deep rural schools with limited facilities, while others come from well-resourced schools. Personal experience has shown that it may take a student the whole time at a tertiary institution following the same skills as those acquired in high school as a sure means of entering the next level in their development, namely a postgraduate program. While it is apparent that at this point in human history, it is totally impossible to teach all the possible content in any one subject, many academics approach teaching and learning from the traditional point of view. It therefore became apparent to explore ways of developing a graduate that will be able to approach life with skills that allows them to navigate knowledge by applying conceptual and critical thinking skills. Recently, the Science Faculty at the University of Zululand introduced two Engineering programs. In an endeavour to approach the development of the Engineering graduate in this institution to be able to tackle problem-solving in the present-day excessive information availability, it became necessary to study and review approaches used by various academics in order to settle for a possible best approach to the challenge at hand. This paper focuses on the development of a deep rural child in a graduate with conceptual and critical thinking skills as major attributes possessed upon graduation. For this purpose, various approaches were studied. A combination of these approaches was repackaged to form an approach that may appear novel to UNIZULU and the rural child, especially for the Engineering discipline. The approach was checked by offering quiz questions to students participating in an engineering module, observing test scores in the targeted module and make comparative studies. Test results are discussed in the article. It was concluded that students’ graduate attributes could be tailored subconsciously to indeed include conceptual and critical thinking skills, but through more than one approach depending mainly on the student's high school background.Keywords: graduate attributes, conceptual skills, critical thinking skills, traditional approach
Procedia PDF Downloads 232549 The Impact of Animal-Assisted Pedagogy on Social Participation in Heterogenous Classrooms: A Survey Considering the Pupils Perspective on Animal-Assisted Teaching
Authors: Mona Maria Mombeck
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Social participation in heterogeneous classrooms is one of the main goals in inclusive education. Children with special educational needs (SEN) and children with learning difficulties, or behavioural problems not diagnosed as SEN, are more likely to be excluded by other children than others. It is proven that the presence of dogs, as well as contact with dogs, increases the likelihood of positive social behaviour between humans. Therefore, animal-assisted pedagogy may be presumed to be a constructive way of inclusive teaching and facing the challenges of social inclusion in school classes. This study investigates the presence of a friendly dog in heterogeneous groups of pupils in order to evaluate the influence of dogs on facets of social participation of children in school. 30 German pupils, aged from 10 to 14, in four classes were questioned about their social participation before and after they were educated for a year in school with animal-assisted-pedagogy, using the problem-concerned interview method. In addition, the post-interview includes some general questions about the putative differences or similarities of being educated with and without a dog. The interviews were analysed with the qualitative-content-analysis using QDA software. The results showed that a dog has a positive impact on the atmosphere, student relationships, and well-being in class. Regarding the atmosphere, the pupils mainly argued that the improvement was caused by taking into account the dog’s well-being, respecting the dog-related rules, and by emotional self-regulation. It can be supposed that children regard the rules concerning the dog as more relevant to them than rules, not concerning the dog even if they require the same behaviour and goal. Furthermore, a dog has a positive impact on emotional self-regulation and, therefore, on pupil’s behaviour in class and the atmosphere. In terms of the statements about relationships, the dog’s presence was mainly seen to provide both a unifying aim and a uniting topic to talk about. The improved well-being was described as a feeling of joy and peace of mind. Moreover, the teacher was evaluated as more friendly and trustworthy after animal-assisted teaching. Nevertheless, animal-assisted pedagogy can, rarely, cause problems as well, such as jealousy, distraction, or concerns about the well-being of the dog. The study could prove the relevance of animal-assisted pedagogy for facing the challenges of social participation in inclusive education.Keywords: animal-assisted-pedagogy, inclusive education, human-animal-interactions, social participation
Procedia PDF Downloads 104548 A Normalized Non-Stationary Wavelet Based Analysis Approach for a Computer Assisted Classification of Laryngoscopic High-Speed Video Recordings
