WorldWideScience

Sample records for cluster learning community

  1. From Innovation to Impact at Scale: Lessons Learned from a Cluster of Research-Community Partnerships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schindler, Holly S.; Fisher, Philip A.; Shonkoff, Jack P.

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents a description of how an interdisciplinary network of academic researchers, community-based programs, parents, and state agencies have joined together to design, test, and scale a suite of innovative intervention strategies rooted in new knowledge about the biology of adversity. Through a process of co-creation, collective pilot-testing, and the support of a measurement and evaluation hub, the Washington State Innovation Cluster is using rapid cycle, iterative learning to elucidate differential impacts of interventions designed to build child and caregiver capacities and address the developmental consequences of socioeconomic disadvantage. Key characteristics of the Innovation Cluster model are described and an example is presented of a video-coaching intervention that has been implemented, adapted, and evaluated through this distinctive, collaborative process. PMID:28777436

  2. The Effect of an Integrated Course Cluster Learning Community on the Oral and Written Communication Skills and Technical Content Knowledge of Upper-Level College of Agriculture Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, Cynthia; Miller, Greg; Polito, Thomas A.; Gibson, Lance

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine if upper-level college students who participated in AgPAQ, an integrated course cluster learning community, would demonstrate enhanced learning in the areas of oral communication, written communication, and agronomic/economic technical content knowledge. The population (N = 182)…

  3. Enhancing Community Service Learning Via Practical Learning Communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilana Ronen

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available The advantages of learning communities focused on analyzing social issues and educational repercussions in the field are presented in this study. The research examines the contribution of a learning community to enhancing student teachers' responsibility and their social involvement. The assumption was that participating in learning community would further implement student teachers' community social involvement while enhancing responsibility in their field of action. A questionnaire aimed to present the student teachers' attitudes involving all aspects of studying in the learning community and their social activity in the community was conducted. The findings pinpointed that there were positive contributions of the learning communities from a personal aspect such as developing self-learning, and learning about “me”, as well as broaden their teaching skills, through methodology for teacher training, and developing reflective thought. These insights can also be implemented in various educational frameworks and during service learning as part of teacher training.

  4. Local Community Detection Algorithm Based on Minimal Cluster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yong Zhou

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to discover the structure of local community more effectively, this paper puts forward a new local community detection algorithm based on minimal cluster. Most of the local community detection algorithms begin from one node. The agglomeration ability of a single node must be less than multiple nodes, so the beginning of the community extension of the algorithm in this paper is no longer from the initial node only but from a node cluster containing this initial node and nodes in the cluster are relatively densely connected with each other. The algorithm mainly includes two phases. First it detects the minimal cluster and then finds the local community extended from the minimal cluster. Experimental results show that the quality of the local community detected by our algorithm is much better than other algorithms no matter in real networks or in simulated networks.

  5. Cognitive Clusters in Specific Learning Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poletti, Michele; Carretta, Elisa; Bonvicini, Laura; Giorgi-Rossi, Paolo

    The heterogeneity among children with learning disabilities still represents a barrier and a challenge in their conceptualization. Although a dimensional approach has been gaining support, the categorical approach is still the most adopted, as in the recent fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The introduction of the single overarching diagnostic category of specific learning disorder (SLD) could underemphasize interindividual clinical differences regarding intracategory cognitive functioning and learning proficiency, according to current models of multiple cognitive deficits at the basis of neurodevelopmental disorders. The characterization of specific cognitive profiles associated with an already manifest SLD could help identify possible early cognitive markers of SLD risk and distinct trajectories of atypical cognitive development leading to SLD. In this perspective, we applied a cluster analysis to identify groups of children with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-based diagnosis of SLD with similar cognitive profiles and to describe the association between clusters and SLD subtypes. A sample of 205 children with a diagnosis of SLD were enrolled. Cluster analyses (agglomerative hierarchical and nonhierarchical iterative clustering technique) were used successively on 10 core subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition. The 4-cluster solution was adopted, and external validation found differences in terms of SLD subtype frequencies and learning proficiency among clusters. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed, tracing directions for further studies.

  6. Community detection in complex networks using deep auto-encoded extreme learning machine

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Feifan; Zhang, Baihai; Chai, Senchun; Xia, Yuanqing

    2018-06-01

    Community detection has long been a fascinating topic in complex networks since the community structure usually unveils valuable information of interest. The prevalence and evolution of deep learning and neural networks have been pushing forward the advancement in various research fields and also provide us numerous useful and off the shelf techniques. In this paper, we put the cascaded stacked autoencoders and the unsupervised extreme learning machine (ELM) together in a two-level embedding process and propose a novel community detection algorithm. Extensive comparison experiments in circumstances of both synthetic and real-world networks manifest the advantages of the proposed algorithm. On one hand, it outperforms the k-means clustering in terms of the accuracy and stability thus benefiting from the determinate dimensions of the ELM block and the integration of sparsity restrictions. On the other hand, it endures smaller complexity than the spectral clustering method on account of the shrinkage in time spent on the eigenvalue decomposition procedure.

  7. Contextual Learning Induces Dendritic Spine Clustering in Retrosplenial Cortex

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    Adam C Frank

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Molecular and electrophysiological studies find convergent evidence suggesting that plasticity within a dendritic tree is not randomly dispersed, but rather clustered into functional groups. Further, results from in silico neuronal modeling show that clustered plasticity is able to increase storage capacity 45 times compared to dispersed plasticity. Recent in vivo work utilizing chronic 2-photon microscopy tested the clustering hypothesis and showed that repetitive motor learning is able to induce clustered addition of new dendritic spines on apical dendrites of L5 neurons in primary motor cortex; moreover, clustered spines were found to be more stable than non-clustered spines, suggesting a physiological role for spine clustering. To further test this hypothesis we used in vivo 2-photon imaging in Thy1-YFP-H mice to chronically examine dendritic spine dynamics in retrosplenial cortex (RSC during spatial learning. RSC is a key component of an extended spatial learning and memory circuit that includes hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. Importantly, RSC is known from both lesion and immediate early gene studies to be critically involved in spatial learning and more specifically in contextual fear conditioning. We utilized a modified contextual fear conditioning protocol wherein animals received a mild foot shock each day for five days; this protocol induces gradual increases in context freezing over several days before the animals reach a behavioral plateau. We coupled behavioral training with four separate in vivo imaging sessions, two before training begins, one early in training, and a final session after training is complete. This allowed us to image spine dynamics before training as well as early in learning and after animals had reached behavioral asymptote. We find that this contextual learning protocol induces a statistically significant increase in the formation of clusters of new dendritic spines in trained animals when compared to home

  8. Feature Selection and Kernel Learning for Local Learning-Based Clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Hong; Cheung, Yiu-ming

    2011-08-01

    The performance of the most clustering algorithms highly relies on the representation of data in the input space or the Hilbert space of kernel methods. This paper is to obtain an appropriate data representation through feature selection or kernel learning within the framework of the Local Learning-Based Clustering (LLC) (Wu and Schölkopf 2006) method, which can outperform the global learning-based ones when dealing with the high-dimensional data lying on manifold. Specifically, we associate a weight to each feature or kernel and incorporate it into the built-in regularization of the LLC algorithm to take into account the relevance of each feature or kernel for the clustering. Accordingly, the weights are estimated iteratively in the clustering process. We show that the resulting weighted regularization with an additional constraint on the weights is equivalent to a known sparse-promoting penalty. Hence, the weights of those irrelevant features or kernels can be shrunk toward zero. Extensive experiments show the efficacy of the proposed methods on the benchmark data sets.

  9. Social Learning Network Analysis Model to Identify Learning Patterns Using Ontology Clustering Techniques and Meaningful Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Firdausiah Mansur, Andi Besse; Yusof, Norazah

    2013-01-01

    Clustering on Social Learning Network still not explored widely, especially when the network focuses on e-learning system. Any conventional methods are not really suitable for the e-learning data. SNA requires content analysis, which involves human intervention and need to be carried out manually. Some of the previous clustering techniques need…

  10. Ananke: temporal clustering reveals ecological dynamics of microbial communities

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    Michael W. Hall

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Taxonomic markers such as the 16S ribosomal RNA gene are widely used in microbial community analysis. A common first step in marker-gene analysis is grouping genes into clusters to reduce data sets to a more manageable size and potentially mitigate the effects of sequencing error. Instead of clustering based on sequence identity, marker-gene data sets collected over time can be clustered based on temporal correlation to reveal ecologically meaningful associations. We present Ananke, a free and open-source algorithm and software package that complements existing sequence-identity-based clustering approaches by clustering marker-gene data based on time-series profiles and provides interactive visualization of clusters, including highlighting of internal OTU inconsistencies. Ananke is able to cluster distinct temporal patterns from simulations of multiple ecological patterns, such as periodic seasonal dynamics and organism appearances/disappearances. We apply our algorithm to two longitudinal marker gene data sets: faecal communities from the human gut of an individual sampled over one year, and communities from a freshwater lake sampled over eleven years. Within the gut, the segregation of the bacterial community around a food-poisoning event was immediately clear. In the freshwater lake, we found that high sequence identity between marker genes does not guarantee similar temporal dynamics, and Ananke time-series clusters revealed patterns obscured by clustering based on sequence identity or taxonomy. Ananke is free and open-source software available at https://github.com/beiko-lab/ananke.

  11. Cluster synchronization for directed community networks via pinning partial schemes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Cheng; Jiang Haijun

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► Cluster synchronization for directed community networks is proposed by pinning partial schemes. ► Each community is considered as a whole. ► Several novel pinning criteria are derived based on the information of communities. ► A numerical example with simulation is provided. - Abstract: In this paper, we focus on driving a class of directed networks to achieve cluster synchronization by pinning schemes. The desired cluster synchronization states are no longer decoupled orbits but a set of un-decoupled trajectories. Each community is considered as a whole and the synchronization criteria are derived based on the information of communities. Several pinning schemes including feedback control and adaptive strategy are proposed to select controlled communities by analyzing the information of each community such as indegrees and outdegrees. In all, this paper answers several challenging problems in pinning control of directed community networks: (1) What communities should be chosen as controlled candidates? (2) How many communities are needed to be controlled? (3) How large should the control gains be used in a given community network to achieve cluster synchronization? Finally, an example with numerical simulations is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.

  12. Knowledge between communities of practice and firms in clusters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Reinau, Kristian Hegner

    . This paper presents a case study in which theory about knowledge, communities of practice and networks is used to understand how knowledge is developed in high-tech companies placed in a cluster. The case study illuminates how internal and external relations and factors affect the knowledge development...... which factors that affect the knowledge development process in communities in the case companies. By analysing the interplay between formal and informal relations utilized by the companies, the knowledge embedded in the persons constituting the communities as well as knowledge embedded in objects used......Currently there is growing focus on how cluster internal and cluster external relations affect the creation of knowledge in companies placed in clusters. However, the current theories on this topic are too simple and the interplay between internal and external relations is relatively unknown...

  13. Clustering coefficient and community structure of bipartite networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Peng; Wang, Jinliang; Li, Xiaojia; Li, Menghui; Di, Zengru; Fan, Ying

    2008-12-01

    Many real-world networks display natural bipartite structure, where the basic cycle is a square. In this paper, with the similar consideration of standard clustering coefficient in binary networks, a definition of the clustering coefficient for bipartite networks based on the fraction of squares is proposed. In order to detect community structures in bipartite networks, two different edge clustering coefficients LC4 and LC3 of bipartite networks are defined, which are based on squares and triples respectively. With the algorithm of cutting the edge with the least clustering coefficient, communities in artificial and real world networks are identified. The results reveal that investigating bipartite networks based on the original structure can show the detailed properties that is helpful to get deep understanding about the networks.

  14. Seismic Signal Compression Using Nonparametric Bayesian Dictionary Learning via Clustering

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    Xin Tian

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available We introduce a seismic signal compression method based on nonparametric Bayesian dictionary learning method via clustering. The seismic data is compressed patch by patch, and the dictionary is learned online. Clustering is introduced for dictionary learning. A set of dictionaries could be generated, and each dictionary is used for one cluster’s sparse coding. In this way, the signals in one cluster could be well represented by their corresponding dictionaries. A nonparametric Bayesian dictionary learning method is used to learn the dictionaries, which naturally infers an appropriate dictionary size for each cluster. A uniform quantizer and an adaptive arithmetic coding algorithm are adopted to code the sparse coefficients. With comparisons to other state-of-the art approaches, the effectiveness of the proposed method could be validated in the experiments.

  15. Epistemic communities and cluster dynamics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Håkanson, Lars

    2003-01-01

    This paper questions the prevailing notions that firms within industrial clusters have privi-leged access to `tacit knowledge' that is unavailable - or available only at high cost - to firms located elsewhere, and that such access provides competitive advantages that help to explain the growth...... and development of both firms and regions. It outlines a model of cluster dynam-ics emphasizing two mutually interdependent processes: the concentration of specialized and complementary epistemic communities, on the one hand, and entrepreneurship and a high rate of new firm formation on the other....

  16. Building mathematics cellular phone learning communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wajeeh M. Daher

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Researchers emphasize the importance of maintaining learning communities and environments. This article describes the building and nourishment of a learning community, one comprised of middle school students who learned mathematics out-of-class using the cellular phone. The building of the learning community was led by three third year pre-service teachers majoring in mathematics and computers. The pre-service teachers selected thirty 8th grade students to learn mathematics with the cellular phone and be part of a learning community experimenting with this learning. To analyze the building and development stages of the cellular phone learning community, two models of community building stages were used; first the team development model developed by Tuckman (1965, second the life cycle model of a virtual learning community developed by Garber (2004. The research findings indicate that a learning community which is centered on a new technology has five 'life' phases of development: Pre-birth, birth, formation, performing, and maturity. Further, the research finding indicate that the norms that were encouraged by the preservice teachers who initiated the cellular phone learning community resulted in a community which developed, nourished and matured to be similar to a community of experienced applied mathematicians who use mathematical formulae to study everyday phenomena.

  17. An improved clustering algorithm based on reverse learning in intelligent transportation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Guoqing; Kou, Qianqian; Niu, Ting

    2017-05-01

    With the development of artificial intelligence and data mining technology, big data has gradually entered people's field of vision. In the process of dealing with large data, clustering is an important processing method. By introducing the reverse learning method in the clustering process of PAM clustering algorithm, to further improve the limitations of one-time clustering in unsupervised clustering learning, and increase the diversity of clustering clusters, so as to improve the quality of clustering. The algorithm analysis and experimental results show that the algorithm is feasible.

  18. Hybrid Collaborative Learning for Classification and Clustering in Sensor Networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagstaff, Kiri L.; Sosnowski, Scott; Lane, Terran

    2012-01-01

    Traditionally, nodes in a sensor network simply collect data and then pass it on to a centralized node that archives, distributes, and possibly analyzes the data. However, analysis at the individual nodes could enable faster detection of anomalies or other interesting events as well as faster responses, such as sending out alerts or increasing the data collection rate. There is an additional opportunity for increased performance if learners at individual nodes can communicate with their neighbors. In previous work, methods were developed by which classification algorithms deployed at sensor nodes can communicate information about event labels to each other, building on prior work with co-training, self-training, and active learning. The idea of collaborative learning was extended to function for clustering algorithms as well, similar to ideas from penta-training and consensus clustering. However, collaboration between these learner types had not been explored. A new protocol was developed by which classifiers and clusterers can share key information about their observations and conclusions as they learn. This is an active collaboration in which learners of either type can query their neighbors for information that they then use to re-train or re-learn the concept they are studying. The protocol also supports broadcasts from the classifiers and clusterers to the rest of the network to announce new discoveries. Classifiers observe an event and assign it a label (type). Clusterers instead group observations into clusters without assigning them a label, and they collaborate in terms of pairwise constraints between two events [same-cluster (mustlink) or different-cluster (cannot-link)]. Fundamentally, these two learner types speak different languages. To bridge this gap, the new communication protocol provides four types of exchanges: hybrid queries for information, hybrid "broadcasts" of learned information, each specified for classifiers-to-clusterers, and clusterers

  19. What's the VALUE of Information Literacy? Comparing Learning Community and Non-Learning Community Student Learning Outcomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rapchak, Marcia E.; Brungard, Allison B.; Bergfelt, Theodore W.

    2016-01-01

    Using the Information Literacy VALUE Rubric provided by the AAC&U, this study compares thirty final capstone assignments in a research course in a learning community with thirty final assignments in from students not in learning communities. Results indicated higher performance of the non-learning community students; however, transfer skills…

  20. Unsupervised active learning based on hierarchical graph-theoretic clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Weiming; Hu, Wei; Xie, Nianhua; Maybank, Steve

    2009-10-01

    Most existing active learning approaches are supervised. Supervised active learning has the following problems: inefficiency in dealing with the semantic gap between the distribution of samples in the feature space and their labels, lack of ability in selecting new samples that belong to new categories that have not yet appeared in the training samples, and lack of adaptability to changes in the semantic interpretation of sample categories. To tackle these problems, we propose an unsupervised active learning framework based on hierarchical graph-theoretic clustering. In the framework, two promising graph-theoretic clustering algorithms, namely, dominant-set clustering and spectral clustering, are combined in a hierarchical fashion. Our framework has some advantages, such as ease of implementation, flexibility in architecture, and adaptability to changes in the labeling. Evaluations on data sets for network intrusion detection, image classification, and video classification have demonstrated that our active learning framework can effectively reduce the workload of manual classification while maintaining a high accuracy of automatic classification. It is shown that, overall, our framework outperforms the support-vector-machine-based supervised active learning, particularly in terms of dealing much more efficiently with new samples whose categories have not yet appeared in the training samples.

  1. Implementation of K-Means Clustering Method for Electronic Learning Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Latipa Sari, Herlina; Suranti Mrs., Dewi; Natalia Zulita, Leni

    2017-12-01

    Teaching and Learning process at SMK Negeri 2 Bengkulu Tengah has applied e-learning system for teachers and students. The e-learning was based on the classification of normative, productive, and adaptive subjects. SMK Negeri 2 Bengkulu Tengah consisted of 394 students and 60 teachers with 16 subjects. The record of e-learning database was used in this research to observe students’ activity pattern in attending class. K-Means algorithm in this research was used to classify students’ learning activities using e-learning, so that it was obtained cluster of students’ activity and improvement of student’s ability. Implementation of K-Means Clustering method for electronic learning model at SMK Negeri 2 Bengkulu Tengah was conducted by observing 10 students’ activities, namely participation of students in the classroom, submit assignment, view assignment, add discussion, view discussion, add comment, download course materials, view article, view test, and submit test. In the e-learning model, the testing was conducted toward 10 students that yielded 2 clusters of membership data (C1 and C2). Cluster 1: with membership percentage of 70% and it consisted of 6 members, namely 1112438 Anggi Julian, 1112439 Anis Maulita, 1112441 Ardi Febriansyah, 1112452 Berlian Sinurat, 1112460 Dewi Anugrah Anwar and 1112467 Eka Tri Oktavia Sari. Cluster 2:with membership percentage of 30% and it consisted of 4 members, namely 1112463 Dosita Afriyani, 1112471 Erda Novita, 1112474 Eskardi and 1112477 Fachrur Rozi.

  2. Impulsive Cluster Synchronization in Community Network with Nonidentical Nodes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deng Liping; Wu Zhaoyan

    2012-01-01

    In this paper, cluster synchronization in community network with nonidentical nodes and impulsive effects is investigated. Community networks with two kinds of topological structure are investigated. Positive weighted network is considered first and external pinning controllers are designed for achieving cluster synchronization. Cooperative and competitive network under some assumptions is investigated as well and can achieve cluster synchronization with only impulsive controllers. Based on the stability analysis of impulsive differential equation and the Lyapunov stability theory, several simple and useful synchronization criteria are derived. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to verify the effectiveness of the derived results.

  3. Community Based Learning and Civic Engagement: Informal Learning among Adult Volunteers in Community Organizations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mundel, Karsten; Schugurensky, Daniel

    2008-01-01

    Many iterations of community based learning employ models, such as consciousness raising groups, cultural circles, and participatory action research. In all of them, learning is a deliberate part of an explicit educational activity. This article explores another realm of community learning: the informal learning that results from volunteering in…

  4. Off-line learning from clustered input examples

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Marangi, Carmela; Solla, Sara A.; Biehl, Michael; Riegler, Peter; Marinaro, Maria; Tagliaferri, Roberto

    1996-01-01

    We analyze the generalization ability of a simple perceptron acting on a structured input distribution for the simple case of two clusters of input data and a linearly separable rule. The generalization ability computed for three learning scenarios: maximal stability, Gibbs, and optimal learning, is

  5. On-line learning from clustered input examples

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Riegler, Peter; Biehl, Michael; Solla, Sara A.; Marangi, Carmela; Marinaro, Maria; Tagliaferri, Roberto

    1996-01-01

    We analyse on-line learning of a linearly separable rule with a simple perceptron. Example inputs are taken from two overlapping clusters of data and the rule is defined through a teacher vector which is in general not aligned with the connection line of the cluster centers. We find that the Hebb

  6. Active learning for semi-supervised clustering based on locally linear propagation reconstruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Chin-Chun; Lin, Po-Yi

    2015-03-01

    The success of semi-supervised clustering relies on the effectiveness of side information. To get effective side information, a new active learner learning pairwise constraints known as must-link and cannot-link constraints is proposed in this paper. Three novel techniques are developed for learning effective pairwise constraints. The first technique is used to identify samples less important to cluster structures. This technique makes use of a kernel version of locally linear embedding for manifold learning. Samples neither important to locally linear propagation reconstructions of other samples nor on flat patches in the learned manifold are regarded as unimportant samples. The second is a novel criterion for query selection. This criterion considers not only the importance of a sample to expanding the space coverage of the learned samples but also the expected number of queries needed to learn the sample. To facilitate semi-supervised clustering, the third technique yields inferred must-links for passing information about flat patches in the learned manifold to semi-supervised clustering algorithms. Experimental results have shown that the learned pairwise constraints can capture the underlying cluster structures and proven the feasibility of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Collaborative distance learning: Developing an online learning community

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    Stoytcheva, Maria

    2017-12-01

    The method of collaborative distance learning has been applied for years in a number of distance learning courses, but they are relatively few in foreign language learning. The context of this research is a hybrid distance learning of French for specific purposes, delivered through the platform UNIV-RcT (Strasbourg University), which combines collaborative activities for the realization of a common problem-solving task online. The study focuses on a couple of aspects: on-line interactions carried out in small, tutored groups and the process of community building online. By analyzing the learner's perceptions of community and collaborative learning, we have tried to understand the process of building and maintenance of online learning community and to see to what extent the collaborative distance learning contribute to the development of the competence expectations at the end of the course. The analysis of the results allows us to distinguish the advantages and limitations of this type of e-learning and thus evaluate their pertinence.

  8. Experience Learning and Community Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nena Mijoč

    1996-12-01

    Full Text Available Research in the field of education, carried out in living and working environment, which has undergone so profound changes recently, is of extreme importance. In schools, courses and seminars, one cannot prepare him/herself for the changes as these are often so rapid that it is impossible to foresee them. Therefore, one can only learn by experience. In defining the term 'experience learning', the teoreticians vary greatly. In this paper, experience learning is understood as a process of learning taking part mainly outside the planned educational process and including an active and participative attitude towards environment and people. Original and direct experience can thus serve as a basis for gaining new comprehensions, for planning future activities as well as for a reinterpretation of the past experiences. Let us first mention the basic factors of successful experience learning, such as an individual's character features, possibilities for learning, learning atmosphere and positive stimulations. It has been estimated that local community can increase or decrease the possibilities for experience learning. However, the relation is active in other direction too: the more experience learning bas been asserted in a community, the greater its influence on social and cultural development of the community. On has to bear in mind that well-planned education for local community and stimulating sociocultural animation can facilitate the development of local community.

  9. Data clustering algorithms and applications

    CERN Document Server

    Aggarwal, Charu C

    2013-01-01

    Research on the problem of clustering tends to be fragmented across the pattern recognition, database, data mining, and machine learning communities. Addressing this problem in a unified way, Data Clustering: Algorithms and Applications provides complete coverage of the entire area of clustering, from basic methods to more refined and complex data clustering approaches. It pays special attention to recent issues in graphs, social networks, and other domains.The book focuses on three primary aspects of data clustering: Methods, describing key techniques commonly used for clustering, such as fea

  10. Building global learning communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Averill Gordon

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Within the background where education is increasingly driven by the economies of scale and research funding, we propose an alternative online open and connected framework (OOC for building global learning communities using mobile social media. We critique a three year action research case study involving building collaborative global learning communities around a community of practice of learning researchers and practitioners. The results include the development of a framework for utilising mobile social media to support collaborative curriculum development across international boundaries. We conclude that this framework is potentially transferrable to a range of educational contexts where the focus is upon student-generated mobile social media projects.

  11. Toward a Social Approach to Learning in Community Service Learning

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    Cooks, Leda; Scharrer, Erica; Paredes, Mari Castaneda

    2004-01-01

    The authors describe a social approach to learning in community service learning that extends the contributions of three theoretical bodies of scholarship on learning: social constructionism, critical pedagogy, and community service learning. Building on the assumptions about learning described in each of these areas, engagement, identity, and…

  12. The Learning Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boo, Mary Richardson; Decker, Larry E.

    This guide to community education offers strategies and suggestions for responding to the call for more community involvement in partnership efforts that will benefit education and society. First, a brief introduction summarizes the philosophy of community education, defining it as a belief that learning is lifelong and that self-help efforts…

  13. E-Model for Online Learning Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

    2015-10-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore the students' perspectives on the phenomenon of online learning communities while enrolled in a graduate dental hygiene program. A qualitative case study method was designed to investigate the learners' experiences with communities in an online environment. A cross-sectional purposive sampling method was used. Interviews were the data collection method. As the original data were being analyzed, the researchers noted a pattern evolved indicating the phenomenon developed in stages. The data were re-analyzed and validated by 2 member checks. The participants' experiences revealed an e-model consisting of 3 stages of formal learning community development as core courses in the curriculum were completed and 1 stage related to transmuting the community to an informal entity as students experienced the independent coursework in the program. The development of the formal learning communities followed 3 stages: Building a Foundation for the Learning Community, Building a Supportive Network within the Learning Community and Investing in the Community to Enhance Learning. The last stage, Transforming the Learning Community, signaled a transition to an informal network of learners. The e-model was represented by 3 key elements: metamorphosis of relationships, metamorphosis through the affective domain and metamorphosis through the cognitive domain, with the most influential element being the affective development. The e-model describes a 4 stage process through which learners experience a metamorphosis in their affective, relationship and cognitive development. Synergistic learning was possible based on the interaction between synergistic relationships and affective actions. Copyright © 2015 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

  14. A Professional Learning Community Journey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diana Maliszewski

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available Four teachers (three classroom teachers and a teacher-librarian explain how their school applied a professional learning community framework to its operational practices. They discuss the process, the benefits, and the challenges of professional learning communities.

  15. Weighted community detection and data clustering using message passing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Cheng; Liu, Yanchen; Zhang, Pan

    2018-03-01

    Grouping objects into clusters based on the similarities or weights between them is one of the most important problems in science and engineering. In this work, by extending message-passing algorithms and spectral algorithms proposed for an unweighted community detection problem, we develop a non-parametric method based on statistical physics, by mapping the problem to the Potts model at the critical temperature of spin-glass transition and applying belief propagation to solve the marginals corresponding to the Boltzmann distribution. Our algorithm is robust to over-fitting and gives a principled way to determine whether there are significant clusters in the data and how many clusters there are. We apply our method to different clustering tasks. In the community detection problem in weighted and directed networks, we show that our algorithm significantly outperforms existing algorithms. In the clustering problem, where the data were generated by mixture models in the sparse regime, we show that our method works all the way down to the theoretical limit of detectability and gives accuracy very close to that of the optimal Bayesian inference. In the semi-supervised clustering problem, our method only needs several labels to work perfectly in classic datasets. Finally, we further develop Thouless-Anderson-Palmer equations which heavily reduce the computation complexity in dense networks but give almost the same performance as belief propagation.

  16. A density-based clustering model for community detection in complex networks

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    Zhao, Xiang; Li, Yantao; Qu, Zehui

    2018-04-01

    Network clustering (or graph partitioning) is an important technique for uncovering the underlying community structures in complex networks, which has been widely applied in various fields including astronomy, bioinformatics, sociology, and bibliometric. In this paper, we propose a density-based clustering model for community detection in complex networks (DCCN). The key idea is to find group centers with a higher density than their neighbors and a relatively large integrated-distance from nodes with higher density. The experimental results indicate that our approach is efficient and effective for community detection of complex networks.

  17. Multi-documents summarization based on clustering of learning object using hierarchical clustering

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    Mustamiin, M.; Budi, I.; Santoso, H. B.

    2018-03-01

    The Open Educational Resources (OER) is a portal of teaching, learning and research resources that is available in public domain and freely accessible. Learning contents or Learning Objects (LO) are granular and can be reused for constructing new learning materials. LO ontology-based searching techniques can be used to search for LO in the Indonesia OER. In this research, LO from search results are used as an ingredient to create new learning materials according to the topic searched by users. Summarizing-based grouping of LO use Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC) with the dependency context to the user’s query which has an average value F-Measure of 0.487, while summarizing by K-Means F-Measure only has an average value of 0.336.

  18. Complex brain networks: From topological communities to clustered

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Complex brain networks: From topological communities to clustered dynamics ... Recent research has revealed a rich and complicated network topology in the cortical connectivity of mammalian brains. ... Pramana – Journal of Physics | News.

  19. Cluster analysis of activity-time series in motor learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Balslev, Daniela; Nielsen, Finn Å; Futiger, Sally A

    2002-01-01

    Neuroimaging studies of learning focus on brain areas where the activity changes as a function of time. To circumvent the difficult problem of model selection, we used a data-driven analytic tool, cluster analysis, which extracts representative temporal and spatial patterns from the voxel......-time series. The optimal number of clusters was chosen using a cross-validated likelihood method, which highlights the clustering pattern that generalizes best over the subjects. Data were acquired with PET at different time points during practice of a visuomotor task. The results from cluster analysis show...

  20. Clustering analysis of water distribution systems: identifying critical components and community impacts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diao, K; Farmani, R; Fu, G; Astaraie-Imani, M; Ward, S; Butler, D

    2014-01-01

    Large water distribution systems (WDSs) are networks with both topological and behavioural complexity. Thereby, it is usually difficult to identify the key features of the properties of the system, and subsequently all the critical components within the system for a given purpose of design or control. One way is, however, to more explicitly visualize the network structure and interactions between components by dividing a WDS into a number of clusters (subsystems). Accordingly, this paper introduces a clustering strategy that decomposes WDSs into clusters with stronger internal connections than external connections. The detected cluster layout is very similar to the community structure of the served urban area. As WDSs may expand along with urban development in a community-by-community manner, the correspondingly formed distribution clusters may reveal some crucial configurations of WDSs. For verification, the method is applied to identify all the critical links during firefighting for the vulnerability analysis of a real-world WDS. Moreover, both the most critical pipes and clusters are addressed, given the consequences of pipe failure. Compared with the enumeration method, the method used in this study identifies the same group of the most critical components, and provides similar criticality prioritizations of them in a more computationally efficient time.

  1. Learning and Best Practices for Learning in Open-Source Software Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Vandana; Holt, Lila

    2013-01-01

    This research is about participants who use open-source software (OSS) discussion forums for learning. Learning in online communities of education as well as non-education-related online communities has been studied under the lens of social learning theory and situated learning for a long time. In this research, we draw parallels among these two…

  2. THE SCHOOL AS A LEARNING COMMUNITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cintya Arely Hernández-López

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available In the present study is to weight the learning communities, starting to know the approach that has a school in the Chihuahua state to become a learning community, expecting describe how the school gathers the elements to operate as such. The method that was in use was the study of case, resting on the technologies of observation, interview and survey, same that complemented each other with the information that came from the survey and from the analysis of the “portafolio”. The case of study though it presents characteristics that demonstrate inside a community of learning as quality, collaborative work however the institution does not possess the opening and the participation of the involved ones, being an obstacle for the consolidation and benefit of the educational community; ith what there meets distant the possibility that this politics to turn to the school in a community of learning could be consolidate.

  3. Using Complementary Learning Clusters in Studying Literature to Enhance Students' Medical Humanities Literacy, Critical Thinking, and English Proficiency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liao, Hung-Chang; Wang, Ya-Huei

    2016-04-01

    This study examined whether students studying literature in complementary learning clusters would show more improvement in medical humanities literacy, critical thinking skills, and English proficiency compared to those in conventional learning clusters. Ninety-three students participated in the study (M age = 18.2 years, SD = 0.4; 36 men, 57 women). A quasi-experimental design was used over 16 weeks, with the control group (n = 47) working in conventional learning clusters and the experimental group (n = 46) working in complementary learning clusters. Complementary learning clusters were those in which individuals had complementary strengths enabling them to learn from and offer assistance to other cluster members, hypothetically facilitating the learning process. Measures included the Medical Humanities Literacy Scale, Critical Thinking Disposition Assessment, English proficiency tests, and Analytic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric. The results showed that complementary learning clusters have the potential to improve students' medical humanities literacy, critical thinking skills, and English proficiency. © The Author(s) 2016.

  4. Cluster synchronization in community network with hybrid coupling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Lixin; Jiang, Jun; Liu, Xiaojun

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • A community network model with hybrid coupling is proposed. • Control scheme is designed via combining adaptive external coupling strength and feedback control. • The influence of topology structure on synchronization of community network is discussed. - Abstract: A general model of community network with hybrid coupling is proposed in this paper. In the community network model with hybrid coupling, the inner connections are in the same type of coupling within the same community and in different types of coupling in different communities. The connections between different pair of communities are also nonidentical. Cluster synchronization of community network with hybrid coupling is investigated via adaptive couplings control scheme. Effective controllers are designed for constructing an effective control scheme and adjusting automatically the adaptive external coupling strength by taking external coupling strength as adaptive variables on a small fraction of network edges. Moreover, the impact of the topology on the synchronizability of community network is investigated. The numerical results reveal that the number of links between communities and the degree of the connector nodes have significant effects on the synchronization performance.

  5. Analyzing Learning in Professional Learning Communities: A Conceptual Framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Lare, Michelle D.; Brazer, S. David

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to build a conceptual framework that informs current understanding of how professional learning communities (PLCs) function in conjunction with organizational learning. The combination of sociocultural learning theories and organizational learning theories presents a more complete picture of PLC processes that has…

  6. Building Learning Communities: Foundations for Good Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, Alison; Ramsay, Jill; Lindfield, Helen; Couperthwaite, John

    2005-01-01

    The School of Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham provided opportunities for the development of student learning communities and online resources within the neurological module of the BSc Physiotherapy degree programme. These learning communities were designed to facilitate peer and independent learning in core aspects underpinning…

  7. When teacher clusters work: selected experiences of South African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Recent scholarship on teacher professional development has shown renewed interest in collaborative forms of teacher learning. Networks, communities of practice and clusters are related concepts that describe forms of collaboration between schools and/or teachers that encourage such learning. In South Africa, teacher ...

  8. Twenty-First Century Learning: Communities, Interaction and Ubiquitous Computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leh, Amy S.C.; Kouba, Barbara; Davis, Dirk

    2005-01-01

    Advanced technology makes 21st century learning, communities and interactions unique and leads people to an era of ubiquitous computing. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discussion of learning in the 21st century. The paper will review literature on learning community, community learning, interaction, 21st century learning and…

  9. Big Data Clustering via Community Detection and Hyperbolic Network Embedding in IoT Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karyotis, Vasileios; Tsitseklis, Konstantinos; Sotiropoulos, Konstantinos; Papavassiliou, Symeon

    2018-04-15

    In this paper, we present a novel data clustering framework for big sensory data produced by IoT applications. Based on a network representation of the relations among multi-dimensional data, data clustering is mapped to node clustering over the produced data graphs. To address the potential very large scale of such datasets/graphs that test the limits of state-of-the-art approaches, we map the problem of data clustering to a community detection one over the corresponding data graphs. Specifically, we propose a novel computational approach for enhancing the traditional Girvan-Newman (GN) community detection algorithm via hyperbolic network embedding. The data dependency graph is embedded in the hyperbolic space via Rigel embedding, allowing more efficient computation of edge-betweenness centrality needed in the GN algorithm. This allows for more efficient clustering of the nodes of the data graph in terms of modularity, without sacrificing considerable accuracy. In order to study the operation of our approach with respect to enhancing GN community detection, we employ various representative types of artificial complex networks, such as scale-free, small-world and random geometric topologies, and frequently-employed benchmark datasets for demonstrating its efficacy in terms of data clustering via community detection. Furthermore, we provide a proof-of-concept evaluation by applying the proposed framework over multi-dimensional datasets obtained from an operational smart-city/building IoT infrastructure provided by the Federated Interoperable Semantic IoT/cloud Testbeds and Applications (FIESTA-IoT) testbed federation. It is shown that the proposed framework can be indeed used for community detection/data clustering and exploited in various other IoT applications, such as performing more energy-efficient smart-city/building sensing.

  10. Learning to Learn: A Hidden Dimension within Community Dance Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barr, Sherrie

    2013-01-01

    This article explores ways of learning experienced by university dance students participating in a community dance project. The students were unfamiliar with community-based practices and found themselves needing to remediate held attitudes about dance. How the students came to approach their learning within the dance-making process drew on…

  11. Reflective learning in community-based dental education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deogade, Suryakant C; Naitam, Dinesh

    2016-01-01

    Community-based dental education (CBDE) is the implementation of dental education in a specific social context, which shifts a substantial part of dental clinical education from dental teaching institutional clinics to mainly public health settings. Dental students gain additional value from CBDE when they are guided through a reflective process of learning. We propose some key elements to the existing CBDE program that support meaningful personal learning experiences. Dental rotations of 'externships' in community-based clinical settings (CBCS) are year-long community-based placements and have proven to be strong learning environments where students develop good communication skills and better clinical reasoning and management skills. We look at the characteristics of CBDE and how the social and personal context provided in communities enhances dental education. Meaningfulness is created by the authentic context, which develops over a period of time. Structured reflection assignments and methods are suggested as key elements in the existing CBDE program. Strategies to enrich community-based learning experiences for dental students include: Photographic documentation; written narratives; critical incident reports; and mentored post-experiential small group discussions. A directed process of reflection is suggested as a way to increase the impact of the community learning experiences. We suggest key elements to the existing CBDE module so that the context-rich environment of CBDE allows for meaningful relations and experiences for dental students and enhanced learning.

  12. Teaching & Learning for International Students in a 'Learning Community': Creating, Sharing and Building Knowledge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Linzi Kemp, PhD

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available This article considers the culture of learning communities for effective teaching. A learning community is defined here as an environment where learners are brought together to share information, to learn from each other, and to create new knowledge. The individual student develops her/his own learning by building on learning from others. In a learning community approach to teaching, educators can ensure that students gain workplace skills such as collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. In this case study, it is shown how an active learning community, introduced into a blended teaching environment (face-to-face and virtual, effectively supported international undergraduates in the building of knowledge and workplace skills.

  13. Overlapping communities from dense disjoint and high total degree clusters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hongli; Gao, Yang; Zhang, Yue

    2018-04-01

    Community plays an important role in the field of sociology, biology and especially in domains of computer science, where systems are often represented as networks. And community detection is of great importance in the domains. A community is a dense subgraph of the whole graph with more links between its members than between its members to the outside nodes, and nodes in the same community probably share common properties or play similar roles in the graph. Communities overlap when nodes in a graph belong to multiple communities. A vast variety of overlapping community detection methods have been proposed in the literature, and the local expansion method is one of the most successful techniques dealing with large networks. The paper presents a density-based seeding method, in which dense disjoint local clusters are searched and selected as seeds. The proposed method selects a seed by the total degree and density of local clusters utilizing merely local structures of the network. Furthermore, this paper proposes a novel community refining phase via minimizing the conductance of each community, through which the quality of identified communities is largely improved in linear time. Experimental results in synthetic networks show that the proposed seeding method outperforms other seeding methods in the state of the art and the proposed refining method largely enhances the quality of the identified communities. Experimental results in real graphs with ground-truth communities show that the proposed approach outperforms other state of the art overlapping community detection algorithms, in particular, it is more than two orders of magnitude faster than the existing global algorithms with higher quality, and it obtains much more accurate community structure than the current local algorithms without any priori information.

