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Kurdziolek, Margaret Angela. "Classroom resources and impact on learning." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28687.
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In the past, educators and policy makers believed that by providing more resources they could directly improve student-learning outcomes. To their frustration, this turns out not to be entirely true. Resources may be necessary but they are not sufficient. Resources themselves are not self-enacting, that is, they do not make change inevitable. Differences in their effects depend on differences in their use. This is also true in the case of educational technologies. As developers of these technologies we need to understand how resources fit within the classroom environment as enacted and how they can be effectively used to increase student learning.
I report on four case studies conducted within the context of the Scaling-Up SimCalc study. In the study, â treatmentâ teachers were given a set of new resources to use: a combination of curriculum, educational software, and teacher professional development. â Delayed treatmentâ (control) teachers were asked to use their usual curriculum. Year-one study results demonstrated by randomized controlled testing the successful use of technology in class settings; however, there was little information on how the students and teachers actually interacted with the resources.
Case study classrooms were selected to examine the effects of variation of computational resource arrangements: one utilized a computer lab, two used mobile laptop carts, and one used a laptop connected to a projector. The first round coding and analysis shows that the observed classrooms varied not only in their classroom set-ups but also in how teachers and students interacted with the software, the workbooks, and with one another. The variety of resource interaction points to the robustness of the SimCalc project: students and teachers can interact with the SimCalc resources in a variety of ways and still achieve student-learning gains. However, through subsequent review and analysis of the observation data five themes emerged. These themes suggest commonalities in classrooms practices surrounding the use of resources. Two new theoretical constructs, â socio-physical resource richnessâ and â resource use withitnessâ , help describe (1) physical and social arrangements of resources and (2) how teachers and students manage resource use.Ph. D.
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Jolliffe, Wendy. "The implementation of cooperative learning : a case study of cooperative learning in a networked learning community." Thesis, University of Hull, 2010. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:4453.
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This thesis presents a case study of the implementation of cooperative learning in a networked learning community of two secondary schools and eight primary schools in the north of England. How this came about in a context of national educational prescription, in which cooperative learning has played little part, has driven this research. Before examining this further, however, it is important to clarify what is meant by cooperative learning. Based on this, the rationale for the research will be presented, together with the research questions. The chapter will conclude with an overview of the structure of the thesis.
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Panayiotou, Christiana. "Viewpoint discrepancies in ontological learning resources." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.531607.
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R, Wilson Andrew. "Teacher educators and learning styles in the learning and skills sector." Thesis, University of Hull, 2015. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:14099.
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The aims of this thesis were to describe the use of learning styles within the Learning and Skills sector; to investigate the reproduction of the conceptual confusion by teacher educators, to critically analyse the underpinning evidence in the learning styles debate and identify the reasons for the promotion of learning styles. The central research question investigated the extent to which teacher educators within the sector were aware of the debate around learning styles. The sub questions uncovered the beliefs of teacher educators towards learning styles and the rationales they used to justify their use. A critical realist ontology was paired with a social constructionist epistemology and a qualitative design was applied. The chosen methodology was the in-depth, semi structured qualitative interview with a grounded theory approach to the data analysis. Sixteen respondents were recruited by theoretical sampling with nine of them being identified as ‘supporters’ of learning styles and six of them as ‘detractors’. The interviews took place outside of the interviewee’s place of work and all relevant ethical guidelines were followed. The conversations were digitally taped and transcribed using a denaturalised strategy. The transcripts were coded using QSR NVivo and six major themes emerged. Two were In vitro themes ‘Knowledge and Use of VAK’ and ‘Conceptual Confusion’. The rest were in vivo themes, ‘Beliefs About Stereotyping’, ‘The Ofsted Hypothesis’,’ The Learning Styles Debate’ and ‘Enthusiastic Socialisation’. The analysis of the themes provided a number of elements of interest and relevance. It was found that the VAK approach was not the most popular inventory used within the sector. That the conceptual confusion recorded in the literature, concerning learning styles, was reproduced almost identically amongst the supporters’ beliefs. Both supporters and detractors believed that learning style diagnosis was unlikely to lead to the stereotyping of student approaches to learning. The belief that Ofsted supported and rewarded the use of learning styles’ practice at inspection was influential amongst both groups. The supporters tended to suppress and distort the implications of the debate surrounding learning styles; they were shown to be less willing to present the debate as a part of their teaching practice when compared to the detractors. The analysis also showed that supporters were more likely to experience an enthusiastic introduction to learning styles. This analysis provided answers for all of the research questions as it highlighted that all of the interviewees were all cognizant of the styles’ debate. The beliefs of the supporters and detractors alike regarding learning styles were compared and contrasted and their rationales and justifications were highlighted. The grounded theories that emerged from the analysis offered a number of strands of new knowledge. The most important new knowledge to emerge regarded the role of initial teacher training and/or colleagues in providing an enthusiastic socialisation into learning styles theory and practice. If such an introduction occurs it can facilitate a confirmation bias that leads to a robust and positive belief system that rejects modifies or ignores contentious research evidence. The supporters of learning styles exhibited a reliance on personal opinion and experience in preference to empirical evidence as a result of the bias. Recommendations were proffered to modify the practice of teacher educators to ensure that the debate around learning styles was presented accurately. Directions for future research were described.
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George, Susan B. "Music and learning resources : a natural combination /." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape7/PQDD_0033/MQ47451.pdf.
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Kubilinskienė, Svetlana. "Extended metadata model for digital learning resources." Doctoral thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2012. http://vddb.laba.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2012~D_20120402_093822-17816.
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The key aim of using information technology (IT) in learning is to increase the learning quality and efficiency, to facilitate a learner’s and a teacher’s work. We can distinguish two main directions of IT application in training: (1) if applying IT we strive to improve the traditional methods; (2) if new methods are developed that are applicable only if IT is used. In both cases, sharing the good experience of teachers and mastering of the learning methods are of great importance. The research work is meant for solving the problems of using methodological resources and learning methods, which arise due to insufficiency of information in the metadata repositories of learning object (LO). The main models of LO metadata standards, used to describe digital learning resources in a formal way, have been analyzed and compared. Scientific and practical principles for applied model design of LO metadata standards have been explored. The content LO developing models that ensure LO compatibility have been considered. The empirical research performed enabled us to determine a further trend of research and influenced the creation of an extended LO metadata applied model. The design process of a metadata applied model consists of the following phases: 1) determination of sets of metadata elements that describe methodological resources and learning method objects, 2) composition of controlled vocabularies, aimed at description of metadata elements, with a view to ensure the compatibility... [to full text]Pagrindinis informacinių technologijų (IT) naudojimo mokymuisi tikslas – didinti mokymosi kokybę ir efektyvumą, lengvinti besimokančiojo ir mokytojo darbą. Galima išskirti dvi IT taikymo ugdymui kryptis: 1) kai naudojant IT siekiama gerinti tradicinius metodus 2) kai sukuriami nauji metodai, kuriuos taikyti įmanoma tik naudojant IT. Abiem atvejais svarbus mokytojų gerosios patirties dalijimasis, mokymosi metodų įvaldymas. Disertacinis darbas skirtas metodinių išteklių ir mokymosi metodų naudojimo problemoms, kylančioms dėl informacijos nepakankamumo mokymosi objektų (MO) metaduomenų saugyklose, spręsti. Išanalizuoti ir palyginti pagrindiniai MO metaduomenų standartų modeliai, naudojami skaitmeniniams mokymosi ištekliams formaliuoju būdu aprašyti. Ištirti MO metaduomenų standartų taikymo modelių sudarymo moksliniai ir praktiniai principai. Išanalizuoti turinio MO kūrimo modeliai, kurie užtikrina MO suderinamumą. Atliktas empirinis tyrimas leido nustatyti tolesnę tyrimo kryptį ir turėjo įtakos išplėsto MO metaduomenų taikomojo modelio kūrimui. Metaduomenų taikomojo modelio projektavimo procesą sudaro šie etapai: 1) metodinių išteklių ir mokymosi metodų objektų aprašančių metaduomenų elementų aibių išskyrimas; 2) valdomųjų žodynų, skirtų metaduomenų elementams aprašyti, formavimas siekiant užtikrinti metaduomenų suderinamumą; 3) metodinių išteklių ir mokymosi metodų objektų aprašančių metaduomenų lyginamoji analizė; 4) išplėsto MO metaduomenų modelio išbaigimas ir diegimas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
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Dagenais, Barthélémy. "Analysis and recommendations for developer learning resources." Thesis, McGill University, 2012. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=110512.