Authors: Mona K. Fehling, Jakob Unger, Dietmar J. Hecker, Bernhard Schick, Joerg Lohscheller
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Voice disorders origin from disturbances of the vibration patterns of the two vocal folds located within the human larynx. Consequently, the visual examination of vocal fold vibrations is an integral part within the clinical diagnostic process. For an objective analysis of the vocal fold vibration patterns, the two-dimensional vocal fold dynamics are captured during sustained phonation using an endoscopic high-speed camera. In this work, we present an approach allowing a fully automatic analysis of the high-speed video data including a computerized classification of healthy and pathological voices. The approach bases on a wavelet-based analysis of so-called phonovibrograms (PVG), which are extracted from the high-speed videos and comprise the entire two-dimensional vibration pattern of each vocal fold individually. Using a principal component analysis (PCA) strategy a low-dimensional feature set is computed from each phonovibrogram. From the PCA-space clinically relevant measures can be derived that quantify objectively vibration abnormalities. In the first part of the work it will be shown that, using a machine learning approach, the derived measures are suitable to distinguish automatically between healthy and pathological voices. Within the approach the formation of the PCA-space and consequently the extracted quantitative measures depend on the clinical data, which were used to compute the principle components. Therefore, in the second part of the work we proposed a strategy to achieve a normalization of the PCA-space by registering the PCA-space to a coordinate system using a set of synthetically generated vibration patterns. The results show that owing to the normalization step potential ambiguousness of the parameter space can be eliminated. The normalization further allows a direct comparison of research results, which bases on PCA-spaces obtained from different clinical subjects.Keywords: Wavelet-based analysis, Multiscale product, normalization, computer assisted classification, high-speed laryngoscopy, vocal fold analysis, phonovibrogram
Procedia PDF Downloads 257547 Mathematical Competence as It Is Defined through Learners' Errors in Arithmetic and Algebra
Authors: Michael Lousis
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Mathematical competence is the great aim of every mathematical teaching and learning endeavour. This can be defined as an idealised conceptualisation of the quality of cognition and the ability of implementation in practice of the mathematical subject matter, which is included in the curriculum, and is displayed only through performance of doing mathematics. The present study gives a clear definition of mathematical competence in the domains of Arithmetic and Algebra that stems from the explanation of the learners’ errors in these domains. The learners, whose errors are explained, were Greek and English participants of a large, international, longitudinal, comparative research program entitled the Kassel Project. The participants’ errors emerged as results of their work in dealing with mathematical questions and problems of the tests, which were presented to them. The construction of the tests was such as only the outcomes of the participants’ work was to be encompassed and not their course of thinking, which resulted in these outcomes. The intention was that the tests had to provide undeviating comparable results and simultaneously avoid any probable bias. Any bias could stem from obtaining results by involving so many markers from different countries and cultures, with so many different belief systems concerning the assessment of learners’ course of thinking. In this way the validity of the research was protected. This fact forced the implementation of specific research methods and theoretical prospects to take place in order the participants’ erroneous way of thinking to be disclosed. These were Methodological Pragmatism, Symbolic Interactionism, Philosophy of Mind and the ideas of Computationalism, which were used for deciding and establishing the grounds of the adequacy and legitimacy of the obtained kinds of knowledge through the explanations given by the error analysis. The employment of this methodology and of these theoretical prospects resulted in the definition of the learners’ mathematical competence, which is the thesis of the present study. Thus, learners’ mathematical competence is depending upon three key elements that should be developed in their minds: appropriate representations, appropriate meaning, and appropriate developed schemata. This definition then determined the development of appropriate teaching practices and interventions conducive to the achievement and finally the entailment of mathematical competence.Keywords: representations, meaning, appropriate developed schemata, computationalism, error analysis, explanations for the probable causes of the errors, Kassel Project, mathematical competence
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