  14. A Novel Text Clustering Approach Using Deep-Learning Vocabulary Network

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Junkai Yi

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Text clustering is an effective approach to collect and organize text documents into meaningful groups for mining valuable information on the Internet. However, there exist some issues to tackle such as feature extraction and data dimension reduction. To overcome these problems, we present a novel approach named deep-learning vocabulary network. The vocabulary network is constructed based on related-word set, which contains the “cooccurrence” relations of words or terms. We replace term frequency in feature vectors with the “importance” of words in terms of vocabulary network and PageRank, which can generate more precise feature vectors to represent the meaning of text clustering. Furthermore, sparse-group deep belief network is proposed to reduce the dimensionality of feature vectors, and we introduce coverage rate for similarity measure in Single-Pass clustering. To verify the effectiveness of our work, we compare the approach to the representative algorithms, and experimental results show that feature vectors in terms of deep-learning vocabulary network have better clustering performance.

  15. Virtual screening by a new Clustering-based Weighted Similarity Extreme Learning Machine approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasupa, Kitsuchart; Kudisthalert, Wasu

    2018-01-01

    Machine learning techniques are becoming popular in virtual screening tasks. One of the powerful machine learning algorithms is Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) which has been applied to many applications and has recently been applied to virtual screening. We propose the Weighted Similarity ELM (WS-ELM) which is based on a single layer feed-forward neural network in a conjunction of 16 different similarity coefficients as activation function in the hidden layer. It is known that the performance of conventional ELM is not robust due to random weight selection in the hidden layer. Thus, we propose a Clustering-based WS-ELM (CWS-ELM) that deterministically assigns weights by utilising clustering algorithms i.e. k-means clustering and support vector clustering. The experiments were conducted on one of the most challenging datasets-Maximum Unbiased Validation Dataset-which contains 17 activity classes carefully selected from PubChem. The proposed algorithms were then compared with other machine learning techniques such as support vector machine, random forest, and similarity searching. The results show that CWS-ELM in conjunction with support vector clustering yields the best performance when utilised together with Sokal/Sneath(1) coefficient. Furthermore, ECFP_6 fingerprint presents the best results in our framework compared to the other types of fingerprints, namely ECFP_4, FCFP_4, and FCFP_6.

  16. Big Data Clustering via Community Detection and Hyperbolic Network Embedding in IoT Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vasileios Karyotis

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we present a novel data clustering framework for big sensory data produced by IoT applications. Based on a network representation of the relations among multi-dimensional data, data clustering is mapped to node clustering over the produced data graphs. To address the potential very large scale of such datasets/graphs that test the limits of state-of-the-art approaches, we map the problem of data clustering to a community detection one over the corresponding data graphs. Specifically, we propose a novel computational approach for enhancing the traditional Girvan–Newman (GN community detection algorithm via hyperbolic network embedding. The data dependency graph is embedded in the hyperbolic space via Rigel embedding, allowing more efficient computation of edge-betweenness centrality needed in the GN algorithm. This allows for more efficient clustering of the nodes of the data graph in terms of modularity, without sacrificing considerable accuracy. In order to study the operation of our approach with respect to enhancing GN community detection, we employ various representative types of artificial complex networks, such as scale-free, small-world and random geometric topologies, and frequently-employed benchmark datasets for demonstrating its efficacy in terms of data clustering via community detection. Furthermore, we provide a proof-of-concept evaluation by applying the proposed framework over multi-dimensional datasets obtained from an operational smart-city/building IoT infrastructure provided by the Federated Interoperable Semantic IoT/cloud Testbeds and Applications (FIESTA-IoT testbed federation. It is shown that the proposed framework can be indeed used for community detection/data clustering and exploited in various other IoT applications, such as performing more energy-efficient smart-city/building sensing.

  17. Improving the quality of learning in science through optimization of lesson study for learning community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Setyaningsih, S.

    2018-03-01

    Lesson Study for Learning Community is one of lecturer profession building system through collaborative and continuous learning study based on the principles of openness, collegiality, and mutual learning to build learning community in order to form professional learning community. To achieve the above, we need a strategy and learning method with specific subscription technique. This paper provides a description of how the quality of learning in the field of science can be improved by implementing strategies and methods accordingly, namely by applying lesson study for learning community optimally. Initially this research was focused on the study of instructional techniques. Learning method used is learning model Contextual teaching and Learning (CTL) and model of Problem Based Learning (PBL). The results showed that there was a significant increase in competence, attitudes, and psychomotor in the four study programs that were modelled. Therefore, it can be concluded that the implementation of learning strategies in Lesson study for Learning Community is needed to be used to improve the competence, attitude and psychomotor of science students.

  18. Health-related hot topic detection in online communities using text clustering.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yingjie Lu

    Full Text Available Recently, health-related social media services, especially online health communities, have rapidly emerged. Patients with various health conditions participate in online health communities to share their experiences and exchange healthcare knowledge. Exploring hot topics in online health communities helps us better understand patients' needs and interest in health-related knowledge. However, the statistical topic analysis employed in previous studies is becoming impractical for processing the rapidly increasing amount of online data. Automatic topic detection based on document clustering is an alternative approach for extracting health-related hot topics in online communities. In addition to the keyword-based features used in traditional text clustering, we integrate medical domain-specific features to represent the messages posted in online health communities. Three disease discussion boards, including boards devoted to lung cancer, breast cancer and diabetes, from an online health community are used to test the effectiveness of topic detection. Experiment results demonstrate that health-related hot topics primarily include symptoms, examinations, drugs, procedures and complications. Further analysis reveals that there also exist some significant differences among the hot topics discussed on different types of disease discussion boards.

  19. Virtual Communities of Collaborative Learning for Higher Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gilda E. Sotomayor

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available This article aims to outline and project three new learning scenarios for Higher Education that, after the emergence of ICT and communication through the Network-lnternet, have come under the generic name of virtual communities. To that end, we start from a previous conceptual analysis on collaborative learning, cooperative learning and related concepts taking place in these communities and serving as a basis for sorting them into three types in particular: communities of educational work of professional practice and scientific knowledge. Virtual communities where the activities undertaken and skills acquired are set as important parts of our personal learning development, wich are necessary to build the Knowledge Society.

  20. Using an academic-community partnership model and blended learning to advance community health nursing pedagogy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ezeonwu, Mabel; Berkowitz, Bobbie; Vlasses, Frances R

    2014-01-01

    This article describes a model of teaching community health nursing that evolved from a long-term partnership with a community with limited existing health programs. The partnership supported RN-BSN students' integration in the community and resulted in reciprocal gains for faculty, students and community members. Community clients accessed public health services as a result of the partnership. A blended learning approach that combines face-to-face interactions, service learning and online activities was utilized to enhance students' learning. Following classroom sessions, students actively participated in community-based educational process through comprehensive health needs assessments, planning and implementation of disease prevention and health promotion activities for community clients. Such active involvement in an underserved community deepened students' awareness of the fundamentals of community health practice. Students were challenged to view public health from a broader perspective while analyzing the impacts of social determinants of health on underserved populations. Through asynchronous online interactions, students synthesized classroom and community activities through critical thinking. This paper describes a model for teaching community health nursing that informs students' learning through blended learning, and meets the demands for community health nursing services delivery. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  1. Why STEM Learning Communities Work: The Development of Psychosocial Learning Factors through Social Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrino, Stephanie Sedberry; Gerace, William J.

    2016-01-01

    STEM learning communities facilitate student academic success and persistence in science disciplines. This prompted us to explore the underlying factors that make learning communities successful. In this paper, we report findings from an illustrative case study of a 2-year STEM-based learning community designed to identify and describe these…

  2. Designing Professional Learning Communities through Understanding the Beliefs of Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ke, Jie; Kang, Rui; Liu, Di

    2016-01-01

    This study was designed to initiate the process of building professional development learning communities for pre-service math teachers through revealing those teachers' conceptions/beliefs of students' learning and their own learning in China. It examines Chinese pre-service math teachers' conceptions of student learning and their related…

  3. 75 FR 35881 - Smaller Learning Communities Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-06-23

    ... Part II Department of Education Smaller Learning Communities Program; Notice #0;#0;Federal... EDUCATION Smaller Learning Communities Program Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.215L. AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Education. ACTION: Notice of final...

  4. Integrating Community into the Classroom: Community Gardening, Community Involvement, and Project-Based Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Langhout, Regina Day; Rappaport, Julian; Simmons, Doretha

    2002-01-01

    Culturally relevant, ongoing project-based learning was facilitated in a predominantly African American urban elementary school via a community garden project. The project involved teachers, students, university members, and community members. This article evaluates the project through two classroom-community collaboration models, noting common…

  5. A Coupled User Clustering Algorithm Based on Mixed Data for Web-Based Learning Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ke Niu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In traditional Web-based learning systems, due to insufficient learning behaviors analysis and personalized study guides, a few user clustering algorithms are introduced. While analyzing the behaviors with these algorithms, researchers generally focus on continuous data but easily neglect discrete data, each of which is generated from online learning actions. Moreover, there are implicit coupled interactions among the data but are frequently ignored in the introduced algorithms. Therefore, a mass of significant information which can positively affect clustering accuracy is neglected. To solve the above issues, we proposed a coupled user clustering algorithm for Wed-based learning systems by taking into account both discrete and continuous data, as well as intracoupled and intercoupled interactions of the data. The experiment result in this paper demonstrates the outperformance of the proposed algorithm.

  6. Service-learning and learning communities: two innovative school projects that are mutually enriched

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carmen ÁLVAREZ ÁLVAREZ

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This article reflects on the interrelationships that exist between two educational projects of today: service-learning (ApS and learning communities (CdA. The ApS is an educational methodology applied worldwide where a single project combines a learning based on experience with the implementation of a service to the community. CdA is a school transformation project to achieve that the information society does not exclude any person, constituting a reality in more than one hundred and ninety schools in Spain and Latin America. Between the two, it is possible to show differences, especially in what refers to its theoretical substrates, but in actual teaching practice in schools there is some harmony, particularly in the so closely that they cultivate both projects with the school community. Therefore, we conclude that service-learning and learning communities can occur as two innovative and relevant today projects which can be mutually enriching: because for both the approach school-community-environment and volunteering is essential.

  7. Epistemic Communities, Situated Learning and Open Source Software Development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Edwards, Kasper

    2001-01-01

    This paper analyses open source software (OSS) development as an epistemic community where each individual project is perceived as a single epistemic community. OSS development is a learning process where the involved parties contribute to, and learn from the community. It is discovered that theory...... of epistemic communities does indeed contribute to the understanding of open source software development. But, the important learning process of open source software development is not readily explained. The paper then introduces situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation as theoretical...

  8. International learning communities for global and localcitizenship

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hana Cervinkova

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, I describe our ongoing international project in engaged educationalethnography and participatory action research with young adults and consider itsrelevance for a discussion on the community-building role of adult education in aglobalized context. I use the example of our case study to suggest that adult educatorscan generate viable communities by creating learning spaces that nurture criticalconsciousness, a sense of agency, participation and social solidarity amonginternationally and culturally diverse young adult learners. Furthermore, I argue thatparticipation in international learning communities formed through this educationalprocess can potentially help young adults become locally and globally engaged citizens.International learning communities for global citizenship thus present a proposition forconceptualizing the vital role of adult community education in supporting democraticglobal and local citizenship in a world defined in terms of cross-cultural and longdistanceencounters in the formation of culture.

  9. Unsupervised Learning (Clustering) of Odontocete Echolocation Clicks

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-09-30

    develop methods for clustering of marine mammal echolocation clicks to learn about species assemblages where little or no prior knowledge exists about... Mexico or the Atlanic. 2 APPROACH Acoustic encounters with odontocetes are detected automatically and noise-corrected cepstral features...Estmation of Marine Mammals Using Passive Acoustic Monitoring (DCLDE). KL divergence maps were created for all known species, but the sperm whale

  10. Personal Learning Network Clusters: A Comparison between Mathematics and Computer Science Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harding, Ansie; Engelbrecht, Johann

    2015-01-01

    "Personal learning environments" (PLEs) and "personal learning networks" (PLNs) are well-known concepts. A personal learning network "cluster" is a small group of people who regularly interact academically and whose PLNs have a non-empty intersection that includes all the other members. At university level PLN…

  11. Learning from Community: Agenda for Citizenship Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghosh, Sujay

    2015-01-01

    Citizenship is about individual's membership in the socio-political community. Education for citizenship conceives issues such as quality education, learning society and inclusion. Educational thinking in India has long valued community as a learning resource. With empirical experiences drawn from the programme of "Ecology and Natural…

  12. Bullying in Virtual Learning Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikiforos, Stefanos; Tzanavaris, Spyros; Kermanidis, Katia Lida

    2017-01-01

    Bullying through the internet has been investigated and analyzed mainly in the field of social media. In this paper, it is attempted to analyze bullying in the Virtual Learning Communities using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, mainly in the context of sociocultural learning theories. Therefore four case studies took place. We aim to apply NLP techniques to speech analysis on communication data of online communities. Emphasis is given on qualitative data, taking into account the subjectivity of the collaborative activity. Finally, this is the first time such type of analysis is attempted on Greek data.

  13. Transitioning from learning healthcare systems to learning health care communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mullins, C Daniel; Wingate, La'Marcus T; Edwards, Hillary A; Tofade, Toyin; Wutoh, Anthony

    2018-02-26

    The learning healthcare system (LHS) model framework has three core, foundational components. These include an infrastructure for health-related data capture, care improvement targets and a supportive policy environment. Despite progress in advancing and implementing LHS approaches, low levels of participation from patients and the public have hampered the transformational potential of the LHS model. An enhanced vision of a community-engaged LHS redesign would focus on the provision of health care from the patient and community perspective to complement the healthcare system as the entity that provides the environment for care. Addressing the LHS framework implementation challenges and utilizing community levers are requisite components of a learning health care community model, version two of the LHS archetype.

  14. Analysis of Learning Development With Sugeno Fuzzy Logic And Clustering

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maulana Erwin Saputra

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available In the first journal, I made this attempt to analyze things that affect the achievement of students in each school of course vary. Because students are one of the goals of achieving the goals of successful educational organizations. The mental influence of students’ emotions and behaviors themselves in relation to learning performance. Fuzzy logic can be used in various fields as well as Clustering for grouping, as in Learning Development analyzes. The process will be performed on students based on the symptoms that exist. In this research will use fuzzy logic and clustering. Fuzzy is an uncertain logic but its excess is capable in the process of language reasoning so that in its design is not required complicated mathematical equations. However Clustering method is K-Means method is method where data analysis is broken down by group k (k = 1,2,3, .. k. To know the optimal number of Performance group. The results of the research is with a questionnaire entered into matlab will produce a value that means in generating the graph. And simplify the school in seeing Student performance in the learning process by using certain criteria. So from the system that obtained the results for a decision-making required by the school.

  15. Computer-facilitated community building for E-learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijholt, Antinus; Petrushin, V.; Kommers, Petrus A.M.; Kinshuk, X.; Galeev, I.

    2002-01-01

    This is a short survey of tools and ideas that are helpful for community building for E-learning. The underlying assumption in the survey is that community building for students and teachers in a joint learning and teaching situation is useful. Especially student-student interaction in student life

  16. Proposing Community-Based Learning in the Marketing Curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cadwallader, Susan; Atwong, Catherine; Lebard, Aubrey

    2013-01-01

    Community service and service learning (CS&SL) exposes students to the business practice of giving back to society while reinforcing classroom learning in an applied real-world setting. However, does the CS&SL format provide a better means of instilling the benefits of community service among marketing students than community-based…

  17. Holding the Reins of the Professional Learning Community: Eight Themes from Research on Principals' Perceptions of Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cranston, Jerome

    2009-01-01

    Using a naturalistic inquiry approach and thematic analysis, this paper outlines the findings of a research study that examined 12 Manitoba principals' conceptions of professional learning communities. The study found that these principals consider the development of professional learning communities to be a normative imperative within the…

  18. Machine learning etudes in astrophysics: selection functions for mock cluster catalogs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hajian, Amir; Alvarez, Marcelo A.; Bond, J. Richard, E-mail: ahajian@cita.utoronto.ca, E-mail: malvarez@cita.utoronto.ca, E-mail: bond@cita.utoronto.ca [Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8 (Canada)

    2015-01-01

    Making mock simulated catalogs is an important component of astrophysical data analysis. Selection criteria for observed astronomical objects are often too complicated to be derived from first principles. However the existence of an observed group of objects is a well-suited problem for machine learning classification. In this paper we use one-class classifiers to learn the properties of an observed catalog of clusters of galaxies from ROSAT and to pick clusters from mock simulations that resemble the observed ROSAT catalog. We show how this method can be used to study the cross-correlations of thermal Sunya'ev-Zeldovich signals with number density maps of X-ray selected cluster catalogs. The method reduces the bias due to hand-tuning the selection function and is readily scalable to large catalogs with a high-dimensional space of astrophysical features.

  19. Machine learning etudes in astrophysics: selection functions for mock cluster catalogs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hajian, Amir; Alvarez, Marcelo A.; Bond, J. Richard

    2015-01-01

    Making mock simulated catalogs is an important component of astrophysical data analysis. Selection criteria for observed astronomical objects are often too complicated to be derived from first principles. However the existence of an observed group of objects is a well-suited problem for machine learning classification. In this paper we use one-class classifiers to learn the properties of an observed catalog of clusters of galaxies from ROSAT and to pick clusters from mock simulations that resemble the observed ROSAT catalog. We show how this method can be used to study the cross-correlations of thermal Sunya'ev-Zeldovich signals with number density maps of X-ray selected cluster catalogs. The method reduces the bias due to hand-tuning the selection function and is readily scalable to large catalogs with a high-dimensional space of astrophysical features

  20. Integrative and Deep Learning through a Learning Community: A Process View of Self

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahoney, Sandra; Schamber, Jon

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated deep learning produced in a community of general education courses. Student speeches on liberal education were analyzed for discovering a grounded theory of ideas about self. The study found that learning communities cultivate deep, integrative learning that makes the value of a liberal education relevant to students.…

  1. Permutation Tests of Hierarchical Cluster Analyses of Carrion Communities and Their Potential Use in Forensic Entomology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Ham, Joris L

    2016-05-19

    Forensic entomologists can use carrion communities' ecological succession data to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI). Permutation tests of hierarchical cluster analyses of these data provide a conceptual method to estimate part of the PMI, the post-colonization interval (post-CI). This multivariate approach produces a baseline of statistically distinct clusters that reflect changes in the carrion community composition during the decomposition process. Carrion community samples of unknown post-CIs are compared with these baseline clusters to estimate the post-CI. In this short communication, I use data from previously published studies to demonstrate the conceptual feasibility of this multivariate approach. Analyses of these data produce series of significantly distinct clusters, which represent carrion communities during 1- to 20-day periods of the decomposition process. For 33 carrion community samples, collected over an 11-day period, this approach correctly estimated the post-CI within an average range of 3.1 days. © The Authors 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  2. Learning Based Approach for Optimal Clustering of Distributed Program's Call Flow Graph

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abofathi, Yousef; Zarei, Bager; Parsa, Saeed

    Optimal clustering of call flow graph for reaching maximum concurrency in execution of distributable components is one of the NP-Complete problems. Learning automatas (LAs) are search tools which are used for solving many NP-Complete problems. In this paper a learning based algorithm is proposed to optimal clustering of call flow graph and appropriate distributing of programs in network level. The algorithm uses learning feature of LAs to search in state space. It has been shown that the speed of reaching to solution increases remarkably using LA in search process, and it also prevents algorithm from being trapped in local minimums. Experimental results show the superiority of proposed algorithm over others.

  3. Healthcare Learning Community and Student Retention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Sherryl W.

    2014-01-01

    Teaching, learning, and retention processes have evolved historically to include multifaceted techniques beyond the traditional lecture. This article presents related results of a study using a healthcare learning community in a southwest Georgia university. The value of novel techniques and tools in promoting student learning and retention…

  4. A Professional Learning Community Approach

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper provides insights into how Life Sciences teachers in the Eastern Cape can be supported through professional learning communities (PLCs) as a potential approach to enhancing their biodiversity knowledge. PLCs are communities that provide the setting and necessary support for groups of classroom teachers to ...

  5. Implementing Enrichment Clusters in Elementary Schools: Lessons Learned

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fiddyment, Gail E.

    2014-01-01

    Enrichment clusters offer a way for schools to encourage a high level of learning as students and adults work together to develop a product, service, or performance by applying advanced knowledge and authentic processes to real-world problems. This study utilized a qualitative research design to examine the perceptions and experiences of two…

  6. A professional learning community model: a case study of primary teachers community in west Bandung

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sari, A.; Suryadi, D.; Syaodih, E.

    2018-05-01

    The purpose of this study is to provide an alternative model of professional learning community for primary school teachers in improving the knowledge and professional skills. This study is a qualitative research with case study method with data collection is an interview, observation and document and triangulation technique for validation data that focuses on thirteen people 5th grade elementary school teacher. The results showed that by joining a professional learning community, teachers can share both experience and knowledge to other colleagues so that they can be able to continue to improve and enhance the quality of their learning. This happens because of the reflection done together before, during and after the learning activities. It was also revealed that by learning in a professional learning community, teachers can learn in their own way, according to need, and can collaborate with their colleagues in improving the effectiveness of learning. Based on the implementation of professional learning community primary school teachers can be concluded that teachers can develop the curriculum, the students understand the development, overcome learning difficulties faced by students and can make learning design more effective and efficient.

  7. Learning to walk the community of practice tightrope

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denise Edgar

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Background: The Community of Practice Research was established as a new local health district service initiative. The community comprises novice and experienced multidisciplinary health researchers. Aims: This paper reflects our experience of being Community of Practice Research members and aims to explore the practice development principles aligned to the purpose, progress and outcomes of this community. Conclusions: The journey is compared to walking a tightrope from the beginning to the end. Success in moving forward is attributed to positive leadership and group dynamics enabling a supportive environment. This environment allowed for different types of learning: new research skills and new understandings about oneself. Competing demands such as fluctuating membership and leadership, and the selection of a large initial project were identified as barriers to the Community of Practice Research. Implications for practice: As well as contributing to communities’ shared goals members should identify and make explicit their own learning goals to themselves, the community and their managers Community of practice meetings should include regular facilitated reflection about the learning that is occurring, the challenges and assumptions being made by the group, and the way forward A community of practice uses social processes to aid learning and collaboration across disciplines and organisations and therefore has potential to promote local culture change

  8. E-learning or educational leaflet: does it make a difference in oral health promotion? A clustered randomized trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al Bardaweel, Susan; Dashash, Mayssoon

    2018-05-10

    The early recognition of technology together with great ability to use computers and smart systems have promoted researchers to investigate the possibilities of utilizing technology for improving health care in children. The aim of this study was to compare between the traditional educational leaflets and E-applications in improving oral health knowledge, oral hygiene and gingival health in schoolchildren of Damascus city, Syria. A clustered randomized controlled trial at two public primary schools was performed. About 220 schoolchildren aged 10-11 years were included in this study and grouped into two clusters. Children in Leaflet cluster received oral health education through leaflets, while children in E-learning cluster received oral health education through an E-learning program. A questionnaire was designed to register information related to oral health knowledge and to record Plaque and Gingival indices. Questionnaire administration and clinical assessment were undertaken at baseline, 6 and at 12 weeks of oral health education. Data was analysed using one way repeated measures ANOVA, post hoc Bonferroni test and independent samples t-test. Leaflet cluster (107 participants) had statistically significant better oral health knowledge than E-learning cluster (104 participants) at 6 weeks (P E-learning cluster:100 participants). The mean knowledge gain compared to baseline was higher in Leaflet cluster than in E-learning cluster. A significant reduction in the PI means at 6 weeks and 12 weeks was observed in both clusters (P E-learning cluster at 6 weeks (P E-learning cluster at 6 weeks (P < 0.05) and 12 weeks (P < 0.05). Traditional educational leaflets are an effective tool in the improvement of both oral health knowledge as well as clinical indices of oral hygiene and care among Syrian children. Leaflets can be used in school-based oral health education for a positive outcome. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ( ACTRN

  9. Student Motivation and Learning in Mathematics and Science: A Cluster Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Betsy L. L.; Liu, W. C.; Wang, John C. K.

    2016-01-01

    The present study focused on an in-depth understanding of student motivation and self-regulated learning in mathematics and science through cluster analysis. It examined the different learning profiles of motivational beliefs and self-regulatory strategies in relation to perceived teacher autonomy support, basic psychological needs (i.e. autonomy,…

  10. Distance Learning for Community Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Anthony A.

    2010-01-01

    This article takes a look at the influence of technology on curriculum and teaching. It specifically examines the new wave of available technology and the opportunity for schools to make inroads into community outreach by engaging new, technological learning methods. The relationship among community education, public school relations, and distance…

  11. Clustering and Candidate Motif Detection in Exosomal miRNAs by Application of Machine Learning Algorithms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaur, Pallavi; Chaturvedi, Anoop

    2017-07-22

    The clustering pattern and motifs give immense information about any biological data. An application of machine learning algorithms for clustering and candidate motif detection in miRNAs derived from exosomes is depicted in this paper. Recent progress in the field of exosome research and more particularly regarding exosomal miRNAs has led much bioinformatic-based research to come into existence. The information on clustering pattern and candidate motifs in miRNAs of exosomal origin would help in analyzing existing, as well as newly discovered miRNAs within exosomes. Along with obtaining clustering pattern and candidate motifs in exosomal miRNAs, this work also elaborates the usefulness of the machine learning algorithms that can be efficiently used and executed on various programming languages/platforms. Data were clustered and sequence candidate motifs were detected successfully. The results were compared and validated with some available web tools such as 'BLASTN' and 'MEME suite'. The machine learning algorithms for aforementioned objectives were applied successfully. This work elaborated utility of machine learning algorithms and language platforms to achieve the tasks of clustering and candidate motif detection in exosomal miRNAs. With the information on mentioned objectives, deeper insight would be gained for analyses of newly discovered miRNAs in exosomes which are considered to be circulating biomarkers. In addition, the execution of machine learning algorithms on various language platforms gives more flexibility to users to try multiple iterations according to their requirements. This approach can be applied to other biological data-mining tasks as well.

  12. Cluster synchronization of community network with distributed time delays via impulsive control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leng Hui; Wu Zhao-Yan

    2016-01-01

    Cluster synchronization is an important dynamical behavior in community networks and deserves further investigations. A community network with distributed time delays is investigated in this paper. For achieving cluster synchronization, an impulsive control scheme is introduced to design proper controllers and an adaptive strategy is adopted to make the impulsive controllers unified for different networks. Through taking advantage of the linear matrix inequality technique and constructing Lyapunov functions, some synchronization criteria with respect to the impulsive gains, instants, and system parameters without adaptive strategy are obtained and generalized to the adaptive case. Finally, numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results. (paper)

  13. Perceptions of School Principals on Participation in Professional Learning Communities as Job-Embedded Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaudioso, Jennifer A.

    2017-01-01

    Perceptions of School Principals on Participation in Professional Learning Communities as Job-Embedded Learning Jennifer Gaudioso Principal Professional Learning Communities (PPLCs) have emerged as a vehicle for professional development of principals, but there is little research on how principals experience PPLCs or how districts can support…

  14. Community Clustering Algorithm in Complex Networks Based on Microcommunity Fusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin Qi

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available With the further research on physical meaning and digital features of the community structure in complex networks in recent years, the improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of the community mining algorithms in complex networks has become an important subject in this area. This paper puts forward a concept of the microcommunity and gets final mining results of communities through fusing different microcommunities. This paper starts with the basic definition of the network community and applies Expansion to the microcommunity clustering which provides prerequisites for the microcommunity fusion. The proposed algorithm is more efficient and has higher solution quality compared with other similar algorithms through the analysis of test results based on network data set.

  15. When teacher clusters work: selected experiences of South African teachers with the cluster approach to professional development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Loyiso C Jita

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Recent scholarship on teacher professional development has shown renewed interest in collaborative forms of teacher learning. Networks, communities of practice and clusters are related concepts that describe forms of collaboration between schools and/or teachers that encourage such learning. In South Africa, teacher clusters represent a relatively recent and popular experiment in teacher professional development. However, there is no verdict yet about their effectiveness. While the utility of such collaborative structures for teacher learning is fairly well established in many developed countries, we still know very little about how the intended beneficiaries (the teachers experience these non-traditional structures of professional development. Using qualitative data from a large-scale research project, we explore teachers' perspectives on what constitutes a successful clustering experience, and the kinds of professional development benefits they derive from their participation therein. Our major findings are twofold: First, clusters seem to enhance teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Second, and somewhat unexpectedly, the teachers identified another set of benefits, the so-called "process benefits" that include collaboration, instructional guidance and teacher leadership. In a context where teachers have tended to work solo and insulated their classroom practices from influence, the presence of the "process benefits" represents a significant finding. We conclude the paper by exploring several possible directions for further research on these process benefits of clusters for teachers in South Africa and elsewhere.

  16. An Examination of the Impact of Learning Communities on Job

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilmes, David M.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between learning community participation and job/major congruence. Previous research has demonstrated that learning communities are effective vehicles for promoting student and institutional outcomes. However, few studies have examined the impact of learning communities on alumni or career…

  17. Engaging students in a community of learning: Renegotiating the learning environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theobald, Karen A; Windsor, Carol A; Forster, Elizabeth M

    2018-03-01

    Promoting student engagement in a student led environment can be challenging. This article reports on the process of design, implementation and evaluation of a student led learning approach in a small group tutorial environment in a three year Bachelor of Nursing program at an Australian university. The research employed three phases of data collection. The first phase explored student perceptions of learning and engagement in tutorials. The results informed the development of a web based learning resource. Phase two centred on implementation of a community of learning approach where students were supported to lead tutorial learning with peers. The final phase constituted an evaluation of the new approach. Findings suggest that students have the capacity to lead and engage in a community of learning and to assume greater ownership and responsibility where scaffolding is provided. Nonetheless, an ongoing whole of course approach to pedagogical change would better support this form of teaching and learning innovation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Learning Analytics for Communities of Inquiry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kovanovic, Vitomir; Gaševic, Dragan; Hatala, Marek

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes doctoral research that focuses on the development of a learning analytics framework for inquiry-based digital learning. Building on the Community of Inquiry model (CoI)--a foundation commonly used in the research and practice of digital learning and teaching--this research builds on the existing body of knowledge in two…

  19. Community action research track: Community-based participatory research and service-learning experiences for medical students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gimpel, Nora; Kindratt, Tiffany; Dawson, Alvin; Pagels, Patti

    2018-04-01

    Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and service-learning are unique experiential approaches designed to train medical students how to provide individualized patient care from a population perspective. Medical schools in the US are required to provide support for service-learning and community projects. Despite this requirement, few medical schools offer structured service-learning. We developed the Community Action Research Track (CART) to integrate population medicine, health promotion/disease prevention and the social determinants of health into the medical school curriculum through CBPR and service-learning experiences. This article provides an overview of CART and reports the program impact based on students' participation, preliminary evaluations and accomplishments. CART is an optional 4‑year service-learning experience for medical students interested in community health. The curriculum includes a coordinated longitudinal program of electives, community service-learning and lecture-based instruction. From 2009-2015, 146 CART students participated. Interests in public health (93%), community service (73%), primary care (73%), CBPR (60%) and community medicine (60%) were the top reasons for enrolment. Significant improvements in mean knowledge were found when measuring the principles of CBPR, levels of prevention, determining health literacy and patient communication strategies (all p's Projects were disseminated by at least 65 posters and four oral presentations at local, national and international professional meetings. Six manuscripts were published in peer-reviewed journals. CART is an innovative curriculum for training future physicians to be community-responsive physicians. CART can be replicated by other medical schools interested in offering a longitudinal CBPR and service-learning track in an urban metropolitan setting.

  20. Investigations of Calorimeter Clustering in ATLAS using Machine Learning

    CERN Document Server

    AUTHOR|(CDS)2153685

    The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is designed to search for new physics by colliding protons with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The ATLAS detector is a multipurpose particle detector built to record these proton-proton collisions. In order to improve sensitivity to new physics at the LHC, luminosity increases are planned for 2018 and beyond. With this greater luminosity comes an increase in the number of simultaneous proton-proton collisions per bunch crossing (pile-up). This extra pile- up has adverse effects on algorithms for clustering the ATLAS detector's calorimeter cells. These adverse effects stem from overlapping energy deposits originating from distinct particles and could lead to diffculties in accurately reconstructing events. Machine learning algorithms provide a new tool that has potential to clustering per- formance. Recent developments in computer science have given rise to new set of machine learning algorithms that, in many circumstances, out-perform more conven- tional algorithms....

  1. 21st Century Community Learning Centers: Providing Afterschool and Summer Learning Support to Communities Nationwide

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afterschool Alliance, 2014

    2014-01-01

    The 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative is the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to before-school, afterschool, and summer learning programs. Each state education agency receives funds based on its share of Title I funding for low-income students at high-poverty, low performing schools. Funds are also…

  2. Community garden: A bridging program between formal and informal learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ranjan Datta

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Community garden activities can play a significant role in bridging formal and informal learning, particularly in urban children’s science and environmental education. It promotes relational methods of learning, discussing, and practicing that will integrate food security, social interactions, community development, environmental activism, and cultural integration. Throughout the last five years of my community garden activities, I have learned that community garden-based practices adhere to particular forms of agency: embracing diversity, sharing power, and trust building as a part of everyday learning. My auto-ethnographic study provides valuable insights for environmental educators whose goals include, incorporating ethnic diversity as well as engaging children in research, ultimately leading to community action.

  3. Effective Strategies for Sustaining Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennett, Patricia R.

    2010-01-01

    Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), in which educators work collaboratively to improve learning for students, need effective strategies to sustain them. PLCs promote continuous improvement in student learning and build academic success with increased teacher expertise. Grounded in organizational systems theory, participative leadership…

  4. Guidelines for Lifelong Education Management to Mobilize Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charungkaittikul, Suwithida

    2018-01-01

    This article is a study of the guidelines for lifelong education management to mobilize learning communities in the social-cultural context of Thailand is intended to 1) analyze and synthesize the management of lifelong learning to mobilize learning community in the social-cultural context of Thailand; and 2) propose guidelines for lifelong…

  5. Social networks and performance in distributed learning communities

    OpenAIRE

    Cadima, Rita; Ojeda Rodríguez, Jordi; Monguet Fierro, José María

    2012-01-01

    Social networks play an essential role in learning environments as a key channel for knowledge sharing and students' support. In distributed learning communities, knowledge sharing does not occur as spontaneously as when a working group shares the same physical space; knowledge sharing depends even more on student informal connections. In this study we analyse two distributed learning communities' social networks in order to understand how characteristics of the social structure can enhance s...

  6. Engaging Karen refugee students in science learning through a cross-cultural learning community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harper, Susan G.

    2017-02-01

    This research explored how Karen (first-generation refugees from Burma) elementary students engaged with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) practice of constructing scientific explanations based on evidence within the context of a cross-cultural learning community. In this action research, the researcher and a Karen parent served as co-teachers for fourth- and fifth-grade Karen and non-Karen students in a science and culture after-school programme in a public elementary school in the rural southeastern United States. Photovoice provided a critical platform for students to create their own cultural discourses for the learning community. The theoretical framework of critical pedagogy of place provided a way for the learning community to decolonise and re-inhabit the learning spaces with knowledge they co-constructed. Narrative analysis of video transcripts of the after-school programme, ethnographic interviews, and focus group discussions from Photovoice revealed a pattern of emerging agency by Karen students in the scientific practice of constructing scientific explanations based on evidence and in Karen language lessons. This evidence suggests that science learning embedded within a cross-cultural learning community can empower refugee students to construct their own hybrid cultural knowledge and leverage that knowledge to engage in a meaningful way with the epistemology of science.

  7. A general picture of the learning communities: characteristics, similarities and differences.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Verkleij, K.A.M.; Francke, A.L.; Voordouw, I.; Albers, M.; Gobbens, R.J.J.

    2016-01-01

    Background: Because learning communities of community care nurses and nursing lectures are a new phenomenon, it is of interest to evaluate en monitor the learning communities. the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, NIVEL, was commissioned to monitor the realization of the learning

  8. Why so GLUMM? Detecting depression clusters through graphing lifestyle-environs using machine-learning methods (GLUMM).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dipnall, J F; Pasco, J A; Berk, M; Williams, L J; Dodd, S; Jacka, F N; Meyer, D

    2017-01-01

    Key lifestyle-environ risk factors are operative for depression, but it is unclear how risk factors cluster. Machine-learning (ML) algorithms exist that learn, extract, identify and map underlying patterns to identify groupings of depressed individuals without constraints. The aim of this research was to use a large epidemiological study to identify and characterise depression clusters through "Graphing lifestyle-environs using machine-learning methods" (GLUMM). Two ML algorithms were implemented: unsupervised Self-organised mapping (SOM) to create GLUMM clusters and a supervised boosted regression algorithm to describe clusters. Ninety-six "lifestyle-environ" variables were used from the National health and nutrition examination study (2009-2010). Multivariate logistic regression validated clusters and controlled for possible sociodemographic confounders. The SOM identified two GLUMM cluster solutions. These solutions contained one dominant depressed cluster (GLUMM5-1, GLUMM7-1). Equal proportions of members in each cluster rated as highly depressed (17%). Alcohol consumption and demographics validated clusters. Boosted regression identified GLUMM5-1 as more informative than GLUMM7-1. Members were more likely to: have problems sleeping; unhealthy eating; ≤2 years in their home; an old home; perceive themselves underweight; exposed to work fumes; experienced sex at ≤14 years; not perform moderate recreational activities. A positive relationship between GLUMM5-1 (OR: 7.50, Pdepression was found, with significant interactions with those married/living with partner (P=0.001). Using ML based GLUMM to form ordered depressive clusters from multitudinous lifestyle-environ variables enabled a deeper exploration of the heterogeneous data to uncover better understandings into relationships between the complex mental health factors. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  9. Cluster analysis of activity-time series in motor learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Balslev, Daniela; Nielsen, Finn Årup; Frutiger, Sally A.

    2002-01-01

    Neuroimaging studies of learning focus on brain areas where the activity changes as a function of time. To circumvent the difficult problem of model selection, we used a data-driven analytic tool, cluster analysis, which extracts representative temporal and spatial patterns from the voxel...... practice-related activity in a fronto-parieto-cerebellar network, in agreement with previous studies of motor learning. These voxels were separated from a group of voxels showing an unspecific time-effect and another group of voxels, whose activation was an artifact from smoothing. Hum. Brain Mapping 15...

  10. Mentoring: A Natural Role for Learning Community Faculty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hessenauer, Sarah L.; Law, Kristi

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to highlight mentoring as an important piece of leading a learning community. The authors will share a definition of mentoring which is applicable to the learning community experience. Characteristics of mentoring will be described, including types of mentoring and mentor-mentee relationships. The authors will apply…

  11. Fast detection of the fuzzy communities based on leader-driven algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fang, Changjian; Mu, Dejun; Deng, Zhenghong; Hu, Jun; Yi, Chen-He

    2018-03-01

    In this paper, we present the leader-driven algorithm (LDA) for learning community structure in networks. The algorithm allows one to find overlapping clusters in a network, an important aspect of real networks, especially social networks. The algorithm requires no input parameters and learns the number of clusters naturally from the network. It accomplishes this using leadership centrality in a clever manner. It identifies local minima of leadership centrality as followers which belong only to one cluster, and the remaining nodes are leaders which connect clusters. In this way, the number of clusters can be learned using only the network structure. The LDA is also an extremely fast algorithm, having runtime linear in the network size. Thus, this algorithm can be used to efficiently cluster extremely large networks.