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Developer documentation helps developers learn frameworks and libraries, yet developing and maintaining accurate documentation require considerable effort and resources. Contributors who work on developer documentation need to at least take into account the project's code and the support needs of users. Although related, the documentation, the code, and the support needs evolve and are not always synchronized: for example, new features in the code are not always documented and questions repeatedly asked by users on support channels such as mailing lists may not be addressed by the documentation. Our thesis is that by studying how the relationships between documentation, code, and users' support needs are created and maintained, we can identify documentation improvements and automatically recommend some of these improvements to contributors. In this dissertation, we (1) studied the perspective of documentation contributors by interviewing open source contributors and users, (2) developed a technique that automatically generates the model of documentation, code, and users' support needs, (3) devised a technique that recovers fine-grained traceability links between the learning resources and the code, (4) investigated strategies to infer high-level documentation structures based on the traceability links, and (5) devised a recommendation system that uses the traceability links and the high-level documentation structures to suggest adaptive changes to the documentation when the underlying code evolves.La documentation pour les développeurs aide ces derniers à apprendre à utiliser des bibliothèques de fonctions et des cadres d'applications. Pourtant, créer et maintenir cette documentation requiert des efforts et des ressources considérables. Les contributeurs qui travaillent sur la documentation pour les développeurs doivent tenir compte de l'évolution du code et des besoins potentiels des utilisateurs de la documentation. Même s'ils sont reliés, la documentation, le code et les besoins des utilisateurs ne sont pas toujours synchronisés: par exemple, les nouvelles fonctionnalités ajoutées au code ne sont pas toujours documentées et la documentation n'apporte pas nécessairement de réponse aux questions posées à répétition sur des forums de discussion. Notre thèse est qu'en étudiant comment les relations entre la documentation, le code, et les besoins des utilisateurs sont crées et maintenues, nous pouvons identifier des possibilités d'améliorations à la documentation et automatiquement recommander certaines de ces améliorations aux contributeurs de documentation. Dans cette dissertation, nous avons (1) étudié la perspective des contributeurs de documentation en interviewant des contributeurs de projets en code source libre, (2) développé une technique qui génère automatique un modèle de la documentation, du code, et des questions des utilisateurs, (3) développé une technique qui recouvre les liens de traçabilité entre les ressources d'apprentissage et le code, (4) examiné des stratégies pour inférer des structures abstraites de documentation à partir des liens de traçabilité et (5) développé un système de recommandation qui utilise les liens de traçabilités et les structures abstraites de documentation pour suggérer des changements adaptatifs quand le code sous-jacent évolue.
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Ford, William. "Online Learning in Biology: An Investigation into Designing Online Learning Resources." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3330.
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As technology continues to advance, many instructors are incorporating online activities into their courses. While online learning has several benefits, there is still debate on how instructors can best develop and utilize these resources in their classroom. This study is split into two smaller projects that both aim to provide further insights on how to develop online activities that target undergraduate biology students. The first project revealed that elaborative feedback in a phylogenetic activity was more useful for students who had some exposure to phylogenetics prior to completing the activity. The results of the second project revealed that the appearance of two simulations’ user interfaces does not have a significant effect on learning outcomes. However, many students responded that these simulations did increase their understanding of the concepts, indicating simulations can play an important role in the biology classroom.
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Costello, Robert. "Adaptive intelligent personalised learning (AIPL) environment." Thesis, University of Hull, 2012. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:6251.
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As individuals the ideal learning scenario would be a learning environment tailored just for how we like to learn, personalised to our requirements. This has previously been almost inconceivable given the complexities of learning, the constraints within the environments in which we teach, and the need for global repositories of knowledge to facilitate this process. Whilst it is still not necessarily achievable in its full sense this research project represents a path towards this ideal. In this thesis, findings from research into the development of a model (the Adaptive Intelligent Personalised Learning (AIPL)), the creation of a prototype implementation of a system designed around this model (the AIPL environment) and the construction of a suite of intelligent algorithms (Personalised Adaptive Filtering System (PAFS)) for personalised learning are presented and evaluated. A mixed methods approach is used in the evaluation of the AIPL environment. The AIPL model is built on the premise of an ideal system being one which does not just consider the individual but also considers groupings of likeminded individuals and their power to influence learner choice. The results show that: (1) There is a positive correlation for using group-learning-paradigms. (2) Using personalisation as a learning aid can help to facilitate individual learning and encourage learning on-line. (3) Using learning styles as a way of identifying and categorising the individuals can improve their on-line learning experience. (4) Using Adaptive Information Retrieval techniques linked to group-learning-paradigms can reduce and improve the problem of mis-matching. A number of approaches for further work to extend and expand upon the work presented are highlighted at the end of the Thesis.
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Bradley, Jennifer. "Facilitating choice for people with learning disabilities." Thesis, University of Hull, 2010. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5792.
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Background: Choice constitutes a core element of the human experience. To deny this right can be seen as a denial of basic human rights and yet for people with learning disabilities this has often been a reality. Some argue that choice is different for people with learning disabilities for a variety of intellectually based reasons. The effect of choice on people with learning disabilities therefore is an important area of concern for researchers to establish the underlying meaning and drivers for increasing choice for this group of people. Method: A systematic literature review was conducted to bring together studies examining the effects of choice for people with learning disabilities. The review utilised three databases and selected reference lists to find relevant articles and these were brought together in a summary of findings. Results: Studies focused heavily on task behaviours and challenging behaviours and whether and how this would be altered by introducing elements of choice or preference. A large majority of studies demonstrated that the main basis for the improvement of tasks and behaviours was the introduction of preferred stimuli rather than the being able to actively choose between stimuli. Other studies demonstrated that choice has a positive effect on mood, quality of life and motivation during a self care exercise.
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Henze, Nicola. "Adaptive hyperbooks: adaptation for project-based learning resources." [S.l. : s.n.], 2000. http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=959579044.
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Albuhairi, Saeed Saleh A. "Preliminary factors necessary for effective implementation of cooperative learning, and their prevalence in cooperative learning practice in Saudi Arabia." Thesis, University of Hull, 2015. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:12431.
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For a number of years, educationalists in Saudi Arabia have criticized the education system, blaming outdated teaching methods for unsatisfactory pupil outcomes. Government rhetoric on education reform advocates a move to new approaches, particularly cooperative learning (CL), yet implementation is reportedly still low. Previous research by the current author, and personal experience suggest that a potential reason for this lack of implementation is that students and teachers are not ready in a variety of ways to engage with cooperative learning. This study, therefore, explores the necessary preliminary factors for effective implementation of cooperative learning, their prevalence in Saudi Arabia, and the challenges and facilitating factors influencing their development. A mixed method, two-phase research design was adopted. In Phase One (quantitative), all boys’ primary school Arabic language teachers (n=79) in Alaurthiah Ashamaliah region were surveyed regarding their understanding and practice of CL. In Phase Two (qualitative), pre-lesson, post-lesson and general interviews were conducted with seven CL-implementing teachers, one lesson by each of the seven observed using an observation checklist, and a video-recording of each observed lesson discussed with the teacher concerned. The findings revealed generally low understanding and prevalence of CL overall, and of the preliminary factors identified from CL literature (positive interdependence, individual and group accountability, promotive interaction, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing). A complex interplay of macro- and micro-level factors were found to constrain CL, including the centralized, hierarchical education system, an overloaded curriculum, limited regional infrastructure, lack of resources and educational aids and, above all, insufficient quantity and inadequate quality of teacher training for CL. Nevertheless, the cooperative values of Islam, collectivist social traditions and government interest in education reform are potentially facilitative. Recommendations are offered for the Ministry of Education, training providers and teachers, for ways to promote, develop and enhance CL practice in Saudi schools.
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Alexander, Tim. "Cue competition between shapes in human spatial learning." Thesis, University of Hull, 2009. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:2175.
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In many species, including humans the basic ability to move to a goal is essential to survival. Central to understanding how this ability operates in the cognitive systems of humans and other animals is whether learning about spatial relationships follows the same principles as learning about other kinds of contingent relationships between events. In non-spatial contingent relationships, learning about one stimulus can influence learning about other stimuli. For example, in blocking, learning that cue-A predicts an outcome can reduce learning about a subsequently added cue-B that is paired with cue-A when both cues predict the same outcome (Kamin, 1969). To the extent that spatial learning operates according to similar principles to other forms of contingency learning, spatial cues that can be used to locate a goal should also compete with each other. Failure to find blocking between spatial cues that can be used to locate a goal would be consistent with an alternative account of how spatial knowledge is acquired and used: one that assumes a quite different learning mechanism. For example, the hypothesis of locale learning assumes that a cognitive map of the environmental layout is automatically updated when cues are added or removed from the environment (O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978). Automatic updating implies that added or removed cues will be processed irrespective of what is learned about other cues, rather than competing with or otherwise interacting with those other cues. A second, related, hypothesis is that the geometric properties of the environment are processed in an independent module that is impervious to cue competition from non-geometric features (Cheng, 1986; Gallistel, 1990). This hypothesis implies that geometric cues within the module are also immune to competition from each other. In the current experiments, evidence for blocking of goal location learning was investigated in virtual environments (VEs) in which the presence or absence of large-scale structures can be manipulated. Experiment 1 found that an irregular-shaped flat-walled enclosure blocked learning about a landmark subsequently placed within its boundaries, providing preliminary evidence that shape may not be processed in a specialised module. However, many participants appeared not to be using shape to locate the goal. In the remaining experiments, spatial cues were large-scale 2D shapes presented on the ground which ensured that participants perceived overall shape. Experiments 2 and 3 found no evidence of blocking between shapes when these stimuli were presented in the context of minimal "auxiliary" cues. When additional auxiliary stimuli were presented throughout learning in Experiment 4, a direction consistent with blocking was found, but the effect was not statistically significant. In Experiments 5 and 6 a clear blocking effect was found under circumstances that suggested that the critical variable to finding blocking was the number of irrelevant shapes present either during training or at test. Experiment 7 confirmed that, rather than the test conditions, the presence or absence of stimuli during one or both training phases was the crucial variable in promoting blocking. Experiment 8 investigated the hypothesis that an initial process of learning to ignore irrelevant shapes in phase 1 is a requirement for blocking of learning. In the absence of auxiliary cues in phase 1, blocking was not found. The implications of these outcomes are discussed in relation to the hypothesis of specialised geometric processing, changes in attention, and the conditions of discrimination learning.