  12. Learning communities and overcoming poverty in Brazil

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatiana Santos Pitanga

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Object: Brazil has implemented social programs to meet the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and inequality. Despite the good results still there are ghettos and educational and social inequalities. Moreover Learning Communities are responding to these needs by promoting education based on successful actions scientifically proven of which promote educational change and social inclusion. The aim of this article is to highlight the characteristics of Learning Communities that allow overcoming poverty, and in this perspective, explain the implementation of the Learning Communities in Brazil and how, in this way, it is creating the conditions for effective overcoming give poverty and inequality in this country.Design / methodology: This article is based on documentary analysis of reports of the INCLUD-ED - the project on school education more scientific resources has been funded by the European Union, United Nations / ECLAC, Brazilian public agencies and websites of official institutions that promote Learning Communities in Brazil. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics are also collected.Contributions and results: It highlights successful actions that contribute to overcoming poverty and social exclusion. Such actions are based on dialogic learning, democratic management and the formation of heterogeneous groups. It is observed that in Brazil are carrying out such actions and the ongoing expansion of the project in the country is creating the conditions for effective poverty reduction.Added value: This article reveals specific elements of overcoming poverty through education.

  13.  e-Learning in Virtual Communities of Practice - And Beyond?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Karen Bjerg

    2007-01-01

    The work of Lave and Wenger on learning in 'communities of practice' has evoked a considerable response in e-learning environments through-out the world including Denmark in the last few decades. Within the development of web-based second language learning, the ideas of learning in communities...... interaction and case studies of e-learning language platforms within the area of teaching Danish as a second language for adult foreigners. The concepts of communities of practice are also discussed and developed....... individual process. The aim of this paper is to investigate aspects of the Danish development of e-learning platforms and, especially students' and teachers' very differing perceptions of e-learning and the concepts behind it. The analysis is based on student and teacher interviews, research on language...

  14. On-line Professional Learning Communities: Increasing Teacher Learning and Productivity in Isolated Rural Communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dora Salazar

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available On-line and distance professional learning communities provides teachers with increased access and flexibility as well as the combination of work and education. It also provides a more learner-centered approach, enrichment and new ways of interacting with teachers in isolated rural areas. For educational administrators, on-line learning offers high quality and usually cost-effective professional development for teachers. It allows upgrading of skills, increased productivity and development of a new learning culture. At the same time, it means sharing of costs, of training time, increased portability of training, and the exchange of creativity, information, and dialogue.

  15. Semi-supervised spectral algorithms for community detection in complex networks based on equivalence of clustering methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, Xiaoke; Wang, Bingbo; Yu, Liang

    2018-01-01

    Community detection is fundamental for revealing the structure-functionality relationship in complex networks, which involves two issues-the quantitative function for community as well as algorithms to discover communities. Despite significant research on either of them, few attempt has been made to establish the connection between the two issues. To attack this problem, a generalized quantification function is proposed for community in weighted networks, which provides a framework that unifies several well-known measures. Then, we prove that the trace optimization of the proposed measure is equivalent with the objective functions of algorithms such as nonnegative matrix factorization, kernel K-means as well as spectral clustering. It serves as the theoretical foundation for designing algorithms for community detection. On the second issue, a semi-supervised spectral clustering algorithm is developed by exploring the equivalence relation via combining the nonnegative matrix factorization and spectral clustering. Different from the traditional semi-supervised algorithms, the partial supervision is integrated into the objective of the spectral algorithm. Finally, through extensive experiments on both artificial and real world networks, we demonstrate that the proposed method improves the accuracy of the traditional spectral algorithms in community detection.

  16. A History of Learning Communities within American Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fink, John E.; Inkelas, Karen Kurotsuchi

    2015-01-01

    This chapter describes the historical development of learning communities within American higher education. We examine the forces both internal and external to higher education that contributed to and stalled the emergence of learning communities in their contemporary form.

  17. Community detection in complex networks using proximate support vector clustering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Feifan; Zhang, Baihai; Chai, Senchun; Xia, Yuanqing

    2018-03-01

    Community structure, one of the most attention attracting properties in complex networks, has been a cornerstone in advances of various scientific branches. A number of tools have been involved in recent studies concentrating on the community detection algorithms. In this paper, we propose a support vector clustering method based on a proximity graph, owing to which the introduced algorithm surpasses the traditional support vector approach both in accuracy and complexity. Results of extensive experiments undertaken on computer generated networks and real world data sets illustrate competent performances in comparison with the other counterparts.

  18. Initiating Training Stations As Clusters of Learning in Fashion Merchandising

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garber, Jayne

    1974-01-01

    A Chicago business school offers fashion merchandising as one of several business curriculums that combines on-the-job training and classroom instruction. Instruction is organized around the occupational cluster concept which requires training stations that provide a wide variety of learning experiences. (EA)

  19. Learning through Participatory Action Research for Community Ecotourism Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guevara, Jose Roberto Q.

    1996-01-01

    Ecologically sound tourism planning and policy require an empowering community participation. The participatory action research model helps a community gain understanding of its social reality, learn how to learn, initiate dialog, and discover new possibilities for addressing its situation. (SK)

  20. Aligning Needs, Expectations, and Learning Outcomes to Sustain Self-Efficacy through Transfer Learning Community Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leptien, Jennifer R.

    2015-01-01

    This chapter addresses strengths and difficulties encountered in implementing transfer learning community models and how efficacy is supported through transfer learning community programming. Transfer programming best practices and recommendations for program improvements are presented.

  1. Teacher Collaboration and Student Learning in a Professional Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaughan, Mary Elaine

    2013-01-01

    Researchers have endorsed teacher collaboration within a professional learning community (PLC) that is focused on student learning. Despite these research-based endorsements, several Algebra 1 teachers in a southeastern high school implemented components of a PLC with little or no results in student achievement. The purpose of this study was to…

  2. An Energy-Efficient Spectrum-Aware Reinforcement Learning-Based Clustering Algorithm for Cognitive Radio Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mustapha, Ibrahim; Mohd Ali, Borhanuddin; Rasid, Mohd Fadlee A; Sali, Aduwati; Mohamad, Hafizal

    2015-08-13

    It is well-known that clustering partitions network into logical groups of nodes in order to achieve energy efficiency and to enhance dynamic channel access in cognitive radio through cooperative sensing. While the topic of energy efficiency has been well investigated in conventional wireless sensor networks, the latter has not been extensively explored. In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning-based spectrum-aware clustering algorithm that allows a member node to learn the energy and cooperative sensing costs for neighboring clusters to achieve an optimal solution. Each member node selects an optimal cluster that satisfies pairwise constraints, minimizes network energy consumption and enhances channel sensing performance through an exploration technique. We first model the network energy consumption and then determine the optimal number of clusters for the network. The problem of selecting an optimal cluster is formulated as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) in the algorithm and the obtained simulation results show convergence, learning and adaptability of the algorithm to dynamic environment towards achieving an optimal solution. Performance comparisons of our algorithm with the Groupwise Spectrum Aware (GWSA)-based algorithm in terms of Sum of Square Error (SSE), complexity, network energy consumption and probability of detection indicate improved performance from the proposed approach. The results further reveal that an energy savings of 9% and a significant Primary User (PU) detection improvement can be achieved with the proposed approach.

  3. Moving Into Communities: Developing Cultural Competence with Pre-service Educators through Community Service-Learning Experiences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heather Coffey

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Research in teacher education suggests that field experiences in community settings can offer pre-service teachers a context for understanding the link between theory and practice. This paper documents the experiences of pre-service educators who participated in service-learning partnerships for thirty hours in multiple community settings in the southeast United States. Pre-service teachers not only volunteered in the community, but they also engaged in critically reflective journal writing and participated in evaluative class discussions. Students praised the benefits of a service experience in both school and community placements and discussed how interactions with the community agencies gave them the insight into how community organizations often play a significant role in the lives of the underserved students they will eventually teach. The author argues that the inclusion of a service-learning component in early pre-service teacher education field experiences has the potential to facilitate the examination of the relationships between community organizations and schools and encourage development of cultural competence among pre-service teachers. KEYWORDSservice-learning, pre-service teacher preparation, community partnerships

  4. Building Global Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cochrane, Thomas; Buchem, Ilona; Camacho, Mar; Cronin, Catherine; Gordon, Averill; Keegan, Helen

    2013-01-01

    Within the background where education is increasingly driven by the economies of scale and research funding, we propose an alternative online open and connected framework (OOC) for building global learning communities using mobile social media. We critique a three year action research case study involving building collaborative global learning…

  5. Exponential cluster synchronization in directed community networks via adaptive nonperiodically intermittent pinning control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Peipei; Cai, Shuiming; Jiang, Shengqin; Liu, Zengrong

    2018-02-01

    In this paper, the problem of exponential cluster synchronization for a class of directed community networks is investigated via adaptive nonperiodically intermittent pinning control. By constructing a novel piecewise continuous Lyapunov function, some sufficient conditions to guarantee globally exponential cluster synchronization are derived. It is noted that the derived cluster synchronization criteria rely on the control rates, but not the control widths or the control periods, which facilitates the choice of the control periods in practical applications. A numerical example is finally presented to show the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.

  6. Community-based research in action: tales from the Ktunaxa community learning centres project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stacy, Elizabeth; Wisener, Katherine; Liman, Yolanda; Beznosova, Olga; Lauscher, Helen Novak; Ho, Kendall; Jarvis-Selinger, Sandra

    2014-01-01

    Rural communities, particularly Aboriginal communities, often have limited access to health information, a situation that can have significant negative consequences. To address the lack of culturally and geographically relevant health information, a community-university partnership was formed to develop, implement, and evaluate Aboriginal Community Learning Centres (CLCs). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the community-based research process used in the development of the CLCs. It focuses on the process of building relationships among partners and the CLC's value and sustainability. Semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including principal investigators, community research leads, and supervisors. The interview transcripts were analyzed using an open-coding process to identify themes. Key challenges included enacting shared project governance, negotiating different working styles, and hiring practices based on commitment to project objectives rather than skill set. Technological access provided by the CLCs increased capacity for learning and collective community initiatives, as well as building community leads' skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy. An important lesson was to meet all partners "where they are" in building trusting relationships and adapting research methods to fit the project's context and strengths. Successful results were dependent upon persistence and patience in working through differences, and breaking the project into achievable goals, which collectively contributed to trust and capacity building. The process of building these partnerships resulted in increased capacity of communities to facilitate learning and change initiatives, and the capacity of the university to engage in successful research partnerships with Aboriginal communities in the future.

  7. Pragmatism, Pedagogy, and Community Service Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoder, Scot D.

    2016-01-01

    In this paper I explore Goodwin Liu's proposal to ground the pedagogy of service-learning in the epistemology of pragmatism from the perspective of a reflective practitioner. I review Liu's epistemology and his claim that from within it three features common to service-learning--community, diversity, and engagement--become pedagogical virtues. I…

  8. Learning in a Physics Classroom Community: Physics Learning Identity Construct Development, Measurement and Validation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Sissi L.

    At the university level, introductory science courses usually have high student to teacher ratios which increases the challenge to meaningfully connect with students. Various curricula have been developed in physics education to actively engage students in learning through social interactions with peers and instructors in class. This learning environment demands not only conceptual understanding but also learning to be a scientist. However, the success of student learning is typically measured in test performance and course grades while assessment of student development as science learners is largely ignored. This dissertation addresses this issue with the development of an instrument towards a measure of physics learning identity (PLI) which is used to guide and complement case studies through student interviews and in class observations. Using the conceptual framework based on Etienne Wenger's communities of practice (1998), I examine the relationship between science learning and learning identity from a situated perspective in the context of a large enrollment science class as a community of practice. This conceptual framework emphasizes the central role of identity in the practices negotiated in the classroom community and in the way students figure out their trajectory as members. Using this framework, I seek to understand how the changes in student learning identity are supported by active engagement based instruction. In turn, this understanding can better facilitate the building of a productive learning community and provide a measure for achievement of the curricular learning goals in active engagement strategies. Based on the conceptual framework, I developed and validated an instrument for measuring physics learning identity in terms of student learning preferences, self-efficacy for learning physics, and self-image as a physics learner. The instrument was pilot tested with a population of Oregon State University students taking calculus based

  9. Cultural Narratives: Developing a Three-Dimensional Learning Community through Braided Understanding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heck, Marsha L.

    2004-01-01

    Paula Underwood's "Learning Stories" braid together body, mind, and spirit to enable understanding that does not easily unravel. They tell of relationships among individual and community learning that parallel other ancient and contemporary ideas about learning in caring communities. Underwood's tradition considers learning sacred; everyone's…

  10. A Review of the Instructional Practices for Promoting Online Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hung, Woei; Flom, Elicia; Manu, Jacob; Mahmoud, Enaz

    2015-01-01

    An effective learning community helps foster positive student learning experiences and outcomes. However, in distance learning environments, the communication barriers inevitably hinder the interaction among the students because of the lower levels of social presence. These barriers present challenges in building learning communities in an online…

  11. Bridging Learning Communities Through Experiential Learning with GIST: 2Y College Experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sorey, N.; Phillips, C. D.

    2017-12-01

    This study reviews successes of community engagement through experiential learning with GIST across academic disciplines that leverage topics with technology and community relationships throughout a two-year campus and the community at large. This approach allowed for a diversification of populations reached through college student engagement and community outreach efforts. Technological frameworks and development of best practice resources to support students and faculty were shown to increase the capacity for undergraduate research experiences, K12 short course offerings during the summer, and the formation of a STEM-focused student organization. The RSO has participated in activities that include educational technology development, participating in the growth and development of the area's maker movement community, and geoscience outreach and education. Development of the program thus far and lessons learned have resulted in a proposal for an areal-based informal pathway linking the K12 community to area colleges by integrating geoscience outreach with GIST through the maker movement.

  12. Increasing Student Metacognition and Learning through Classroom-Based Learning Communities and Self-Assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amy Siegesmund

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Student overconfidence challenges success in introductory biology. This study examined the impact of classroom learning communities and self-assessment on student metacognition and subsequent impact on student epistemological beliefs, behaviors, and learning. Students wrote weekly self-assessments reflecting on the process of learning and received individual feedback. Students completed a learning strategies inventory focused on metacognition and study behaviors at the beginning and end of the semester and a Student Assessment of their Learning Gains (SALG at the end of the semester. Results indicated significant changes in both metacognition and study behaviors over the course of the semester, with a positive impact on learning as determined by broad and singular measures. Self-assessments and SALG data demonstrated a change in student beliefs and behaviors. Taken together, these findings argue that classroom learning communities and self-assessment can increase student metacognition and change student epistemological beliefs and behaviors.

  13. Planning for Technology Integration in a Professional Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thoma, Jennifer; Hutchison, Amy; Johnson, Debra; Johnson, Kurt; Stromer, Elizabeth

    2017-01-01

    Barriers to technology integration in instruction include a lack of time, resources, and professional development. One potential approach to overcoming these barriers is through collaborative work, or professional learning communities. This article focuses on one group of teachers who leveraged their professional learning community to focus on…

  14. The impact of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Champaloux, Eve Privman; Keeley, Meg G

    2016-01-01

    Medical students at the University of Virginia (UVA) are mentored and learn within the framework of a four college learning community. Uniquely, these learning communities are used to organize the third-year clerkship rotations. Students were surveyed after their first pre-clinical year and after their clerkship year to determine what the effect of the learning community was on their social and educational interpersonal relationships. Students knew a higher percentage of their college mates after completing their third-year clerkships within the framework of the college system. Students chose peers from within the college system for social and educational interpersonal scenarios statistically more often than what would be expected at random. Small group learning environments that were not formed within the framework of the college system at UVA did not have the same effect on interpersonal relationships, indicating that learning communities are uniquely able to provide a context for relationship building. Students felt more positively about the social and educational effects of the college system after the clerkship year, with a corresponding increase in the strength of their interpersonal bonds with their college peers. This work is the first to investigate the effects of learning communities on interpersonal relationships among medical students and finds that learning communities positively impact both social and educational medical student bonds.

  15. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning. Volume 13, Number 1, Fall 2006

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howard, Jeffrey, Ed.

    2006-01-01

    The "Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning" ("MJCSL") is a national, peer-reviewed journal consisting of articles written by faculty and service-learning educators on research, theory, pedagogy, and issues pertinent to the service-learning community. The "MJCSL" aims to: (1) widen the community of…

  16. PBL - Problem Based Learning for Companies and Clusters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hamburg, I; Vladut, G.

    2016-07-01

    Small and medium sized companies (SMEs) assure economic growth in Europe. Generally many SMEs are struggling to survive in an ongoing global recession and often they are becoming reluctant to release or pay for staff training. In this paper we present shortly the learning methods in SMEs particularly the Problem Based Learning (PBL) as an efficient form for SMEs and entrepreneurship education. In the field of Urban Logistics it was developed four Clusters with potential of innovation and research in four European Regions: Tuscany - Italy, Valencia - Spain, Lisbon and Tagus - Portugal, Oltenia – Romania. Training and mentoring for SMEs, are essential to create competitiveness. Information and communication technologies (ICT) support the tutors by using an ICT platform which is in the development. (Author)

  17. Community Agency Voice and Benefit in Service-Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miron, Devi; Moely, Barbara E.

    2006-01-01

    Supervisors from 40 community agencies working with a university-based service-learning program were interviewed regarding the extent of their input in service-learning program planning and implementation "(Agency Voice), Interpersonal Relations" with service-learning students, "Perceived Benefit" of the service-learning…

  18. Accelerated Schools as Professional Learning Communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biddle, Julie K.

    The goal of the Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) is to develop schools in which all children achieve at high levels and all members of the school community engage in developing and fulfilling the school's vision. But to fully implement the ASP model, a school must become a learning community that stresses relationships, shared values, and a…

  19. Recommendations from the Field: Creating an LGBTQ Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaekel, Kathryn S.

    2015-01-01

    This article details the creation of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) learning community. Created because of research that indicates chilly campus climates (Rankin, 2005), as well as particular needs of LGBTQ students in the classroom, this learning community focused upon LGBTQ topics in and out of the classroom. While…

  20. Informal Learning in Online Knowledge Communities: Predicting Community Response to Visitor Inquiries

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nistor, Nicolae; Dascalu, Mihai; Stavarache, Lucia Larise; Serafin, Yvonne; Trausan-Matu, Stefan

    2016-01-01

    Nistor, N., Dascalu, M., Stavarache, L.L., Serafin, Y., & Trausan-Matu, S. (2015). Informal Learning in Online Knowledge Communities: Predicting Community Response to Visitor Inquiries. In G. Conole, T. Klobucar, C. Rensing, J. Konert & É. Lavoué (Eds.), 10th European Conf. on Technology Enhanced

  1. Creating Small Learning Communities: Lessons from the Project on High-Performing Learning Communities about "What Works" in Creating Productive, Developmentally Enhancing, Learning Contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Felner, Robert D.; Seitsinger, Anne M.; Brand, Stephen; Burns, Amy; Bolton, Natalie

    2007-01-01

    Personalizing the school environment is a central goal of efforts to transform America's schools. Three decades of work by the Project on High Performance Learning Communities are considered that demonstrate the potential impact and importance of the creation of "small learning environments" on student motivation, adjustment, and well-being.…

  2. Possible world based consistency learning model for clustering and classifying uncertain data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Han; Zhang, Xianchao; Zhang, Xiaotong

    2018-06-01

    Possible world has shown to be effective for handling various types of data uncertainty in uncertain data management. However, few uncertain data clustering and classification algorithms are proposed based on possible world. Moreover, existing possible world based algorithms suffer from the following issues: (1) they deal with each possible world independently and ignore the consistency principle across different possible worlds; (2) they require the extra post-processing procedure to obtain the final result, which causes that the effectiveness highly relies on the post-processing method and the efficiency is also not very good. In this paper, we propose a novel possible world based consistency learning model for uncertain data, which can be extended both for clustering and classifying uncertain data. This model utilizes the consistency principle to learn a consensus affinity matrix for uncertain data, which can make full use of the information across different possible worlds and then improve the clustering and classification performance. Meanwhile, this model imposes a new rank constraint on the Laplacian matrix of the consensus affinity matrix, thereby ensuring that the number of connected components in the consensus affinity matrix is exactly equal to the number of classes. This also means that the clustering and classification results can be directly obtained without any post-processing procedure. Furthermore, for the clustering and classification tasks, we respectively derive the efficient optimization methods to solve the proposed model. Experimental results on real benchmark datasets and real world uncertain datasets show that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art uncertain data clustering and classification algorithms in effectiveness and performs competitively in efficiency. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Community Garden: A Bridging Program between Formal and Informal Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Datta, Ranjan

    2016-01-01

    Community garden activities can play a significant role in bridging formal and informal learning, particularly in urban children's science and environmental education. It promotes relational methods of learning, discussing, and practicing that will integrate food security, social interactions, community development, environmental activism, and…

  4. Volunteering as a community mother--a pathway to lifelong learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molloy, Mary

    2007-05-01

    This paper describes a study that was undertaken to investigate the effects of participating in a community volunteering programme (the Community Mothers Programme) on volunteers (Community Mothers). The aim of the study was to investigate if volunteering in this programme acted as a pathway to lifelong learning; did the volunteers recognise the learning of new knowledge and/or skills, and did their participation in the programme trigger them to progress to further education in other settings? A self-administered questionnaire method was used for data collection: 115 questionnaires being distributed to volunteers, with a response rate of eighty-two (71 per cent). Findings show that the majority of the respondents cited the learning of new knowledge and/or skills as a result of their participation in the Community Mothers Programme. Learning appeared to stem from the various training and activities, suggesting an educational process within the volunteer setting. Findings also show that the majority of respondents had progressed to further education. In this instance, therefore, volunteering did appear to act as a pathway to lifelong learning.

  5. Virtual Communities of Collaborative Learning for Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sotomayor, Gilda E.

    2014-01-01

    This article aims to outline and project three new learning scenarios for Higher Education that, after the emergence of ICT and communication through the Network-lnternet, have appeared under the generic name of virtual communities. To that end, we start from a previous conceptual analysis on collaborative learning, cooperative learning and…

  6. Service-Learning from the Perspective of Community Organizations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petri, Alexis

    2015-01-01

    As a central construct in the theory of service-learning, reciprocity for community partners is not often the subject of scholarship, especially scholarship that seeks to understand the benefits and opportunity costs of service-learning. This article explores how reciprocity works in higher education service-learning from the perspective of…

  7. Home-School Links: Networking the Learning Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1996

    The topic of networking the learning community with home-school links is addressed in four papers: "Internet Access via School: Expectations of Students and Parents" (Roy Crotty); "The School Library as Community Information Gateway" (Megan Perry); "Rural Access to the Internet" (Ken Eustace); and "NetDay '96:…

  8. A Cluster-then-label Semi-supervised Learning Approach for Pathology Image Classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peikari, Mohammad; Salama, Sherine; Nofech-Mozes, Sharon; Martel, Anne L

    2018-05-08

    Completely labeled pathology datasets are often challenging and time-consuming to obtain. Semi-supervised learning (SSL) methods are able to learn from fewer labeled data points with the help of a large number of unlabeled data points. In this paper, we investigated the possibility of using clustering analysis to identify the underlying structure of the data space for SSL. A cluster-then-label method was proposed to identify high-density regions in the data space which were then used to help a supervised SVM in finding the decision boundary. We have compared our method with other supervised and semi-supervised state-of-the-art techniques using two different classification tasks applied to breast pathology datasets. We found that compared with other state-of-the-art supervised and semi-supervised methods, our SSL method is able to improve classification performance when a limited number of labeled data instances are made available. We also showed that it is important to examine the underlying distribution of the data space before applying SSL techniques to ensure semi-supervised learning assumptions are not violated by the data.

  9. Distributed Collaborative Learning Communities Enabled by Information Communication Technology

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    H.L. Alvarez (Heidi Lee)

    2006-01-01

    textabstractHow and why can Information Communication Technology (ICT) contribute to enhancing learning in distributed Collaborative Learning Communities (CLCs)? Drawing from relevant theories concerned with phenomenon of ICT enabled distributed collaborative learning, this book identifies gaps in

  10. Community of Practice: A Path to Strategic Learning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nancy M. Carlson

    2003-04-01

    To explore the concept of community of practice, the research initially concentrates on a strategic business process in a research and applied engineering laboratory discovering essential communication tools and processes needed to cultivate a high functioning cross-disciplinary team engaged in proposal preparation. Qualitative research in the human ecology of the proposal process blends topic-oriented ethnography and grounded theory and includes an innovative addition to qualitative interviewing, called meta-inquiry. Meta-inquiry uses an initial interview protocol with a homogeneous pool of informants to enhance the researcher's sensitivity to the unique cultures involved in the proposal process before developing a formal interview protocol. In this study the preanalysis process uses data from editors, graphic artists, text processors, and production coordinators to assess, modify, enhance, and focus the formal interview protocol with scientists, engineers, and technical managers-the heterogeneous informants. Thus this human ecology-based interview protocol values homogeneous and heterogeneous informant data and acquires data from which concepts, categories, properties, and both substantive and formal theory emerges. The research discovers the five essential processes of owning, visioning, reviewing, producing, and contributing for strategic learning to occur in a proposal community of practice. The apprenticeship, developmental, and nurturing perspectives of adult learning provide the proposal community of practice with cohesion, interdependence, and caring, while core and boundary practices provide insight into the tacit and explicit dimensions of the proposal process. By making these dimensions explicit, the necessary competencies, absorptive capacity, and capabilities needed for strategic learning are discovered. Substantive theory emerges and provides insight into the ability of the proposal community of practice to evolve, flourish, and adapt to the

  11. A Study on College EFL Learning Community Based on QQ International

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WEI Li

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available An EFL Learning Community has been set up online via a free messaging tool QQ International to consolidate and apply the knowledge learnt in class. One sub-community aims at developing multicultural awareness while the other focuses on expertise training in English for the undergraduates in several universities. Our innovative approach is that the trainees interact with other participants with virtual icons, virtual roles and specific achievement goals according to curriculum-related scenarios. The project team utilized surveys and observations to analyze the advantages and disadvantages from different perspectives and gain further insight into the nature of member participation, knowledge application and learning interests. Results revealed that EFL Learning Community promoted learning interests and training efficiency, contributed to interprofessional collaboration and interpersonal cooperation, with the implication that levels of moderate anonymity are the most optimal for role-plays in a learning community both online and in real life.

  12. Building online learning communities in a graduate dental hygiene program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

    2014-08-01

    The literature abounds with research related to building online communities in a single course; however, limited evidence is available on this phenomenon from a program perspective. The intent of this qualitative case study inquiry was to explore student experiences in a graduate dental hygiene program contributing or impeding the development and sustainability of online learning communities. Approval from the IRB was received. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants from a stratification of students and graduates. A total of 17 participants completed semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was completed through 2 rounds - 1 for coding responses and 1 to construct categories of experiences. The participants' collective definition of an online learning community was a complex synergistic network of interconnected people who create positive energy. The findings indicated the development of this network began during the program orientation and was beneficial for building a foundation for the community. Students felt socially connected and supported by the network. Course design was another important category for participation in weekly discussions and group activities. Instructors were viewed as active participants in the community, offering helpful feedback and being a facilitator in discussions. Experiences impeding the development of online learning communities related to the poor performance of peers and instructors. Specific categories of experiences supported and impeded the development of online learning communities related to the program itself, course design, students and faculty. These factors are important to consider in order to maximize student learning potential in this environment. Copyright © 2014 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

  13. The Impact of a Psychology Learning Community on Academic Success, Retention, and Student Learning Outcomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buch, Kim; Spaulding, Sue

    2011-01-01

    Learning communities have become an integral part of the educational reform movement of the past two decades and have been heralded as a promising strategy for restructuring undergraduate education. This study used a matched control group design to examine the impact of participation in a psychology learning community (PLC) on a range of student…

  14. Internet Relationships: Building Learning Communities through Friendship

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bikowski, Dawn

    2007-01-01

    The experiences of students in an online learning community were explored in this qualitative case study using social presence theory as an interpretive lens. Participants included five undergraduate students in a certificate program at a large Midwestern university. Students who felt a sense of community online most highly valued the friendship…

  15. Efficacy of community-based physiotherapy networks for patients with Parkinson's disease: a cluster-randomised trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Munneke, Marten; Nijkrake, Maarten J; Keus, Samyra Hj; Kwakkel, Gert; Berendse, Henk W; Roos, Raymund Ac; Borm, George F; Adang, Eddy M; Overeem, Sebastiaan; Bloem, Bastiaan R

    2010-01-01

    Many patients with Parkinson's disease are treated with physiotherapy. We have developed a community-based professional network (ParkinsonNet) that involves training of a selected number of expert physiotherapists to work according to evidence-based recommendations, and structured referrals to these trained physiotherapists to increase the numbers of patients they treat. We aimed to assess the efficacy of this approach for improving health-care outcomes. Between February, 2005, and August, 2007, we did a cluster-randomised trial with 16 clusters (defined as community hospitals and their catchment area). Clusters were randomly allocated by use of a variance minimisation algorithm to ParkinsonNet care (n=8) or usual care (n=8). Patients were assessed at baseline and at 8, 16, and 24 weeks of follow-up. The primary outcome was a patient preference disability score, the patient-specific index score, at 16 weeks. Health secondary outcomes were functional mobility, mobility-related quality of life, and total societal costs over 24 weeks. Analysis was by intention to treat. This trial is registered, number NCT00330694. We included 699 patients. Baseline characteristics of the patients were comparable between the ParkinsonNet clusters (n=358) and usual-care clusters (n=341). The primary endpoint was similar for patients within the ParkinsonNet clusters (mean 47.7, SD 21.9) and control clusters (48.3, 22.4). Health secondary endpoints were also similar for patients in both study groups. Total costs over 24 weeks were lower in ParkinsonNet clusters compared with usual-care clusters (difference euro727; 95% CI 56-1399). Implementation of ParkinsonNet networks did not change health outcomes for patients living in ParkinsonNet clusters. However, health-care costs were reduced in ParkinsonNet clusters compared with usual-care clusters. ZonMw; Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research; Dutch Parkinson's Disease Society; National Parkinson Foundation; Stichting Robuust

  16. Identification of Clusters of Foot Pain Location in a Community Sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gill, Tiffany K; Menz, Hylton B; Landorf, Karl B; Arnold, John B; Taylor, Anne W; Hill, Catherine L

    2017-12-01

    To identify foot pain clusters according to pain location in a community-based sample of the general population. This study analyzed data from the North West Adelaide Health Study. Data were obtained between 2004 and 2006, using computer-assisted telephone interviewing, clinical assessment, and self-completed questionnaire. The location of foot pain was assessed using a diagram during the clinical assessment. Hierarchical cluster analysis was undertaken to identify foot pain location clusters, which were then compared in relation to demographics, comorbidities, and podiatry services utilization. There were 558 participants with foot pain (mean age 54.4 years, 57.5% female). Five clusters were identified: 1 with predominantly arch and ball pain (26.8%), 1 with rearfoot pain (20.9%), 1 with heel pain (13.3%), and 2 with predominantly forefoot, toe, and nail pain (28.3% and 10.7%). Each cluster was distinct in age, sex, and comorbidity profile. Of the two clusters with predominantly forefoot, toe, and nail pain, one of them had a higher proportion of men and those classified as obese, had diabetes mellitus, and used podiatry services (30%), while the other was comprised of a higher proportion of women who were overweight and reported less use of podiatry services (17.5%). Five clusters of foot pain according to pain location were identified, all with distinct age, sex, and comorbidity profiles. These findings may assist in the identification of individuals at risk for developing foot pain and in the development of targeted preventive strategies and treatments. © 2017, American College of Rheumatology.

  17. Learning in later life: Universities, teaching, intergenerational learning and community cohesion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keith Percy

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available There are no settled concepts in the field of learning in later life. The paper begins by suggesting that generalised statements about older people’s learning are suspect and that the way in which we talk about it shifts over time. In particular, there is a range of claims about methods of learning and teaching appropriate to older people but most have little support from empirical research. The paper then focuses on the evaluation of a small innovation project, funded by national government, at Lancaster University, 2009-10. The project sought to involve members of a local University of the Third age group in learning activity on the nearby university campus, partly using undergraduate teaching provision. It aimed to test ideological reservations within the U3A group about association with a public institution of higher education and about mixing the ‘purity’ of self-help learning for older adults, in the British U3A tradition, with more formal methods of learning. The outcomes of the project evaluation suggested that most older learners participating valued their opportunity to use university learning resources and that the British U3A ideology did not inhibit them from doing so. It also suggests that the University benefited from the presence of the older learners and that the surrounding community potentially might have done. A brief discussion of implications for intergenerational learning, community cohesion and marginalised older people follows. The paper concludes that British universities should and, perhaps, could relate more dynamically and emphatically with the provision of opportunities for learning in later life.

  18. Community as classroom: teaching and learning public health in rural Appalachia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Florence, James; Behringer, Bruce

    2011-01-01

    Traditional models for public health professional education tend to be didactic, with brief, discrete practica appended. National reports of both practitioners and academicians have called for more competency-driven, interdisciplinary-focused, community-based, service-oriented, and experientially-guided learning for students across the curriculum. East Tennessee State University began its own curricular revisioning in health professions education nearly 2 decades ago with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, emphasizing competencies development through community-based learning in community-academic partnerships. This article describes 3 examples that grew from that initiative. In the first example, students in multiple classes delivered a longitudinal community-based employee wellness intervention for a rural county school district. BS public health students conducted needs assessments and prepared health education materials; MPH students conducted health assessments and worked with school wellness councils to deliver client-centered interventions; DrPH students supervised the project and provided feedback to the schools using participatory methods. In the second example, MPH students in a social-behavioral foundations course used experiential learning to investigate the region's elevated cancer mortality ranking. Following meetings with multiple community groups, students employed theoretical constructs to frame regional beliefs about cancer and presented findings to community leaders. One outcome was a 5-year community-based participatory research study of cancer in rural Appalachia. In the third example, MPH students in a health-consulting course assessed local African Americans' awareness of the university's health and education programs and perceptions of their community health issues. Students learned consultation methods by assisting at multiple regional African American community meetings to discover issues and interest that resulted in the

  19. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT OF INTENDING TEACHERS BY MEANS OF LEARNING COMMUNITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irina Evgenyevna Krasilova

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In the information society the role of learning communities in professional training of an individual specialist is growing. Ideas of social constructivism determine the development of the Internet, on which the modern information and learning environment is mainly based.  The article contains definitions of a university learning community and learning community means; a model of communicative competence development of intending teachers of foreign languages by means of a learning community (informational and educational, technical, organizational and methodological; criteria for evaluating the level of communicative competence development. The author considers the communicative competence of intending teachers a part of their professional competence. The model has been tested at a teacher training university. The article presents some results of the experiment and the main conclusions that allow experts to judge the effectiveness of the model and its applicability in vocational education.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2014-3-8

  20. Learning Nursing in the Workplace Community: The Generation of Professional Capital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gobbi, Mary

    This chapter explores the connections between learning, working and professional communities in nursing. It draws on experiences and research in nursing practice and education, where not only do isolated professionals learn as a result of their actions for patients and others, but those professionals are part of a community whose associated networks enable learning to occur. Several characteristics of this professional community are shared with those found in Communities of Practice (CoPs) (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), but the balance and importance of many elements can differ. For instance, whilst Lave and Wenger (1991) describe many aspects of situated learning in CoPs that apply to nurses, their model is of little help in understanding the ways in which other professions as well as patients/clients and carers influence the development of nursing practice. Therefore, I shall argue that it is not just the Community of Practice that we need to consider

  1. 45 CFR 2517.600 - How are funds for community-based service-learning programs distributed?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false How are funds for community-based service-learning... (Continued) CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Distribution of Funds § 2517.600 How are funds for community-based service-learning programs distributed? All...

  2. Part-Time Community College Instructors Teaching in Learning Communities: An Exploratory Multiple Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paterson, John W.

    2017-01-01

    Community colleges have a greater portion of students at-risk for college completion than four-year schools and faculty at these institutions are overwhelmingly and increasingly part-time. Learning communities have been identified as a high-impact practice with numerous benefits documented for community college instructors and students: a primary…

  3. A cluster-based randomized controlled trial promoting community participation in arsenic mitigation efforts in Bangladesh

    OpenAIRE

    George, Christine Marie; van Geen, Alexander; Slavkovich, Vesna; Singha, Ashit; Levy, Diane; Islam, Tariqul; Ahmed, Kazi Matin; Moon-Howard, Joyce; Tarozzi, Alessandro; Liu, Xinhua; Factor-Litvak, Pam; Graziano, Joseph

    2012-01-01

    Abstract Objective To reduce arsenic (As) exposure, we evaluated the effectiveness of training community members to perform water arsenic (WAs) testing and provide As education compared to sending representatives from outside communities to conduct these tasks. Methods We conducted a cluster based randomized controlled trial of 20 villages in Singair, Bangladesh. Fifty eligible respondents were randomly selected in each village. In 10 villages, a community member provided As education and WAs...

  4. Community mobilisation with women's groups facilitated by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs to improve maternal and newborn health in underserved areas of Jharkhand and Orissa: study protocol for a cluster-randomised controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sinha Rajesh

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Around a quarter of the world's neonatal and maternal deaths occur in India. Morbidity and mortality are highest in rural areas and among the poorest wealth quintiles. Few interventions to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes with government-mandated community health workers have been rigorously evaluated at scale in this setting. The study aims to assess the impact of a community mobilisation intervention with women's groups facilitated by ASHAs to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes among rural tribal communities of Jharkhand and Orissa. Methods/design The study is a cluster-randomised controlled trial and will be implemented in five districts, three in Jharkhand and two in Orissa. The unit of randomisation is a rural cluster of approximately 5000 population. We identified villages within rural, tribal areas of five districts, approached them for participation in the study and enrolled them into 30 clusters, with approximately 10 ASHAs per cluster. Within each district, 6 clusters were randomly allocated to receive the community intervention or to the control group, resulting in 15 intervention and 15 control clusters. Randomisation was carried out in the presence of local stakeholders who selected the cluster numbers and allocated them to intervention or control using a pre-generated random number sequence. The intervention is a participatory learning and action cycle where ASHAs support community women's groups through a four-phase process in which they identify and prioritise local maternal and newborn health problems, implement strategies to address these and evaluate the result. The cycle is designed to fit with the ASHAs' mandate to mobilise communities for health and to complement their other tasks, including increasing institutional delivery rates and providing home visits to mothers and newborns. The trial's primary endpoint is neonatal mortality during 24 months of intervention. Additional

  5. Community Opinion and Satisfaction with the Leadership at an Urban Community Educational Learning Center during an Organizational Transformation Process: A Frontline Perspective from Community Stakeholders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Joseph Lee

    2013-01-01

    This study examined selected community stakeholders' perception of the current leadership at their local community educational learning center during an organizational transformation and cultural change process. The transition from a community college to an educational learning center, mandated in 2006 by the Accredition Commission and agreed on…

  6. Familia and Comunidad-Based Saberes: Learning in an Indigenous Heritage Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Urrieta, Luis, Jr.

    2013-01-01

    This article explores how children and youth learned indigenous heritage "saberes" (knowings) through intent community participation in Nocutzepo, Mexico. The "familia" (family) and "comunidad" (community)-based saberes were valuable for skills acquisition, but most important for learning indigenous forms of…

  7. "Learning" in a Transgressive Professional Community

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Carsten Juul; Drachmann, Merete; Jeppesen, Lise Kofoed

    2015-01-01

    to deal with overwhelming experiences concerning the naked bodies of patients and death, useful application of theoretical knowledge, the path from novice to advanced beginner, and adjusting to the workplace community. The conclusion is that the learning of nursing students during their first clinical in......This material is a part of a longitudinal development project which seeks to comprehend learning experiences of nursing students during their first clinical in-service placement. The study has a qualitative methodology, inspired by Michael Eraut’s thoughts on learning in the workplace. When...... the workplace perspective is applied, learning seems to be concentrated on actual situations which the learner is in, in contrast to employing constructed concepts. The nursing students’ learning seems to be oriented towards socialization in the clinic as a workplace. This means that the nursing students seek...