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Walker, Reginald John. "Social auditing as social learning : a theoretical reconstruction." Thesis, University of Hull, 2007. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:7958.
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Wood, Dawn Helaine. "Personality representation : predicting behaviour for personalised learning support." Thesis, University of Hull, 2010. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:6862.
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The need for personalised support systems comes from the growing number of students that are being supported within institutions with shrinking resources. Over the last decade the use of computers and the Internet within education has become more predominant. This opens up a range of possibilities in regard to spreading that resource further and more effectively. Previous attempts to create automated systems such as intelligent tutoring systems and learning companions have been criticised for being pedagogically ineffective and relying on large knowledge sources which restrict their domain of application. More recent work on adaptive hypermedia has resolved some of these issues but has been criticised for the lack of support scope, focusing on learning paths and alternative content presentation. The student model used within these systems is also of limited scope and often based on learning history or learning styles. This research examines the potential of using a personality theory as the basis for a personalisation mechanism within an educational support system. The automated support system is designed to utilise a personality based profile to predict student behaviour. This prediction is then used to select the most appropriate feedback from a selection of reflective hints for students performing lab based programming activities. The rationale for the use of personality is simply that this is the concept psychologists use for identifying individual differences and similarities which are expressed in everyday behaviour. Therefore the research has investigated how these characteristics can be modelled in order to provide a fundamental understanding of the student user and thus be able to provide tailored support. As personality is used to describe individuals across many situations and behaviours, the use of such at the core of a personalisation mechanism may overcome the issues of scope experienced by previous methods. This research poses the following question: can a representation of personality be used to predict behaviour within a software system, in such a way, as to be able to personalise support? Putting forward the central claim that it is feasible to capture and represent personality within a software system for the purpose of personalising services. The research uses a mixed methods approach including a number and combination of quantitative and qualitative methods for both investigation and determining the feasibility of this approach. The main contribution of the thesis has been the development of a set of profiling models from psychological theories, which account for both individual differences and group similarities, as a means of personalising services. These are then applied to the development of a prototype system which utilises a personality based profile. The evidence from the evaluation of the developed prototype system has demonstrated an ability to predict student behaviour with limited success and personalise support. The limitations of the evaluation study and implementation difficulties suggest that the approach taken in this research is not feasible. Further research and exploration is required –particularly in the application to a subject area outside that of programming.
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Nganji, Julius Tanyu. "Ontology-based personalisation of e-learning resources for disabled students." Thesis, University of Hull, 2015. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:13604.
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Students with disabilities are often expected to use e-learning systems to access learning materials but most systems do not provide appropriate adaptation or personalisation to meet their needs. The difficulties related to inadaptability of current learning environments can now be resolved using semantic web technologies such as web ontologies which have been successfully used to drive e-learning personalisation. Nevertheless, e-learning personalisation for students with disabilities has mainly targeted those with single disabilities such as dyslexia or visual impairment, often neglecting those with multiple disabilities due to the difficulty of designing for a combination of disabilities. This thesis argues that it is possible to personalise learning materials for learners with disabilities, including those with multiple disabilities. This is achieved by developing a model that allows the learning environment to present the student with learning materials in suitable formats while considering their disability and learning needs through an ontology-driven and disability-aware personalised e-learning system model (ONTODAPS). A disability ontology known as the Abilities and Disabilities Ontology for Online LEarning and Services (ADOOLES) is developed and used to drive this model. To test the above hypothesis, some case studies are employed to show how the model functions for various individuals with and without disabilities and then the implemented visual interface is experimentally evaluated by eighteen students with disabilities and heuristically by ten lecturers. The results are collected and statistically analysed. The results obtained confirm the above hypothesis and suggest that ONTODAPS can be effectively employed to personalise learning and to manage learning resources. The student participants found that ONTODAPS could aid their learning experience and all agreed that they would like to use this functionality in an existing learning environment. The results also suggest that ONTODAPS provides a platform where students with disabilities can have equivalent learning experience with their peers without disabilities. For the results to be generalised, this study could be extended through further experiments with more diverse groups of students with disabilities and across multiple educational institutions.
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Birks, Gloria Dawn. "Every voice matters : developing learning through collaborative observation within the collegial and dialogic culture of a learning organisation in the primary school." Thesis, University of Hull, 2013. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:7164.
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This thesis argues that the voices of both pupils and teachers must be heard to maximise classroom learning, and that including pupils in lesson observations is a useful mechanism to support listening to all voices and promote learning when it is part of a learning organisation culture. The research reported here contributes to a wider understanding of listening to pupil voice through its exploration of the experiences of both pupils and teachers in a primary school where pupils are involved in collaborative lesson observations alongside teachers. The research also questions how involving pupils in such lesson observations contributes to classroom learning. Data were collected in one case study primary school through individual interviews with teachers, focus group interviews with pupils, a lesson observation and documentary analysis. Drawing on evidence generated from the research and theoretical assumptions from the literature review, the research concludes that a developmental, coaching style lesson observation in which a pupil is involved is a mechanism that has the potential to develop learning as a shared responsibility. This is because it places pupil and teacher voice in the same arena, one that has traditionally been the province of teacher voice, and also because the classroom is an arena that is focused on learning: pupils’ academic learning and teachers’ pedagogical learning. The collegial learning organisation culture, with its emphasis on supportive, non-judgemental practice, enables all voices to be heard through dialogue and this leads to mutual understanding. Collaborative observation within this culture develops pedagogy and pupils’ engagement with learning at both individual and organisational level, enabling participants to experience both risk and stability at the same time so that learning becomes a shared responsibility.
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Carter, Pelham. "Interactions between sources of alignment in human spatial learning." Thesis, University of Hull, 2012. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:6230.
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Without the ability to learn about the world around us, and the relative location of objects within it, we would be unable to make our way from one location or goal to another. This ability to learn spatially and navigate is essential and therefore so is understanding how this is achieved. Traditionally there has been a split between the theory behind how we learn about temporal and spatial relationships. Since Tolman (1948) the generally accepted theory of human spatial learning is that a cognitive map, a mental representation, is developed as an environment is explored. This map is then automatically updated when new information is presented (O’Keefe & Nadel, 1987). Temporal learning however has been considered to be governed traditional associative principles (Thorndike, 1911; Pavlov, 1927), and later discrepancy learning (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972). A particular effect considered to be confined to temporal learning is that of cue-competition, where learning about one cue, or source of information, can compete with learning about another cue such as blocking (Kamin, 1969) or overshadowing (Pavlov, 1927). In a blocking design learning about the relationship between A and X can block later learning about a possible relationship between B and X. In overshadowing only one cue (A or B) is learnt about in relation to X when both are presented at the same time. The lack of competition effects in spatial learning was considered evidence for differing mechanisms for spatial and temporal learning, and whilst recent evidence has been found that suggests blocking can be found in human spatial learning (Alexander, Wilson & Wilson, 2009; Wilson & Alexander, 2008) most such examples utilise goal directed spatial search tasks. These are vulnerable to the criticisms of Mackintosh (2002) as they may not reflect 16 true spatial learning due to still having potential non-spatial solutions. Therefore it remains to be seen whether competition effects can be found when using unequivocal spatial measures. One area of investigation free of non-spatial explanations is that of spatial alignment effects. Spatial alignment effects refer to more efficient recall about an environment and the objects within it from an imagined perspective aligned with a particular source of information. One particular type is the First Perspective Alignment Effect (FPA) where recall from a perspective that is aligned with the very first perspective experienced is more efficient than others. Such effects are revealed through judgement of relative direction tasks which require the use and application of vectorial learning and measure orientation dependence. Spatial alignment effects and cue-competition were investigated in the following Virtual Environment (VE) experiments. Experiments 1, 2a, 2b and 2c investigated factors that could influence the presence of the FPA effect. Experiment 1 found that the FPA effect was present regardless of the level of detail in a VE, or type of VE (Indoor or Outdoor) experienced. Experiment 2a, 2b and 2c found that pre-exposure to a VE before training could attenuate the FPA effect, but only if the pre-exposure was relevant. Experiments 3 to 7 investigated whether evidence for competition effects could be found. Both Experiments 3 and 4, using an object array design and human movement respectively, were unable to provide the required alignment effects in isolation. Therefore no evidence for competition effects was forthcoming. Experiments 5 utilised an overshadowing design to see if competition could be found between the first-perspective and symbolic sources of information. No evidence of overshadowing was found but symbolic information was established as a potential source of spatial alignment. Experiments 6 and 7 used a blocking design to again look at competition between the first-perspective and the symbolic. Evidence was found for blocking; when the first-perspective was trained first it blocked subsequent learning about the symbolic. Experiments 6 and 7 therefore provide important evidence of competition effects in the spatial domain, free from alternative associative explanations. This is a key finding as it suggests a similar learning mechanism between temporal and spatial learning despite the differences in knowledge structure. The results are discussed further in relation to the salience hypothesis of Wilson, Wilson, Griffiths and Fox (2007), the quasi-modular explanation of spatial learning (Jeffery. 2010), the universalist account (Pearce, 2009) and associative learning mechanisms (Rescorla & Wagner, 1972; Mackintosh, 1975).
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Owen, Zachary Davis. "Revenue management and learning in systems of reusable resources." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119283.
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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2018.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-186).
Many problems in revenue management and operations management more generally can be framed as problems of resource allocation. This thesis focuses on developing policies and guarantees for resource allocation problems with reusable resources and on learning models for personalized resource allocation. First, we address the problem of pricing and assortment optimization for reusable resources under time-homogeneous demand. We demonstrate that a simple randomized policy achieves at least one half of the optimal revenue in both the pricing and assortment settings. Further, when prices are fixed a priori, we develop a method to compute the optimal randomized state-independent assortment policy. The performance of our policies is evaluated in numerical experiments based on arrival rate and parking time data from a municipal parking system. Though our algorithms perform well, our computational results suggest that dynamic pricing strategies are of limited value in the face of a consistent demand stream. Motivated in part by the computational results of the previous section, in the second section, we consider the problem of pricing and assortment optimization for reusable resource under time-varying demand. We develop a time-discretization strategy that yields a constant-factor performance guarantee relative to the optimal policy continuous-time policy. Additionally, we develop heuristic methods that implement a bid-price strategy between available resources based on pre-computed statistics that is computable in real-time. These methods effectively account for the future value of resources that in turn depend on the future patterns of demand. We validate our methods on arrival patterns derived from real arrival rate patterns in a parking context. In the third part, we consider the problem of learning contextual pricing policies more generally. We propose a framework for making personalized pricing decisions based on a multinomial logit model with features based on both customer attributes, item attributes, and their interactions. We demonstrate that our modeling procedure is coherent and in the well specified setting we demonstrate finite sample bounds on the performance of our strategy based on the size of the training data.
by Zachary Davis Owen.
Ph. D.
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Babenko, Olena. "Visualization as an intermediate link: learning resources and outcomes." Thesis, Київський національний університет технологій та дизайну, 2021. https://er.knutd.edu.ua/handle/123456789/18213.
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Rowell, Janet L. "Student Perceptions: Teaching and Learning with Open Educational Resources." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2015. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2545.
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The purpose of this study was to analyze factors that may contribute to student perceptions of courses using Open Educational Resources (OER). Specifically, the 6 independent variables tested were the course discipline, age, gender, course delivery mode, enrollment status, and number of credit hours taken. The dependent variables were measured as mean scores of 6 OER perception dimensions: motivation to learn, quality of learning experience, value of OER, cognitive learning, affective learning, and course quality. A 27-item online survey was administered to gather data from students enrolled in a course that used OER in the fall semester, 2014. There was a 23% response rate with 80 completed surveys.
Independent-samples t tests were used to determine if significant differences existed between 5 of the 6 independent variables (the number of credit hours taken was tested using a different method) and each OER perception dimension mean. A Pearson product-moment correlation was used to determine whether there were significant relationships among the 6 dependent OER perception dimension means and the number of credit hours taken. The level of significance used was < .05.
The findings of the independent-samples t tests revealed that there were no significant differences between the independent variables and the 6 OER perception dimension means. The motivation to learn perception mean was highest at 3.97 on a 5-point Likert-type scale; the value of OER had the lowest perception dimension mean of 3.37. The Pearson product-moment correlation determined that there was a significant weak negative relationship between the number of credit hours taken and the level of perceived cognitive learning dimension. All other correlations were found to have no significant relationships.
It can be concluded from the findings of the study that students are highly motivated to learn. From the perception rating of 3.37 for the value of OER, it can be concluded that student perceptions of the value of OER are slightly positive. It can also be concluded that as the number of credit hours in which a student is enrolled increases they have a lower perception of their level of cognitive learning.
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Scholl, Philipp [Verfasser], Ralf [Akademischer Betreuer] Steinmetz, and Wolfgang [Akademischer Betreuer] Effelsberg. "Semantic and Structural Analysis of Web–based Learning Resources - Supporting Self–directed Resource–based Learning / Philipp Scholl. Betreuer: Ralf Steinmetz ; Wolfgang Effelsberg." Darmstadt : Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt, 2011. http://d-nb.info/1105562719/34.
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Horrocks, Andrew John. "Food-sector SMEs and the environment : knowledge, learning and regulation." Thesis, University of Hull, 2005. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:16063.
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Nuraihan, Mat Daud Jeffery Logan. "Problems in the implementation of computer assisted language learning in Malaysia." Thesis, University of Hull, 1994. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:3956.
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The aim of the research was to study an attempt to integrate Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) into the curriculum of institutions within Malaysia. The study was based on the premise that the quality and quantity of computer usage in the classroom is influenced by the teachers' readiness to use the device. Based on the findings suggestions are made for possible solutions to some of the recurring problems. The findings have implications for both pre- and inservice teacher training. The rationale for research is laid out in Chapter One whilst Chapter Two gives the background to the study. The review of literature is given in Chapter Three. Chapter Four argues for the use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in this research work. The findings made in the first three phases of the study which were largely based on qualitative approach are discussed in Chapter Five. The large-scale questionnaire survey which was carried out in phase four is presented in Chapter Six. The findings are discussed in relation to studies identified in the literature review in Chapter Seven. The implications of the findings for teacher training are discussed in Chapter Eight. The thesis concludes by identifying important follow-up studies.Teachers in the study were not sure how computers could be integrated into their curriculum. Attitudes to CALL had a positive relation with the use of computers for administrative tasks. The training programme conducted by the Ministry of Education was found to have a positive impact on their attitudes. Teachers who were sent for training had a more positive attitude than those who volunteered. Those who took the initiative to learn were found to have a more positive attitude and a higher expectation of computers than the others in the study. Teachers' attitude to and perception of CALL were found to be dependent on their qualification and teaching institution. Generally higher qualifications and teaching level were associated with more negative attitudes and perceptions. Anxiety was higher among teachers with a lower level of computer proficiency, and among University teachers.
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Берест, Олег Борисович, Олег Борисович Берест, and Oleh Borysovych Berest. "Modern technologies for learning content creation." Thesis, Сумський державний університет, 2012. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/29464.
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One of the teacher’s main task is to make his subject as more creative as it can be possible for students to interest them in it. There are many ways to make your lesson more cognitive and useful (for instance, usage of free open educational resources), but nowadays visual interactive learning tools become more popular and popular. And the problem is where to find or how to create necessary staff for you.
When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/29464
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Кузіков, Борис Олегович, Борис Олегович Кузиков, and Borys Olehovych Kuzikov. "Алгоритм функціонування google wave-робота для організації e-learning." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2009. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/7278.
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FRESCHI, Sergio. "A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Reuse of Open Learning Resources." University of Sydney, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/3937.
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Master of Engineering (Research)Educational standards are having a significant impact on e-Learning. They allow for better exchange of information among different organizations and institutions. They simplify reusing and repurposing learning materials. They give teachers the possibility of personalizing them according to the student’s background and learning speed. Thanks to these standards, off-the-shelf content can be adapted to a particular student cohort’s context and learning needs. The same course content can be presented in different languages. Overall, all the parties involved in the learning-teaching process (students, teachers and institutions) can benefit from these standards and so online education can be improved. To materialize the benefits of standards, learning resources should be structured according to these standards. Unfortunately, there is the problem that a large number of existing e-Learning materials lack the intrinsic logical structure required, and further, when they have the structure, they are not encoded as required. These problems make it virtually impossible to share these materials. This thesis addresses the following research question: How to make the best use of existing open learning resources available on the Internet by taking advantage of educational standards and specifications and thus improving content reusability?In order to answer this question, I combine different technologies, techniques and standards that make the sharing of publicly available learning resources possible in innovative ways. I developed and implemented a three-stage tool to tackle the above problem. By applying information extraction techniques and open e-Learning standards to legacy learning resources the tool has proven to improve content reusability. In so doing, it contributes to the understanding of how these technologies can be used in real scenarios and shows how online education can benefit from them. In particular, three main components were created which enable the conversion process from unstructured educational content into a standard compliant form in a systematic and automatic way. An increasing number of repositories with educational resources are available, including Wikiversity and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology OpenCourseware. Wikivesity is an open repository containing over 6,000 learning resources in several disciplines and for all age groups [1]. I used the OpenCourseWare repository to evaluate the effectiveness of my software components and ideas. The results show that it is possible to create standard compliant learning objects from the publicly available web pages, improving their searchability, interoperability and reusability.