  8. Time-based distribution of Staphylococcus saprophyticus pulsed field gel-electrophoresis clusters in community-acquired urinary tract infections

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viviane Santos de Sousa

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available The epidemiology of urinary tract infections (UTI by Staphylococcus saprophyticus has not been fully characterised and strain typing methods have not been validated for this agent. To evaluate whether epidemiological relationships exist between clusters of pulsed field gel-electrophoresis (PFGE genotypes of S. saprophyticus from community-acquired UTI, a cross-sectional surveillance study was conducted in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In total, 32 (16% female patients attending two walk-in clinics were culture-positive for S. saprophyticus. Five PFGE clusters were defined and evaluated against epidemiological data. The PFGE clusters were grouped in time, suggesting the existence of community point sources of S. saprophyticus. From these point sources, S. saprophyticus strains may spread among individuals.

  9. Musicians working in community contexts : perspectives of learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Smilde, Rineke

    2012-01-01

    This paper will explore types of learning, which takes place when musicians work in situations where they have to connect to community contexts. It will first address musicians’ changing professional roles in the changing sociocultural landscape and the need for lifelong learning and emergence of

  10. Regional health care planning: a methodology to cluster facilities using community utilization patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delamater, Paul L; Shortridge, Ashton M; Messina, Joseph P

    2013-08-22

    Community-based health care planning and regulation necessitates grouping facilities and areal units into regions of similar health care use. Limited research has explored the methodologies used in creating these regions. We offer a new methodology that clusters facilities based on similarities in patient utilization patterns and geographic location. Our case study focused on Hospital Groups in Michigan, the allocation units used for predicting future inpatient hospital bed demand in the state's Bed Need Methodology. The scientific, practical, and political concerns that were considered throughout the formulation and development of the methodology are detailed. The clustering methodology employs a 2-step K-means + Ward's clustering algorithm to group hospitals. The final number of clusters is selected using a heuristic that integrates both a statistical-based measure of cluster fit and characteristics of the resulting Hospital Groups. Using recent hospital utilization data, the clustering methodology identified 33 Hospital Groups in Michigan. Despite being developed within the politically charged climate of Certificate of Need regulation, we have provided an objective, replicable, and sustainable methodology to create Hospital Groups. Because the methodology is built upon theoretically sound principles of clustering analysis and health care service utilization, it is highly transferable across applications and suitable for grouping facilities or areal units.

  11. Reciprocal Exchange: Understanding the Community Partner Perspective in Higher Education Service-Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petri, Alexis Nicolle

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates service-learning from the community partners' perspective, especially in terms of reciprocity. As a central construct in the theory of service-learning, reciprocity for community partners is virtually unknown. Little scholarship exists that explains or explores the benefits and opportunity costs of service-learning. One…

  12. Community-based medical education: is success a result of meaningful personal learning experiences?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, Len; Walters, Lucie; Rosenthal, David

    2014-01-01

    Community-based medical education (CBME) is the delivery of medical education in a specific social context. Learners become a part of social and medical communities where their learning occurs. Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) are year-long community-based placements where the curriculum and clinical experience is typically delivered by primary care physicians. These programs have proven to be robust learning environments, where learners develop strong communication skills and excellent clinical reasoning. To date, no learning model has been offered to describe CBME. The characteristics of CBME are explored by the authors who suggest that the social and professional context provided in small communities enhances medical education. The authors postulate that meaningfulness is engendered by the authentic context, which develops over time. These relationships with preceptors, patients and the community provide meaningfulness, which in turn enhances learning. The authors develop a novel learning model. They propose that the context-rich environment of CBME allows for meaningful relationships and experiences for students and that such meaningfulness enhances learning.

  13. The development of socially responsible life-sciences teachers through community service learning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J.J. Rian de Villiers

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available In South Africa, polices in higher education are urging tertiary institutions to produce graduates who are socially responsible citizens. One method of achieving this is through service-learning initiatives. Zoos as community partners can provide exciting educational opportunities for students to do animal behaviour studies and to develop their social responsibility. A sample of 58 preservice life-sciences teachers from a South African university completed a questionnaire on their animal behaviour studies. This study sought to determine how animal behaviour studies could successfully be incorporated as a community service-learning project in a zoo setting, what the educational value of these studies was and what the benefits were of incorporating this community service-learning component in the life-sciences course. The incorporation of the service-learning component into the zoology course led to the students’ personal and professional development, knowledge about themselves, sensitivity to cultural diversity, civic responsibility and insights into the ways in which communities operate. For a successful service-learning project, lectures, students and community partners should all have a sense of engagement. A number of suggestions are made to improve the incorporation of this service-learning component into the existing zoology course.

  14. 45 CFR 2517.300 - Who may participate in a community-based service-learning program?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ...-learning program? 2517.300 Section 2517.300 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Eligibility To Participate § 2517.300 Who may participate in a community-based service-learning program...

  15. SAIL: Summation-bAsed Incremental Learning for Information-Theoretic Text Clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Jie; Wu, Zhiang; Wu, Junjie; Xiong, Hui

    2013-04-01

    Information-theoretic clustering aims to exploit information-theoretic measures as the clustering criteria. A common practice on this topic is the so-called Info-Kmeans, which performs K-means clustering with KL-divergence as the proximity function. While expert efforts on Info-Kmeans have shown promising results, a remaining challenge is to deal with high-dimensional sparse data such as text corpora. Indeed, it is possible that the centroids contain many zero-value features for high-dimensional text vectors, which leads to infinite KL-divergence values and creates a dilemma in assigning objects to centroids during the iteration process of Info-Kmeans. To meet this challenge, in this paper, we propose a Summation-bAsed Incremental Learning (SAIL) algorithm for Info-Kmeans clustering. Specifically, by using an equivalent objective function, SAIL replaces the computation of KL-divergence by the incremental computation of Shannon entropy. This can avoid the zero-feature dilemma caused by the use of KL-divergence. To improve the clustering quality, we further introduce the variable neighborhood search scheme and propose the V-SAIL algorithm, which is then accelerated by a multithreaded scheme in PV-SAIL. Our experimental results on various real-world text collections have shown that, with SAIL as a booster, the clustering performance of Info-Kmeans can be significantly improved. Also, V-SAIL and PV-SAIL indeed help improve the clustering quality at a lower cost of computation.

  16. School to community: service learning in hospitaliy and tourism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kimberly Monk; Jessica Bourdeau; Michele Capra

    2007-01-01

    In the effort to augment hospitality and tourism education beyond classroom instruction and internships, the added instructional methodology of community service learning is suggested. Service learning is an instructional method where students learn and develop through active participation in organized experiences that meet actual needs, increasing their sense of...

  17. Beyond the ivory tower: service-learning for sustainable community ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Teaching, research and community service have since earliest times been regarded as the three core functions of the university. The concept and practice of service-learning has succeeded in uniting these core functions. Whereas the quality of student learning resulting from service-learning experiences is of crucial ...

  18. Community and Social Network Sites as Technology Enhanced Learning Environments

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ryberg, Thomas; Christiansen, Ellen

    2008-01-01

    This paper examines the affordance of the Danish social networking site Mingler.dk for peer-to-peer learning and development. With inspiration from different theoretical frameworks, the authors argue how learning and development in such social online systems can be conceptualised and analysed....... Theoretically the paper defines development in accordance with Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development, and learning in accordance with Wenger's concept of communities of practice. The authors suggest analysing the learning and development taking place on Mingler.dk by using these concepts...... supplemented by the notion of horizontal learning adopted from Engestrm and Wenger. Their analysis shows how horizontal learning happens by crossing boundaries between several sites of engagement, and how the actors' multiple membership enables the community members to draw on a vast amount of resources from...

  19. Teaching and learning community work online: can e-learning promote competences for future practice?

    OpenAIRE

    Larsen, Anne Karin; Visser-Rotgans, Rina; Hole, Grete Oline

    2011-01-01

    This article presents a case study of an online course in Community Work and the learning outcomes for an international group of students participating in the course. Examples from the process of, and results from the development of virtual-learning material are presented. Finally, the students' learning experience and competences achieved by the use of innovative learning material and ICT communication tools are presented.

  20. Professional Learning in Unlikely Spaces: Social Media and Virtual Communities as Professional Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kathleen P. King

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available In this case study, results demonstrate that an individual’s use of social media as professional learning spans understanding, networking, professional identity development, and transformative learning. Specifically, virtual online communities facilitated through social media provide professional networks, social relationships and learning beyond the scope of the individual’s usual experience. Case study method reveals strategies, extent, and impact of learning providing insight into this phenomenon. The significance of the research includes purposefully facilitating professional learning through informal learning contexts, including social media and online communities beyond technology-centric fields. Discussion and recommendations include using social media and virtual communities as instructional strategies for graduate studies and continued learning beyond formal education.

  1. Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Math: Impact Studies at Queensborough and Houston Community Colleges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weissman, Evan; Butcher, Kristin F.; Schneider, Emily; Teres, Jedediah; Collado, Herbert; Greenberg, David

    2011-01-01

    Queensborough Community College and Houston Community College are two large, urban institutions that offer learning communities for their developmental math students, with the goals of accelerating students' progress through the math sequence and of helping them to perform better in college and ultimately earn degrees or certificates. They are…

  2. Developing an Understanding of Higher Education Science and Engineering Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coll, Richard K.; Eames, Chris

    2008-01-01

    This article sets the scene for this special issue of "Research in Science & Technological Education", dedicated to understanding higher education science and engineering learning communities. We examine what the literature has to say about the nature of, and factors influencing, higher education learning communities. A discussion of…

  3. Engineering Hybrid Learning Communities: The Case of a Regional Parent Community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sven Strickroth

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available We present an approach (and a corresponding system design for supporting regionally bound hybrid learning communities (i.e., communities which combine traditional face-to-face elements with web based media such as online community platforms, e-mail and SMS newsletters. The goal of the example community used to illustrate the approach was to support and motivate (especially hard-to-reach underprivileged parents in the education of their young children. The article describes the design process used and the challenges faced during the socio-technical system design. An analysis of the community over more than one year indicates that the hybrid approach works better than the two separated “traditional” approaches separately. Synergy effects like advertising effects from the offline trainings for the online platform and vice versa occurred and regular newsletters turned out to have a noticeable effect on the community.

  4. Innovation in a Learning Health Care System: Veteran-Directed Home- and Community-Based Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garrido, Melissa M; Allman, Richard M; Pizer, Steven D; Rudolph, James L; Thomas, Kali S; Sperber, Nina R; Van Houtven, Courtney H; Frakt, Austin B

    2017-11-01

    A path-breaking example of the interplay between geriatrics and learning healthcare systems is the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA's) planned roll-out of a program for providing participant-directed home- and community-based services to veterans with cognitive and functional limitations. We describe the design of a large-scale, stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial of the Veteran-Directed Home- and Community-Based Services (VD-HCBS) program. From March 2017 through December 2019, up to 77 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers will be randomized to times to begin offering VD-HCBS to veterans at risk of nursing home placement. Services will be provided to community-dwelling participants with support from Aging and Disability Network Agencies. The VHA Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center (PEPReC) is coordinating the evaluation, which includes collaboration from operational stakeholders from the VHA and Administration for Community Living and interdisciplinary researchers from the Center of Innovation in Long-Term Services and Supports and the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care. For older veterans with functional limitations who are eligible for VD-HCBS, we will evaluate health outcomes (hospitalizations, emergency department visits, nursing home admissions, days at home) and healthcare costs associated with VD-HCBS availability. Learning healthcare systems facilitate diffusion of innovation while enabling rigorous evaluation of effects on patient outcomes. The VHA's randomized rollout of VD-HCBS to veterans at risk of nursing home placement is an example of how to achieve these goals simultaneously. PEPReC's experience designing an evaluation with researchers and operations stakeholders may serve as a framework for others seeking to develop rapid, rigorous, large-scale evaluations of delivery system innovations targeted to older adults. © 2017, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation © 2017, The American Geriatrics Society.

  5. Conceptualisation of knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes in nursing education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sindi Z. Mthembu

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Background: Practices in higher education have been criticised for not developing and preparing students for the expertise required in real environments. Literature reports that educational programmes tend to favour knowledge conformation rather than knowledge construction; however, community service learning (CSL is a powerful pedagogical strategy that encourages students to make meaningful connections between the content in the classroom and real-life experiences as manifested by the communities. Through CSL, learning is achieved by the active construction of knowledge supported by multiple perspectives within meaningful real contexts, and the social interactions amongst students are seen to play a critical role in the processes of learning and cognition. This article reflects facilitators’ perspective of the knowledge construction process as used with students doing community service learning in basic nursing programmes. Objectives: The aim of this article was to conceptualise the phenomenon of knowledge construction and thereby provide educators with a shared meaning and common understanding, and to analyse the interaction strategies utilised by nurse educators in the process of knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes in basic nursing education. Method: A qualitative research approach based on a grounded theory research design was used in this article. Two nursing education institutions were purposively selected. Structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants. Results: The results revealed that the knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes is conceptualised as having specific determinants, including the use of authentic health-related problems, academic coaching through scaffolding, academic discourse-dialogue, interactive learning in communities of learners, active learning, continuous reflection as well as collaborative and inquiry-based learning. Upon completion of an experience

  6. Conceptualisation of knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes in nursing education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mthembu, Sindi Z; Mtshali, Fikile G

    2013-01-01

    Practices in higher education have been criticised for not developing and preparing students for the expertise required in real environments. Literature reports that educational programmes tend to favour knowledge conformation rather than knowledge construction; however, community service learning (CSL) is a powerful pedagogical strategy that encourages students to make meaningful connections between the content in the classroom and real-life experiences as manifested by the communities. Through CSL, learning is achieved by the active construction of knowledge supported by multiple perspectives within meaningful real contexts, and the social interactions amongst students are seen to play a critical role in the processes of learning and cognition. This article reflects facilitators’ perspective of the knowledge construction process as used with students doing community service learning in basic nursing programmes. The aim of this article was to conceptualise the phenomenon of knowledge construction and thereby provide educators with a shared meaning and common understanding, and to analyse the interaction strategies utilised by nurse educators in the process of knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes in basic nursing education. A qualitative research approach based on a grounded theory research design was used in this article. Two nursing education institutions were purposively selected. Structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants. The results revealed that the knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes is conceptualised as having specific determinants, including the use of authentic health-related problems, academic coaching through scaffolding, academic discourse-dialogue, interactive learning in communities of learners, active learning, continuous reflection as well as collaborative and inquiry-based learning. Upon completion of an experience, students create and test generated knowledge in different

  7. Network Analysis of a Virtual Community of Learning of Economics Educators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fontainha, Elsa; Martins, Jorge Tiago; Vasconcelos, Ana Cristina

    2015-01-01

    Introduction: This paper aims at understanding virtual communities of learning in terms of dynamics, types of knowledge shared by participants, and network characteristics such as size, relationships, density, and centrality of participants. It looks at the relationships between these aspects and the evolution of communities of learning. It…

  8. Social Networks and Performance in Distributed Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cadima, Rita; Ojeda, Jordi; Monguet, Josep M.

    2012-01-01

    Social networks play an essential role in learning environments as a key channel for knowledge sharing and students' support. In distributed learning communities, knowledge sharing does not occur as spontaneously as when a working group shares the same physical space; knowledge sharing depends even more on student informal connections. In this…

  9. Power and Privilege: Community Service Learning in Tijuana

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camacho, Michelle Madsen

    2004-01-01

    As social scientists engage their own subjectivity, there is greater awareness of their own touristic "gaze," or at least the power relations that are evoked in the researcher-subject interaction. In teaching students involved in community service learning, the challenge is to provide a learning experience that addresses power inequities…

  10. Design of environmental education module towards the needs of aboriginal community learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dasman, Siti Mariam; Yasin, Ruhizan Mohammad

    2017-05-01

    Non-formal education (NFE) refers to a program that is designed for personal and social education for learners to improve the level of skills and competencies outside formal educational curriculum. Issues related to geography and environment of different Aboriginal communities with other communities play an important role in determining the types and methods that should be made available to the minority community groups. Thus, this concept paper is intended to cater for educational environment through the design and development of learning modules based on non-formal education to the learning of Aboriginal community. Methods and techniques in the design and construction of the modules is based on the Design and Development Research (DDR) that was based on instructional design model of Morrison, Kemp and Ross which is more flexible and prioritizes the needs and characteristics of learners who were involved in the learning modules of the future. The discussion is related to the module development which is suitable to the learning needs of the community and there are several recommendations which may be applied in the implementation of this approach. In conclusion, the community of Orang Asli should be offered the same education as other communities but it is important to distinguish acceptance of learning techniques or approaches used in the education system to meet their standards. The implications of this concept paper is to meet the educational needs of the environment which includes a few aspects of science and some learning activities using effective approaches such as playing and building their own knowledge of meaning.

  11. Implementing Quality Service-Learning Programs in Community Colleges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaknin, Lauren Weiner; Bresciani, Marilee J.

    2013-01-01

    This cross-case comparative study at Western Community College and the University of the Coast explored through a constructive lens the characteristics that lead to sustainable, high quality service-learning programs and how they are implemented at institutions of higher education. The researchers determined that both Western Community College and…

  12. Community-led trials: Intervention co-design in a cluster randomised controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andersson, Neil

    2017-05-30

    In conventional randomised controlled trials (RCTs), researchers design the interventions. In the Camino Verde trial, each intervention community designed its own programmes to prevent dengue. Instead of fixed actions or menus of activities to choose from, the trial randomised clusters to a participatory research protocol that began with sharing and discussing evidence from a local survey, going on to local authorship of the action plan for vector control.Adding equitable stakeholder engagement to RCT infrastructure anchors the research culturally, making it more meaningful to stakeholders. Replicability in other conditions is straightforward, since all intervention clusters used the same engagement protocol to discuss and to mobilize for dengue prevention. The ethical codes associated with RCTs play out differently in community-led pragmatic trials, where communities essentially choose what they want to do. Several discussion groups in each intervention community produced multiple plans for prevention, recognising different time lines. Some chose fast turnarounds, like elimination of breeding sites, and some chose longer term actions like garbage disposal and improving water supplies.A big part of the skill set for community-led trials is being able to stand back and simply support communities in what they want to do and how they want to do it, something that does not come naturally to many vector control programs or to RCT researchers. Unexpected negative outcomes can come from the turbulence implicit in participatory research. One example was the gender dynamic in the Mexican arm of the Camino Verde trial. Strong involvement of women in dengue control activities seems to have discouraged men in settings where activity in public spaces or outside of the home would ordinarily be considered a "male competence".Community-led trials address the tension between one-size-fits-all programme interventions and local needs. Whatever the conventional wisdom about how

  13. Community-led trials: Intervention co-design in a cluster randomised controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neil Andersson

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract In conventional randomised controlled trials (RCTs, researchers design the interventions. In the Camino Verde trial, each intervention community designed its own programmes to prevent dengue. Instead of fixed actions or menus of activities to choose from, the trial randomised clusters to a participatory research protocol that began with sharing and discussing evidence from a local survey, going on to local authorship of the action plan for vector control. Adding equitable stakeholder engagement to RCT infrastructure anchors the research culturally, making it more meaningful to stakeholders. Replicability in other conditions is straightforward, since all intervention clusters used the same engagement protocol to discuss and to mobilize for dengue prevention. The ethical codes associated with RCTs play out differently in community-led pragmatic trials, where communities essentially choose what they want to do. Several discussion groups in each intervention community produced multiple plans for prevention, recognising different time lines. Some chose fast turnarounds, like elimination of breeding sites, and some chose longer term actions like garbage disposal and improving water supplies. A big part of the skill set for community-led trials is being able to stand back and simply support communities in what they want to do and how they want to do it, something that does not come naturally to many vector control programs or to RCT researchers. Unexpected negative outcomes can come from the turbulence implicit in participatory research. One example was the gender dynamic in the Mexican arm of the Camino Verde trial. Strong involvement of women in dengue control activities seems to have discouraged men in settings where activity in public spaces or outside of the home would ordinarily be considered a “male competence”. Community-led trials address the tension between one-size-fits-all programme interventions and local needs. Whatever the

  14. Building A Drought Science Learning Community: Education and Engagement in an NSF CAREER Grant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quiring, S. M.

    2011-12-01

    This paper describes the education and engagement plan of the NSF CAREER award that I received in 2011 (Role of Soil Moisture in Seasonal to Interannual Climate Variability in the U.S. Great Plains; NSF Award #1056796). A key component of this plan is the development of a Drought Science Learning Community. A learning community is a program of courses and activities, which may include social and academic activities outside the classroom, that form a single program of instruction. Learning communities serve to increase faculty-student and student-student interaction, improve active and collaborative learning, and develop curricular coherence. The goal of a learning community is to encourage integration of learning across courses and to involve students with one of the grand challenges facing society. Students will be recruited from a Freshman Year Seminar (FYS) that I teach every Fall. Students who belong to the learning community will participate in the Water Management and Hydrological Sciences Seminar Series, relevant field trips, and monthly brown bag lunch meetings where students and faculty will discuss their current research projects and recently published scientific articles. Students who participate in learning community activities will benefit from a common intellectual experience that will help them to develop linkages between courses, regular interactions with faculty mentors, and the opportunity to contribute to faculty research. All students will be encouraged to complete an undergraduate thesis as the capstone experience of their participation in the learning community. In addition to describing the organization of the education and engagement plan, I will also discuss expected outcomes, best practices and lessons learned.

  15. Pedagogical innovation from the perspective of professional learning communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sánchez-Cortés, Ana María

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to verify the relationship between the participation of teachers in professional learning communities and the teaching practices related to the socio-constructivist model. For this purpose, a quantitative non-experimental model with a cross-sectional design was implemented, using the results of the survey entitled "Teaching and learning international survey", which was applied by the OECD in 2008 in 24 countries. The results of the conducted study determined that the dimensions of professional learning communities have a weak positive relationship with the categories of teaching practices. Additionally, the investigation addressed the differences in the responses of teachers according to variables, such as age, gender, teaching experience, and level of education.

  16. Developing a Professional Learning Community among Preservice Teachers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bond, Nathan

    2013-01-01

    This action research study examined the development of a professional learning community (PLC) among 20 preservice secondary teachers as they met regularly during a semester-long, field-based education course to share artifacts of learning from their professional portfolios. The PLC model described by Hord and Tobia (2012) served as a framework…

  17. Community of inquiry model: advancing distance learning in nurse anesthesia education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pecka, Shannon L; Kotcherlakota, Suhasini; Berger, Ann M

    2014-06-01

    The number of distance education courses offered by nurse anesthesia programs has increased substantially. Emerging distance learning trends must be researched to ensure high-quality education for student registered nurse anesthetists. However, research to examine distance learning has been hampered by a lack of theoretical models. This article introduces the Community of Inquiry model for use in nurse anesthesia education. This model has been used for more than a decade to guide and research distance learning in higher education. A major strength of this model learning. However, it lacks applicability to the development of higher order thinking for student registered nurse anesthetists. Thus, a new derived Community of Inquiry model was designed to improve these students' higher order thinking in distance learning. The derived model integrates Bloom's revised taxonomy into the original Community of Inquiry model and provides a means to design, evaluate, and research higher order thinking in nurse anesthesia distance education courses.

  18. Is the Learning Community of Economics and Accounting Effective? Empirical Assessment of Class Achievements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stumph, Carolyn Fabian; Kim, Myeong Hwan; Han, Yongseung; Minke, Susan

    2017-01-01

    Learning communities are increasingly used at colleges and universities, as one of the goals of a learning community is to increase interaction among students and teach them how to apply knowledge. The goal of this research is to assess the learning community of the economics and accounting students in their class performance measured by class…

  19. Comparative analysis on the selection of number of clusters in community detection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kawamoto, Tatsuro; Kabashima, Yoshiyuki

    2018-02-01

    We conduct a comparative analysis on various estimates of the number of clusters in community detection. An exhaustive comparison requires testing of all possible combinations of frameworks, algorithms, and assessment criteria. In this paper we focus on the framework based on a stochastic block model, and investigate the performance of greedy algorithms, statistical inference, and spectral methods. For the assessment criteria, we consider modularity, map equation, Bethe free energy, prediction errors, and isolated eigenvalues. From the analysis, the tendency of overfit and underfit that the assessment criteria and algorithms have becomes apparent. In addition, we propose that the alluvial diagram is a suitable tool to visualize statistical inference results and can be useful to determine the number of clusters.

  20. Technology Integration through Professional Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cifuentes, Lauren; Maxwell, Gerri; Bulu, Sanser

    2011-01-01

    We describe efforts to build a learning community to support technology integration in three rural school districts and the contributions of various program strategies toward teacher growth. The Stages of Adoption Inventory, classroom observations, the Questionnaire for Technology Integration, interviews, STAR evaluation surveys, a survey of…

  1. Sustainable school development: professional learning communities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Prof.Dr. E. Verbiest

    2008-01-01

    In this contribution we report about a project about Professional Learning Communities.This project combines development and research. In this contribution we pay attention to the effect of the organisational capacity of a school on the personal and interpersonal capacity and to the impact of a

  2. Community interventions to reduce child mortality in Dhanusha, Nepal: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Costello Anthony

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Neonatal mortality remains high in rural Nepal. Previous work suggests that local women's groups can effect significant improvement through community mobilisation. The possibility of identification and management of newborn infections by community-based workers has also arisen. Methods/Design The objective of this trial is to evaluate the effects on newborn health of two community-based interventions involving Female Community Health Volunteers. MIRA Dhanusha community groups: a participatory intervention with women's groups. MIRA Dhanusha sepsis management: training of community volunteers in the recognition and management of neonatal sepsis. The study design is a cluster randomized controlled trial involving 60 village development committee clusters allocated 1:1 to two interventions in a factorial design. MIRA Dhanusha community groups: Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs are supported in convening monthly women's groups. Nine groups per cluster (270 in total work through two action research cycles in which they (i identify local issues around maternity, newborn health and nutrition, (ii prioritise key problems, (iii develop strategies to address them, (iv implement the strategies, and (v evaluate their success. Cycle 1 focuses on maternal and newborn health and cycle 2 on nutrition in pregnancy and infancy and associated postpartum care practices. MIRA Dhanusha sepsis management: FCHVs are trained to care for vulnerable newborn infants. They (i identify local births, (ii identify low birth weight infants, (iii identify possible newborn infection, (iv manage the process of treatment with oral antibiotics and referral to a health facility to receive parenteral gentamicin, and (v follow up infants and support families. Primary outcome: neonatal mortality rates. Secondary outcomes: MIRA Dhanusha community group: stillbirth, infant and under-two mortality rates, care practices and health care seeking behaviour, maternal

  3. Community as Teacher Model: Health Profession Students Learn Cultural Safety from an Aboriginal Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kline, Cathy C.; Godolphin, William J.; Chhina, Gagun S.; Towle, Angela

    2013-01-01

    Communication between health care professionals and Aboriginal patients is complicated by cultural differences and the enduring effects of colonization. Health care providers need better training to meet the needs of Aboriginal patients and communities. We describe the development and outcomes of a community-driven service-learning program in…

  4. Into the Bowels of Depression: Unravelling Medical Symptoms Associated with Depression by Applying Machine-Learning Techniques to a Community Based Population Sample

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dipnall, Joanna F.

    2016-01-01

    Background Depression is commonly comorbid with many other somatic diseases and symptoms. Identification of individuals in clusters with comorbid symptoms may reveal new pathophysiological mechanisms and treatment targets. The aim of this research was to combine machine-learning (ML) algorithms with traditional regression techniques by utilising self-reported medical symptoms to identify and describe clusters of individuals with increased rates of depression from a large cross-sectional community based population epidemiological study. Methods A multi-staged methodology utilising ML and traditional statistical techniques was performed using the community based population National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (2009–2010) (N = 3,922). A Self-organised Mapping (SOM) ML algorithm, combined with hierarchical clustering, was performed to create participant clusters based on 68 medical symptoms. Binary logistic regression, controlling for sociodemographic confounders, was used to then identify the key clusters of participants with higher levels of depression (PHQ-9≥10, n = 377). Finally, a Multiple Additive Regression Tree boosted ML algorithm was run to identify the important medical symptoms for each key cluster within 17 broad categories: heart, liver, thyroid, respiratory, diabetes, arthritis, fractures and osteoporosis, skeletal pain, blood pressure, blood transfusion, cholesterol, vision, hearing, psoriasis, weight, bowels and urinary. Results Five clusters of participants, based on medical symptoms, were identified to have significantly increased rates of depression compared to the cluster with the lowest rate: odds ratios ranged from 2.24 (95% CI 1.56, 3.24) to 6.33 (95% CI 1.67, 24.02). The ML boosted regression algorithm identified three key medical condition categories as being significantly more common in these clusters: bowel, pain and urinary symptoms. Bowel-related symptoms was found to dominate the relative importance of symptoms within the

  5. Into the Bowels of Depression: Unravelling Medical Symptoms Associated with Depression by Applying Machine-Learning Techniques to a Community Based Population Sample.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dipnall, Joanna F; Pasco, Julie A; Berk, Michael; Williams, Lana J; Dodd, Seetal; Jacka, Felice N; Meyer, Denny

    2016-01-01

    Depression is commonly comorbid with many other somatic diseases and symptoms. Identification of individuals in clusters with comorbid symptoms may reveal new pathophysiological mechanisms and treatment targets. The aim of this research was to combine machine-learning (ML) algorithms with traditional regression techniques by utilising self-reported medical symptoms to identify and describe clusters of individuals with increased rates of depression from a large cross-sectional community based population epidemiological study. A multi-staged methodology utilising ML and traditional statistical techniques was performed using the community based population National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (2009-2010) (N = 3,922). A Self-organised Mapping (SOM) ML algorithm, combined with hierarchical clustering, was performed to create participant clusters based on 68 medical symptoms. Binary logistic regression, controlling for sociodemographic confounders, was used to then identify the key clusters of participants with higher levels of depression (PHQ-9≥10, n = 377). Finally, a Multiple Additive Regression Tree boosted ML algorithm was run to identify the important medical symptoms for each key cluster within 17 broad categories: heart, liver, thyroid, respiratory, diabetes, arthritis, fractures and osteoporosis, skeletal pain, blood pressure, blood transfusion, cholesterol, vision, hearing, psoriasis, weight, bowels and urinary. Five clusters of participants, based on medical symptoms, were identified to have significantly increased rates of depression compared to the cluster with the lowest rate: odds ratios ranged from 2.24 (95% CI 1.56, 3.24) to 6.33 (95% CI 1.67, 24.02). The ML boosted regression algorithm identified three key medical condition categories as being significantly more common in these clusters: bowel, pain and urinary symptoms. Bowel-related symptoms was found to dominate the relative importance of symptoms within the five key clusters. This

  6. Primary and Secondary Virtual Learning in New Zealand: Examining Barriers to Achieving Maturity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbour, Michael; Davis, Niki; Wenmoth, Derek

    2016-01-01

    This paper describes the organisational development of virtual learning in networked rural schools in New Zealand, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters of rural schools face in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Ministry's Learning Communities Online Handbook. Analysis of a nationwide purposeful…

  7. Why Teach Social Entrepreneurship: Enhance Learning and University-Community Relations through Service-Learning Outreach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wessel, Stacy; Godshalk, Veronica M.

    2004-01-01

    This article focuses on providing a convincing argument for incorporating social entrepreneurship into the business professor's classroom. The outreach provided by social entrepreneurship enhances learning and promotes university-community relations. Service-learning engagement activities, in the form of social entrepreneurship, create a three-way…

  8. Mixed-Initiative Clustering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Yifen

    2010-01-01

    Mixed-initiative clustering is a task where a user and a machine work collaboratively to analyze a large set of documents. We hypothesize that a user and a machine can both learn better clustering models through enriched communication and interactive learning from each other. The first contribution or this thesis is providing a framework of…

  9. Lifelong Learning for All in Asian Communities: ICT Based Initiatives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Misra, Pradeep Kumar

    2011-01-01

    The necessity to adjust to the prerequisites of the knowledge based society and economy brought about the need for lifelong learning for all in Asian communities. The concept of lifelong learning stresses that learning and education are related to life as a whole - not just to work - and that learning throughout life is a continuum that should run…

  10. Closer to Learning: Social Networks, Trust, and Professional Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liou, Yi-Hwa; Daly, Alan J.

    2014-01-01

    Researchers, educators, and policymakers suggest the use of professional learning communities as one important approach to the improvement of teaching and learning. However, relatively little research examines the interplay of professional interactions (structural social capital) around instructional practices and key elements of professional…

  11. Teaching Community-Based Learning Course in Retailing Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rhee, Eddie

    2018-01-01

    This study outlines the use of a community-based learning (CBL) applied to a Retailing Management course conducted in a 16-week semester in a private institution in the East Coast. The study addresses the case method of teaching and its potential weaknesses, and discusses experiential learning for a real-world application. It further addresses CBL…

  12. From conditioning to learning communities: implications of fifty years of research in e-learning interaction design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Ravenscroft

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper will consider e-learning in terms of the underlying learning processes and interactions that are stimulated, supported or favoured by new media and the contexts or communities in which it is used. We will review and critique a selection of research and development from the past fifty years that has linked pedagogical and learning theory to the design of innovative e-learning systems and activities, and discuss their implications. It will include approaches that are, essentially, behaviourist (Skinner and Gagné, cognitivist (Pask, Piaget and Papert, situated (Lave, Wenger and Seely-Brown, socioconstructivist (Vygotsky, socio-cultural (Nardi and Engestrom and community-based (Wenger and Preece. Emerging from this review is the argument that effective elearning usually requires, or involves, high-quality educational discourse, that leads to, at the least, improved knowledge, and at the best, conceptual development and improved understanding. To achieve this I argue that we need to adopt a more holistic approach to design that synthesizes features of the included approaches, leading to a framework that emphasizes the relationships between cognitive changes, dialogue processes and the communities, or contexts for e-learning.

  13. Self-Driven Service Learning: Community-Student-Faculty Collaboratives Outside of the Classroom

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Veronica A. Segarra

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available Service learning is a community engagement pedagogy often used in the context of the undergraduate classroom to synergize course-learning objectives with community needs.  We find that an effective way to catalyze student engagement in service learning is for student participation to occur outside the context of a graded course, driven by students’ own interests and initiative.  In this paper, we describe the creation and implementation of a self-driven service learning program and discuss its benefits from the community, student, and faculty points of view.  This experience allows students to explore careers in the sciences as well as identify skill strengths and weaknesses in an environment where mentoring is available but where student initiative and self-motivation are the driving forces behind the project’s success.  Self-driven service learning introduces young scientists to the idea that their careers serve a larger community that benefits not only from their discoveries but also from effective communication about how these discoveries are relevant to everyday life.

  14. Adult Learning for Social Change in Museums: An Exploration of Sociocultural Learning Approaches to Community Engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Junghwan; You, Jieun; Yeon Park, Soo

    2016-01-01

    This integrative literature review critically examined how scholars were articulating the work of museums to make a space for "adult learning for social change through community engagement". We applied sociocultural adult learning theories (situated learning and cultural-historical activity theory), to 25 theoretical and empirical…

  15. A new combined strategy to implement a community occupational therapy intervention: designing a cluster randomized controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adang Eddy

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Even effective interventions for people with dementia and their caregivers require specific implementation efforts. A pilot study showed that the highly effective community occupational therapy in dementia (COTiD program was not implemented optimally due to various barriers. To decrease these barriers and make implementation of the program more effective a combined implementation (CI strategy was developed. In our study we will compare the effectiveness of this CI strategy with the usual educational (ED strategy. Methods In this cluster randomized, single-blinded, controlled trial, each cluster consists of at least two occupational therapists, a manager, and a physician working at Dutch healthcare organizations that deliver community occupational therapy. Forty-five clusters, stratified by healthcare setting (nursing home, hospital, mental health service, have been allocated randomly to either the intervention group (CI strategy or the control group (ED strategy. The study population consists of the professionals included in each cluster and community-dwelling people with dementia and their caregivers. The primary outcome measures are the use of community OT, the adherence of OTs to the COTiD program, and the cost effectiveness of implementing the COTiD program in outpatient care. Secondary outcome measures are patient and caregiver outcomes and knowledge of managers, physicians and OTs about the COTiD program. Discussion Implementation research is fairly new in the field of occupational therapy, making this a unique study. This study does not only evaluate the effects of the CI-strategy on professionals, but also the effects of professionals' degree of implementation on client and caregiver outcomes. Clinical trials registration NCT01117285

  16. Paradoxes of Social Networking in a Structured Web 2.0 Language Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loiseau, Mathieu; Zourou, Katerina

    2012-01-01

    This paper critically inquires into social networking as a set of mechanisms and associated practices developed in a structured Web 2.0 language learning community. This type of community can be roughly described as learning spaces featuring (more or less) structured language learning resources displaying at least some notions of language learning…

  17. Utilizing Peer Mentor Roles in Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rieske, Laura Jo; Benjamin, Mimi

    2015-01-01

    For a number of learning community programs, peer mentors provide an additional layer of staffing support. This chapter highlights peer mentor roles from a sample of programs and suggests important components for the construction of these roles.

  18. Comparison of Clustering Algorithms for the Identification of Topics on Twitter

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marjori N. M. Klinczak

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Topic Identification in Social Networks has become an important task when dealing with event detection, particularly when global communities are affected. In order to attack this problem, text processing techniques and machine learning algorithms have been extensively used. In this paper we compare four clustering algorithms – k-means, k-medoids, DBSCAN and NMF (Non-negative Matrix Factorization – in order to detect topics related to textual messages obtained from Twitter. The algorithms were applied to a database initially composed by tweets having hashtags related to the recent Nepal earthquake as initial context. Obtained results suggest that the NMF clustering algorithm presents superior results, providing simpler clusters that are also easier to interpret.

  19. Constructivism and Learning in the Age of Social Media: Changing Minds and Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schrader, Dawn E.

    2015-01-01

    Social media provide new means and opportunities for learning that are consistent with major tenets of both social and cognitive constructivism, and extend the process of learning and meaning construction to more diverse communities and universally accessible shared activities that are jointly and concurrently engaged in by both peers and experts.

  20. Community-Based Learning. Adding Value to Programs Involving Service Agencies and Schools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cumming, Jim

    Community-based learning (CBL) is a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experience with intellectual development, personal growth, and active citizenship. Enthusiasm for CBL is emerging in Australia and elsewhere because it is seen as the following: strategy for whole-school reform, especially in…

  1. Exploring body-anchored and experience-based learning in a community of practice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stelter, Reinhard

    2008-01-01

    which, in a second step, is presented as part of the social realm and as one of the prerequisites of learning in a community of practice. This integration is established and becomes visible through the following two concepts: 1. Reification as the outflow of co-ordinated action, and 2. narratives......The article aims to integrate body-anchored and experience-based learning in the theoretical concept of learning in a community of practice. Present moment, epoché, intentional orientation and meaning making are introduced as the four basic premises for body-anchored and experience-based learning...

  2. Combining forces. Distributed Leadership and a professional learning community in primary and secondary education

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hulsbos, Frank; Van Langevelde, Stefan; Evers, Arnoud

    2018-01-01

    This report describes an in depth case study of two good practice schools where a professional learning community and distributed leadership are highly developed. The goal of this study was to learn what conditions in the school support a professional learning community and distributed leadership.

  3. Myanmar: The Community Learning Centre Experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Middelborg, Jorn; Duvieusart, Baudouin, Ed.