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Dalgarno, Barney, and n/a. "Developing constructivist computer assisted learning resources : theory, techniques and tools." University of Canberra. Computing, 1999. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20060704.114538.
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Accepted teaching and learning practices have undergone major changes during the past two
decades. They have been underpinned by shifts in psychological and pedagogical theory, the
most recent of which fit broadly under the heading of constructivism. During this time, there
have also been significant changes in the development of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL)
resources. These changes have tended to be driven by technological developments, such as
the availability of desktop computers with multimedia capabilities, and more recently the
increasing prominence of the Internet, rather than developments in teaching and learning
theory.
The aim of this research is to analyse the implications of a constructivist view of teaching and
learning for the development of CAL resources. Specifically, the research attempts to describe
the nature of constructivist CAL resources, before proposing a model for the development of
such resources. The capabilities of existing tools for the development of constructivist CAL
resources are also analysed.
In looking at the nature of constructivist CAL resources, developments in pedagogical theory
that have lead to the constructivist position are reviewed, along with constructivist theories of
teaching practice. This body of theory is then synthesised into ten principles of constructivist
teaching and learning.
The implications of a constructivist view of teaching and learning for CAL resources are then
examined. A range of constructivist CAL approaches are identified, and a classification
scheme for constructivist CAL is proposed. This scheme involves the classification of a CAL
approach according to the learner activities it facilitates, the input techniques used and the
processing and output techniques used.
The process of developing CAL resources is then addressed. The selection of CAL
approaches that are likely to assist with the achievement of specific categories of learning
outcome is recognised as being central to this process. Matrices relating categories of learning
outcome to categories of learner activity and categories of learner activity to categories of
input, processing and output technique are proposed. A model for developing CAL resources,
that makes use of these matrices is proposed. In developing this model, instructional design
models and software development models are reviewed.
Finally, support provided by existing authoring tools, for the development of constructivist
CAL resources using the proposed model is examined. Six of the most popular authoring
tools, including tools designed primarily for CD-ROM based resource development and tools
designed primarily for Web-based development are reviewed.
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Pireva, Krenare. "Cloud eLearning : personalisation of learning using resources from the Cloud." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2018. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/22828/.
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With the advancement of technologies, the usage of alternative eLearning systems as complementary systems to the traditional education systems is becoming part of the everyday activities. At the same time, the creation of learning resources has increased exponentially over time. However, the usability and reusability of these learning resources in various eLearning systems is difficult when they are unstandardised and semi-standardised learning resources. Furthermore, eLearning activities' lack of suitable personalisation of the overall learning process fails to optimize resources' and systems' potentialities. At the same time, the evolution of learning technologies and cloud computing creates new opportunities for traditional eLearning to evolve and place the learner in the center of educational experiences. This thesis contributes to a holistic approach to the field by using a combination of artificial intelligence techniques to automatically generate a personalized learning path for individual learners using Cloud resources. We proposed an advancement of eLearning, named the Cloud eLearning, which recognizes that resources stored in Cloud eLearning can potentially be used for learning purposes. Further, the personalised content shown to Cloud Learners will be offered through automated personalized learning paths. The main issue was to select the most appropriate learning resources from the Cloud and include them in a personalised learning path. This become even more challenging when these potential learning resources were derived from various sources that might be structured, semi- structure or even unstructured, tending to increase the complexity of overall Cloud eLearning retrieval and matching processes. Therefore, this thesis presents an original concept,the Cloud eLearning, its Cloud eLearning Learning Objects as the smallest standardized learning objects, which permits reusing them because of semantic tagging with metadata. Further, it presents the Cloud eLearning Recommender System, that uses hierarchical clustering to select the most appropriate resources and utilise a vector space model to rank these resources in order of relevance for any individual learner. And it concludes with Cloud eLearning automated planner, which generates a personalised learning path using the output of the CeL recommender system.
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Abedin, Reaz Ashraful. "Autonomous Object Category Learning for Service Robots Using Internet Resources." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-128299.
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With the developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), robots are becoming smarter, more efficient and capable of doing more dififcult tasks than before. Recent progress in Machine Learning has revolutionized the field of AI. Rather than performing pre-programmed tasks, nowadays robots are learning things, and becoming more autonomous along the way. However, in most of the cases, robots need a certain level of human assistance to learn something. To recognize or classify daily objects is a very important skill that a service robot should possess. In this research work, we have implemented a fully autonomous object category learning system for service robots, where the robot uses internet resources to learn object categories. It gets the name of an unknown object by performing reverse image search in the internet search engines, and applying a verification strategy afterwards. Then the robot retrieves a number of images of that object from internet and use those to generate training data for learning classifiers. The implemented system is tested in actual domestic environment. The classification performance is examined against some object categories from a benchmark dataset. The system performed decently with 78:40% average accuracy on ve object categories taken from the benchmark dataset and showed promising results in real domestic scenarios. There are existing research works that deal with object category learning for robots using internet images. But those works use Human-in-the-loop models, where humans assist the robot to get the object name for using it as a search cue to retrieve training images from internet. Our implemented system eliminates the necessity of human assistance by making the task of object name determination automatic. This facilitates the whole process of learning object categories with full autonomy, which is the main contribution of this research.
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Rosquist, Christine. "Text Classification of Human Resources-related Data with Machine Learning." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-302375.
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Text classification has been an important application and research subject since the origin of digital documents. Today, as more and more data are stored in the form of electronic documents, the text classification approach is even more vital. There exist various studies that apply machine learning methods such as Naive Bayes and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to text classification and sentiment analysis. However, most of these studies do not focus on cross- domain classification i.e., machine learning models that have been trained on a dataset from one context are tested on another dataset from another context. This is useful when there is not enough training data for the specific domain where text data is to be classified. This thesis investigates how the machine learning methods Naive Bayes and CNN perform when they are trained in one context and then tested in another slightly different context. The study uses data from employee reviews in order to train the models, and the models are then tested on both the employee-review data but also on human resources-related data. Thus, the aim with the thesis is to gain insights on how to develop a system with the capability to perform an accurate cross-domain classification, and to provide more insights to the text classification research area in general. A comparative analysis of the models Naive Bayes and CNN was done, and the results showed that both of the models performed quite similarly when classifying sentences by only using the employee-review data to train and test the models. However, CNN performed slightly better when it comes to multiclass classification for the employee data, which indicates that CNN might be a better model in that context. From a cross-domain perspective, Naive Bayes turned out to be the better model since it performed better in all of the metrics evaluated. However, both of the models can be used as guidance tools in order to classify human-resources related data quickly, even if Naive Bayes is the model that performs the best in the cross-domain context. The results can possibly be improved with more research and need to be verified with more data. Suggestions on how to improve the results are among others to enhance the hyperparameter optimization, use another approach to handle the data imbalance, and adjust the preprocessing methods used. It is also worth noting that the statistical significance could not be confirmed in all of the different test cases, meaning that no absolute conclusions can be drawn, but the results from this thesis work still provide an indication of how well the models perform.Textklassificering har varit en viktig tillämpning och ett viktigt forskningsämne sedan uppkomsten av digitala dokument. Idag, i och med att allt mer data sparas i form av elektroniska dokument, är textklassificeringen ännu mer relevant. Det existerar flera studier som applicerar maskininlärningsmodeller så som Naive Bayes och Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) på textklassificering och sentimentanalys. Dock ligger inte fokuset i dessa studier på en krossdomän-klassificering, vilket innebär att maskinlärningsmodellerna tränas på ett dataset från en viss kontext och sedan testas på ett dataset från en annan kontext. Detta är användbart när det inte finns tillräckligt med träningsdata från den specifika domänen där textdata ska klassificeras. Den här studien undersöker hur maskininlärningsmodellerna Naive Bayes och CNN presterar när de är tränade i en viss kontext och sedan testade i en annan, något annorlunda, kontext. Studien använder data från recensioner gjorda av anställda för att träna modellerna, som sedan testas på den datan men också på personalavdelningsrelaterad data. Således är syftet med denna studie att bidra med insikt i hur ett system kan utvecklas med kapabilitet att utföra en korrekt krossdomän-klassificering, samt bidra med generell insikt till forskningsämnet textklassificering. En jämförande analys av modellerna Naive Bayes och CNN utfördes, och resultaten visade att modellerna presterar lika när det kom till att klassificera text genom att enbart använda datan med recensioner gjorda av anställda för att träna och testa modellerna. Dock visade det sig att CNN presterade bättre när det kom till multiklass-klassificering av datan med recensioner gjorda av anställda, vilket indikerar att CNN kan vara en bättre modell i den kontexten. Från ett krossdomän-perspektiv visade det sig att Naive Bayes var den bättre modellen, i och med att den modellen presterade bäst i alla mätningar. Båda modellerna kan användas som guidningsverktyg för att klassificera personalavdelningsrelaterad data, trots att Naive Bayes var modellen som presterade bäst i ett krossdomän-perspektiv. Resultatet kan förbättrats en del med mer forskning, och behöver verifieras med mer data. Förslag på hur resultaten kan förbättras är att förbättra hyperparameteroptimeringen, använda en annan metod för att hantera den obalanserade datan samt att justera förbehandlingen av datan. Det är också värt att notera att den statistiska signifikansen inte kunde bekräftas i alla testfall, vilket innebär att inga egentliga slutsatser kan dras, även om det fortfarande bidrar med en indikering om hur bra de olika modellerna presterar i de olika fallen.