    A community learning centre (CLC) is a local educational institution outside the formal education system, usually set up and managed by local people. CLCs were first introduced in Myanmar in 1994, and by 2001 there were 71 CLCs in 11 townships. The townships are characterized by remoteness, landlessness, unemployment, dependency on one cash crop,…

  4. A Logical Approach to Supporting Professional Learning Communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ralph Seward

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Collaborative knowledge sharing requires that dialogues successfully cross organizational barriers and information silos. Successful communication in person or in a virtual community involves a willingness to share ideas and consider diverse viewpoints. This research examines a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM content management system called NASATalk, which offers public and private blog posts, file sharing, asynchronous discussion, and live chat services. The service is designed to provide a virtual environment where educators can share ideas, suggestions, successes, and innovations in STEM teaching and learning activities. This study features qualitative data from STEM education groups that helped extend the design of the NASATalk Web 2.0 collaborative tools and features. The analysis shows that the context, e-collaborative tools, integration strategies, and outcomes varied, but also contributed additional space, time, tools, integration strategies, and outcomes through the virtual collaborative learning environment. This study is designed to inform the STEM education community as well as those offering virtual community resources and tools of the added value of using virtual communities to help STEM educators work together in collaborative, virtual environments to discuss ways they can improve their instruction and student performance.

  5. Investigating student communities with network analysis of interactions in a physics learning center

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eric Brewe

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed to increased recruitment and retention of physics majors. We utilize social network analysis to quantify interactions in Florida International University’s Physics Learning Center (PLC that support the development of academic and social integration. The tools of social network analysis allow us to visualize and quantify student interactions and characterize the roles of students within a social network. After providing a brief introduction to social network analysis, we use sequential multiple regression modeling to evaluate factors that contribute to participation in the learning community. Results of the sequential multiple regression indicate that the PLC learning community is an equitable environment as we find that gender and ethnicity are not significant predictors of participation in the PLC. We find that providing students space for collaboration provides a vital element in the formation of a supportive learning community.

  6. Investigating student communities with network analysis of interactions in a physics learning center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brewe, Eric; Kramer, Laird; Sawtelle, Vashti

    2012-06-01

    Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed to increased recruitment and retention of physics majors. We utilize social network analysis to quantify interactions in Florida International University’s Physics Learning Center (PLC) that support the development of academic and social integration. The tools of social network analysis allow us to visualize and quantify student interactions and characterize the roles of students within a social network. After providing a brief introduction to social network analysis, we use sequential multiple regression modeling to evaluate factors that contribute to participation in the learning community. Results of the sequential multiple regression indicate that the PLC learning community is an equitable environment as we find that gender and ethnicity are not significant predictors of participation in the PLC. We find that providing students space for collaboration provides a vital element in the formation of a supportive learning community.

  7. Enhancing and Transforming Global Learning Communities with Augmented Reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frydenberg, Mark; Andone, Diana

    2018-01-01

    Augmented and virtual reality applications bring new insights to real world objects and scenarios. This paper shares research results of the TalkTech project, an ongoing study investigating the impact of learning about new technologies as members of global communities. This study shares results of a collaborative learning project about augmented…

  8. Emergence of a learning community: a transforming experience at the boundaries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raia, Federica

    2013-03-01

    I narrate a process of transformation, a professional and personal journey framed by an experience that captured my attention shaping my interpretation and reflections. From a critical complexity framework I discuss the emergence of a learning community from the cooperation among individuals of diverse social and cultural worlds sharing the need to change a traditional professional development program structure and develop a new science education Masters Degree/Certification program. I zoom into the continual redefinition of the community, its evolution and complex interrelations among its participants and the emergence of a learning community as a boundary space having an emancipatory role and allowing growth and learning. I analyze the dialectical relationship between agents' behavior either impeding growth or having an emancipatory function of a mindful RelationalAct in a complex adaptive system framework.

  9. A Longitudinal Assessment of an Initial Cohort in a Psychology Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buch, Kim; Spaulding, Sue

    2008-01-01

    Discipline-based learning communities have become a popular strategy for improving student performance and satisfaction. This article describes the goals and features of a university-based, first-year psychology learning community (PLC) implemented in Fall 2003. We also report the results of a longitudinal assessment of the impact of the PLC on…

  10. Attitude toward learning of community medicine: A cross-sectional study among medical school students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Japhereena Murugavel

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Community medicine strives to protect and promote the health and well-being of the community through primary health care approach. However the preference of community medicine as career among medical school students and curriculum of community medicine is pivotal. Aim: The study intended to find the attitude towards learning of community medicine and also to assess the preference of post graduation specialty among medical school students. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study conducted at a teaching hospital located in Tamil Nadu, South India. The study questionnaire was administered to a total of 500 study participants and the data collected were analyzed using SPSS IBM version 21.0. Results: Almost 97% were of the opinion that community medicine subject is mandatory. Eighty three percent were interested in learning the principles. Only 21.8% students wanted to pursue post graduation in community medicine. Lack of attraction in terms of scientific technical interest, workplace conditions, and research potential has been reported for being not interested. Conclusion: Majority enjoyed to learn principles of community medicine at undergraduate curriculum but only few preferred to opt community medicine as post graduate specialty. Therefore there is a room to influence the medical students positively towards learning community medicine in curriculum.

  11. Facilitators' perceptions of problem-based learning and community-based education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annali E Fichardt

    2000-10-01

    Full Text Available In 1997 the School for Nursing, University of the Orange Free State, changed from the traditional lecture method of teaching to problem-based learning and from a curative to a community-based approach. Lecturers from a traditional environment became facilitators and new skills such as listening, dialogue, negotiation, counselling and problemsolving were expected from them. Besides the role change, the environment changed from a structural classroom to an unstructured community. The aim of this research was to determine the perceptions and experiences of facilitators in problem-based learning and community-base education. *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text.

  12. Field visit placements: An integrated and community approach to learning in children's nursing.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Cummins, Ann

    2010-03-01

    This paper reports on the development of a new initiative, field visit placements towards and integrated and community approach to learning for nursing students. To date, limited literature exists on the potential of community field visits as meaningful learning opportunities for nursing students. Drawing on our experiences, the structure and processes involved in implementing field visits are described in this paper. Students evaluated the field visits positively indicating that they provided a wealth of learning opportunities that enhanced their knowledge and awareness of services available to children and their families in the community. The potential of field visits to promote an integrated and community approach to placements in children\\'s nursing is discussed.

  13. Professional Learning Communities: Teachers Working Collaboratively for Continuous Improvement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffith, Louise Ann

    2009-01-01

    Current research indicates that a professional learning community (PLC) is an effective means for helping teachers to bridge the gap between research and practice. A PLC is a team of educators systematically working together to improve teaching practice and student learning. This study evaluated the PLC formed by teachers at a public elementary…

  14. Social marketing and community mobilisation to reduce underage alcohol consumption in Australia: A cluster randomised community trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowland, Bosco Charles; Williams, Joanne; Smith, Rachel; Hall, Jessica Kate; Osborn, Amber; Kremer, Peter; Kelly, Adrian B; Leslie, Eva; Patton, George; Mohebbi, Mohammadreza; Toumbourou, John W

    2018-08-01

    In many countries adolescent alcohol use is a major health problem. To supplement national policies, it is important to trial community interventions as a potential strategy to prevent adolescent alcohol use. This study evaluated a multicomponent community intervention that included community mobilisation, social marketing, and the monitoring of alcohol sales to minors. Evaluation was a clustered randomised trial design with 14 intervention and 14 control communities. Prior to randomisation, communities were matched on socioeconomic status and location. Intervention communities were not blinded. 3545 Year 8 students (M = 12 years) were surveyed at baseline from 75 schools; 3377 students were surveyed post intervention in 2013 from 54 schools. It was hypothesised that the primary outcome, individual alcohol consumption in last 30 days, after the intervention would be 15% lower in intervention communities. Secondary outcomes were consumption in the past year and intention not to drink before age 18. The intervention communities showed larger relative reductions compared to the controls in last 30-day consumption and past year (10%), but not significantly different. A significantly lower proportion of participants in the intervention community (63%), compared to the controls (71%), reported intending to drink before 18 years old. Subgroup analysis identified regional and state differences for some secondary measures. Intervention assignment was associated with lower adolescent intention to drink before the age of 18. However, more intensive and longer-term intervention may be required to measure significant differences in behaviour change. ACTRN12612000384853. Rowland B, Toumbourou JW, Osborn A, et al. BMJ Open 2013;3:e002423. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002423. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. A Deep Learning Prediction Model Based on Extreme-Point Symmetric Mode Decomposition and Cluster Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Guohui; Zhang, Songling; Yang, Hong

    2017-01-01

    Aiming at the irregularity of nonlinear signal and its predicting difficulty, a deep learning prediction model based on extreme-point symmetric mode decomposition (ESMD) and clustering analysis is proposed. Firstly, the original data is decomposed by ESMD to obtain the finite number of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and residuals. Secondly, the fuzzy c-means is used to cluster the decomposed components, and then the deep belief network (DBN) is used to predict it. Finally, the reconstructed ...

  16. Applications of Situated Learning to Foster Communities of Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edmonds-Cady, Cynthia; Sosulski, Marya R.

    2012-01-01

    The authors discuss 2 macro-level community practice courses, examining how each applies the concepts of situated learning to foster the development of communities of practice through use of a unique model for antioppressive practice. The theoretical underpinnings and a discussion of the implementation of each stage of the model is provided. The…

  17. Developing leadership practices in hospital-based nurse educators in an online learning community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stutsky, Brenda J; Spence Laschinger, Heather K

    2014-01-01

    Hospital-based nurse educators are in a prime position to mentor future nurse leaders; however, they need to first develop their own leadership practices. The goal was to establish a learning community where hospital-based nurse educators could develop their own nursing leadership practices within an online environment that included teaching, cognitive, and social presence. Using a pretest/posttest-only nonexperimental design, 35 nurse educators from three Canadian provinces engaged in a 12-week online learning community via a wiki where they learned about exemplary leadership practices and then shared stories about their own leadership practices. Nurse educators significantly increased their own perceived leadership practices after participation in the online community, and teaching, cognitive, and social presence was determined to be present in the online community. It was concluded that leadership development can be enhanced in an online learning community using a structured curriculum, multimedia presentations, and the sharing and analysis of leadership stories. Educators who participated should now be better equipped to role model exemplary leadership practices and mentor our nurse leaders of the future.

  18. Students Negotiating and Designing Their Collaborative Learning Norms: A Group Developmental Perspective in Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hod, Yotam; Ben-Zvi, Dani

    2015-01-01

    This research shows how participants in classroom learning communities (LCs) come to take responsibility over designing their collaborative learning norms. Taking a micro-developmental perspective within a graduate-level course, we examined fine-grained changes in group discourse during a period of rapid change where this responsibility taking…

  19. Clusters of community exposure to coastal flooding hazards based on storm and sea level rise scenarios—implications for adaptation networks in the San Francisco Bay region

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hummel, Michelle; Wood, Nathan J.; Schweikert, Amy; Stacey, Mark T.; Jones, Jeanne; Barnard, Patrick L.; Erikson, Li H.

    2018-01-01

    Sea level is projected to rise over the coming decades, further increasing the extent of flooding hazards in coastal communities. Efforts to address potential impacts from climate-driven coastal hazards have called for collaboration among communities to strengthen the application of best practices. However, communities currently lack practical tools for identifying potential partner communities based on similar hazard exposure characteristics. This study uses statistical cluster analysis to identify similarities in community exposure to flooding hazards for a suite of sea level rise and storm scenarios. We demonstrate this approach using 63 jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay region of California (USA) and compare 21 distinct exposure variables related to residents, employees, and structures for six hazard scenario combinations of sea level rise and storms. Results indicate that cluster analysis can provide an effective mechanism for identifying community groupings. Cluster compositions changed based on the selected societal variables and sea level rise scenarios, suggesting that a community could participate in multiple networks to target specific issues or policy interventions. The proposed clustering approach can serve as a data-driven foundation to help communities identify other communities with similar adaptation challenges and to enhance regional efforts that aim to facilitate adaptation planning and investment prioritization.

  20. Transformative unlearning: safety, discernment and communities of learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macdonald, Geraldine

    2002-09-01

    This paper aims to stimulate awareness about the intellectual and emotional work of 'unlearning' in knowledge workers in the emerging learning age. The importance of providing a safe space for dialogue to promote transformative learning, through building 'communities of learning', is highlighted. Unlearning is conceptualized within a transformative education paradigm, one whose primary orientation is discernment, a personal growth process involving the activities of receptivity, recognition and grieving. The author utilizes the metaphor of an unfolding spiral path to explore her experience of needing to 'unlearn' a trusted nursing practice prior to 'learning' new best caring practices related to infant sleep positions. Macro and micro approaches to facilitating unlearning in organizations, in learners and in nurses are suggested.

  1. Virtual communities of practice in web-based second language learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Karen Bjerg

    2013-01-01

    in communities of practice and of situated and collaborative learning have deeply inspired educators and teachers and, to a certain degree, become the theoretical and practical framework for developing web-based learning platforms, while findings from this research indicate that students perceive e...

  2. Undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of service-learning through a school-based community project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bassi, Sherry

    2011-01-01

    Service-learning (SL) is an experiential teaching method that combines instruction with community service, with the aim of enriching students' academic learning, interpersonal skills and sense of responsibility while making meaningful contributions to the community. However, measuring outcomes of service-learning projects is difficult. This article reports on the perceptions of 18 third-year undergraduate nursing students who took part in a pilot service-learning project targeting tobacco use in a local elementary school. Faculty members evaluated the program's outcomes by engaging students in structured reflection on the program about its relevance to their future careers as practicing professionals, especially in community-based settings. The students' perceptions were elicited through three sets of reflective assignments following the project. Findings from the reflective assignments suggest that the pilot program was successful in enhancing the students' academic, social, and personal development while building a partnership between the school of nursing and key players in the community, including school-based nurses, teachers, administrators, families, and community leaders. The author suggests that service-learning projects can help nursing students accomplish key developmental tasks of the college years (such as building their competence, autonomy, and integrity), while helping impart the skills and values they will need as they graduate and seek professional nursing roles.

  3. Enhancing Sustainability Curricula through Faculty Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Natkin, L. W.; Kolbe, Tammy

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: Although the number of higher education institutions adopting sustainability-focused faculty learning communities (FLCs) has grown, very few of these programs have published evaluation research. This paper aims to report findings from an evaluation of the University of Vermont's (UVM's) sustainability faculty fellows (SFF) program. It…

  4. Developing Structured-Learning Exercises for a Community Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience

    OpenAIRE

    Thomas, Renee Ahrens

    2006-01-01

    The recent growth in the number of pharmacy schools across the nation has resulted in the need for high-quality community advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) sites. A vital part of a student's education, these APPEs should be structured and formalized to provide an environment conducive to student learning. This paper discusses how to use a calendar, structured-learning activities, and scheduled evaluations to develop students' knowledge, skills, and abilities in a community pharmacy...

  5. Developing structured-learning exercises for a community advanced pharmacy practice experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Renee Ahrens

    2006-02-15

    The recent growth in the number of pharmacy schools across the nation has resulted in the need for high-quality community advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) sites. A vital part of a student's education, these APPEs should be structured and formalized to provide an environment conducive to student learning. This paper discusses how to use a calendar, structured-learning activities, and scheduled evaluations to develop students' knowledge, skills, and abilities in a community pharmacy setting.

  6. Mobilising Community? Place, Identity Formation and New Teachers' Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somerville, Margaret; Rennie, Jennifer

    2012-01-01

    This paper analyses data from a longitudinal study which foregrounds the category of "place" to ask: How do new teachers learn to do their work, and how do they learn about the places and communities in which they begin teaching? Surveys and ethnographic interviews were carried out with 35 new teachers over a three-year period in a…

  7. The Effect of Scalp Point Cluster-Needling on Learning and Memory Function and Neurotransmitter Levels in Rats with Vascular Dementia

    OpenAIRE

    Yang, Junli; Litscher, Gerhard; Li, Haitao; Guo, Wenhai; Liang, Zhang; Zhang, Ting; Wang, Weihua; Li, Xiaoyan; Zhou, Yao; Zhao, Bing; Rong, Qi; Sheng, Zemin; Gaischek, Ingrid; Litscher, Daniela; Wang, Lu

    2014-01-01

    We observed the effect of scalp point cluster-needling treatment on learning and memory function and neurotransmitter levels in rats with vascular dementia (VD). Permanent ligation of the bilateral carotid arteries was used to create the VD rat model. A Morris water maze was used to measure the rats' learning and memory function, and the changes in neurotransmitter levels in the rats' hippocampus were analyzed. The results show that scalp point cluster-needling can increase the VD rat model's...

  8. Sociocultural Perspective of Science in Online Learning Environments. Communities of Practice in Online Learning Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erdogan, Niyazi

    2016-01-01

    Present study reviews empirical research studies related to learning science in online learning environments as a community. Studies published between 1995 and 2015 were searched by using ERIC and EBSCOhost databases. As a result, fifteen studies were selected for review. Identified studies were analyzed with a qualitative content analysis method…

  9. Implementing knowledge into practice for improved neonatal survival; a cluster-randomised, community-based trial in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huy Tran Q

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Globally, almost 4 million newborns die during the first 4 weeks of life every year. By increased use of evidence-based knowledge in the healthcare system a large proportion of these neonatal deaths could be prevented. But there is a severe lack of knowledge on effective methods for successful implementation of evidence into practice, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Recent studies have demonstrated promising results with increased survival among both mothers and newborns using community-based approaches. In Vietnam evidence-based guidelines on reproductive health were launched in 2003 and revised in 2009. The overall objective of the current project is to evaluate if a facilitation intervention on the community level, with a problem-solving approach involving local representatives if the healthcare system and the community, results in improvements of neonatal health and survival. Methods/Design The study, which has been given the acronym NeoKIP (Neonatal Health - Knowledge Into Practice, took place in 8 districts composed by 90 communes in a province in northern Vietnam, where neonatal mortality rate was 24/1000 in 2005. A cluster randomised design was used, allocating clusters, as defined as a commune and its correponding Commune Health Center (CHC to either intervention or control arm. The facilitation intervention targeted staff at healthcare centres and key persons in the communes. The facilitator role was performed by lay women (Women's Union representatives using quality improvement techniques to initiate and sustain improvement processes targeting identified problem areas. The intervention has been running over 3 years and data were collected on the facilitation process, healthcare staff knowledge in neonatal care and their behaviour in clinical practice, and reproductive and perinatal health indicators. Primary outcome is neonatal mortality. Discussion The intervention is participatory and dynamic

  10. Reimagining Communities and Implementing Social Learning: Contemporary Community Theatre Development in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Wan-Jung

    2014-01-01

    Since the 1990s, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan have encountered political, social, economic and cultural challenges. During this period, their community theatres have played distinctive roles in activating their public space to reimagine their communities, form dialogues with their governments and construct learning experiences amongst various…

  11. Together We Can Live and Learn. Living-Learning Communities as Integrated Curricular Experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunn, Merrily S.; Dean, Laura A.

    2013-01-01

    This article briefly outlines the history of living-learning communities (LLC) in colleges and universities. It details conceptualization, design, implementation and assessment of such programs. Model recreation and leisure LLC are highlighted and discussed.

  12. Self-regulated Learning in a Hybrid Science Course at a Community College

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manuelito, Shannon Joy

    Community college students are attracted to courses with alternative delivery formats such as hybrid courses because the more flexible delivery associated with such courses provides convenience for busy students. In a hybrid course, face-to-face, structured seat time is exchanged for online components. In such courses, students take more responsibility for their learning because they assume additional responsibility for learning more of the course material on their own. Thus, self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors have the potential to be useful for students to successfully navigate hybrid courses because the online components require exercise of more personal control over the autonomous learning situations inherent in hybrid courses. Self-regulated learning theory includes three components: metacognition, motivation, and behavioral actions. In the current study, this theoretical framework is used to examine how inducing self-regulated learning activities among students taking a hybrid course influence performance in a community college science course. The intervention for this action research study consisted of a suite of activities that engage students in self-regulated learning behaviors to foster student performance. The specific SRL activities included predicting grades, reflections on coursework and study efforts in course preparation logs, explanation of SRL procedures in response to a vignette, photo ethnography work on their personal use of SRL approaches, and a personalized study plan. A mixed method approach was employed to gather evidence for the study. Results indicate that community college students use a variety of self-regulated learning strategies to support their learning of course material. Further, engaging community college students in learning reflection activities appears to afford some students with opportunities to refine their SRL skills and influence their learning. The discussion focuses on integrating the quantitative and qualitative

  13. The Applicability of eLearning in Community-Based Rehabilitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karly Michelle Dagys

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Community-based rehabilitation (CBR strives to enhance quality of life for individuals with disabilities and their families by increasing social participation and equalizing opportunities in the global south. Aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals, CBR also aims to address the high rates of poverty faced by individuals with disability. Empowerment, a pillar of CBR, involves strengthening the capacity of people with disabilities, their families, and their communities to ensure reduction of disparities. This article outlines a scoping review that guided by the question: “What is known from the existing literature about the applicability of eLearning for capacity building in CBR?” This review did not uncover literature related to eLearning in CBR; however findings suggest that other disciplines, not explicitly tied to CBR, currently use eLearning to educate and empower professionals in the global south. We argue that eLearning technology could be an effective and sustainable solution for CBR programming in the global south for capacity development. Such technology could increase individuals with disabilities’ access to education and could provide opportunities for wider dissemination of knowledge, beyond typical funding cycles. With a goal of informing future CBR practice in eLearning, this article concludes by highlighting key lessons taken from other disciplines that have utilized eLearning in the global south.

  14. Using Web 2.0 for Learning in the Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mason, Robin; Rennie, Frank

    2007-01-01

    This paper describes the use of a range of Web 2.0 technologies to support the development of community for a newly formed Land Trust on the Isle of Lewis, in NW Scotland. The application of social networking tools in text, audio and video has several purposes: informal learning about the area to increase tourism, community interaction,…

  15. Implementing Community Service Learning through Archaeological Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nassaney, Michael S.

    2004-01-01

    The Anthropology Department at Western Michigan University has sponsored an annual archaeological field school since the mid-1970s. Over the past decade, students have worked with community and government organizations, learning to apply archaeological methods to real world problems to preserve and interpret significant heritage sites. They come…

  16. Building a Community Memory in Communities of Practice of E-Learning: A Knowledge Engineering Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarirete, Akila; Chikh, Azeddine; Noble, Elizabeth

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to define a community memory for a virtual communities of practice (CoP) based on organizational learning (OL) concept and ontologies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on applying the OL concept to virtual CoP and proposes a framework for building the CoP memory by identifying several layers of…

  17. Energy Cooperation in Ultradense Network Powered by Renewable Energy Based on Cluster and Learning Strategy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chunhong Duo

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available A new method about renewable energy cooperation among small base stations (SBSs is proposed, which is for maximizing the energy efficiency in ultradense network (UDN. In UDN each SBS is equipped with energy harvesting (EH unit, and the energy arrival times are modeled as a Poisson counting process. Firstly, SBSs of large traffic demands are selected as the clustering centers, and then all SBSs are clustered using dynamic k-means algorithm. Secondly, SBSs coordinate their renewable energy within each formed cluster. The process of energy cooperation among SBSs is considered as Markov decision process. Q-learning algorithm is utilized to optimize energy cooperation. In the algorithm there are four different actions and their corresponding reward functions. Q-learning explores the action as much as possible and predicts better action by calculating reward. In addition, ε greedy policy is used to ensure the algorithm convergence. Finally, simulation results show that the new method reduces data dimension and improves calculation speed, which furthermore improves the utilization of renewable energy and promotes the performance of UDN. Through online optimization, the proposed method can significantly improve the energy utilization rate and data transmission rate.

  18. International Community-Based Service Learning: Two Comparative Case Studies of Benefits and Tensions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akhurst, Jacqueline

    2016-01-01

    The drives to internationalise the UK curriculum and psychology students' desires to work in communities are brought together in this paper. International community-based learning (ICBL) links with many psychology students' motivations to make contributions to others; with the potential to enhance students' learning and cultural sensitivities. The…

  19. One Happy Union: Infusing Community-Based Learning Projects through Online Instruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jason W.; Kane, Jennifer; Cavanaugh, Terence

    2015-01-01

    Both community-based learning (CBL) and online learning are popular pedagogical practices, with distinct benefits and issues for teaching and learning. The integration of these practices may seem challenging, but they can be compatible. This article seeks to provide effective examples and support for conducting CBL projects in online courses while…

  20. a Probabilistic Embedding Clustering Method for Urban Structure Detection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, X.; Li, H.; Zhang, Y.; Gao, L.; Zhao, L.; Deng, M.

    2017-09-01

    Urban structure detection is a basic task in urban geography. Clustering is a core technology to detect the patterns of urban spatial structure, urban functional region, and so on. In big data era, diverse urban sensing datasets recording information like human behaviour and human social activity, suffer from complexity in high dimension and high noise. And unfortunately, the state-of-the-art clustering methods does not handle the problem with high dimension and high noise issues concurrently. In this paper, a probabilistic embedding clustering method is proposed. Firstly, we come up with a Probabilistic Embedding Model (PEM) to find latent features from high dimensional urban sensing data by "learning" via probabilistic model. By latent features, we could catch essential features hidden in high dimensional data known as patterns; with the probabilistic model, we can also reduce uncertainty caused by high noise. Secondly, through tuning the parameters, our model could discover two kinds of urban structure, the homophily and structural equivalence, which means communities with intensive interaction or in the same roles in urban structure. We evaluated the performance of our model by conducting experiments on real-world data and experiments with real data in Shanghai (China) proved that our method could discover two kinds of urban structure, the homophily and structural equivalence, which means clustering community with intensive interaction or under the same roles in urban space.

  1. Stabilization of dendritic spine clusters and hyperactive Ras-MAPK signaling predict enhanced motor learning in an autistic savant mouse model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryan Thomas Ash

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available That both prominent behavioral inflexibility and exceptional learning abilities are seen occasionally in autistic patients is a mystery. We hypothesize that these altered patterns of learning and memory can arise from a pathological imbalance between the stability and plasticity of internal neural representations. We evaluated this hypothesis in the mouse model of MECP2 duplication syndrome, which demonstrates enhanced motor learning, stereotyped behaviors, and social avoidance. Learning-associated structural plasticity was measured in the motor cortex of MECP2 duplication mice by 2-photon imaging (Fig. 1A. An increased stabilization rate of learning-associated dendritic spines was observed in mutants, and this correlated with rotarod performance. Analysis of the spatial distribution of stabilized spines revealed that the mutant’s increased spine stabilization was due to a specific increase in the stability of spines jointly formed in ~9-micron clusters. Clustered spine stabilization but not isolated spine stabilization predicted enhanced motor performance in MECP2 duplication mice (Fig. 1B. Biochemical assays of Ras-MAPK and mTOR pathway activation demonstrated profound hyperphosphorylation of MAPK in the motor cortex of MECP2 duplication mice with motor training (Fig. 1C. Taken together these data suggest that a pathological bias towards hyperstability of learning-associated dendritic spine clusters driven by hyperactive Ras-MAPK signaling could contribute to neurobehavioral phenotypes in this form of syndromic autism.

  2. ClusterTAD: an unsupervised machine learning approach to detecting topologically associated domains of chromosomes from Hi-C data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oluwadare, Oluwatosin; Cheng, Jianlin

    2017-11-14

    With the development of chromosomal conformation capturing techniques, particularly, the Hi-C technique, the study of the spatial conformation of a genome is becoming an important topic in bioinformatics and computational biology. The Hi-C technique can generate genome-wide chromosomal interaction (contact) data, which can be used to investigate the higher-level organization of chromosomes, such as Topologically Associated Domains (TAD), i.e., locally packed chromosome regions bounded together by intra chromosomal contacts. The identification of the TADs for a genome is useful for studying gene regulation, genomic interaction, and genome function. Here, we formulate the TAD identification problem as an unsupervised machine learning (clustering) problem, and develop a new TAD identification method called ClusterTAD. We introduce a novel method to represent chromosomal contacts as features to be used by the clustering algorithm. Our results show that ClusterTAD can accurately predict the TADs on a simulated Hi-C data. Our method is also largely complementary and consistent with existing methods on the real Hi-C datasets of two mouse cells. The validation with the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) sequencing (ChIP-Seq) data shows that the domain boundaries identified by ClusterTAD have a high enrichment of CTCF binding sites, promoter-related marks, and enhancer-related histone modifications. As ClusterTAD is based on a proven clustering approach, it opens a new avenue to apply a large array of clustering methods developed in the machine learning field to the TAD identification problem. The source code, the results, and the TADs generated for the simulated and real Hi-C datasets are available here: https://github.com/BDM-Lab/ClusterTAD .

  3. Creating Professional Learning Communities: The Work of Professional Development Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doolittle, Gini; Sudeck, Maria; Rattigan, Peter

    2008-01-01

    If professional learning communities offer opportunities for improving the teaching and learning process, then developing strong professional development school (PDS) partnerships establish an appropriate framework for that purpose. PDS partnerships, however, can be less than effective without proper planning and discussion about the aims of those…

  4. Addressing Cultural Competency in Pharmacy Education through International Service Learning and Community Engagement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosemin Kassam

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a course in international service learning and community engagement for pharmacy undergraduate students. The course offered students opportunities to cultivate cultural competency in an international setting foreign to their own—Sub-Saharan Africa. The experience consisted of pre-departure preparation seminars followed by subsequent community immersion to experience, explore and confront personal attitudes and perceptions. A key feature of this course was its emphasis on a continuing cycle of learning, community engagement and reflection. Three students participated, a near-maximum cohort. Their daily self-reflections were qualitatively analyzed to document the impact of their cultural learning and experiences and revealed meaningful learning in the domains of self-assessment and awareness of their personal and professional culture, exposure to a participatory health delivery model involving the patient, the community and a multidisciplinary team and opportunities to engage in patient care in a different cultural setting. This proof-of-concept course provided students with experiences that were life-changing on both personal and professional levels and confirmed the viability and relevance of international service learning for the pharmacy field within its university-wide mandate.

  5. Massively parallel unsupervised single-particle cryo-EM data clustering via statistical manifold learning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiayi Wu

    Full Text Available Structural heterogeneity in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM data represents a major challenge for high-resolution structure determination. Unsupervised classification may serve as the first step in the assessment of structural heterogeneity. However, traditional algorithms for unsupervised classification, such as K-means clustering and maximum likelihood optimization, may classify images into wrong classes with decreasing signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR in the image data, yet demand increased computational costs. Overcoming these limitations requires further development of clustering algorithms for high-performance cryo-EM data processing. Here we introduce an unsupervised single-particle clustering algorithm derived from a statistical manifold learning framework called generative topographic mapping (GTM. We show that unsupervised GTM clustering improves classification accuracy by about 40% in the absence of input references for data with lower SNRs. Applications to several experimental datasets suggest that our algorithm can detect subtle structural differences among classes via a hierarchical clustering strategy. After code optimization over a high-performance computing (HPC environment, our software implementation was able to generate thousands of reference-free class averages within hours in a massively parallel fashion, which allows a significant improvement on ab initio 3D reconstruction and assists in the computational purification of homogeneous datasets for high-resolution visualization.

  6. Massively parallel unsupervised single-particle cryo-EM data clustering via statistical manifold learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Jiayi; Ma, Yong-Bei; Congdon, Charles; Brett, Bevin; Chen, Shuobing; Xu, Yaofang; Ouyang, Qi; Mao, Youdong

    2017-01-01

    Structural heterogeneity in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) data represents a major challenge for high-resolution structure determination. Unsupervised classification may serve as the first step in the assessment of structural heterogeneity. However, traditional algorithms for unsupervised classification, such as K-means clustering and maximum likelihood optimization, may classify images into wrong classes with decreasing signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) in the image data, yet demand increased computational costs. Overcoming these limitations requires further development of clustering algorithms for high-performance cryo-EM data processing. Here we introduce an unsupervised single-particle clustering algorithm derived from a statistical manifold learning framework called generative topographic mapping (GTM). We show that unsupervised GTM clustering improves classification accuracy by about 40% in the absence of input references for data with lower SNRs. Applications to several experimental datasets suggest that our algorithm can detect subtle structural differences among classes via a hierarchical clustering strategy. After code optimization over a high-performance computing (HPC) environment, our software implementation was able to generate thousands of reference-free class averages within hours in a massively parallel fashion, which allows a significant improvement on ab initio 3D reconstruction and assists in the computational purification of homogeneous datasets for high-resolution visualization.

  7. Reframing Practice: High School Mathematics Teachers' Learning through Interactions in Their Workplace Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bannister, Nicole A.

    2009-01-01

    This dissertation seeks to understand how teachers learn through interactions in newly formed workplace communities by examining how mathematics teachers engaged in equity-oriented reforms frame problems of practice. It examines how teachers' framings develop over time, and how teachers' shifting frames connect to their learning in a community of…

  8. Developing a Culture of Assessment through a Faculty Learning Community: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlitz, Stephanie A.; O'Connor, Margaret; Pang, Yanhui; Stryker, Deborah; Markell, Stephen; Krupp, Ethan; Byers, Celina; Jones, Sheila Dove; Redfern, Alicia King

    2009-01-01

    This article describes how a diverse, interdisciplinary team of faculty formed a topic-based faculty learning community. Following an introduction to faculty learning communities and a brief discussion of their benefit to faculty engaged in the process of adopting new technology, we explain how our team, through a competitive mini-grant…

  9. CSU Digital Ambassadors: An Empowering and Impactful Faculty Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Soodjinda, Daniel; Parker, Jessica K.; Ross, Donna L.; Meyer, Elizabeth J.

    2014-01-01

    This article chronicles the work of the California State University Digital Ambassador Program (DA), a Faculty Learning Community (FLC), which brought together 13 faculty members across the state to create ongoing, targeted spaces of support for colleagues and educational partners to learn about innovative technological and pedagogical practices…

  10. Tacit Knowledge in Online Learning: Community, Identity, and Social Capital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oztok, Murat

    2013-01-01

    This article discusses the possibilities that tacit knowledge could provide for social constructivist pedagogies; in particular, pedagogies for online learning. Arguing that the tacit dimension of knowledge is critical for meaning making in situated learning practices and for a community of practice to function, the article considers whether…

  11. Service Learning: An Empowerment Agenda for Students and Community Entrepreneurs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scholtz, Desiree

    2018-01-01

    Service learning (SL) presents apposite opportunities for students to share with and learn from businesses for mutually beneficial development and experience. This article focuses on a SL project conducted by undergraduate students in South Africa, to devise advertising and marketing strategies for community businesses. The reciprocity of benefits…

  12. Decomposition methods for unsupervised learning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mørup, Morten

    2008-01-01

    This thesis presents the application and development of decomposition methods for Unsupervised Learning. It covers topics from classical factor analysis based decomposition and its variants such as Independent Component Analysis, Non-negative Matrix Factorization and Sparse Coding...... methods and clustering problems is derived both in terms of classical point clustering but also in terms of community detection in complex networks. A guiding principle throughout this thesis is the principle of parsimony. Hence, the goal of Unsupervised Learning is here posed as striving for simplicity...... in the decompositions. Thus, it is demonstrated how a wide range of decomposition methods explicitly or implicitly strive to attain this goal. Applications of the derived decompositions are given ranging from multi-media analysis of image and sound data, analysis of biomedical data such as electroencephalography...

  13. The urban and community health pathway: preparing socially responsive physicians through community-engaged learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meurer, Linda N; Young, Staci A; Meurer, John R; Johnson, Sheri L; Gilbert, Ileen A; Diehr, Sabina

    2011-10-01

    One of five options for the new required Medical College of Wisconsin Pathways program, the Urban and Community Health Pathway (UCHP), links training with community needs and assets to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide effective care in urban, underserved settings; promote community health; and reduce health disparities. Students spend at least 10 hours per month on pathway activities: 4 hours of core material delivered through readings, didactics, case discussions, and site visits; and at least 6 hours of experiential noncore activities applying core competencies, guided by an Individualized Learning Plan and faculty advisor. Noncore activities include community-engaged research, service-learning activities or other relevant experiences, and submission of a synthesis paper addressing pathway competencies. The first cohort of students began their pathways in January 2010. Of 560 participating students, 95 (of which 48 were first-year, 21 second-year, and 26 third-year students) selected UCHP. Core sessions focused on public health, social determinants, cultural humility, poverty, the local healthcare system, and safety net. During noncore time, students engaged in projects addressing homelessness, obesity, advocacy, Hmong and Latino health, HIV, asthma, and violence prevention. Students enjoyed working with peers across classes and favored interactive, community-based sessions over didactics in the classroom. Students' papers reflected a range of service and scholarly activities and a deepened appreciation of social and economic influences on health. The UCHP enriches the traditional curriculum with individualized, community-based experiences to build knowledge about health determinants and skills in partnering with communities to improve health. Copyright © 2011 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. An Analysis of Gender and Major Differences upon Undergraduate Student Attitudes about Community Service Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shukla, P. K.; Shukla, Monica P.

    2014-01-01

    Community Service Learning (CSL) believes that university and colleges should incorporate community based service projects into courses. There are faculty and administrator supporters who argue for such proposals to require community service learning components into classes, but there are also faculty and administrator critics of such proposals.…

  15. DeepSpark: A Spark-Based Distributed Deep Learning Framework for Commodity Clusters

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Hanjoo; Park, Jaehong; Jang, Jaehee; Yoon, Sungroh

    2016-01-01

    The increasing complexity of deep neural networks (DNNs) has made it challenging to exploit existing large-scale data processing pipelines for handling massive data and parameters involved in DNN training. Distributed computing platforms and GPGPU-based acceleration provide a mainstream solution to this computational challenge. In this paper, we propose DeepSpark, a distributed and parallel deep learning framework that exploits Apache Spark on commodity clusters. To support parallel operation...

  16. CyberPsychological Computation on Social Community of Ubiquitous Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Xuan; Dai, Genghui; Huang, Shuang; Sun, Xuemin; Hu, Feng; Hu, Hongzhi; Ivanović, Mirjana

    2015-01-01

    Under the modern network environment, ubiquitous learning has been a popular way for people to study knowledge, exchange ideas, and share skills in the cyberspace. Existing research findings indicate that the learners' initiative and community cohesion play vital roles in the social communities of ubiquitous learning, and therefore how to stimulate the learners' interest and participation willingness so as to improve their enjoyable experiences in the learning process should be the primary consideration on this issue. This paper aims to explore an effective method to monitor the learners' psychological reactions based on their behavioral features in cyberspace and therefore provide useful references for adjusting the strategies in the learning process. In doing so, this paper firstly analyzes the psychological assessment of the learners' situations as well as their typical behavioral patterns and then discusses the relationship between the learners' psychological reactions and their observable features in cyberspace. Finally, this paper puts forward a CyberPsychological computation method to estimate the learners' psychological states online. Considering the diversity of learners' habitual behaviors in the reactions to their psychological changes, a BP-GA neural network is proposed for the computation based on their personalized behavioral patterns. PMID:26557846

  17. School-community learning partnerships for sustainability: Recommended best practice and reality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wheeler, Leone; Guevara, Jose Roberto; Smith, Jodi-Anne

    2018-05-01

    Effective partnerships across different stakeholders are essential to the collaboration required for learning cities to contribute to sustainable development. Through partnerships, formal educational institutions, such as schools and universities, play a vital role in establishing and sustaining learning cities, often by facilitating the meaningful participation of different local community members. The research presented in this article examines the characteristics of effective school-community partnerships in the literature and compares it to the results of a three-year research study which examined 16 case studies of school-community partnerships in the state of Victoria in Australia. Using participatory action research, the researchers identified four approaches to implementing partnerships for sustainability, explored challenges to achieving an idealised partnership, and made recommendations for establishing successful partnership networks. The researchers propose that partnerships be viewed as a dynamic resource rather than merely a transactional arrangement that addresses the identified challenges of time, funding, skills and personnel. Furthermore, the use of "partnership brokers", such as local government or non-government organisations, is recommended to expand the current school-centred approach to partnerships. These insights aim to contribute to providing quality education and lifelong learning through partnerships - outcomes crucial for establishing and sustaining learning cities.

  18. With Educational Benefits for All: Campus Inclusion through Learning Communities Designed for Underserved Student Populations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fink, John E.; Hummel, Mary L.

    2015-01-01

    This chapter explores the practices of learning communities designed for specific, underserved student populations, highlighting on-campus examples and culminating with a synthesized list of core practices from these "inclusive" learning communities.

  19. Learning in networks Community of Practice: a new approach to entrepreneurial learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schrooten, G.B.J. (Gerrit)

    2009-01-01

    Educational programs teaching entrepreneurial behaviour and knowledge are crucial to a vital and healthy economy. The concept of building a Communities of Practice (CoP) could be very promising. CoP’s are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of

  20. A comparison of confidence interval methods for the intraclass correlation coefficient in community-based cluster randomization trials with a binary outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braschel, Melissa C; Svec, Ivana; Darlington, Gerarda A; Donner, Allan

    2016-04-01

    Many investigators rely on previously published point estimates of the intraclass correlation coefficient rather than on their associated confidence intervals to determine the required size of a newly planned cluster randomized trial. Although confidence interval methods for the intraclass correlation coefficient that can be applied to community-based trials have been developed for a continuous outcome variable, fewer methods exist for a binary outcome variable. The aim of this study is to evaluate confidence interval methods for the intraclass correlation coefficient applied to binary outcomes in community intervention trials enrolling a small number of large clusters. Existing methods for confidence interval construction are examined and compared to a new ad hoc approach based on dividing clusters into a large number of smaller sub-clusters and subsequently applying existing methods to the resulting data. Monte Carlo simulation is used to assess the width and coverage of confidence intervals for the intraclass correlation coefficient based on Smith's large sample approximation of the standard error of the one-way analysis of variance estimator, an inverted modified Wald test for the Fleiss-Cuzick estimator, and intervals constructed using a bootstrap-t applied to a variance-stabilizing transformation of the intraclass correlation coefficient estimate. In addition, a new approach is applied in which clusters are randomly divided into a large number of smaller sub-clusters with the same methods applied to these data (with the exception of the bootstrap-t interval, which assumes large cluster sizes). These methods are also applied to a cluster randomized trial on adolescent tobacco use for illustration. When applied to a binary outcome variable in a small number of large clusters, existing confidence interval methods for the intraclass correlation coefficient provide poor coverage. However, confidence intervals constructed using the new approach combined with Smith

  1. Collaborative Learning in the Scientific Community of Practice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jesionkowska, J.

    2016-01-01

    Full text: The paper describes research done in the scope of doctoral project. The aim of the study is to discover how to improve the process of collaborative learning in the community of scientists by the development of a community of practice. A mixed methods approach was used combining data from content analysis, interviews and questionnaires. Results show that such community helps to build relationships and network with others, it motivates to share work-related knowledge, represents an area of common interest for organization, but also that it is mainly driven by the willingness of members and is lacking instruments to share ideas. (author

  2. Community Learning and University Policy: An Inner-City University Goes Back to School

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lloyd Axworthy

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available For at least a decade now, the University of Winnipeg (U of W, an urban institution on Treaty One land in the heart of the Métis Nation, has challenged existing academic models and practices, and has incorporated strategies that address the social divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in order to more effectively serve the learning needs of its surrounding community. This article demonstrates how an inner-city university has used internal policies and programs to help support the self-determination of Indigenous peoples. Six community learning initiatives were recently evaluated for impact. This article will provide an overview of the positive outcomes of these learning initiatives on a community of underrepresented learners.

  3. Exploration of Textual Interactions in CALL Learning Communities: Emerging Research and Opportunities

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Jonathan R.

    2017-01-01

    Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has greatly enhanced the realm of online social interaction and behavior. In language classrooms, it allows the opportunity for students to enhance their learning experiences. "Exploration of Textual Interactions in CALL Learning Communities: Emerging Research and Opportunities" is an ideal…

  4. Making the Most of Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hughes-Hassell, Sandra; Brasfield, Amanda; Dupree, Debbie

    2012-01-01

    As more and more schools implement professional learning communities (PLCs), school librarians often ask: What is the role of school librarians in PLCs? What should they be doing to contribute? What are their colleagues in other schools doing? In this article the authors explore these questions by first describing eight potential roles for school…

  5. Building up STEM education professional learning community in school setting: Case of Khon Kaen Wittayayon School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thana, Aduldej; Siripun, Kulpatsorn; Yuenyong, Chokchai

    2018-01-01

    The STEM education is new issue of teaching and learning in school setting. Building up STEM education professional learning community may provide some suggestions for further collaborative work of STEM Education from grounded up. This paper aimed to clarify the building up STEM education learning community in Khon Kaen Wittayayon (KKW) School setting. Participants included Khon Kaen University researchers, Khon Kaen Wittayayon School administrators and teachers. Methodology regarded interpretative paradigm. The tools of interpretation included participant observation, interview and document analysis. Data was analyzed to categories of condition for building up STEM education professional learning community. The findings revealed that the actions of developing STEM learning activities and research showed some issues of KKW STEM community of inquiry and improvement. The paper will discuss what and how the community learns about sharing vision of STEM Education, supportive physical and social conditions of KKW, sharing activities of STEM, and good things from some key STEM teachers' ambition. The paper may has implication of supporting STEM education in Thailand school setting.

  6. Mentoring as a Formalized Learning Strategy with Community Sports Volunteers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffiths, Mark; Armour, Kathleen

    2012-01-01

    The aim of our study was to examine formalized mentoring as a learning strategy for volunteer sports coaches and to consider implications for other volunteer groups in the community. Despite the increasingly popular use of mentoring as a learning and support strategy across professional domains, and the sheer scale of volunteer sports coach…

  7. 34 CFR 692.30 - How does a State administer its community service-learning job program?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ...-learning job program? 692.30 Section 692.30 Education Regulations of the Offices of the Department of... Administer Its Community Service-Learning Job Program? § 692.30 How does a State administer its community service-learning job program? (a)(1) Each year, a State may use up to 20 percent of its allotment for a...

  8. Transgressing the norm: Transformative agency in community-based learning for sustainability in southern African contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lotz-Sisitka, Heila; Mukute, Mutizwa; Chikunda, Charles; Baloi, Aristides; Pesanayi, Tichaona

    2017-12-01

    Environment and sustainability education processes are often oriented to change and transformation, and frequently involve the emergence of new forms of human activity. However, not much is known about how such change emerges from the learning process, or how it contributes to the development of transformative agency in community contexts. The authors of this article present four cross-case perspectives of expansive learning and transformative agency development in community-based education in southern Africa, studying communities pursuing new activities that are more socially just and sustainable. The four cases of community learning and transformative agency focus on the following activities: (1) sustainable agriculture in Lesotho; (2) seed saving and rainwater harvesting in Zimbabwe; (3) community-based irrigation scheme management in Mozambique; and (4) biodiversity conservation co-management in South Africa. The case studies all draw on cultural-historical activity theory to guide learning and change processes, especially third-generation cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), which emphasises expansive learning in collectives across interacting activity systems. CHAT researchers, such as the authors of this article, argue that expansive learning can lead to the emergence of transformative agency. The authors extend their transformative agency analysis to probe if and how expansive learning might also facilitate instances of transgressing norms - viewed here as embedded practices which need to be reframed and changed in order for sustainability to emerge.

  9. Success factors of social innovations by a community-based learning course (CBLC)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wink, G.; Casimir, G.; Goris, M.

    2014-01-01

    This is the success story of a community-based learning course (CBLC) project addressing the concerns of the international community of students and staff of Wageningen University and Research Centre (WageningenUR). A joint effort of this community, WageningenUR and social entrepreneurs resulted in

  10. Binational Learning Communities: A Work in Progress

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gross, Joan

    2015-01-01

    The author, having directed, taught and evaluated five study-abroad programmes in three different countries, created her own programme based on the pros and cons she had observed. In December 2013, she completed a pilot run of a binational learning community focused on food, culture and social justice in Ecuador and Oregon, and here she shares…

  11. Two generalizations of Kohonen clustering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bezdek, James C.; Pal, Nikhil R.; Tsao, Eric C. K.

    1993-01-01

    The relationship between the sequential hard c-means (SHCM), learning vector quantization (LVQ), and fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithms is discussed. LVQ and SHCM suffer from several major problems. For example, they depend heavily on initialization. If the initial values of the cluster centers are outside the convex hull of the input data, such algorithms, even if they terminate, may not produce meaningful results in terms of prototypes for cluster representation. This is due in part to the fact that they update only the winning prototype for every input vector. The impact and interaction of these two families with Kohonen's self-organizing feature mapping (SOFM), which is not a clustering method, but which often leads ideas to clustering algorithms is discussed. Then two generalizations of LVQ that are explicitly designed as clustering algorithms are presented; these algorithms are referred to as generalized LVQ = GLVQ; and fuzzy LVQ = FLVQ. Learning rules are derived to optimize an objective function whose goal is to produce 'good clusters'. GLVQ/FLVQ (may) update every node in the clustering net for each input vector. Neither GLVQ nor FLVQ depends upon a choice for the update neighborhood or learning rate distribution - these are taken care of automatically. Segmentation of a gray tone image is used as a typical application of these algorithms to illustrate the performance of GLVQ/FLVQ.

  12. Clustering-based Feature Learning on Variable Stars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mackenzie, Cristóbal; Pichara, Karim; Protopapas, Pavlos

    2016-04-01

    The success of automatic classification of variable stars depends strongly on the lightcurve representation. Usually, lightcurves are represented as a vector of many descriptors designed by astronomers called features. These descriptors are expensive in terms of computing, require substantial research effort to develop, and do not guarantee a good classification. Today, lightcurve representation is not entirely automatic; algorithms must be designed and manually tuned up for every survey. The amounts of data that will be generated in the future mean astronomers must develop scalable and automated analysis pipelines. In this work we present a feature learning algorithm designed for variable objects. Our method works by extracting a large number of lightcurve subsequences from a given set, which are then clustered to find common local patterns in the time series. Representatives of these common patterns are then used to transform lightcurves of a labeled set into a new representation that can be used to train a classifier. The proposed algorithm learns the features from both labeled and unlabeled lightcurves, overcoming the bias using only labeled data. We test our method on data sets from the Massive Compact Halo Object survey and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment; the results show that our classification performance is as good as and in some cases better than the performance achieved using traditional statistical features, while the computational cost is significantly lower. With these promising results, we believe that our method constitutes a significant step toward the automation of the lightcurve classification pipeline.

  13. CLUSTERING-BASED FEATURE LEARNING ON VARIABLE STARS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mackenzie, Cristóbal; Pichara, Karim; Protopapas, Pavlos

    2016-01-01

    The success of automatic classification of variable stars depends strongly on the lightcurve representation. Usually, lightcurves are represented as a vector of many descriptors designed by astronomers called features. These descriptors are expensive in terms of computing, require substantial research effort to develop, and do not guarantee a good classification. Today, lightcurve representation is not entirely automatic; algorithms must be designed and manually tuned up for every survey. The amounts of data that will be generated in the future mean astronomers must develop scalable and automated analysis pipelines. In this work we present a feature learning algorithm designed for variable objects. Our method works by extracting a large number of lightcurve subsequences from a given set, which are then clustered to find common local patterns in the time series. Representatives of these common patterns are then used to transform lightcurves of a labeled set into a new representation that can be used to train a classifier. The proposed algorithm learns the features from both labeled and unlabeled lightcurves, overcoming the bias using only labeled data. We test our method on data sets from the Massive Compact Halo Object survey and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment; the results show that our classification performance is as good as and in some cases better than the performance achieved using traditional statistical features, while the computational cost is significantly lower. With these promising results, we believe that our method constitutes a significant step toward the automation of the lightcurve classification pipeline

  14. CLUSTERING-BASED FEATURE LEARNING ON VARIABLE STARS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mackenzie, Cristóbal; Pichara, Karim [Computer Science Department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago (Chile); Protopapas, Pavlos [Institute for Applied Computational Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (United States)

    2016-04-01

    The success of automatic classification of variable stars depends strongly on the lightcurve representation. Usually, lightcurves are represented as a vector of many descriptors designed by astronomers called features. These descriptors are expensive in terms of computing, require substantial research effort to develop, and do not guarantee a good classification. Today, lightcurve representation is not entirely automatic; algorithms must be designed and manually tuned up for every survey. The amounts of data that will be generated in the future mean astronomers must develop scalable and automated analysis pipelines. In this work we present a feature learning algorithm designed for variable objects. Our method works by extracting a large number of lightcurve subsequences from a given set, which are then clustered to find common local patterns in the time series. Representatives of these common patterns are then used to transform lightcurves of a labeled set into a new representation that can be used to train a classifier. The proposed algorithm learns the features from both labeled and unlabeled lightcurves, overcoming the bias using only labeled data. We test our method on data sets from the Massive Compact Halo Object survey and the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment; the results show that our classification performance is as good as and in some cases better than the performance achieved using traditional statistical features, while the computational cost is significantly lower. With these promising results, we believe that our method constitutes a significant step toward the automation of the lightcurve classification pipeline.

  15. Community clusters of tsunami vulnerability in the US Pacific Northwest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Nathan J.; Jones, Jeanne M.; Spielman, Seth; Schmidtlein, Mathew C.

    2015-01-01

    Many coastal communities throughout the world are threatened by local (or near-field) tsunamis that could inundate low-lying areas in a matter of minutes after generation. Although the hazard and sustainability literature often frames vulnerability conceptually as a multidimensional issue involving exposure, sensitivity, and resilience to a hazard, assessments often focus on one element or do not recognize the hazard context. We introduce an analytical framework for describing variations in population vulnerability to tsunami hazards that integrates (i) geospatial approaches to identify the number and characteristics of people in hazard zones, (ii) anisotropic path distance models to estimate evacuation travel times to safety, and (iii) cluster analysis to classify communities with similar vulnerability. We demonstrate this approach by classifying 49 incorporated cities, 7 tribal reservations, and 17 counties from northern California to northern Washington that are directly threatened by tsunami waves associated with a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake. Results suggest three primary community groups: (i) relatively low numbers of exposed populations with varied demographic sensitivities, (ii) high numbers of exposed populations but sufficient time to evacuate before wave arrival, and (iii) moderate numbers of exposed populations but insufficient time to evacuate. Results can be used to enhance general hazard-awareness efforts with targeted interventions, such as education and outreach tailored to local demographics, evacuation training, and/or vertical evacuation refuges.

  16. Learning Latent Structure in Complex Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mørup, Morten; Hansen, Lars Kai

    such as the Modularity, it has recently been shown that latent structure in complex networks is learnable by Bayesian generative link distribution models (Airoldi et al., 2008, Hofman and Wiggins, 2008). In this paper we propose a new generative model that allows representation of latent community structure......Latent structure in complex networks, e.g., in the form of community structure, can help understand network dynamics, identify heterogeneities in network properties, and predict ‘missing’ links. While most community detection algorithms are based on optimizing heuristic clustering objectives...... as in the previous Bayesian approaches and in addition allows learning of node specific link properties similar to that in the modularity objective. We employ a new relaxation method for efficient inference in these generative models that allows us to learn the behavior of very large networks. We compare the link...

  17. Development of inclusive communities of learning through relationship building and feedback

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, René Boyer; Bruun, Mette; Vestergaard, Linda Rask

    2016-01-01

    successfully? A report from the Danish Ministry of Education in 2015 showed that inclusion, well-being and the development of learning communities have not yet succeeded according to ambition by 2016. The report suggested among other things that these matters should be addressed by practitioners......n Denmark the goal of the new reform of the primary school from 2013 was to develop and raise the pupils' academic skills, but the reform also has a strong focus on students' well-being and development of inclusive learning communities. The question is how this is developed or are managed...... and researchers on both a macro, meso and micro level. This project, which is still in its starting phase, is based on the issues of the micro level to target teachers and educators who work in classes marked by students in complex learning situations in the so-called LKT-problems (Learning, Contact and Well...

  18. Outcomes of an Academic Service-Learning Project on Four Urban Community Colleges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenwood, Debra Abston

    2015-01-01

    Service-learning has a rich history in higher education, with a multitude of studies indicating positive learning, community engagement, and moral development outcomes of student participants. The majority of the research findings, however, have represented four-year colleges. And while there are limited outcome studies of service-learning in…

  19. A Service-Learning Initiative within a Community-Based Small Business

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simola, Sheldene

    2009-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend previous scholarly writing on community service-learning (SL) initiatives by looking beyond their use in the not-for-profit sector to their potential use in community-based small businesses. Design/methodology/approach: A rationale for the appropriateness of using SL projects in small businesses is…

  20. The World of Wonder Accelerated Learning Community: A Case Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biddle, Julie K.

    This report presents a case study of the World of Wonders Accelerated Learning Community School (WOW). A community school in Ohio is a new kind of public school-an independent public school that is nonsectarian and nondiscriminatory. The report presents three contexts for the study--historical, local and methodological--and highlights some of the…

  1. Community and School Gardens as Spaces for Learning Social Resilience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reis, Kimberley; Ferreira, Jo-Anne

    2015-01-01

    Can community and school gardens help people learn to build social resilience to potential food shortages? We seek to address this question through an examination of the ways in which gardens can teach individual and community resiliency in times of emergency, pockets of food insecurity, and the challenges presented by climate change. We focus on…

  2. Teaching and learning about community development online: Insights and lessons learned

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Judith Kulig

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses the development, delivery, and evaluation of a successful graduate course in community development offered to students across Canada via the Internet. The review of literature points to common themes in distance education, community development and health promotion. The course, "Health Promotion: Community Development Approaches", is presented as a case example with descriptions of the curriculum, delivery methods, learning resources, activities and recommendations for future offerings of the course and for distance education in general. Although web-based distance education is challenging and requires instructors and learners to adapt, it can be an effective way to learn about concepts, and model the principles and ideology that are at the core of community development. Résumé : Le présent article aborde l’élaboration, la prestation et l’évaluation d’un cours de niveau supérieur traitant du développement communautaire offert aux étudiants de l’ensemble du Canada par Internet. L’examen de la documentation souligne les sujets communs dans l’éducation à distance, le développement communautaire et la promotion de la santé. Le cours « Health Promotion: Community Development Approaches » est présenté à titre d’exemple avec les descriptions du plan de cours, des modes de prestation, des ressources d’apprentissage, des activités et des recommandations pour les cours qui seront donnés ultérieurement et pour l’éducation à distance en général. Bien que l’éducation à distance effectuée au moyen du Web présente des défis et qu’elle exige des instructeurs et des apprenants qu’ils s’adaptent, il peut s’agir d’une méthode efficace pour en apprendre sur les concepts et pour présenter les principes et idées à la base du développement communautaire.

  3. Cognitive Presence and Online Learner Engagement: A Cluster Analysis of the Community of Inquiry Framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shea, Peter; Bidjerano, Temi

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we make the case that online learning continues to grow at a rapid rate and that understanding this innovative mode of education requires analysis that is both conceptually and empirically driven. This study inquires into the concept of "cognitive presence" a multivariate measure of significant learning derived from the Community of…

  4. Automatic Depth Extraction from 2D Images Using a Cluster-Based Learning Framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrera, Jose L; Del-Blanco, Carlos R; Garcia, Narciso

    2018-07-01

    There has been a significant increase in the availability of 3D players and displays in the last years. Nonetheless, the amount of 3D content has not experimented an increment of such magnitude. To alleviate this problem, many algorithms for converting images and videos from 2D to 3D have been proposed. Here, we present an automatic learning-based 2D-3D image conversion approach, based on the key hypothesis that color images with similar structure likely present a similar depth structure. The presented algorithm estimates the depth of a color query image using the prior knowledge provided by a repository of color + depth images. The algorithm clusters this database attending to their structural similarity, and then creates a representative of each color-depth image cluster that will be used as prior depth map. The selection of the appropriate prior depth map corresponding to one given color query image is accomplished by comparing the structural similarity in the color domain between the query image and the database. The comparison is based on a K-Nearest Neighbor framework that uses a learning procedure to build an adaptive combination of image feature descriptors. The best correspondences determine the cluster, and in turn the associated prior depth map. Finally, this prior estimation is enhanced through a segmentation-guided filtering that obtains the final depth map estimation. This approach has been tested using two publicly available databases, and compared with several state-of-the-art algorithms in order to prove its efficiency.

  5. UPAYA MENGEMBANGKAN LEARNING COMMUNITY SISWA KELAS X SMA MELALUI PENERAPAN MODEL PEMBELAJARAN KOOPERATIF TIPE STAD BERBASIS CTL PADA PEMBELAJARAN FISIKA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wahyudi -

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan penerapan model pembelajaran kooperatif tipe STAD berbasis CTL pada pembelajaran fisika dalam mengembangkan learning community dan meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa serta mengetahui dampak penerapannya terhadap learning community dan hasil belajar siswa kelas X-7 SMA N 1 Tahunan Jepara. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan meningkatnya hasil belajar serta berkembangnya learning community siswa kelas X-7 SMA N 1 Tahunan Jepara setelah penerapan model pembelajaran kooperatif tipe STAD berbasis CTL pada pokok bahasan listrik dinamis.This research is describe the implementation of cooperative learning model STAD CTL-based for Physics learning subject to develop learning community, improve students learning and also find out the outcome of its implementation  to the learning community and learning result of SMA N 1 Tahunan Jepara Students class of X-7. The research result shows that there is an improvement of students’ learning result and also a development of learning community of N 1 Tahunan Jepara Students class of X-7 after implementing cooperative learning model STAD CTL-based for Dynamic Electricity topic.

  6. Experiencing community psychology through community-based learning class projects: reflections from an American University in the Middle East.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amer, Mona M; Mohamed, Salma N; Ganzon, Vincent

    2013-01-01

    Many introductory community psychology courses do not incorporate community-based learning (CBL), and when they do, it is most often in the form of individualized volunteer hours. We present an alternative model for CBL in which the entire class collaborates on an experiential project that promotes community action. We believe that such an approach better embodies the values and methods of the discipline and has a more powerful impact on the students and stakeholders. It may be especially effective in developing countries that do not have an established network of service infrastructures; in such nations the onus is on the teachers and learners of community psychology to contribute to transformative change. In this article practical guidelines are provided by the instructor regarding how to structure and implement this CBL model. Additionally, two students describe how the CBL experience solidified their learning of course concepts and significantly impacted them personally.

  7. Teachers' professional development in a community: A study of the central actors, their networks and web-based learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiri Lallimo

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this article was to study teachers' professional development related to web-based learning in the context of the teacher community. The object was to learn in what kind of networks teachers share the knowledge of web-based learning and what are the factors in the community that support or challenge teachers professional development of web-based learning. The findings of the study revealed that there are teachers who are especially active, called the central actors in this study, in the teacher community who collaborate and share knowledge of web-based learning. These central actors share both technical and pedagogical knowledge of web-based learning in networks that include both internal and external relations in the community and involve people, artefacts and a variety of media. Furthermore, the central actors appear to bridge different fields of teaching expertise in their community.According to the central actors' experiences the important factors that support teachers' professional development of web-based learning in the community are; the possibility to learn from colleagues and from everyday working practices, an emotionally safe atmosphere, the leader's personal support and community-level commitment. Also, the flexibility in work planning, challenging pupils, shared lessons with colleagues, training events in an authentic work environment and colleagues' professionalism are considered meaningful for professional development. As challenges, the knowledge sharing of web-based learning in the community needs mutual interests, transactive memory, time and facilities, peer support, a safe atmosphere and meaningful pedagogical practices.On the basis of the findings of the study it is suggested that by intensive collaboration related to web-based learning it may be possible to break the boundaries of individual teachership and create such sociocultural activities which support collaborative professional development in the teacher

  8. Unpacking the Roles of the Facilitator in Higher Education Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Margalef, Leonor; Pareja Roblin, Natalie

    2016-01-01

    Facilitators are central for the success of professional learning communities (PLCs). Yet, their specific roles in supporting teacher learning remain still largely underexplored. To address this gap, the current multiple case study examines the roles of 4 university PLC facilitators, the strategies they used to support teacher learning, and the…

  9. Service-Learning in the Financial Planning Curriculum: Expanding Access to the Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Annis, Paul M.; Palmer, Lance; Goetz, Joseph

    2010-01-01

    Service-learning projects are a cornerstone of student experiential learning. Such programs have proven to be mutually beneficial to communities and students within a variety of family and consumer sciences courses. However, there is a paucity of literature addressing service-learning efforts within the field of financial planning. There is an…

  10. Student Reported Growth: Success Story of a Master of Science in Education Learning Community Program

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sharon Kabes, EdD

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative and qualitative data collected from students who have completed a Master of Science in Education Learning Community Program support the effectiveness of the learning community model in facilitating professional growth and transformation. Instructors model constructivist theory. Peer review, collaboration, and reflective analysis of theory and practice are essential components of the model. The program facilitates growth as educators build their understanding about teaching and learning, transfer their ideas and processes into the classroom, and take an active leadership role in promoting change in classrooms, school, and larger community.

  11. Unsupervised Learning —A Novel Clustering Method for Rolling Bearing Faults Identification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kai, Li; Bo, Luo; Tao, Ma; Xuefeng, Yang; Guangming, Wang

    2017-12-01

    To promptly process the massive fault data and automatically provide accurate diagnosis results, numerous studies have been conducted on intelligent fault diagnosis of rolling bearing. Among these studies, such as artificial neural networks, support vector machines, decision trees and other supervised learning methods are used commonly. These methods can detect the failure of rolling bearing effectively, but to achieve better detection results, it often requires a lot of training samples. Based on above, a novel clustering method is proposed in this paper. This novel method is able to find the correct number of clusters automatically the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated using datasets from rolling element bearings. The diagnosis results show that the proposed method can accurately detect the fault types of small samples. Meanwhile, the diagnosis results are also relative high accuracy even for massive samples.

  12. Creating a Community of Practice: Lessons Learned from the Center for Astronomy Education (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brissenden, G.

    2009-12-01

    The Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) is devoted to improving teaching and learning in Astro 101. To accomplish this, a vital part of CAE is our broader community of practice which includes over 1000 instructors, graduate and undergraduate students, and postdocs. It is this greater community of practice that supports each other, helps, and learns from each other beyond what would be possible without it. As our community of practice has grown, we at CAE have learned many lessons about how different facets of CAE can best be used to promote and support our community both as a whole and for individual members. We will discuss the various facets of CAE, such as our online discussion group Astrolrner@CAE (http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/discussion) and its Guest Moderator program, our CAE Regional Teaching Exchange Coordinator program, our CAE Workshop Presenter Apprenticeship Training program, our online This Month’s Teaching Strategy, monthly newsletters, and various types of socializing and networking sessions we hold at national meetings. But more importantly, we will discuss the lessons we’ve learned about what does and does not work in building community within each of these facets.

  13. Communities in Action: Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Noguchi, Fumiko; Guevara, Jose Roberto; Yorozu, Rika

    2015-01-01

    This handbook identifies principles and policy mechanisms to advance community-based learning for sustainable development based on the commitments endorsed by the participants of the "Kominkan-CLC International Conference on Education for Sustainable Development," which took place in Okayama City, Japan, in October 2014. To inform…

  14. Supporting Clinical Practice Candidates in Learning Community Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeJarnette, Nancy K.; Sudeck, Maria

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this qualitative research study was to monitor pre-service teacher candidates' progression and implementation of the learning community philosophy along with classroom management strategies. The study took place during their final semester of clinical practice. Data were collected from self-reports, surveys, university supervisor…

  15. Classification of multispectral or hyperspectral satellite imagery using clustering of sparse approximations on sparse representations in learned dictionaries obtained using efficient convolutional sparse coding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moody, Daniela; Wohlberg, Brendt

    2018-01-02

    An approach for land cover classification, seasonal and yearly change detection and monitoring, and identification of changes in man-made features may use a clustering of sparse approximations (CoSA) on sparse representations in learned dictionaries. The learned dictionaries may be derived using efficient convolutional sparse coding to build multispectral or hyperspectral, multiresolution dictionaries that are adapted to regional satellite image data. Sparse image representations of images over the learned dictionaries may be used to perform unsupervised k-means clustering into land cover categories. The clustering process behaves as a classifier in detecting real variability. This approach may combine spectral and spatial textural characteristics to detect geologic, vegetative, hydrologic, and man-made features, as well as changes in these features over time.

  16. Inquiry-Based Learning for a Virtual Learning Community to Enhance Problem-Solving Ability of Applied Thai Traditional Medicine Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chanprasitchai, Ong-art; Khlaisang, Jintavee

    2016-01-01

    The recent growth in collaborative and interactive virtual learning communities integrating innovative digital technologies and contemporary learning frameworks is contributing enormously to the use of e-learning in higher education in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a virtual learning…

  17. Constructing Leadership Identities through Participation in a Leadership Living-Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Priest, Kerry Louise

    2012-01-01

    This case study conceptually illustrated how a leadership living-learning community provided an educational context well suited to enhance development of leaders within changing leadership and educational paradigms. Specifically, it highlighted how both leadership and learning have come to be viewed as sociocultural processes, and presented…

  18. Socio-semantic Networks of Research Publications in the Learning Analytics Community

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fazeli, Soude; Drachsler, Hendrik; Sloep, Peter

    2013-01-01

    Fazeli, S., Drachsler, H., & Sloep, P. B. (2013). Socio-semantic Networks of Research Publications in the Learning Analytics Community. In M. d'Aquin, S. Dietze, H. Drachsler, E. Herder, & D. Taibi (Eds.), Linked data challenge, Learning Analytic and Knowledge (LAK13) (pp. 6-10). Vol. 974, Leuven,

  19. Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems: the Career of a Concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenger, Etienne

    The concept of community of practice was not born in the systems theory tradition. It has its roots in attempts to develop accounts of the social nature of human learning inspired by anthropology and social theory (Lave, 1988; Bourdieu, 1977; Giddens, 1984; Foucault, 1980; Vygotsky, 1978). But the concept of community of practice is well aligned with the perspective of systems traditions. A community of practice itself can be viewed as a simple social system. And a complex social system can be viewed as constituted by interrelated communities of practice. In this essay I first explore the systemic nature of the concept at these two levels. Then I use this foundation to look at the applications of the concept, some of its main critiques, and its potential for developing a social discipline of learning.

  20. Community Colleges and Underappreciated Assets: Using Institutional Data to Promote Success in Online Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hachey, Alyse; Conway, Katherine; Wladis, Claire

    2013-01-01

    Adapting to the 21st century, community colleges are not adding brick and mortar to meet enrollment demands. Instead, they are expanding services through online learning, with at least 61% of all community college students taking online courses today (Pearson, 2011). As online learning is affording alternate pathways to education for students, it…

  1. Analysis of Aspects of Innovation in a Brazilian Cluster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Valélia Saraceni

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available Innovation through clustering has become very important on the increased significance that interaction represents on innovation and learning process concept. This study aims to identify whereas a case analysis on innovation process in a cluster represents on the learning process. Therefore, this study is developed in two stages. First, we used a preliminary case study verifying a cluster innovation analysis and it Innovation Index, for further, exploring a combined body of theory and practice. Further, the second stage is developed by exploring the learning process concept. Both stages allowed us building a theory model for the learning process development in clusters. The main results of the model development come up with a mechanism of improvement implementation on clusters when case studies are applied.

  2. Nursing Living-Learning Communities and Student Retention: A Qualitative Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bauer, Renee N; Kiger, Susan

    Living-learning communities have been known to promote student performance and a sense of collegiality. Most studies on this topic have utilized quantitative methods. This qualitative comparison case study examined personal experiences associated with residing in a living-learning community. The study was conducted to explore findings associated with promoting student retention. A secondary goal was to explore student experiences with mentoring. Data were collected using taped recordings of live interviews at two universities that have nursing-themed housing. The targeted sample size was 14. Themes that emerged from the data were mutual support, importance of the resident assistant, and self-determination. Nursing students enjoy themed housing and especially desire the resident assistant to be a nursing student.

  3. Improvement of perinatal and newborn care in rural Pakistan through community-based strategies: a cluster-randomised effectiveness trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhutta, Zulfiqar A; Soofi, Sajid; Cousens, Simon; Mohammad, Shah; Memon, Zahid A; Ali, Imran; Feroze, Asher; Raza, Farrukh; Khan, Amanullah; Wall, Steve; Martines, Jose

    2011-01-29

    Newborn deaths account for 57% of deaths in children younger than 5 years in Pakistan. Although a large programme of trained lady health workers (LHWs) exists, the effectiveness of this training on newborn outcomes has not been studied. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based intervention package, principally delivered through LHWs working with traditional birth attendants and community health committees, for reduction of perinatal and neonatal mortality in a rural district of Pakistan. We undertook a cluster randomised trial between February, 2006, and March, 2008, in Hala and Matiari subdistricts, Pakistan. Catchment areas of primary care facilities and all affiliated LHWs were used to define clusters, which were allocated to intervention and control groups by restricted, stratified randomisation. The intervention package delivered by LHWs through group sessions consisted of promotion of antenatal care and maternal health education, use of clean delivery kits, facility births, immediate newborn care, identification of danger signs, and promotion of careseeking; control clusters received routine care. Independent data collectors undertook quarterly household surveillance to capture data for births, deaths, and household practices related to maternal and newborn care. Data collectors were masked to cluster allocation; those analysing data were not. The primary outcome was perinatal and all-cause neonatal mortality. Analysis was by intention to treat. This trial is registered, ISRCTN16247511. 16 clusters were assigned to intervention (23,353 households, 12,391 total births) and control groups (23,768 households, 11,443 total births). LHWs in the intervention clusters were able to undertake 4428 (63%) of 7084 planned group sessions, but were only able to visit 2943 neonates (24%) of a total 12,028 livebirths in their catchment villages. Stillbirths were reduced in intervention clusters (39·1 stillbirths per 1000 total births) compared with

  4. Student experiences of the adolescent diversion project: a community-based exemplar in the pedagogy of service-learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davidson, William S; Jimenez, Tiffeny R; Onifade, Eyitayo; Hankins, Sean S

    2010-12-01

    Service-learning partnerships between universities and surrounding communities striving to create systems-level change must consider an emphasis in critical community service; a community centered paradigm where students are taught to work with communities to better understand contexts surrounding a social problem, as opposed to merely volunteering to provide a service to a community. The Adolescent Diversion Project (ADP), which has been operating for over 30 years, demonstrates critical community service through the type of relationship built between students and the local community. This article describes: a qualitative study with ADP students, the historical context of ADP, what and how students learned through their involvement in ADP, and reframes the work of this project as a form of service-learning pedagogy. Inductive content analysis was employed to identify underlying themes across participants related to their personal experiences of ADP and its impact in their lives. Findings were compared with service-learning outcomes and other quantitative studies conducted with past ADP cohorts from the literature. Consistent with past studies, ADP students become more negative toward social systems involved with their youth. This finding may explain an increase in feelings of political commitment following involvement in ADP. Consistent with service-learning outcomes, results demonstrate that ADP should be further documented as not only an effective community-based program but also as an exemplar in the pedagogy of service-learning. This study highlights why service-learning opportunities for students are not just one way to teach students, they are opportunities to bridge relationships within communities, bring life to theoretical concepts, and build the foundations necessary for educated citizens that will one day take lead roles in our society.

  5. Listening and Learning: Community Indicator Profiles of Knight Foundation Communities and the Nation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami, FL.

    This volume presents information from a social indicators project designed to shed light on factors affecting civic health in twenty-six communities where John S. and James L. Knight published newspapers and provided grants to improve quality of life. Seven chapters discuss research results: (1) "Listening and Learning" (e.g., growth of…

  6. Leading for Change: Creating a Professional Learning Community for Collaborative Relationships and Shared Leadership

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Linda

    2013-01-01

    This action research study examines school reform through the development of a professional learning community for teacher-leaders. Through action research, this study organized a select group of teacher-leaders into a professional learning community to engage in a series of readings through a book club. The purpose of the book club was to develop…

  7. A Tutorial Task and Tertiary Courseware Model for Collaborative Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newman, Julian; Lowe, Helen; Neely, Steve; Gong, Xiaofeng; Eyers, David; Bacon, Jean

    2004-01-01

    RAED provides a computerised infrastructure to support the development and administration of Vicarious Learning in collaborative learning communities spread across multiple universities and workplaces. The system is based on the OASIS middleware for Role-based Access Control. This paper describes the origins of the model and the approach to…

  8. Enhancing Self-Efficacy in Elementary Science Teaching with Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mintzes, Joel J.; Marcum, Bev; Messerschmidt-Yates, Christl; Mark, Andrew

    2013-01-01

    Emerging from Bandura's Social Learning Theory, this study of in-service elementary school teachers examined the effects of sustained Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) on self-efficacy in science teaching. Based on mixed research methods, and a non-equivalent control group experimental design, the investigation explored changes in…

  9. Finding the community in sustainable online community engagement: Not-for-profit organisation websites, service-learning and research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alice Dodd

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This article explores the use of action research (2008–2014 based on a case study of the Sustainable Online Community Engagement (SOCE Project, a service-learning project in which University of South Australia students build websites for not-for-profit (NFP organisations, to demonstrate that effective teaching, public service and research are interdependent. A significant problem experienced in the SOCE project was that, despite some training and ongoing assistance, the community organisations reported that they found it difficult to make effective use of their websites. One of the proposed solutions was to develop an online community of the participating organisations that would be self-supporting, member-driven and collaborative, and enable the organisations to share information about web-based technology. The research reported here explored the usefulness of developing such an online community for the organisations involved and sought alternative ways to assist the organisations to maintain an effective and sustainable web presence. The research used a three-phase ethnographic action research approach. The first phase was a content analysis and review of the editing records of 135 organisational websites hosted by the SOCE project. The second phase was an online survey sent to 145 community organisation members responsible for the management of these websites, resulting in 48 responses. The third phase consisted of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 18 of the website managers from 12 of these organisations. The research revealed the extent to which organisations were unable to manage their websites and found that the proposed solution of an online community would not be useful. More importantly, it suggested other useful strategies which have been implemented. In Furco’s (2010 model of the engaged campus, public engagement can be used to advance the public service, teaching and research components of higher education’s tripartite

  10. Using a multi-state Learning Community as an implementation strategy for immediate postpartum long-acting reversible contraception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeSisto, Carla L; Estrich, Cameron; Kroelinger, Charlan D; Goodman, David A; Pliska, Ellen; Mackie, Christine N; Waddell, Lisa F; Rankin, Kristin M

    2017-11-21

    Implementation strategies are imperative for the successful adoption and sustainability of complex evidence-based public health practices. Creating a learning collaborative is one strategy that was part of a recently published compilation of implementation strategy terms and definitions. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other partner agencies, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials recently convened a multi-state Learning Community to support cross-state collaboration and provide technical assistance for improving state capacity to increase access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) in the immediate postpartum period, an evidence-based practice with the potential for reducing unintended pregnancy and improving maternal and child health outcomes. During 2015-2016, the Learning Community included multi-disciplinary, multi-agency teams of state health officials, payers, clinicians, and health department staff from 13 states. This qualitative study was conducted to better understand the successes, challenges, and strategies that the 13 US states in the Learning Community used for increasing access to immediate postpartum LARC. We conducted telephone interviews with each team in the Learning Community. Interviews were semi-structured and organized by the eight domains of the Learning Community. We coded transcribed interviews for facilitators, barriers, and implementation strategies, using a recent compilation of expert-defined implementation strategies as a foundation for coding the latter. Data analysis showed three ways that the activities of the Learning Community helped in policy implementation work: structure and accountability, validity, and preparing for potential challenges and opportunities. Further, the qualitative data demonstrated that the Learning Community integrated six other implementation strategies from the literature: organize clinician implementation team meetings, conduct

  11. Engaging Karen Refugee Students in Science Learning through a Cross-Cultural Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harper, Susan G.