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Kiaian, Mousavy Sayyed Ali. "A learning based workflow scheduling approach on volatile cloud resources." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-282528.
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Workflows, originally from the business world, provide a systematic organization to an otherwise chaotic complex process. Therefore, they have become dominant and popular in scientific computation, where complex and broadscale data analysis and scientific automation are required. In recent years, demand for reliable algorithms for workflow optimization problems, mainly scheduling and resource provisioning have grown considerably. There are various algorithms and proposals to optimize these problems. However, most of these provisioning and algorithms do not account for reliability and robustness. Besides, those that do require assumptions and handcrafted heuristics with manual parameter assignment to provide solutions. In this thesis, a new workflow scheduling algorithm is proposed that learns the heuristics required for reliability and robustness consideration in a volatile cloud environment, particularly on Amazon EC2 spot instances. Furthermore, the algorithm uses the learned data to propose an efficient scheduling strategy that prioritizes reliability but also considers minimization of execution time. The proposed algorithm mainly improves upon Failure rate and reliability in comparison to the other tested algorithms, such as Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time(HEFT) and ReplicateAll, while at the same time, maintaining an acceptable degradation in Makespan compared to the vanilla HEFT, making it more reliable in an unreliable environment as a result. We have discovered that our proposed algorithm performs 5% worse than the baseline HEFT regarding total execution time. However, we realised that it wastes 52% less resources compared to the baseline HEFT and uses 40% less resources compared to the ReplicateAll algorithm as a result of reduced failure rate in the unreliable environment.Efterfrågan på pålitliga algoritmer för arbetsflödesoptimering har ökat avsevärt. Det finns olika algoritmer och förslag till optimeringar av dem. De flesta algoritmerna står dock inte för tillförlitlighet och robusthet. I det här examensarbetet föreslås en ny arbetsflödesplaneringsalgoritm som tränas i den heuristik som krävs för tillförlitlighet och robusthetsbedömning i Amazon EC2 spotinstanser. Algoritmen förbättras med Heterogene Earliest Finish Time (HEFT), som är en populär heuristisk algoritm som används för att schemalägga arbetsflöden. Algoritmen använder inlärda data för att föreslå en effektiv schemaläggningsstrategi som prioriterar tillförlitlighet men också beaktar minimering av körningstiden. Vi har upptäckt att vår föreslagna algoritm har 5% längre exekveringstid än baslinje-HEFT, ödslar 52% mindre resurser jämfört med baslinje-HEFT och använder 40% mindre resurser jämfört med ReplicateAllalgoritmen som ett resultat av minskad felfrekvens i den opålitliga miljön.
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Halper, Leah R. "Continuous Learning: Choosing and Allocating Resources to Strengths and Weaknesses." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1427828223.
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McCloud, Nikki. "An exploration of coping and self-efficacy in parents with learning disabilities." Thesis, University of Hull, 2011. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:4927.
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This review examines the factors that contribute towards the development of parental self-efficacy. A systematic search of six databases identified 21 papers meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. There is strong evidence linking parental self-efficacy with stress, depression, infant temperament and satisfaction within the parenting role. Modest evidence suggests that social and marital supports are contributory factors. Inconclusive evidence was found for the effects of parity, parental age, infant sex, socio-economic status and level of education. Limitations in the current literature include disparity in conceptualisation of the parental self-efficacy construct, the number and variation in measurement tools and an over-reliance on cross-sectional correlational designs.
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Wen, Lipeng. "Flexible virtual learning environments : a schema-driven approach using sematic web concepts." Thesis, University of Hull, 2008. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:6671.
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Flexible e-Iearning refers to an intelligent educational mechanism that focuses on simulating and improving traditional education as far as possible on the Web by integrating various electronic approaches, technologies, and equipment. This mechanism aims to promote the personalized development and management of e-learning Web services and applications. The main value of this method is that it provides high-powered individualization in pedagogy for students and staff. Here, the thesis mainly studied three problems in meeting the practical requirements of users in education. The first question is how a range of teaching styles (e.g. command and guided discovery) can be supported. The second one is how varieties of instructional processes can be authored. The third question is how these processes can be controlled by learners and educators in terms of their personalized needs during the execution of instruction. In this research, through investigating the existing e-Iearning approaches and technologies, the main technical problems of current virtual learning environments (VLEs) were analyzed. Next, by using the Semantic Web concepts as well as relevant standards, a schema-driven approach was created. This method can support users' individualized operations in the Web-based education. Then, a flexible e-learning system based on the approach was designed and implemented to map a range of extensive didactic paradigms. Finally, a case study was completed to evaluate the research results. The main findings of the assessment were that the flexible VLE implemented a range of teaching styles and the personalized creation and control of educational processes.
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Hamlin, Alexandra Louise. "The experience of bereavement for individuals with learning disabilities : a qualitative study." Thesis, University of Hull, 2003. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:6985.
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The aim of the investigation was to explore with individuals with learning disabilities their experiences of bereavement. Little research has been carried out in this area, and of the projects that have investigated bereavement in this population many have not involved the individuals with learning disabilities but have relied on carers as informants or have used objective measures of behaviour. This has left a gap in our understanding of the internal experiences for people with learning disabilities following bereavements and has left us unaware of the issues considered most important by the bereaved individuals. Ten interviews were conducted with individuals with learning disabilities who had been bereaved at some point within their memory, although not within the preceding six months. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. From the analysis five super-ordinate themes were identified that were thought to capture the essence of the content of the interviews. These themes were Loss, Feelings, Memories of Time Around the Death, Recovery and Obstacles to Recovery. The results indicate the internal experiences associated with bereavement are the same for individuals with learning disabilities as for people without learning disabilities. However, there were experiences described by the participants that appeared to be particular to people with learning disabilities. These experiences were not directly due to their cognitive impairment but due to the way they were responded to by others, and the general beliefs society holds about learning disability. Clinical implications and suggestions for further research were presented.
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Bradley, Jennifer. "The effect of choice for people with learning disabilities : a systematic review." Thesis, University of Hull, 2010. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:3515.
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This portfolio has three parts:Part one – A systematic literature about the effects of choice for people with learning disabilities.Part two – A qualitative research study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) about the experience of carers in facilitating choice for people with severe and profound learning disabilities.Part three – Appendices with documents relevant to the research project. Also includes a reflective statement about the experiences of putting together this portfolio.
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Lemanski, Tomasz Marek. "Exploring models of work-based learning in the chemical and related industries." Thesis, University of Hull, 2013. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:7086.
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The term work-based learning is widely used throughout the literature, academia and industry to describe a multiplicity of approaches by which one can learn through work. This thesis focuses on the rationale for conducting work-based learning and blended learning. Qualitative data was gathered from questionnaires with students and interviews with students, industry champions, course developers and employers. The results show that effective work-based learning is not the simple implementation of one single model or single tool, but rather a negotiated approach to the students’ learning which takes account of the business case for the employer. Another key to successful work-based learning is the opportunity for the student to implement their learning and theory in a workplace environment. A novel matrix was developed, which was designed to build upon the research findings and the literature. The matrix was developed to aid course design and to assist with the bespoke development of employer-facing work-based learning and in identifying authentic assessment opportunities.
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Masara, Christopher. "Learning commercial beekeeping: two cases of social learning in southern African community natural resources management contexts." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003547.