    2017-01-01

    This research explored how Karen (first-generation refugees from Burma) elementary students engaged with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) practice of constructing scientific explanations based on evidence within the context of a cross-cultural learning community. In this action research, the researcher and a Karen parent served as…

  12. Food security: what the community wants. Learning through focus groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hargrove, D; Dewolfe, J A; Thompson, L

    1994-01-01

    We used focus groups to learn the range of issues threatening food security of low income residents in our community. Five major themes emerged from the discussions: literacy, money, time, mental health and self-esteem, suggesting several approaches that could help ensure food security: 1) education, 2) sharing of resources, 3) coalition building, and 4) advocacy. Education programs have to be practical, allowing for demonstrations and hands-on learning while emphasizing skill building and problem solving. Incorporating a social aspect into learning may compensate for the social isolation and would capitalize on the impressive mutual support we witnessed. Strategies based on self-help and peer assistance may counteract low self-esteem and overcome suspicion of health professionals. A community-wide effort is needed to address the factors contributing to food insecurity. We envision the formation of a coalition of professionals, agencies, and low income people to develop a comprehensive strategy for achieving food security.

  13. Cost Comparison Model: Blended eLearning versus traditional training of community health workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sissine, Mysha; Segan, Robert; Taylor, Mathew; Jefferson, Bobby; Borrelli, Alice; Koehler, Mohandas; Chelvayohan, Meena

    2014-01-01

    Another one million community healthcare workers are needed to address the growing global population and increasing demand of health care services. This paper describes a cost comparison between two training approaches to better understand costs implications of training community health workers (CHWs) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our team created a prospective model to forecast and compare the costs of two training methods as described in the Dalburge Report - (1) a traditional didactic training approach ("baseline") and (2) a blended eLearning training approach ("blended"). After running the model for training 100,000 CHWs, we compared the results and scaled up those results to one million CHWs. A substantial difference exists in total costs between the baseline and blended training programs. RESULTS indicate that using a blended eLearning approach for training community health care workers could provide a total cost savings of 42%. Scaling the model to one million CHWs, the blended eLearning training approach reduces total costs by 25%. The blended eLearning savings are a result of decreased classroom time, thereby reducing the costs associated with travel, trainers and classroom costs; and using a tablet with WiFi plus a feature phone rather than a smartphone with data plan. The results of this cost analysis indicate significant savings through using a blended eLearning approach in comparison to a traditional didactic method for CHW training by as much as 67%. These results correspond to the Dalberg publication which indicates that using a blended eLearning approach is an opportunity for closing the gap in training community health care workers.

  14. Exploring home visits in a faith community as a service-learning opportunity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    du Plessis, Emmerentia; Koen, Magdalene P; Bester, Petra

    2013-08-01

    Within South Africa the Psychiatric Nursing Science curriculum in undergraduate Baccalaureate nursing education utilizes home visits as a service-learning opportunity. In this context faith communities are currently unexplored with regards to service-learning opportunities. With limited literature available on this topic, the question was raised as to what are these students' and family members' experience of home visits within a faith community. To explore and describe nursing students' and family members' experiences of home visits within a faith community. A qualitative approach was used that was phenomenological, explorative and descriptive and contextual in nature. The research was conducted within a faith community as service learning opportunity for Baccalaureate degree nursing students. This community was situated in a semi-urban area in the North-West Province, South Africa. Eighteen (n=18) final year nursing students from different cultural representations, grouped into seven groups conducted home visits at seven (n=7) families. Comprehensive reflective reporting after the visits, namely that the students participated in a World Café data collection technique and interviews were conducted with family members. Three main themes emerged: students' initial experiences of feeling overwhelmed but later felt more competent; students' awareness of religious and cultural factors; and students' perception of their role. Two main themes from the family members emerged: experiencing caring and growth. There is mutual benefit for nursing students and family members. Students' experiences progress during home visits from feeling overwhelmed and incompetent towards a trusting relationship. Home visits in a faith community seems to be a valuable service learning opportunity, and the emotional competence, as well as spiritual and cultural awareness of nursing students should be facilitated in preparation for such home visits. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights

  15. Automated Library Networking in American Public Community College Learning Resources Centers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miah, Adbul J.

    1994-01-01

    Discusses the need for community colleges to assess their participation in automated library networking systems (ALNs). Presents results of questionnaires sent to 253 community college learning resource center directors to determine their use of ALNs. Reviews benefits of automation and ALN activities, planning and communications, institution size,…

  16. Effect on postpartum hemorrhage of prophylactic oxytocin (10 IU by injection by community health officers in Ghana: a community-based, cluster-randomized trial.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cynthia K Stanton

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Oxytocin (10 IU is the drug of choice for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH. Its use has generally been restricted to medically trained staff in health facilities. We assessed the effectiveness, safety, and feasibility of PPH prevention using oxytocin injected by peripheral health care providers without midwifery skills at home births. METHODS AND FINDINGS: This community-based, cluster-randomized trial was conducted in four rural districts in Ghana. We randomly allocated 54 community health officers (stratified on district and catchment area distance to a health facility: ≥10 km versus <10 km to intervention (one injection of oxytocin [10 IU] one minute after birth and control (no provision of prophylactic oxytocin arms. Births attended by a community health officer constituted a cluster. Our primary outcome was PPH, using multiple definitions; (PPH-1 blood loss ≥500 mL; (PPH-2 PPH-1 plus women who received early treatment for PPH; and (PPH-3 PPH-2 plus any other women referred to hospital for postpartum bleeding. Unsafe practice is defined as oxytocin use before delivery of the baby. We enrolled 689 and 897 women, respectively, into oxytocin and control arms of the trial from April 2011 to November 2012. In oxytocin and control arms, respectively, PPH-1 rates were 2.6% versus 5.5% (RR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.27-0.88; PPH-2 rates were 3.8% versus 10.8% (RR: 0.35; 95% CI: 0.18-0.63, and PPH-3 rates were similar to those of PPH-2. Compared to women in control clusters, those in the intervention clusters lost 45.1 mL (17.7-72.6 less blood. There were no cases of oxytocin use before delivery of the baby and no major adverse events requiring notification of the institutional review boards. Limitations include an unblinded trial and imbalanced numbers of participants, favoring controls. CONCLUSION: Maternal health care planners can consider adapting this model to extend the use of oxytocin into peripheral settings including, in some

  17. Engaging Community College Students Using an Engineering Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maccariella, James, Jr.

    The study investigated whether community college engineering student success was tied to a learning community. Three separate data collection sources were utilized: surveys, interviews, and existing student records. Mann-Whitney tests were used to assess survey data, independent t-tests were used to examine pre-test data, and independent t-tests, analyses of covariance (ANCOVA), chi-square tests, and logistic regression were used to examine post-test data. The study found students that participated in the Engineering TLC program experienced a significant improvement in grade point values for one of the three post-test courses studied. In addition, the analysis revealed the odds of fall-to-spring retention were 5.02 times higher for students that participated in the Engineering TLC program, and the odds of graduating or transferring were 4.9 times higher for students that participated in the Engineering TLC program. However, when confounding variables were considered in the study (engineering major, age, Pell Grant participation, gender, ethnicity, and full-time/part-time status), the analyses revealed no significant relationship between participation in the Engineering TLC program and course success, fall-to-spring retention, and graduation/transfer. Thus, the confounding variables provided alternative explanations for results. The Engineering TLC program was also found to be effective in providing mentoring opportunities, engagement and motivation opportunities, improved self confidence, and a sense of community. It is believed the Engineering TLC program can serve as a model for other community college engineering programs, by striving to build a supportive environment, and provide guidance and encouragement throughout an engineering student's program of study.

  18. Effects of Nurse-Led Multifactorial Care to Prevent Disability in Community-Living Older People : Cluster Randomized Trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Suijker, Jacqueline J.; van Rijn, Marjon; Buurman, Bianca M.; ter Riet, Gerben; van Charante, Eric P. Moll; de Rooij, Sophia E.

    2016-01-01

    Background To evaluate the effects of nurse-led multifactorial care to prevent disability in community-living older people. Methods In a cluster randomized trail, 11 practices (n = 1,209 participants) were randomized to the intervention group, and 13 practices (n = 1,074 participants) were

  19. Effects of Community Service-Learning on Heritage Language Learners' Attitudes toward Their Language and Culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pascual y Cabo, Diego; Prada, Josh; Lowther Pereira, Kelly

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the effects of participation in a community service-learning experience on Spanish heritage language learners' attitudes toward their heritage language and culture. Quantitative and qualitative data from heritage language learners demonstrated that engagement in community service-learning activities as part of the Spanish…

  20. Acttention – Influencing Communities of Practice with Persuasive Learning Designs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hansen, Sandra Burri Gram; Ryberg, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    design within this more established field of research and development. Rather than focus on improving learning technologies or motivating the interest in a subject, persuasive designs may be more efficient when used to influence the communities of practice in educational institutions.......Based on the preliminary results of implementing and testing a persuasive learning initiative in the Danish Military, this paper discusses and develops the notion of persuasive learning designs. It is suggested that the acquirement of new knowledge is fundamental to persuasion, and that persuasive...... learning designs distinguish themselves by leading to sustainable change to the learner’s attitude and/or behaviour. A practical example of persuasive learning designs is provided in terms of the interactive location-based learning game Acttention, which has been developed and tested on behalf...

  1. Community Learning Campus: The Hard Work Begins after the Ribbon-Cutting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Education Canada, 2012

    2012-01-01

    Dorothy Negropontes was a key player in the creation of the Community Learning Campus (CLC), an innovative collaboration of education and community leaders in Olds, Alberta. A former Assistant Superintendent with Chinook's Edge School District, she co-chaired the steering committee that developed the project, served as its executive director…

  2. Link-Prediction Enhanced Consensus Clustering for Complex Networks (Open Access)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-05-20

    RESEARCH ARTICLE Link-Prediction Enhanced Consensus Clustering for Complex Networks Matthew Burgess1*, Eytan Adar1,2, Michael Cafarella1 1Computer...consensus clustering algorithm to enhance community detection on incomplete networks. Our framework utilizes existing community detection algorithms that...types of complex networks exhibit community structure: groups of highly connected nodes. Communities or clusters often reflect nodes that share similar

  3. Mapping a sustainable future: Community learning in dialogue at the science-society interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barth, Matthias; Lang, Daniel J.; Luthardt, Philip; Vilsmaier, Ulli

    2017-12-01

    In 2015, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced that the Science Year 2015 would focus on the "City of the Future". It called for innovative projects from cities and communities in Germany dedicated to exploring future options and scenarios for sustainable development. Among the successful respondents was the city of Lüneburg, located in the north of Germany, which was awarded funding to establish a community learning project to envision a sustainable future ("City of the Future Lüneburg 2030+"). What made Lüneburg's approach unique was that the city itself initiated the project and invited a broad range of stakeholders to participate in a community learning process for sustainable development. The authors of this article use the project as a blueprint for sustainable city development. Presenting a reflexive case study, they report on the process and outcomes of the project and investigate community learning processes amongst different stakeholders as an opportunity for transformative social learning. They discuss outputs and outcomes (intended as well as unintended) in relation to the specific starting points of the project to provide a context-sensitive yet rich narrative of the case and to overcome typical criticisms of case studies in the field.

  4. Analysing a Web-Based E-Commerce Learning Community: A Case Study in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joia, Luiz Antonio

    2002-01-01

    Demonstrates the use of a Web-based participative virtual learning environment for graduate students in Brazil enrolled in an electronic commerce course in a Masters in Business Administration program. Discusses learning communities; computer-supported collaborative work and collaborative learning; influences on student participation; the role of…

  5. Implementation Study of Smaller Learning Communities. Final Report

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernstein, Lawrence; Millsap, Mary Ann; Schimmenti, Jennifer; Page, Lindsay

    2008-01-01

    The Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) program was established in response to growing national concerns about students too often lost and alienated in large, impersonal high schools, as well as concerns about school safety and low levels of achievement and graduation for many students. Authorized under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act,"…

  6. Creating a Learning Community for Solutions to Climate Change

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloom, A. J.; Benedict, B. A.; Blockstein, D. E.; Hassenzahl, D. M.; Hunter, A.; Jorgensen, A. D.; Pfirman, S. L.

    2011-12-01

    The rapidly evolving and interdisciplinary nature of climate change presents a challenge to colleges and universities as they seek to educate undergraduate students. To address this challenge, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) with NSF funding is creating a nationwide cyber-enabled learning community called CAMEL (Climate, Adaptation, and Mitigation e-Learning). CAMEL engages experts in science, policy and decision-making, education, and assessment in the production of a virtual toolbox of curricular resources designed for teaching climate change causes, consequences, and solutions. CAMEL is: ? Developing cyberinfrastructure that supports and promotes the creation of materials and community; ? Generating materials for the Encyclopedia of Earth, a site averaging 50,000 views per day; ? Ensuring that materials developed and shared are founded on the best available scientific information and follow the most appropriate educational practices; ? Assisting faculty at institutions of higher education across the United States as they create, improve, test, and share resources for teaching students not only how to diagnose climate change problems, but also to identify and effect solutions; ? Evaluating the determinants of successful community building using cybermedia. The community and resultant content range from general education to upper division courses for students in a variety of majors. At the center of the community are the 160 colleges and universities represented in NCSE's Council of Environmental Deans and Directors. Members of this group represent recognized expertise in virtually all areas of this project. A team with substantial experience with evaluating innovative initiatives in STEM education is administering the evaluation component.

  7. An Exploration of Community Learning Disability Nurses' Therapeutic Role

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marsham, Marian

    2012-01-01

    This literature review and primary qualitative research explores therapeutic role from the perspective of Community Learning Disability Nurses. Semi-structured interviews, based on Critical Incident Technique ("Psychol Bull", 51, 1954, 327), and descriptive phenomenological methodology were adopted to elicit data amenable to systematic…

  8. Professional Learning Communities' Impact on Science Teacher Classroom Practice in a Midwestern Urban School District

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carpenter, Dan

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this reputation-based, multiple-site case study was to explore professional learning communities' impact on teacher classroom practice. The goal of this research was to describe the administrator and teachers' perceptions with respect to professional learning communities as it related to teacher practice in their school. Educators…

  9. Nurturing social responsibility through community service-learning: Lessons learned from a pilot project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dharamsi, Shafik; Espinoza, Nancy; Cramer, Carl; Amin, Maryam; Bainbridge, Lesley; Poole, Gary

    2010-01-01

    Community service-learning (CSL) has been proposed as one way to enrich medical and dental students' sense of social responsibility toward people who are marginalized in society. We developed and implemented a new CSL option in the integrated medical/dental curriculum and assessed its educational impact. Focus groups, individual open-ended interviews, and a survey were used to assess dental students', faculty tutors' and community partners' experiences with CSL. CSL enabled a deeper appreciation for the vulnerabilities that people who are marginalized experience; students gained a greater insight into the social determinants of health and the related importance of community engagement; and they developed useful skills in health promotion project planning, implementation and evaluation. Community partners and faculty tutors indicated that equal partnership, greater collaboration, and a participatory approach to course development are essential to sustainability in CSL. CSL can play an important role in nurturing a purposeful sense of social responsibility among future practitioners. Our study enabled the implementation of an innovative longitudinal course (professionalism and community service) in all 4 years of the dental curriculum.

  10. Creating International Community Service Learning Experiences in a Capstone Marketing-Projects Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Metcalf, Lynn E.

    2010-01-01

    This article outlines the development of a project-based capstone marketing course, specifically designed to provide marketing students with an international community service learning experience. It differs significantly from previous studies, which focus on integrating service learning into existing marketing courses and on helping local…

  11. The effectiveness of a clinically integrated e-learning course in evidence-based medicine: A cluster randomised controlled trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arvanitis Theodoros N

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background To evaluate the educational effects of a clinically integrated e-learning course for teaching basic evidence-based medicine (EBM among postgraduates compared to a traditional lecture-based course of equivalent content. Methods We conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial in the Netherlands and the UK involving postgraduate trainees in six obstetrics and gynaecology departments. Outcomes (knowledge gain and change in attitude towards EBM were compared between the clinically integrated e-learning course (intervention and the traditional lecture based course (control. We measured change from pre- to post-intervention scores using a validated questionnaire assessing knowledge (primary outcome and attitudes (secondary outcome. Results There were six clusters involving teaching of 61 postgraduate trainees (28 in the intervention and 33 in the control group. The intervention group achieved slightly higher scores for knowledge gain compared to the control, but these results were not statistically significant (difference in knowledge gain: 3.5 points, 95% CI -2.7 to 9.8, p = 0.27. The attitudinal changes were similar for both groups. Conclusion A clinically integrated e-learning course was at least as effective as a traditional lecture based course and was well accepted. Being less costly than traditional teaching and allowing for more independent learning through materials that can be easily updated, there is a place for incorporating e-learning into postgraduate EBM curricula that offer on-the-job training for just-in-time learning. Trial registration Trial registration number: ACTRN12609000022268.

  12. Broadening the Learning Community Experience: An Outdoor Orientation Program's Impact on Engagement, Persistence, and Retention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nolan, Christy David

    2013-01-01

    The Keystone Learning Community was implemented by the Department of Campus Recreation to address retention at the institution. This learning community for incoming freshmen consists of two phases. Phase I is as an outdoor orientation program that includes a three day, two night canoeing and camping experience lead by upperclassmen leaders.…

  13. DLTAP: A Network-efficient Scheduling Method for Distributed Deep Learning Workload in Containerized Cluster Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qiao Wei

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Deep neural networks (DNNs have recently yielded strong results on a range of applications. Training these DNNs using a cluster of commodity machines is a promising approach since training is time consuming and compute-intensive. Furthermore, putting DNN tasks into containers of clusters would enable broader and easier deployment of DNN-based algorithms. Toward this end, this paper addresses the problem of scheduling DNN tasks in the containerized cluster environment. Efficiently scheduling data-parallel computation jobs like DNN over containerized clusters is critical for job performance, system throughput, and resource utilization. It becomes even more challenging with the complex workloads. We propose a scheduling method called Deep Learning Task Allocation Priority (DLTAP which performs scheduling decisions in a distributed manner, and each of scheduling decisions takes aggregation degree of parameter sever task and worker task into account, in particularly, to reduce cross-node network transmission traffic and, correspondingly, decrease the DNN training time. We evaluate the DLTAP scheduling method using a state-of-the-art distributed DNN training framework on 3 benchmarks. The results show that the proposed method can averagely reduce 12% cross-node network traffic, and decrease the DNN training time even with the cluster of low-end servers.

  14. Negotiating Service Learning through Community Engagement: Adaptive Leadership, Knowledge, Dialogue and Power

    Science.gov (United States)

    Preece, Julia

    2016-01-01

    This article builds on two recent publications (Preece 2013; 2013a) concerning the application of asset-based community development and adaptive leadership theories when negotiating university service learning placements with community organisations in one South African province. The first publication introduced the concept of 'adaptive…

  15. Sense of coherence, self-regulated learning and academic performance in first year nursing students: A cluster analysis approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salamonson, Yenna; Ramjan, Lucie M; van den Nieuwenhuizen, Simon; Metcalfe, Lauren; Chang, Sungwon; Everett, Bronwyn

    2016-03-01

    This paper examines the relationship between nursing students' sense of coherence, self-regulated learning and academic performance in bioscience. While there is increasing recognition of a need to foster students' self-regulated learning, little is known about the relationship of psychological strengths, particularly sense of coherence and academic performance. Using a prospective, correlational design, 563 first year nursing students completed the three dimensions of sense of coherence scale - comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, and five components of self-regulated learning strategy - elaboration, organisation, rehearsal, self-efficacy and task value. Cluster analysis was used to group respondents into three clusters, based on their sense of coherence subscale scores. Although there were no sociodemographic differences in sense of coherence subscale scores, those with higher sense of coherence were more likely to adopt self-regulated learning strategies. Furthermore, academic grades collected at the end of semester revealed that higher sense of coherence was consistently related to achieving higher academic grades across all four units of study. Students with higher sense of coherence were more self-regulated in their learning approach. More importantly, the study suggests that sense of coherence may be an explanatory factor for students' successful adaptation and transition in higher education, as indicated by the positive relationship of sense of coherence to academic performance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Recruitment and Lessons Learned from a Community-Based Intervention Program: The Learning Families Project in Hong Kong

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna T. W. Chu

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available BackgroundRecruitment is central to any research project, and recruitment itself should be well documented and researched. We describe our recruitment efforts for a community-based research project—entitled the Learning Families Project—conducted in Hong Kong.MethodsIn collaboration with community stakeholders, residents from a public housing estate were recruited to participate in family programs aimed at enhancing family well-being. Various recruitment strategies were employed including the distribution of 19,200 leaflets, 688 posters, a banner, a kick-off ceremony, 10 promotion activities, 1,000 direct calls, word of mouth, 51 mobile counters, and 10 door-to-door visits. Drawing on field notes, research logs, short questionnaires, and focus group conducted with our community partners and residents, we describe and discuss our recruitment strategies, challenges, and lessons learned.ResultsOver a 9-month period, 980 participants were recruited and participated in our study, exceeding our recruitment goal (860 participants. Several observations were made including active recruitment strategies (i.e., door-to-door and mobile counter being more effective than passive strategies (i.e., posters and leaflets; the importance of raising project awareness to facilitate recruitment; and the challenges encountered (i.e., burn-out and loss of motivation of staff, decreased community capacity in collaborating in research projects.ConclusionThe lessons learned include the importance of engaging Chinese communities, utilizing a positive outreach approach, and setting realistic expectations. Although similar recruitment strategies have been reported the West, a number of cultural differences should be taken into account when working with Chinese population. Further research is needed to examine the effectiveness of tailoring recruitment strategies to various populations.

  17. Recruitment and Lessons Learned from a Community-Based Intervention Program: The Learning Families Project in Hong Kong.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chu, Joanna T W; Wan, Alice; Stewart, Sunita M; Ng, Kwok Tung; Lam, Tai Hing; Chan, Sophia S

    2018-01-01

    Recruitment is central to any research project, and recruitment itself should be well documented and researched. We describe our recruitment efforts for a community-based research project-entitled the Learning Families Project-conducted in Hong Kong. In collaboration with community stakeholders, residents from a public housing estate were recruited to participate in family programs aimed at enhancing family well-being. Various recruitment strategies were employed including the distribution of 19,200 leaflets, 688 posters, a banner, a kick-off ceremony, 10 promotion activities, 1,000 direct calls, word of mouth, 51 mobile counters, and 10 door-to-door visits. Drawing on field notes, research logs, short questionnaires, and focus group conducted with our community partners and residents, we describe and discuss our recruitment strategies, challenges, and lessons learned. Over a 9-month period, 980 participants were recruited and participated in our study, exceeding our recruitment goal (860 participants). Several observations were made including active recruitment strategies (i.e., door-to-door and mobile counter) being more effective than passive strategies (i.e., posters and leaflets); the importance of raising project awareness to facilitate recruitment; and the challenges encountered (i.e., burn-out and loss of motivation of staff, decreased community capacity in collaborating in research projects). The lessons learned include the importance of engaging Chinese communities, utilizing a positive outreach approach, and setting realistic expectations. Although similar recruitment strategies have been reported the West, a number of cultural differences should be taken into account when working with Chinese population. Further research is needed to examine the effectiveness of tailoring recruitment strategies to various populations.

  18. Building a Learning Community: Telecommunications, Collaborations, and Sharing on Long Island.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneiderman, Bette E.; Carriero, Corinne

    The Long Island Team is a collaborative system of K-12 students and teachers, university students and faculty, and community members who have been linked by telecommunications and in-person sessions. Since 1993 the group has culminated their work together at an annual sharing event. This paper provides the history of the learning community, a list…

  19. Learning How to Teach Poverty: A Case for Community of Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Browne, Laurie P.; Roll, Susan J.

    2015-01-01

    Recreation students today need to be prepared to engage in the topic of poverty as a social justice issue affecting our communities, yet many instructors do not have the tools to effectively teach this complex topic. One way instructors might learn how to engage students with poverty is through an interdisciplinary community of practice (CoP).…

  20. Professional Learning in Unlikely Spaces: Social Media and Virtual Communities as Professional Development

    OpenAIRE

    Kathleen P. King

    2011-01-01

    In this case study, results demonstrate that an individual’s use of social media as professional learning spans understanding, networking, professional identity development, and transformative learning. Specifically, virtual online communities facilitated through social media provide professional networks, social relationships and learning beyond the scope of the individual’s usual experience. Case study method reveals strategies, extent, and impact of learning providing insight into this phe...

  1. Learning Communities for University Students At-Risk of School Failure: Can They Make a Difference?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tharp, Terri J.

    2009-01-01

    This study investigated the impact of learning communities on the academic success of university students at-risk of academic failure. The effects of learning communities (LC) at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) on cumulative GPAs, retention rates, and earned cumulative hours of students with ACT sub-scores of 17 or 18 in math who were…

  2. Lessons learned from the PMI case study: the community perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hare, M L; Orians, C E; Kennedy, M G; Goodman, K J; Wijesinha, S; Seals, B F

    2000-03-01

    This summary report presents the lessons learned during the two-part qualitative case study on the efficacy of the Prevention Marketing Initiative (PMI) in its implementation of an HIV prevention program. About 179 community participants were included in the PMI program, which discussed topics ranging from organizing initial planning committees to financially sustaining federal demonstration programs. One of the successes observed was the development of rapport with schools and churches; however, during the course of its implementation, the program realized the necessity of 1) approaching the program as an ongoing process; 2) going beyond studying the target population through formative research; 3) changing the role of a community coalition as the project matures; 4) reexamining the composition of coalition in the light of the target audience; 5) advocating the project as a community resource that promotes collaboration; 6) attending the needs of coalition members; and 7) using the media in the campaign. Likewise, several lessons were also learned in the areas of youth involvement, intervention development, program implementation, and maintenance of PMI activities.

  3. Some aspects of school seen as a Professional Learning Community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bradea Adela

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Each school is part of the community and at the same time, a provider of education services. This makes school a Learning Community for both teachers and students. While in the case of students this is a mission accomplished, in that of teachers’ things seem to be a bit more difficult. The latter ones should see themselves as members of a Professional Learning Community (PLC, where each teacher should cooperate with the other to achieve common goals, engage in common research activities for the progress of their school, take part in evaluating school results and propose plans to improve them etc. This research aimed to identify teachers’ perception of the role of school as a Professional Learning Community, to identify how school boards support and encourage this idea through participative management and to identify lines of joint research in which teachers are involved. The instrument used was a questionnaire having 30 close-ended items, administered to pre-university teachers from Bihor county, Romania. The implementation period was January to June 2016. The results show that there is collaboration between the same subject area teachers, who form committees to discuss, analyse and propose solutions. The research has also showed that more effort is required to improve collaboration between more experienced teachers and those who are at the beginning of their career, to improve collaboration between different subject area teachers by getting them to engage in joint projects, but above all, there is a need for a greater involvement of teachers, of school boards in managing schools so that participative management is achieved.

  4. Aggregate-then-Curate: how digital learning champions help communities nurture online content

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrew Whitworth

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Informational resources are essential for communities, rooting them in their own history, helping them learn and solve problems, giving them a voice in decision-making and so on. For digital inclusion – and inclusion in the informational and democratic processes of society more generally – it is essential that communities retain the skills, awareness and motivation to create and manage their own informational resources.This article explores a model for the creation of online content that incorporates the different ways in which the quality and relevance of information can be assured. This model, “Aggregate-then-Curate” (A/C, was developed from earlier work concerning digital inclusion in UK online centres, models of informal e-learning and ecologies of resources. A/C shows how creating online content can be viewed as a 7-step process, initiated by individuals but bringing in “digital learning champions”, other community members and formal educational institutions at different stages. A/C can be used to design training to help build the capacity to manage community informational resources in an inclusive way. The article then discusses and evaluates MOSI-ALONG, a Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC funded project founded on these ideas, which illustrates how A/C can be used to design training to help build the capacity to manage community informational resources in an inclusive way. This conclusion is supported by evaluations of the work done so far in MOSI-ALONG.

  5. Integrating Interview Methodology to Analyze Inter-Institutional Comparisons of Service-Learning within the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Plante, Jarrad D.; Cox, Thomas D.

    2016-01-01

    Service-learning has a longstanding history in higher education in and includes three main tenets: academic learning, meaningful community service, and civic learning. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching created an elective classification system called the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification for higher education…

  6. Enhancing project-oriented learning by joining communities of practice and opening spaces for relatedness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pascual, R.

    2010-03-01

    This article describes an extension to project-oriented learning to increase social construction of knowledge and learning. The focus is on: (a) maximising opportunities for students to share their knowledge with practitioners by joining communities of practice, and (b) increasing their intrinsic motivation by creating conditions for student's relatedness. The case study considers a last year capstone course in Mechanical Engineering. The work addresses innovative practices of active learning and beyond project-oriented learning through: (a) the development of a web-based decision support system, (b) meetings between the communities of students, maintenance engineers and academics, and (c) new off-campus group instances. The author hypothesises that this multi-modal approach increases deep learning and social impact of the educational process. Surveys to the actors support a successful achievement of the educational goals. The methodology can easily be extended to further improve the learning process.

  7. Learning-style preferences of Latino/Hispanic community college students enrolled in an introductory biology course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarantopoulos, Helen D.

    Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify, according to the Productivity Environment Preference Survey (PEPS) instrument, which learning-style domains (environmental, emotional, sociological, and physiological) were favored among Latino/Hispanic community college students enrolled in introductory biology classes in a large, urban community college. An additional purpose of this study was to determine whether statistically significant differences existed between the learning-style preferences and the demographic variables of age, gender, number of prior science courses, second language learner status, and earlier exposure to scientific information. Methodology. The study design was descriptive and ex post facto. The sample consisted of a total of 332 Latino/Hispanic students enrolled in General Biology 3. Major findings. The study revealed that Latino/Hispanic students enrolled in introductory biology at a large urban community college scored higher for the learning preference element of structure. Students twenty-five years and older scored higher for the learning preference elements of light, design, persistence, responsibility, and morning time (p learning-style preferences were found between second English language learners and those who learned English as their primary language (p tactile (p learning-style model and instruments and on recent learning-style research articles on ethnically diverse groups of adult learners; and (2) Instructors should plan their instruction to incorporate the learning-style preferences of their students.

  8. Changing students' perceptions of the homeless: A community service learning experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Janet; Emory, Jan

    2018-03-01

    The homeless are an underserved, local vulnerable population that can benefit from a service learning clinical practicum experience for baccalaureate prepared nursing students. Negative attitudes and disrespect among healthcare workers has been identified by the homeless as a barrier to healthcare. A service learning experience with a vulnerable population has been shown to change nursing students' attitudes and beliefs. A large university in a southern city partnered with a community based organization that provided services to the homeless to educate senior nursing students in a service learning experience. The goal of this project was to examine attitudes and perceptions of nursing students toward the homeless population before and after participation in a service learning clinical practicum experience. This case study utilized a pre and post experience questionnaire to collect qualitative data for the purposes of the project. The findings revealed students demonstrated a decrease in fear, an increase in empathy, and a deeper understanding of the advocacy role of nurses for people experiencing homelessness. Nurse educators are challenged to engage students with vulnerable populations to change the attitudes and perceptions for improvement in the overall health of communities served worldwide. Partnerships and service learning experiences can benefit all. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Community Learning Campus: It Takes a Simple Message to Build a Complex Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pearson, George

    2012-01-01

    Education Canada asked Tom Thompson, president of Olds College and a prime mover behind the Community Learning Campus (CLC): What were the lessons learned from this unusually ambitious education project? Thompson mentions six lessons he learned from this complex project which include: (1) Dream big, build small, act now; (2) Keep a low profile at…

  10. Factors That Develop Effective Professional Learning Communities in Taiwan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Peiying; Lee, Che-Di; Lin, Hongda; Zhang, Chun-Xi

    2016-01-01

    This research aimed to investigate the key factors of developing effective professional learning communities (PLCs) within the Taiwanese context. Four constructs--supportive and shared leadership, shared visions, collegial trust, and shared practices--were adopted and developed into an instrument for measuring PLC function. A stratified random…

  11. DEVELOPING PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS FOR LIFELONG LEARNING THROUGH WORK-BASED LEARNING AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS

    OpenAIRE

    Wan Azlinda Wan Mohamed; Badrul Omar; Mohd Faroul Rafiq Romli

    2010-01-01

    Many training providers are working to improve their curricula to meet the demand of today’s industries. The Malaysian College Communities, one of the major providers for lifelong learning program, had introduced the Work-Based Learning (WBL) concept since 2007 to ensure that their graduates met these demands. One of the key skills required by industry is problem solving skill. The ability to solve a complex or an ill-structured work problem in the workplace is the kind of skill demanded at a...

  12. Conceptual clustering and its relation to numerical taxonomy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fisher, D.; Langley, P.

    1986-01-01

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods for machine learning can be viewed as forms of exploratory data analysis, even though they differ markedly from the statistical methods generally connoted by the term. The distinction between methods of machine learning and statistical data analysis is primarily due to differences in the way techniques of each type represent data and structure within data. That is, methods of machine learning are strongly biased toward symbolic (as opposed to numeric) data representations. The authors explore this difference within a limited context, devoting the bulk of our chapter to the explication of conceptual clustering, an extension to the statistically based methods of numerical taxonomy. In conceptual clustering the formation of object cluster is dependent on the quality of 'higher level' characterization, termed concepts, of the clusters. The form of concepts used by existing conceptual clustering systems (sets of necessary and sufficient conditions) is described in some detail. This is followed by descriptions of several conceptual clustering techniques, along with sample output. They conclude with a discussion of how alternative concept representations might enhance the effectiveness of future conceptual clustering systems

  13. The contributions of community learning centres (CLCs) to personal and community development in Myanmar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Le, Ai Tam Pham

    2018-05-01

    Community learning centres (CLCs) have been widely established in the Asia-Pacific region as locally managed institutions that offer non-formal educational opportunities and community development activities. Myanmar officially has more than 3,000 centres, which is one of the highest numbers in the region. This article examines the operation of CLCs and their contributions to personal and community development in Padaung, Myanmar. The author's research is based on six weeks of fieldwork in Myanmar for data collection including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and informal conversations. Her findings suggest that CLCs can contribute to the improvement of both individuals' quality of life and communities' social capital, which facilitates mutually beneficial collective action. The findings also support the conclusion that CLCs can provide additional educational opportunities beyond the formal system, especially for adults and members of rural communities, e.g. farmers. However, due to constraints in terms of budget, implementing capacity and socio-economic factors, the outreach of CLC activities is still somewhat limited and has yet to reach its full potential.

  14. Assessing the Change Process in Comprehensive High Schools Implementing Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaner, Robert G.

    2009-01-01

    Professional learning communities (PLC) have been identified as scaffolds that can facilitate, support, and sustain systemic change focused on improving student achievement. PLCs represent the application of the theoretical constructs of the learning organization within the framework of schools and school systems. Little is known about the change…

  15. Social Entrepreneurship and Community Leadership: A Service-Learning Model for Management Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Litzky, Barrie E.; Godshalk, Veronica M.; Walton-Bongers, Cynthia

    2010-01-01

    This article provides a "how to" guide for developing and teaching a service-learning course in social entrepreneurship and community leadership. As the framework of the course, service-learning operates through faculty to student, student to student, and student to client interactions. The discussion articulates the planning and faculty…

  16. College Teaching and Community Outreaching: Service Learning in an Obesity Prevention Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Himelein, Melissa; Passman, Liz; Phillips, Jessica M.

    2010-01-01

    Background: Service learning can enrich students' knowledge, skills and commitment to occupational goals while positively affecting communities. Undergraduate students in a course on obesity engaged in service learning by assisting with a family-based obesity prevention program, Getting Into Fitness Together (GIFT). Purpose: The impact of GIFT on…

  17. Information diffusion, Facebook clusters, and the simplicial model of social aggregation: a computational simulation of simplicial diffusers for community health interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kee, Kerk F; Sparks, Lisa; Struppa, Daniele C; Mannucci, Mirco A; Damiano, Alberto

    2016-01-01

    By integrating the simplicial model of social aggregation with existing research on opinion leadership and diffusion networks, this article introduces the constructs of simplicial diffusers (mathematically defined as nodes embedded in simplexes; a simplex is a socially bonded cluster) and simplicial diffusing sets (mathematically defined as minimal covers of a simplicial complex; a simplicial complex is a social aggregation in which socially bonded clusters are embedded) to propose a strategic approach for information diffusion of cancer screenings as a health intervention on Facebook for community cancer prevention and control. This approach is novel in its incorporation of interpersonally bonded clusters, culturally distinct subgroups, and different united social entities that coexist within a larger community into a computational simulation to select sets of simplicial diffusers with the highest degree of information diffusion for health intervention dissemination. The unique contributions of the article also include seven propositions and five algorithmic steps for computationally modeling the simplicial model with Facebook data.

  18. The Impact of an Interdisciplinary Learning Community Course on Pseudoscientific Reasoning in First-Year Science Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franz, Timothy M.; Green, Kris H.

    2013-01-01

    This case study examined the development and evaluation of an interdisciplinary first-year learning community designed to stimulate scientific reasoning and critical thinking. Designed to serve the needs of scholarship students majoring in mathematics and natural sciences, the six-credit learning community course was writing-intensive and…

  19. Transforming Teaching and Learning at University of Ghana through Community Service-Learning: Listening to the Voices of Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tagoe, Michael A.

    2014-01-01

    Universities all over the world are undergoing change to improve teaching, learning and service. These changes have been motivated by call for universities to connect more to communities to address their problems. One of the means of ensuring that universities and communities engage mutually in a partnership where students, faculty and community…

  20. Self-regulated learning and science achievement in a community college

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maslin, (Louisa) Lin-Yi L.

    Self-regulated learning involves students' use of strategies and skills to adapt and adjust towards achievement in school. This research investigates the extent to which self-regulated learning is employed by community college students, and also the correlates of self-regulated learning: Is it used more by students in advanced science classes or in some disciplines? Is there a difference in the use of it by students who complete a science course and those who do not? How does it relate to GPA and basic skills assessments and science achievement? Does it predict science achievement along with GPA and assessment scores? Community college students (N = 547) taking a science course responded to the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The scales measured three groups of variables: (1) cognitive strategies (rehearsal, elaboration, organization, and critical thinking); (2) metacognitive self-regulation strategies (planning, monitoring, and self-regulation); and (3) resource management strategies (time and study environment, effort regulation, peer learning, and help-seeking). Students' course scores, college GPA, and basic skills assessment scores were obtained from faculty and college records. Students who completed a science course were found to have higher measures on cumulative college GPAs and assessment scores, but not on self-regulated learning. Self-regulated learning was found not to be used differently between students in the advanced and beginning science groups, or between students in different disciplines. The exceptions were that the advanced group scored higher in critical thinking but lower in effort regulation than the beginning group. Course achievement was found to be mostly unrelated to self-regulated learning, except for several significant but very weak and negative relationships in elaboration, self-regulation, help-seeking, and effort regulation. Cumulative GPA emerged as the only significant predictor of science achievement

  1. What impact does community service learning have on medical students' appreciation of population health?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Essa-Hadad, J; Murdoch-Eaton, D; Rudolf, M C J

    2015-11-01

    The Bar Ilan Faculty of Medicine places public health as a priority in its medical curriculum, emphasizing its importance by strategically placing the required course as first on entry into medical school. Students are introduced to the importance of population health and community engagement through participatory community learning experiences. This study aims to examine how participatory community teaching methods impact students' understanding and attitudes towards community health. Mixed quantitative and qualitative design. 75 first year students completed the required public health course utilizing participatory community methods, including community visits, Team Based Learning, an ethnic forum, and lifestyle medicine. Evaluation comprised skills assessment through project work, analysis of reflective notes and comparison of assessment scores with students in the previous year who experienced a formal lecture-only based curriculum. Students acquired public health skills, including conducting a needs assessment, searching for research evidence and designing an evaluation framework. Reflective notes revealed in-depth understanding not only of course aims, but an appreciation of the social determinants of health and the local community. Test marks indicated public health knowledge reached a comparable standard (83 ± 7.3) to the previous year (85 ± 9.3; P = 0.431). Participatory community learning equips students with public health skills, knowledge, and enhanced understanding of communities. It offers a way to effectively teach public health, while emphasizing the extended role and societal responsibilities of doctors. Copyright © 2015 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. VirRAD - The virtual radiopharmacy - a virtual learning community in radiopharmacy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mather, S.J.