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Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) in southern Africa has gained an important role in alleviating poverty and conserving natural resources. The attention and funding CBNRM is receiving from governments, non-governmental organisations and donors is seen as one way to strengthen civil society‟s involvement in decision-making and participating in activities that contribute to a sustainable livelihood, whilst at the same time learning in their social contexts to adapt and care for the ever changing environment characterised by constraints, challenges, contradictions, new opportunities for learning and change. This study focuses on social learning in commercialisation of natural resource products in two case studies of commercial beekeeping in rural southern African contexts. In this study social learning entails a process of qualitative change taking place in a social context for the purpose of personal and social adaptation. This perspective is useful in this study as learning in the two cases, Hluleka in South Africa and Buhera in Zimbabwe involved the transition beekeeping.from traditional honey harvesting practices and subsistence beekeeping to commercial beekeeping. This study is informed by two related theoretical perspectives namely Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Social Learning Theory. CHAT was used as conceptual and methodological framework to inform the first phase of data gathering and analysis processes; as well as second phase data gathering. In the first phase, I gathered data through semistructured interviews, document reviews and observations to identify problems, challenges and critical incidents in learning commercial beekeeping, technically known as tensions and contradictions within the CHAT framework. These tensions and contradictions, surfaced through analysis of first phase data were used as "mirror data‟ in Intervention Workshops within CHAT's process of Developmental Work Research, which supports social learning in response to tensions and contradictions in workplace activity. Use of mirror data provided a basis for dialogue and the modelling of new solutions to identified contradictions. To interpret the social learning processes resulting from these interactions, I drew on Wals' (2007) analytical lenses, through which I was able to monitor social learning processes that emerged from the Intervention Workshop dialogues while beekeepers modelled new solutions to contradictions in learning commercial beekeeping. The findings of the study revealed that social learning in commercial beekeeping is internally and externally influenced by socio-cultural, political and economic complexities. Social learning in Intervention Workshops was supported by different knowledge bases of participants, in this study these are beekeepers, extension officers, trainers and development facilitators. Such knowledge bases were the source of information for learning and constructing model solutions. The study also revealed that learning in CBNRM workplaces can be observed across the development processes, and CHAT as a methodological tool and Wals‟ (2007) analytical tool are complementary and can be used in researching social learning in other CBNRM workplaces. The study contributes in-depth insight into participatory research and learning processes, especially within the context of CBRM in southern Africa. It gives some empirical and explanatory insight into how change-oriented social learning can emerge and be expanded in Education for Sustainable Development. It also provides learning and extension tools to work with contradictions that arise from socio-cultural and historical dimensions of learning commercialisation of natural resources in southern African context. Its other key contribution is that it provides further insight into the mobilisation of human agency and reflexivity in change oriented social learning processes of commercialisation of sustainable natural resources products and poverty alleviation processes that are critical for responding to socioecological issues and risks and development challenges in southern Africa.
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Crossland, Tom Raymond. "Care-staff perceptions of challenging behaviour in adults with autism and learning disabilities." Thesis, University of Hull, 2009. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:2473.
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This portfolio thesis has three parts. The first part is a systematic literature review, in which the theoretical, conceptual and empirical literature relating to care-staff perceptions of challenging behaviour in people with learning disabilities is reviewed. It aims to present an outline of a wide variety of factors that can affect how care-staff think about the challenging behaviour of their clients. Part two is an empirical paper, which explores the effect the diagnostic label autism has on the perceptions of challenging behaviour that care-staff, who work in learning disability services, hold. To achieve this, four different vignettes and a number of questionnaires were used to assess cognitive and emotional reactions to people who have been diagnosed with autism, or a learning disability. This study also used the data collected to test the concurrent validity of two new questionnaires, the Challenging Behaviour Perceptions Questionnaire and the Challenging Behaviour Representations Questionnaire. Part three is the appendices, which include various relevant materials that are reproduced, a reflective statement on the process of completing this portfolio plus additional information.
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Watters, Georgia George. "The Experiences of Military Parents Homeschooling Using Online Teaching Resources." ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/529.
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U.S. military members and their families relocate from one duty station to another on average once every 3 years. Children in military families change schools often, introducing potential problems such as struggling to make new friends, having trouble adjusting to new teaching styles, and losing academic credits due to the transition from one school to the next. Homeschooling that incorporates online resources can provide instructional continuity, social interaction opportunities, and submission of required periodic assessments. The primary purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the experiences of military parents involved in homeschooling their children using online resources. The research questions were designed to explore these experiences and to create recommendations for other military families. A conceptual framework based on a constructivist learning approach and change theory informed this study. Data were collected from 9 parents with many years of experience homeschooling. The parents were interviewed via phone, e-mail, and Skype. Data were analyzed using open coding, axial coding, and hierarchical coding. Parent participants chose homeschooling due to dissatisfaction with available schools, family location, and flexibility. Online resources were described as making it easier and more engaging for students to learn and as simplifying the parents' instructional and management tasks. These alternative methods replaced or augmented traditional educational methods. Parent participants encouraged other parents to reach out and seek help early in the process. This study promotes positive social change by providing resources for alternative ways children can be educated while one or more military parent is serving and defending the United States of America.
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Shepherd, Gary John. "An inductive exploration of group learning and knowledge generation through group reflection and psychoanalysis." Thesis, University of Hull, 2010. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:3466.
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This thesis aims to explore a rather simple question in relation to the process of how knowledge is generated within the organisational group. The question posed and pursued using an inductive methodological approach is "how do groups learn?" This deceptively simple and almost child-like question has helped me to engage with a wide range of philosophical and methodological approaches to group learning and knowledge generation. By using such a straightforward notion I have been able to construct a sophisticated research project which posits a range of conclusions and responses to my original question and demonstrates the complexity of organisational learning in general. The conclusions I generated reveal a series of discrete interconnections between the individual, the group and an enmeshed series of psychological processes which both assist and prevent groups from generating knowledge and learning. Along with generating a number of new insights into how groups learn, this simple question has enabled me to construct and propose a new theoretical framework for group learning and knowledge generation. The framework itself sets out to explore some of the most basic taken-for-granted notions of our Western world-view, ideas which form the bedrock of our epistemological certainty and which are hardly ever held up to critical scrutiny.
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Marchant, David Christopher. "The effects of internally and externally directed attention during motor skill execution and learning." Thesis, University of Hull, 2005. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:11168.
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Focusing attention onto the intended outcome or goal of a movement (an External focus of attention) has been shown to be more beneficial to the learning and performance of movements than focusing onto the components of the movement being carried out (an Internal focus of attention). In this thesis, four studies assessed the effects of attentional focusing strategies on the learning and execution of motor skills during different situations. Study 1 demonstrated that an internal focus of attention during a suprapostural pointing task resulted in degraded postural control as well as larger movements of the hand and arm. In Study 2 novices using an external focus were more accurate in a dart throwing task than those using an internal focus, but no different from a control condition. In Study 3 two experiments investigated the effects of attentional focuses on postural control at rest and whilst fatigued. Postural control was no better using external focus when compared to an internal focus at rest, but was better than baseline. When fatigued (localised and generalised), balance was significantly deteriorated using an external focus, but not when an internal focus was used. In two experiments during Study 4 novices carrying out a dart throwing task used different attentional focusing instructions during practice and later performance. During practice sessions in Experiment 4.1 and 4.2 accuracy was not affected by attentional focusing instructions. Using an external focus during performance resulted in significantly better accuracy than using an internal focus. In Experiment 4.2, novices who preferred an internal focus but used an external focus during performance performed less accurately than participants who preferred the external focus. Findings demonstrate that the benefits of an external focus of attention is evident in performance situations, whereas an internal focus may be beneficial whilst fatigued and is not detrimental during practice.
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McBride, Kathryn. "Identifying person preference in individuals with a profound learning disability and high support needs." Thesis, University of Hull, 2003. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5485.
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This research attempts to answer the demands from previous literature to extend the use of systematic preference testing, and to enable people to make choices by enhancing the modes of communication of preference. It looks at the viability of systematic preference testing, embedded observations of preference, and the use of staff opinion to predict the person preference of people with a profound learning disability and high support needs. The data collected from 17 adults with a profound learning disability and high support needs was analysed using the city block metric to permit informal statements about the trends within the data. More formal statistical testing was invalid due to difficulties during the data collection phase. The results suggest that the use of systematic preference testing without previous training has limited application within this population. There is a tentative suggestion that embedded preference observations may be more widely accessible for this population. However, there is not a measurement of embedded observations validity within this study. Also, the accuracy of staff opinion of preference seemed to depend on the relationship between the participant and the staff member. Caution is advised in generalising the results of this study due to the difficulties in recruiting staff to be involved.
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Sadik, Alaa M. "The design, implementation and evaluation of a web-based learning environment for distance education." Thesis, University of Hull, 2002. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:8533.
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In this study, the need was emphasised to investigate the effects of using the Web in teaching students at a distance using a multi-level evaluation framework. A Web-based learning environment was designed, developed, implemented and evaluated for this purpose. Constructivist epistemology provided the basis for developing various components and developing problem-centred and interactive activities. Management, tutorial, interaction and support components were designed to work with each other to construct the learning environment, deliver course content, facilitate interaction and monitor student progress. A methodology was designed to describe and assess the learning environment in terms of access (standardisation, speed, resources, the tutor and peers), costs (types, structure, factors influencing, etc.), teaching and learning functions (quality of course objectives, materials and resources, learning approach and student achievement), interactivity (quantity and quality of student-tutor and student-peer interaction), user-friendliness (user-interface design, ease of use and navigation design) and organisational issues. The learners were Egyptian first-grade secondary school students (32), assigned randomly, and the topic selected for the course being developed was mathematics. Feedback was obtained from both learners and experts in distance education and on-line learning during the developmental and field-testing of the learning environment. Quantitative and qualitative methods (on-line student and expert questionnaires, students' logs, performance in formative evaluation, content analysis of peer discussions, achievement test and cost-analysis) were combined to gain insights into students' satisfaction with the different instructional and technical features and capabilities of the learning environment, achievement of course objectives in comparison with conventional classroom students, factors influencing their learning and perceptions and the unit cost per student study hour. The results indicated that although the learning environment and course materials were accessible, interactive, well-structured, user-friendly and achievement was successful for the on-line group, no significant differences were identified between the on-line students and traditional classroom students in overall achievement or achievement of low-order and high-order learning objectives. In addition, it is unlikely any cost saving would be made from shifting to the Internet to deliver instruction and many major factors were found to influence the development and support costs of on-line learning.
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Campbell, Timothy Todd. "The process of organisational learning and its value for organisational performance : an empirical study." Thesis, University of Hull, 2007. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5697.
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Organisational learning has been advocated as a key enabler of organisational performance improvement. However, despite over half a century of research, such claims attributed to organisational learning cannot be adequately verified. To date, the field is fragmented where agreement is not evident on even the fundamental aspects such as the definition or process. It has been proposed that the organisational learning concept may outlive its usefulness unless these anxieties are addressed. To ameliorate these anxieties, it was argued that further empirical research utilising carefully constructed methodologies needs to be conducted to help validate the claims attributed to organisational learning. The following research addresses this need by empirically studying organisational learning and evaluates the concept’s value for organisational performance. A researchable organisational learning model was developed and extended to include a link with organisational performance. The rationale of the developed model proposed that organisational learning, in comparison to individual learning, aids a broader understanding of the business environment and the formation of a shared vision which provides the basis for unified action leading to organisational performance improvement. The proposal was then longitudinally tested in four organisations with senior and departmental managers by utilising a causal cognitive mapping method. The findings suggest that there is value in the organisational learning concept and the process should be fostered within organisations for potentially improved organisational performance. However, the results also advise caution in that barriers to effective organisational learning, such as cognitive inertia, need to be recognised and addressed. The research concludes that organisational learning can be potentially beneficial to an organisation and provides some empirical support for the concept that has been argued to be lacking.
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Moore, Charlotte Lucy. "The caring experience of staff carers working with adults with learning disability and dementia." Thesis, University of Hull, 2012. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:6272.
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This Portfolio Thesis consists of three parts, the first being a Systematic Literature review entitled ‘A Systematic Review into the Factors that Affect the Experience of Residential Staff Caring for Adults with Learning Disability: a United Kingdom Perspective’; the second is an empirical paper entitled ‘The Caring Experience of Staff Carers Working with Adults with Learning Disability and Dementia’; and the final part is the Appendices. Part One: The Systematic Literature Review examines the factors that affect the experience of staff carers working with adults with learning disability within the United Kingdom, as reported by published research. A systematic search of the literature was conducted. Four databases were searched and 13 papers were found that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria that were set out by the researcher. The findings of these papers are set out within the review as well as a discussion of the limitations of these papers and the impact they may have on clinical practise. Part Two: The Empirical Paper reports the findings of a qualitative study into the experience of care staff working with individuals with both a learning disability and dementia. Interviews were conducted with nine participants and then interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the transcripts of these interviews. The themes identified during this analysis are discussed, along with how these themes link to previous studies, the clinical implications of the findings, the limitations of the study and future areas for research. Part Three: The Appendices contains additional information for the Systematic Literature Review and the Empirical Paper as well as a Reflective Statement.
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LUCENA, CARLOS ALBERTO PEREIRA DE. "DESIGN AND E-LEARNING: A PROPOSAL FOR CONTENT TRANPOSAL OF LEARNING RESOURCES TO ACCESSIBLE ONLINE COURSES." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2008. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=13074@1.
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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROO tema desta pesquisa trata de uma relao direta entre diferentes disciplinas e conhecimentos, tendo como foco a abordagem sobre conceitos e processos no campo do Design de interfaces. O Design se encontra aqui representado como elemento centralizador da relação entre a ergonomia, a acessibilidade e o e-learning uma vez que analisa uma proposta de modelo de transposiçõao de recursos didáticos para um formato digital acessível a deficientes visuais. Os requisitos encontrados em diretrizes e padronizações nos contextos da acessibilidade e e-learning, direcionam o rumo desta pesquisa, tendo em vista que conhecimentos dos aspectos técnicos e formais destas áreas influenciam decisões que impactam em diferentes etapas do processo de implementação de uma solução digital educacional. Acreditando no e-learning como elemento pulverizador de sua base de pesquisa e ensino, o Instituto Benjamin Constant, referência nacional no que se trata ao estudo da deficiência visual, proporcionou os recursos necessários de suporte a esta pesquisa através da colaboração efetiva de seu Laboratório de Educação a Distância (IBC/LED). Esta parceria viabilizou a realização de estudos de campo, a compreensão de metodologias de ensino, a apuração de recursos didáticos disponíveis e análise da interação entre alunos deficientes visuais e um protótipo de interface educacional online produzido seguindo os requisitos conceituais e técnicos que cercam o e-learning e a acessibilidade de conteúdos digitais. O resultado da pesquisa sugere um modelo de transposição de recursos didáticos para cursos online acessíveis, assim como um checklist das etapas envolvidas neste processo.
This research is about the straight relation between several disciplines and areas of knowledge, focusing its approach over concepts and processes inside the interface Design field. Design is represented in this research as a focus point involving ergonomics, accessibility and e-learning, once it analyses a model for transposing learning resources into accessible digital content for the visually challenged. The requisites embedded in guidelines and standard languages inside the contexts of web accessibility and e-learning, led the paths of this research as the knowledge of technical and formal issues in these areas have influenced decisions that impact over different levels for the implementation of an online educational solution. The support of the Instituto Benjamin Constant, a national reference in Brazil related to the matters of visually challenged people education, was fundamental to this research through the collaboration of its Laboratory of Distance Education (IBC/LED) and their interest in spreading the research and education retained in the institute through the tools offered by elearning. This partnership allowed benefits such as field studies, the comprehension of teaching methodologies and educational resources available and the opportunity to develop usability tests involving visually challenged students and an interface prototype elaborated following web accessibility and elearning guidelines. The result of this research suggests a model for transposing learning resources into accessible online courses, as well as a detailed checklist for the steps involved over the process.
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Albawardy, Faisal Abdullah. "The strategic value of learning : a comparative study between multinational private and public sectors organisations in Saudi Arabia." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2010. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-strategic-value-of-learning(71e1fd87-7ba8-40c3-972f-23c64875e5d7).html.
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Although there is consensus that national Human Resource Development policy is important, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) the ways in which strategic human resources development (SHRD) is undertaken by employing organisations remains under-researched. The study investigated the value attached to learning in multinational private and also public organisations in Saudi Arabia. The three research objectives were to: examine the strategic value of learning from CEO managers‟ and HRD practitioners‟ perceptions in multinational private and public organisations in Saudi Arabia; establish the extent to which the value attached to learning in the public sector is different from that in the multinational private sector in Saudi Arabia and, to examine any differences in the value attached to learning by HRD specialists and senior managers of organisations in KSA. Making use of a constructionist ontology the thesis explores how these senior staff value and evaluate strategic learning and its contribution to their organisations. An inductive approach is taken with elements of both comparative and cross sectional design. This thesis builds on O‟Driscoll et al. (2005) in the USA and Anderson (2007) in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken in twenty organisations, with thirty-seven senior participants. Findings were analysed through thematic analysis. The data suggest that respondents in many KSA organisations evaluate learning through individual performance measured by trainees‟ satisfaction and changes in employee capability, focusing more on short term operational issues rather than organisation strategy. Although the context for HRD in Saudi Arabia is different to that of Western developed economies there are similarities between the finding from this thesis and O‟Driscoll et al, (2005) and Anderson (2007) which suggest that there is a range of challenges associated with putting strategic HRD into practice in employing organisation.
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Burn, Helen Mary. "Learning from Langland : theo-poetic resources for the post-Hind landscape." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3296.
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In the last ten years the Church of England has tried, by means of two reports leading to what I term the ‘Hind settlement’, to re-configure its provision of theological education. The tensions generated by the attempt to hold together different discourses and to impose regional re-organisation in the context of complex developments both in higher education and in patterns of lay and ordained ministry form the basis of my critique of Hind. I argue that Hind’s recourse to the image of the ‘body of Christ’ in the service of an instrumentalist model of ministry exposes inadequacies of a theological anthropological, Christological and ecclesiological nature. I identify a medieval text, Piers Plowman, as a conversation partner which offers a different way of negotiating an analogously difficult set of issues around learning, discipleship and power. My hermeneutical approach to the poem sees its primary impetus as arising from the constant interplay between the experiences of daily life and the attempt to work out a personal and social understanding of salvation. By comparing the ways in which Hind and Langland explore learning as measurable progress, and lay and clerical models of learning, I propose that Piers Plowman offers some valuable resources to the next stage of the Hind process. Not only does the poem foreground the chaotic co-existence of multiple voices in a marketplace of competing definitions of learning, and acknowledge the recalcitrance of communities when presented with opportunities to change, but it also, in the figure of Piers, hints at the possibility of going beyond the lay/clerical impasse. The poem’s recognition of sin and the need for repentance, in contrast to Hind language of management and effectiveness, and its requirement of the reader to participate in the making of new meaning, present an ongoing challenge to a culture of ‘learning outcomes’.