    2002-01-01

    VirRAD is a new research project funded by the Information Society Technologies programme of the Fifth RTD Framework Programme of the European Union. The aim of VirRAD is to develop an Internet-based virtual learning environment for Radiopharmacy which will facilitate learning and understanding in the speciality at all levels both within and outside the radiopharmaceutical community. The final structure of VirRAD is yet to be decided and will be determined by the needs and desires of its ultimate participants, however it is expected to include multimedia teaching modules for distance learning applications, 3-D simulations of specialised equipment and complex techniques used in radiopharmaceutical preparation and research as well as improved systems of peer-to-peer and student-to-tutor communication and information retrieval. To be as useful and effective as possible VirRAD needs ideas and suggestions from the Nuclear Medicine community. A mechanism for obtaining such input and feedback will be an integral part of the development process

  3. A High-Order CFS Algorithm for Clustering Big Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fanyu Bu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available With the development of Internet of Everything such as Internet of Things, Internet of People, and Industrial Internet, big data is being generated. Clustering is a widely used technique for big data analytics and mining. However, most of current algorithms are not effective to cluster heterogeneous data which is prevalent in big data. In this paper, we propose a high-order CFS algorithm (HOCFS to cluster heterogeneous data by combining the CFS clustering algorithm and the dropout deep learning model, whose functionality rests on three pillars: (i an adaptive dropout deep learning model to learn features from each type of data, (ii a feature tensor model to capture the correlations of heterogeneous data, and (iii a tensor distance-based high-order CFS algorithm to cluster heterogeneous data. Furthermore, we verify our proposed algorithm on different datasets, by comparison with other two clustering schemes, that is, HOPCM and CFS. Results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in clustering heterogeneous data.

  4. Context-sensitive intra-class clustering

    KAUST Repository

    Yu, Yingwei; Gutierrez-Osuna, Ricardo; Choe, Yoonsuck

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes a new semi-supervised learning algorithm for intra-class clustering (ICC). ICC partitions each class into sub-classes in order to minimize overlap across clusters from different classes. This is achieved by allowing partitioning

  5. A Qualitative Analysis of Pesantren Educational Management: School Culture and Leadership of a Professional Learning Community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nyimas Mu'azzomi

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to explore supportive and shared leadership structures at one Indonesian Islamic boarding school (Pesantren as a function of school culture policies and procedures in a professional learning community in the disctrict. A qualitative study was conducted at one Pesantren located in Jambi, an Indonesian province in west part of Sumatra island. We interviewed three administrators and five teachers to get in-depth information about the purpose of this paper. The interview transcriptions were translated, coded, divided into themes, and elaborated in the findings of the paper. The findings of study conclude that Pesantren leaders in the perspective of the participants must provide supportive and shared leadership structures for teachers in order to create positive cultures and effective a professional learning community for the development of the Pesantren. Leaders of the Pesantren must directly cooperate with teaching staff to provide policies and procedures for teachers in the leadership structure to directly impact school improvement through professional learning community collaborative attempts. This study was conducted based on the school culture and professional learning communities literature by exploring existent policies and practices in schools as unique cases. This study is significant to the community as specific cases informing educational leaders especially in Islamic education on mechanisms that may be leveraged to ensure successful implementation of policies and procedures on the leadership and school culture of a professional learning community literature.

  6. Recruiting Community Partners for Veggie Van: Strategies and Lessons Learned From a Mobile Market Intervention in North Carolina, 2012-2015.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tripicchio, Gina L; Grady Smith, Jacqueline; Armstrong-Brown, Janelle; McGuirt, Jared; Haynes-Maslow, Lindsey; Mardovich, Sarah; Ammerman, Alice S; Leone, Lucia

    2017-04-27

    Food access interventions are promising strategies for improving dietary intake, which is associated with better health. However, studies examining the relationship between food access and intake are limited to observational designs, indicating a need for more rigorous approaches. The Veggie Van (VV) program was a cluster-randomized intervention designed to address the gap between food access and intake. In this article, we aim to describe the approaches involved in recruiting community partners to participate in VV. The VV mobile market aimed to improve access to fresh fruits and vegetables by providing subsidized, high-quality, local produce in low-resource communities in North Carolina. This study describes the strategies and considerations involved in recruiting community partners and individual participants for participation in the VV program and evaluation. To recruit partners, we used various strategies, including a site screener to identify potential partners, interest forms to gauge future VV use and prioritize enrollment of a high-need population, marketing materials to promote VV, site liaisons to coordinate community outreach, and a memorandum of understanding between all invested parties. A total of 53 community organizations and 725 participants were approached for recruitment. Ultimately, 12 sites and 201 participants were enrolled. Enrollment took 38 months, but our approaches helped successfully recruit a low-income, low-access population. The process took longer than anticipated, and funding constraints prevented certain strategies from being implemented. Recruiting community partners and members for participation in a multi-level, community-based intervention was challenging. Strategies and lessons learned can inform future studies.

  7. Theorizing Collaborative Mathematics Teacher Learning in Communities of Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bannister, Nicole A.

    2018-01-01

    Persistent disconnects within and among education research, practice, and policy are limiting the reach of professional mathematics teacher communities, one of the most promising levers for humanizing mathematics teaching and learning in schools. An overarching goal of this commentary is to convince the field of mathematics education to broaden…

  8. The Role of Departmental Leadership for Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanblaere, Bénédicte; Devos, Geert

    2018-01-01

    Purpose: Department heads play a pivotal role in the functioning of departments in secondary schools. However, quantitative research about the role of departmental leadership for the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) in subject departments in secondary schools remains scarce. As PLCs are seen as promising contexts for…

  9. Facilitating Student Engagement: Social Responsibility and Freshmen Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kingston, Lindsey N.; MacCartney, Danielle; Miller, Andrea

    2014-01-01

    Human rights education is advanced as a method for promoting social responsibility, with an emphasis on promoting ideals of "global citizenship" among undergraduate students. At the same time, the practice of learning communities is widespread on college campuses for retaining freshmen and promoting student success. However, there is…

  10. Building a Learning Community: A Tale of Two Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mindich, Dan; Lieberman, Ann

    2012-01-01

    Teacher professional development is one of the most powerful influences on student achievement, and professional learning communities can be an excellent vehicle for high-quality PD. Mindich and Lieberman examine ways to implement effective PLCs. Education research has found that collegial work is connected to teachers' professional growth and…

  11. 45 CFR 2515.10 - What are the service-learning programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false What are the service-learning programs of the... Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAM PURPOSES § 2515.10 What are the service-learning programs of the Corporation for National and Community...

  12. Lessons learned from a community-academic initiative: the development of a core competency-based training for community-academic initiative community health workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruiz, Yumary; Matos, Sergio; Kapadia, Smiti; Islam, Nadia; Cusack, Arthur; Kwong, Sylvia; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau

    2012-12-01

    Despite the importance of community health workers (CHWs) in strategies to reduce health disparities and the call to enhance their roles in research, little information exists on how to prepare CHWs involved in community-academic initiatives (CAIs). Therefore, the New York University Prevention Research Center piloted a CAI-CHW training program. We applied a core competency framework to an existing CHW curriculum and bolstered the curriculum to include research-specific sessions. We employed diverse training methods, guided by adult learning principles and popular education philosophy. Evaluation instruments assessed changes related to confidence, intention to use learned skills, usefulness of sessions, and satisfaction with the training. Results demonstrated that a core competency-based training can successfully affect CHWs' perceived confidence and intentions to apply learned content, and can provide a larger social justice context of their role and work. This program demonstrates that a core competency-based framework coupled with CAI-research-specific skill sessions (1) provides skills that CAI-CHWs intend to use, (2) builds confidence, and (3) provides participants with a more contextualized view of client needs and CHW roles.

  13. The Development of Media Activities by Undergraduate Students in Order to Promote Agricultural Tourism Community Enterprise According to the Principles of Social Service Learning and Community-Based Leaning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thamwipat, Kuntida; Princhankol, Pornpapatsorn; Yampinij, Sakesun; Meejaleurn, Sopon

    2018-01-01

    This research was aimed to develop media activities by undergraduate students to promote agricultural tourism community enterprise according to the principles of social service learning and community-based learning, 2) to evaluate the quality of such media activities, 3) to measure the income of the community after the development of media…

  14. Side Information and Noise Learning for Distributed Video Coding using Optical Flow and Clustering

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Luong, Huynh Van; Rakêt, Lars Lau; Huang, Xin

    2012-01-01

    Distributed video coding (DVC) is a coding paradigm which exploits the source statistics at the decoder side to reduce the complexity at the encoder. The coding efficiency of DVC critically depends on the quality of side information generation and accuracy of noise modeling. This paper considers...... Transform Domain Wyner-Ziv (TDWZ) coding and proposes using optical flow to improve side information generation and clustering to improve noise modeling. The optical flow technique is exploited at the decoder side to compensate weaknesses of block based methods, when using motion-compensation to generate...... side information frames. Clustering is introduced to capture cross band correlation and increase local adaptivity in the noise modeling. This paper also proposes techniques to learn from previously decoded (WZ) frames. Different techniques are combined by calculating a number of candidate soft side...

  15. Patterns of comorbidity in community-dwelling older people hospitalised for fall-related injury: A cluster analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Finch Caroline F

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Community-dwelling older people aged 65+ years sustain falls frequently; these can result in physical injuries necessitating medical attention including emergency department care and hospitalisation. Certain health conditions and impairments have been shown to contribute independently to the risk of falling or experiencing a fall injury, suggesting that individuals with these conditions or impairments should be the focus of falls prevention. Since older people commonly have multiple conditions/impairments, knowledge about which conditions/impairments coexist in at-risk individuals would be valuable in the implementation of a targeted prevention approach. The objective of this study was therefore to examine the prevalence and patterns of comorbidity in this population group. Methods We analysed hospitalisation data from Victoria, Australia's second most populous state, to estimate the prevalence of comorbidity in patients hospitalised at least once between 2005-6 and 2007-8 for treatment of acute fall-related injuries. In patients with two or more comorbid conditions (multicomorbidity we used an agglomerative hierarchical clustering method to cluster comorbidity variables and identify constellations of conditions. Results More than one in four patients had at least one comorbid condition and among patients with comorbidity one in three had multicomorbidity (range 2-7. The prevalence of comorbidity varied by gender, age group, ethnicity and injury type; it was also associated with a significant increase in the average cumulative length of stay per patient. The cluster analysis identified five distinct, biologically plausible clusters of comorbidity: cardiopulmonary/metabolic, neurological, sensory, stroke and cancer. The cardiopulmonary/metabolic cluster was the largest cluster among the clusters identified. Conclusions The consequences of comorbidity clustering in terms of falls and/or injury outcomes of hospitalised patients

  16. Advances in Bayesian Model Based Clustering Using Particle Learning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Merl, D M

    2009-11-19

    implementation of Carvalho et al that allow us to retain the computational advantages of particle learning while improving the suitability of the methodology to the analysis of streaming data and simultaneously facilitating the real time discovery of latent cluster structures. Section 4 demonstrates our methodological enhancements in the context of several simulated and classical data sets, showcasing the use of particle learning methods for online anomaly detection, label generation, drift detection, and semi-supervised classification, none of which would be achievable through a standard MCMC approach. Section 5 concludes with a discussion of future directions for research.

  17. Modeling and possible implementation of self-learning equivalence-convolutional neural structures for auto-encoding-decoding and clusterization of images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krasilenko, Vladimir G.; Lazarev, Alexander A.; Nikitovich, Diana V.

    2017-08-01

    Self-learning equivalent-convolutional neural structures (SLECNS) for auto-coding-decoding and image clustering are discussed. The SLECNS architectures and their spatially invariant equivalent models (SI EMs) using the corresponding matrix-matrix procedures with basic operations of continuous logic and non-linear processing are proposed. These SI EMs have several advantages, such as the ability to recognize image fragments with better efficiency and strong cross correlation. The proposed clustering method of fragments with regard to their structural features is suitable not only for binary, but also color images and combines self-learning and the formation of weight clustered matrix-patterns. Its model is constructed and designed on the basis of recursively processing algorithms and to k-average method. The experimental results confirmed that larger images and 2D binary fragments with a large numbers of elements may be clustered. For the first time the possibility of generalization of these models for space invariant case is shown. The experiment for an image with dimension of 256x256 (a reference array) and fragments with dimensions of 7x7 and 21x21 for clustering is carried out. The experiments, using the software environment Mathcad, showed that the proposed method is universal, has a significant convergence, the small number of iterations is easily, displayed on the matrix structure, and confirmed its prospects. Thus, to understand the mechanisms of self-learning equivalence-convolutional clustering, accompanying her to the competitive processes in neurons, and the neural auto-encoding-decoding and recognition principles with the use of self-learning cluster patterns is very important which used the algorithm and the principles of non-linear processing of two-dimensional spatial functions of images comparison. These SIEMs can simply describe the signals processing during the all training and recognition stages and they are suitable for unipolar

  18. Cluster management.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katz, R

    1992-11-01

    Cluster management is a management model that fosters decentralization of management, develops leadership potential of staff, and creates ownership of unit-based goals. Unlike shared governance models, there is no formal structure created by committees and it is less threatening for managers. There are two parts to the cluster management model. One is the formation of cluster groups, consisting of all staff and facilitated by a cluster leader. The cluster groups function for communication and problem-solving. The second part of the cluster management model is the creation of task forces. These task forces are designed to work on short-term goals, usually in response to solving one of the unit's goals. Sometimes the task forces are used for quality improvement or system problems. Clusters are groups of not more than five or six staff members, facilitated by a cluster leader. A cluster is made up of individuals who work the same shift. For example, people with job titles who work days would be in a cluster. There would be registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants, and unit clerks in the cluster. The cluster leader is chosen by the manager based on certain criteria and is trained for this specialized role. The concept of cluster management, criteria for choosing leaders, training for leaders, using cluster groups to solve quality improvement issues, and the learning process necessary for manager support are described.

  19. Teaching/learning strategies for the essentials of baccalaureate nursing education for entry-level community/public health nursing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Callen, Bonnie; Smith, Claudia M; Joyce, Barbara; Lutz, Jayne; Brown-Schott, Nancy; Block, Derryl

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to describe teaching/learning strategies for each of the 15 Essentials of Baccalaureate Nursing Education for Entry-Level Community/Public Health Nursing (ACHNE, 2009). Carper's ways of knowing serve as foundations for creating classroom and clinical experiences that focus on clinical action with community as client. Each community/public health essential is defined with relevance to community/public health nursing practice. Five teaching/learning strategies have been delineated for each essential with suggestions of teaching resources and/or target population application. Teaching/learning strategies that focus on community as client, population health, and the essential knowledge and competencies of C/PH nursing will help ensure preparation of baccalaureate prepared nurses with knowledge and skills to improve the health of populations. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Informal learning processes in support of clinical service delivery in a service-oriented community pharmacy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patterson, Brandon J; Bakken, Brianne K; Doucette, William R; Urmie, Julie M; McDonough, Randal P

    The evolving health care system necessitates pharmacy organizations' adjustments by delivering new services and establishing inter-organizational relationships. One approach supporting pharmacy organizations in making changes may be informal learning by technicians, pharmacists, and pharmacy owners. Informal learning is characterized by a four-step cycle including intent to learn, action, feedback, and reflection. This framework helps explain individual and organizational factors that influence learning processes within an organization as well as the individual and organizational outcomes of those learning processes. A case study of an Iowa independent community pharmacy with years of experience in offering patient care services was made. Nine semi-structured interviews with pharmacy personnel revealed initial evidence in support of the informal learning model in practice. Future research could investigate more fully the informal learning model in delivery of patient care services in community pharmacies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Communities of clinical practice: the social organization of clinical learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Egan, Tony; Jaye, Chrystal

    2009-01-01

    The social organization of clinical learning is under-theorized in the sociological literature on the social organization of health care. Professional scopes of practice and jurisdictions are formally defined by professional principles and standards and reflected in legislation; however, these are mediated through the day-to-day clinical activities of social groupings of clinical teams. The activities of health service providers typically occur within communities of clinical practice. These are also major sites for clinical curriculum delivery, where clinical students learn not only clinical skills but also how to be health professionals. In this article, we apply Wenger's model of social learning within organizations to curriculum delivery within a health service setting. Here, social participation is the basis of learning. We suggest that it offers a powerful framework for recognizing and explaining paradox and incongruence in clinical teaching and learning, and also for recognizing opportunities, and devising means, to add value to students' learning experiences.

  2. The effectiveness of a clinically integrated e-learning course in evidence-based medicine: A cluster randomised controlled trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kulier, Regina; Coppus, Sjors F. P. J.; Zamora, Javier; Hadley, Julie; Malick, Sadia; Das, Kausik; Weinbrenner, Susanne; Meyerrose, Berrit; Decsi, Tamas; Horvath, Andrea R.; Nagy, Eva; Emparanza, Jose I.; Arvanitis, Theodoros N.; Burls, Amanda; Cabello, Juan B.; Kaczor, Marcin; Zanrei, Gianni; Pierer, Karen; Stawiarz, Katarzyna; Kunz, Regina; Mol, Ben W. J.; Khan, Khalid S.

    2009-01-01

    ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: To evaluate the educational effects of a clinically integrated e-learning course for teaching basic evidence-based medicine (EBM) among postgraduates compared to a traditional lecture-based course of equivalent content. METHODS: We conducted a cluster randomised controlled

  3. Design Principles of an Open Agent Architecture for Web-Based Learning Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Qun; Ma, Jianhua; Huang, Runhe; Shih, Timothy K.

    A Web-based learning community involves much more than putting learning materials into a Web site. It can be seen as a complex virtual organization involved with people, facilities, and cyber-environment. Tremendous work and manpower for maintaining, upgrading, and managing facilities and the cyber-environment are required. There is presented an…

  4. Assessment of community-level effects of intermittent preventive treatment for malaria in schoolchildren in Jinja, Uganda (START-IPT trial): a cluster-randomised trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Staedke, Sarah G; Maiteki-Sebuguzi, Catherine; Rehman, Andrea M; Kigozi, Simon P; Gonahasa, Samuel; Okiring, Jaffer; Lindsay, Steve W; Kamya, Moses R; Chandler, Clare I R; Dorsey, Grant; Drakeley, Chris

    2018-06-01

    Intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) is a well established malaria control intervention. Evidence that delivering IPT to schoolchildren could provide community-level benefits is limited. We did a cluster-randomised controlled trial to assess the effect of IPT of primary schoolchildren with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) on indicators of malaria transmission in the community, in Jinja, Uganda. We included 84 clusters, each comprising one primary school and the 100 closest available households. The clusters were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive IPT with DP or standard care (control) by restricted randomisation to ensure balance by geography and school type. Children in intervention schools received IPT monthly for up to six rounds (June to December, 2014). We did cross-sectional community surveys in randomly selected households at baseline and in January to April, 2015, during which we measured participants' temperatures and obtained finger-prick blood smears for measurement of parasite prevalence by microscopy. We also did entomological surveys 1 night per month in households from 20 randomly selected IPT and 20 control clusters. The primary trial outcome was parasite prevalence in the final community survey. The primary entomological survey outcome was the annual entomological inoculation rate (aEIR) from July, 2014, to April, 2015. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02009215. Among 23 280 students registered in the 42 intervention schools, 10 079 (43%) aged 5-20 years were enrolled and received at least one dose of DP. 9286 (92%) of 10 079 received at least one full course of DP (three doses). Community-level parasite prevalence was lower in the intervention clusters than in the control clusters (19% vs 23%, adjusted risk ratio 0·85, 95% CI 0·73-1·00, p=0·05). The aEIR was lower in the intervention group than in the control group, but not significantly so (10·1 vs 15·2 infective bites per person, adjusted incidence rate

  5. Transformative Learning, Affect, and Reciprocal Care in Community Engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holmes, Ashley J.

    2015-01-01

    Drawing on interviews with writing teachers, this article highlights some of the affective responses that may arise for students, community partners, and teachers when we situate our pedagogies in public sites beyond the classroom. I analyze a teacher-narrated moment of student distress to demonstrate how theories of transformative learning might…

  6. Forging Professional Learning Communities: The Role of External Agency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sperandio, Jill; Kong, Peggy A.

    2018-01-01

    This article explored the effects of external agency on the establishment of professional learning communities (PLCs). The research was undertaken in the context of schools that have chosen to adopt the Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate (IB) worldwide. The study employed a two-stage qualitative sequential design…

  7. Participatory evaluation of community actions as a learning methodology for personal and community empowerment: case studies and empowerment processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xavier Úcar Martínez

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Participatory evaluation (PE is a hybrid methodology that can be used simultaneously to investigate and act in groups and communities. It can generate new knowledge about reality, but italso allows changes in the participants and their sociocultural context. This research project, developed over three years, aims to find out whether PE processes are useful and appropriate to evaluate community actionsand to generate learning that contribute to the empowerment of people who develop them.Method: The methodological structure of the research process design Participatory Evaluation processes that are applied in three selected communities-cases, over one year. The steering groups in each caseevaluated four dimensions of Community Development Plans: context, evolution, performance and results, using different techniques and group dynamics. Throughout this process, participants identify the acquiredknowledge and this is linked to indicators of empowerment, using questionnaires, content analysis and semi-structured interviews.Results: The development PE process in the three analyzed cases confirmed that PE is a useful strategy to assess participatory community actions of a territory; to report them to the people of the community; andto make shared decisions, about initiatives in order to improve community actions. The obtained results also verify that, throughout PE, there has been learning in the participants.Conclusions: The involvement of community members in the evaluation makes it more useful, fairer and more valid, but also a fourth positive consequence of PE is empowerment. From the process and the resultsof these cases of Participatory Evaluation, we consider that community EP is social transformation.

  8. Modeling of biologically motivated self-learning equivalent-convolutional recurrent-multilayer neural structures (BLM_SL_EC_RMNS) for image fragments clustering and recognition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krasilenko, Vladimir G.; Lazarev, Alexander A.; Nikitovich, Diana V.

    2018-03-01

    The biologically-motivated self-learning equivalence-convolutional recurrent-multilayer neural structures (BLM_SL_EC_RMNS) for fragments images clustering and recognition will be discussed. We shall consider these neural structures and their spatial-invariant equivalental models (SIEMs) based on proposed equivalent two-dimensional functions of image similarity and the corresponding matrix-matrix (or tensor) procedures using as basic operations of continuous logic and nonlinear processing. These SIEMs can simply describe the signals processing during the all training and recognition stages and they are suitable for unipolar-coding multilevel signals. The clustering efficiency in such models and their implementation depends on the discriminant properties of neural elements of hidden layers. Therefore, the main models and architecture parameters and characteristics depends on the applied types of non-linear processing and function used for image comparison or for adaptive-equivalent weighing of input patterns. We show that these SL_EC_RMNSs have several advantages, such as the self-study and self-identification of features and signs of the similarity of fragments, ability to clustering and recognize of image fragments with best efficiency and strong mutual correlation. The proposed combined with learning-recognition clustering method of fragments with regard to their structural features is suitable not only for binary, but also color images and combines self-learning and the formation of weight clustered matrix-patterns. Its model is constructed and designed on the basis of recursively continuous logic and nonlinear processing algorithms and to k-average method or method the winner takes all (WTA). The experimental results confirmed that fragments with a large numbers of elements may be clustered. For the first time the possibility of generalization of these models for space invariant case is shown. The experiment for an images of different dimensions (a reference

  9. Investigating the social configuration of a community to understand how networked learning activities take place: The OERu case study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schreurs, Bieke; Van den Beemt, Antoine; Prinsen, Fleur; De Laat, Maarten; Witthaus, Gaby; Conole, Grainne

    2015-01-01

    Examining how OER (Open Educational Resources) communities come to live, function or learn can support in empowering educators in the use of open educational resources. In this paper we investigate how an OER community functions through its networked learning activities. Networked learning

  10. Finding the community in sustainable online community engagement: Not-for-profit organisation websites, service-learning and research

    OpenAIRE

    Dodd, Alice

    2017-01-01

    This article explores the use of action research (2008–2014) based on a case study of the Sustainable Online Community Engagement (SOCE) Project, a service-learning project in which University of South Australia students build websites for not-for-profit (NFP) organisations, to demonstrate that effective teaching, public service and research are interdependent. A significant problem experienced in the SOCE project was that, despite some training and ongoing assistance, the community organisat...

  11. Communities of Practice in Higher Education: Professional Learning in an Academic Career

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arthur, Linet

    2016-01-01

    This article focuses on the life history of a university academic, and the ways in which he learned in different communities of practice during his career. This account raises questions about the applicability of situated learning theory to a knowledge-based organisation, and argues that both the external context and the individuals within the…

  12. Empowering Students through Service-Learning in a Community Psychology Course: A Case in Hong Kong

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Kevin; Ng, Eddie; Chan, Charles C.

    2016-01-01

    This article chronicles a service-learning (SL) subject on community psychology in Hong Kong (n = 26) and elaborates on how students experience concepts, frameworks, and values in community psychology and put them into practice at servicelearning settings. Upon acquiring basic concepts in community psychology, including sense of community,…

  13. Learning Communities in Teacher Education: The impact of e-competence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elster, Doris

    2010-11-01

    The present article reports on the results of a three-year German-wide program Biology in Context (bik). In this program teachers and researchers worked together in 10 learning communities with the goal of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in biology classrooms as mandated by the recently passed National Educational Standards for the lower secondary level. In addition to face-to-face meetings, computers were used as the tools for communication and collaboration. Computers enabled the mutual sharing of information among the participants, as well as the planning and documenting of tasks and teaching units. Furthermore, they promoted the reflection of the process and the refinement of the products. Data were collected from questionnaires and structured interviews with teachers, researchers, and coordinators. The analysis identified teacher profiles with regard to their attitudes towards implementing the bik concept, their use of computers, and the change of classroom activities. The results exposed several main tendencies. (1) The participant teachers largely utilized Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools for the construction of tasks and units and for collaboration with each other. (2) These tools were, however, less useful for instructional purposes, learning, and knowledge creation. (3) ICT tools were hardly used for reflection of professional experiences. (4) Teacher use of ICT tools increased from the first to the third year. The study concludes that information literacy skills have a strong impact on the persistence of learning communities. Further research should be conducted to adopt a mixed form (blended form) of learning.

  14. E-Learning Lifecycles:How Communities and Context can affect E-learning Specifications and Tool Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Magee

    2004-10-01

    Full Text Available The development of a large body of e-learning specifications, such as IMS and SCORM, has led to the proposal for a new way to facilitate content workflow. This involves the movement of educational digital content and the knowledge of pedagogical communities into an online space. Several projects have looked at the theoretical structure of these specifications. They implemented a series of tools in order to examine and research the issues around the actual usage of these specifications. The CAREO, ALOHA and ALOHA 2 projects were designed to expose both individual users and whole institutions to these ideas. Initial research into the result of those interactions indicates that there is some utility in the adoption of e-learning specifications. The future success of them will depend on their ability to adapt and meet the needs of the educational community as they begin to adopt, use and evolve the way they use the specifications and the tools created around them.

  15. Semisupervised Clustering by Iterative Partition and Regression with Neuroscience Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guoqi Qian

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Regression clustering is a mixture of unsupervised and supervised statistical learning and data mining method which is found in a wide range of applications including artificial intelligence and neuroscience. It performs unsupervised learning when it clusters the data according to their respective unobserved regression hyperplanes. The method also performs supervised learning when it fits regression hyperplanes to the corresponding data clusters. Applying regression clustering in practice requires means of determining the underlying number of clusters in the data, finding the cluster label of each data point, and estimating the regression coefficients of the model. In this paper, we review the estimation and selection issues in regression clustering with regard to the least squares and robust statistical methods. We also provide a model selection based technique to determine the number of regression clusters underlying the data. We further develop a computing procedure for regression clustering estimation and selection. Finally, simulation studies are presented for assessing the procedure, together with analyzing a real data set on RGB cell marking in neuroscience to illustrate and interpret the method.

  16. Clusters in nuclei

    CERN Document Server

    Following the pioneering discovery of alpha clustering and of molecular resonances, the field of nuclear clustering is today one of those domains of heavy-ion nuclear physics that faces the greatest challenges, yet also contains the greatest opportunities. After many summer schools and workshops, in particular over the last decade, the community of nuclear molecular physicists has decided to collaborate in producing a comprehensive collection of lectures and tutorial reviews covering the field. This third volume follows the successful Lect. Notes Phys. 818 (Vol. 1) and 848 (Vol. 2), and comprises six extensive lectures covering the following topics:  - Gamma Rays and Molecular Structure - Faddeev Equation Approach for Three Cluster Nuclear Reactions - Tomography of the Cluster Structure of Light Nuclei Via Relativistic Dissociation - Clustering Effects Within the Dinuclear Model : From Light to Hyper-heavy Molecules in Dynamical Mean-field Approach - Clusterization in Ternary Fission - Clusters in Light N...

  17. Theorizing E-Learning Participation: A Study of the HRD Online Communities in the USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Greg G.

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: This study sets out to investigate the e-learning participation and completion phenomenon in the US corporate HRD online communities and to explore determinants of e-learning completion. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the HRD Learning Participation Theory (LPT), this study takes a two-stage approach. Stage one adopts an interview…

  18. Symmetries of cluster configurations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kramer, P.

    1975-01-01

    A deeper understanding of clustering phenomena in nuclei must encompass at least two interrelated aspects of the subject: (A) Given a system of A nucleons with two-body interactions, what are the relevant and persistent modes of clustering involved. What is the nature of the correlated nucleon groups which form the clusters, and what is their mutual interaction. (B) Given the cluster modes and their interaction, what systematic patterns of nuclear structure and reactions emerge from it. Are there, for example, families of states which share the same ''cluster parents''. Which cluster modes are compatible or exclude each other. What quantum numbers could characterize cluster configurations. There is no doubt that we can learn a good deal from the experimentalists who have discovered many of the features relevant to aspect (B). Symmetries specific to cluster configurations which can throw some light on both aspects of clustering are discussed

  19. Blended Learning and Sense of Community: A Comparative Analysis with Traditional and Fully Online Graduate Courses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fred Rovai and Hope Jordan

    2004-08-01

    Full Text Available Blended learning is a hybrid of classroom and online learning that includes some of the conveniences of online courses without the complete loss of face-to-face contact. The present study used a causal-comparative design to examine the relationship of sense of community between traditional classroom, blended, and fully online higher education learning environments. Evidence is provided to suggest that blended courses produce a stronger sense of community among students than either traditional or fully online courses.

  20. A similarity based agglomerative clustering algorithm in networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhiyuan; Wang, Xiujuan; Ma, Yinghong

    2018-04-01

    The detection of clusters is benefit for understanding the organizations and functions of networks. Clusters, or communities, are usually groups of nodes densely interconnected but sparsely linked with any other clusters. To identify communities, an efficient and effective community agglomerative algorithm based on node similarity is proposed. The proposed method initially calculates similarities between each pair of nodes, and form pre-partitions according to the principle that each node is in the same community as its most similar neighbor. After that, check each partition whether it satisfies community criterion. For the pre-partitions who do not satisfy, incorporate them with others that having the biggest attraction until there are no changes. To measure the attraction ability of a partition, we propose an attraction index that based on the linked node's importance in networks. Therefore, our proposed method can better exploit the nodes' properties and network's structure. To test the performance of our algorithm, both synthetic and empirical networks ranging in different scales are tested. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can obtain superior clustering results compared with six other widely used community detection algorithms.

  1. A cluster randomised controlled trial of a nutrition education intervention in the community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madigan, S M; Fleming, P; Wright, M E; Stevenson, M; Macauley, D

    2014-04-01

    Patients with enteral feeding tubes are increasingly managed in their home environment and these patients require support from a range of healthcare professionals. A cluster randomised trial of an educational intervention was undertaken among General Practitioners and nurses both in the community and in nursing home caring for patients recently discharged to primary care. This was a short, duration (nutrition education programme delivered in the work place soon after the patient was discharged from hospital. The primary outcome was an improvement in knowledge immediately after the intervention and the secondary outcome was knowledge at 6 months. Those in the intervention group had improved knowledge, which was significantly greater than those in the control group (P work-based targeted nutrition education programme is effective for improving knowledge among general practitioners and nurses both in the community and in nursing homes. © 2013 The Authors Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics © 2013 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.

  2. Professional Learning Communities: Teachers' Perceptions and Student Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters, Erica

    2013-01-01

    Professional Learning Communities (PLC's) are designed to help schools improve student achievement; all decisions are based on the needs of students. PLC's are an effective way to receive professional development (PD), allow for collaboration with fellow teachers, and offer timely intervention to all students. In a district known for PLC…

  3. Evaluating Mixture Modeling for Clustering: Recommendations and Cautions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinley, Douglas; Brusco, Michael J.

    2011-01-01

    This article provides a large-scale investigation into several of the properties of mixture-model clustering techniques (also referred to as latent class cluster analysis, latent profile analysis, model-based clustering, probabilistic clustering, Bayesian classification, unsupervised learning, and finite mixture models; see Vermunt & Magdison,…

  4. Challenging the empowerment expectation: Learning, alienation and design possibilities in community-university research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joe Curnow

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available As community-university partnerships have become mainstream, researchers have argued that these approaches have the potential to be transformative, supporting community learning and creating capacity for community development. While this remains the dominant narrative of community research, some researchers have questioned the impacts of community research on frontline community, or peer, researchers who represent partnerships in their communities. These studies complicate the narrative, suggesting that learning and capacity building are not straightforward processes. While on the whole community-university partnerships tend to be empowering for community researchers, research is needed to understand the experiences of community researchers for whom this is not the case. My research examines a Toronto-based community-university participatory action research partnership, asking what community researchers learnt through their participation. I argue that, while community researchers learnt a great deal from their participation, the overall impact was not empowerment, but alienation. They did have their knowledge of community validated, and they built research skills, developed grievances through their conversations with neighbours and interrogated the links between grievances, all of which were important aspects of their participation. However, through the process they developed, or entrenched, a sense of powerlessness and dependence on the university researchers to take up their cause politically. This contradicts the aspirations of community-university partnership models, especially participatory action research, and raises questions about the inevitability of empowering social action stemming from these research projects. I argue that the disempowerment that the community researchers reported points to the need for community research to be embedded within existing social action organisations and infrastructure to provide clearer pathways to

  5. Team Learning: Through the Relational Dynamics of Co-operation and Rivalry in Team Communities

    OpenAIRE

    Lotz, Maja

    2008-01-01

    In this paper I explore the constructive links between co-operation, rivalry, and learning within the structure of team communities. Drawing upon social learning theory, the main purpose of this paper is to argue that both co-operation and rivalry are important triggers for mobilizing learning processes within and between teams. However, social learning theory tends to disregard the positive aspects of rivalry. Consequently, this paper will argue for the need to extend social learning theory ...

  6. Community-Based Disaster Management: A Lesson Learned From Community Emergency Response Management in Banyumas, Indonesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pratama, A. Y.; Sariffuddin, S.

    2018-02-01

    This article aimed to review community-based disaster management in terms of its independent coordination and disaster management. Community resilience was tested during disaster emergency. While panic, the community is required to be viable and able to evacuate, manage logistic, collect data on damage and the victim, and coordinate with outsiders independently. The community in Gununglurah Village, Banyumas Regency which was hit by a landslide in 2015 provides a lesson learned about community based disaster management. This research used qualitative descriptive methodology with in-depth interview with 23 informants from the community, donor institution, village officers, and government officers. Through traditional and informal methods, the community implemented disaster management that was categorized into 3 mechanisms that were social, functional, and sequential mechanism. These mechanisms controlled different portion in which social mechanism holds the most important role in disaster management, then functional mechanism and sequential mechanism. Various community activities in the village equipped the community with organizational experience to manage logistic, human resource and other coordination. In 2007, in fact, there was vulnerability risk assessment done by the local government, which recommended efforts to be done by the community to reduce the disaster risk, yet it was not implemented. It was interesting to note that in spite of the independent disaster management there was a scientific assessment neglected. Based on this research, a new discussion on how to synchronize the endogenous knowledge with scientific modern knowledge was opened.

  7. The influence of an online virtual situated environment on a Chinese learning community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kuo-En Chang

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available This study used an online virtual environment to create and develop a Chinese learning community. The purposes of research were (1 to enhance the Chinese learners’ oral Chinese communication skills and (2 to change the community members’ Chinese speaking and teaching behavior. This is an action research. The research tried to create a community in a virtual environment. The research results showed that (1 a virtual community can enhance learner’s Chinese competence, and (2 future Chinese teachers’ instructional and leading skills can be developed in a virtual community situation.

  8. Community Partner Perspectives on Benefits, Challenges, Facilitating Factors, and Lessons Learned from Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships in Detroit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caldwell, Wilma Brakefield; Reyes, Angela G; Rowe, Zachary; Weinert, Julia; Israel, Barbara A

    2015-01-01

    There is an extensive body of literature on community-based participatory research (CBPR) and the role of community-academic partnerships, much of which has involved community partners in the conceptualization and preparation of publications. However, there has been a relative dearth of solely community voices addressing these topics, given the other roles and responsibilities which community members and leaders of community-based organizations (CBOs) have. The purpose of this article is to share the perspectives of three long-time (>20 years) community partners involved in the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center and its affiliated partnerships. In this article, we community partners provide our assessment of the benefits and challenges in using a CBPR approach at the personal, organizational, and community levels; the factors that facilitate effective partnerships; and our lessons learned through engagement in CBPR. We also present specific recommendations from a community perspective to researchers and institutions interested in conducting CBPR.

  9. Adaptive Management and Social Learning in Collaborative and Community-Based Monitoring: a Study of Five Community-Based Forestry Organizations in the western USA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria E. Fernandez-Gimenez

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available Collaborative and community-based monitoring are becoming more frequent, yet few studies have examined the process and outcomes of these monitoring approaches. We studied 18 collaborative or community-based ecological assessment or monitoring projects undertaken by five community-based forestry organizations (CBFs, to investigate the objectives, process, and outcomes of collaborative ecological monitoring by CBF organizations. We found that collaborative monitoring can lead to shared ecological understanding among diverse participants, build trust internally and credibility externally, foster social learning and community-building, and advance adaptive management. The CBFs experienced challenges in recruiting and sustaining community participation in monitoring, building needed technical capacity for monitoring, and communicating monitoring results back to the broader community. Our results suggest that involving diverse and sometimes adversarial interests at key points in the monitoring process can help resolve conflicts and advance social learning, while also strengthening the link between social and ecological systems by improving the information base for management and increasing collective awareness of the interdependence of human and natural forest communities.

  10. The community health clinics as a learning context for student nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makupu, M B; Botes, A

    2000-09-01

    The purpose of the research study was to describe guidelines to improve the community health clinics as a learning context conductive to learning. The objectives of the study commenced by getting the perception of student nurses from a nursing college in Gauteng; community sisters from ten community health clinics in the Southern Metropolitan Local Council and college tutors from a college in Gauteng. The research design and method used, consisting of a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual approach and the design was divided into two phases. Phase one consisted of a field/empirical study and phase two of conceptualization. In all the samples follow-up focus group interviews were conducted to confirm the findings. To ensure trustworthiness, Lincoln and Guba's model (1985) was implemented and data analysis was according to Tesch's model (1990 in Creswell 1994:155) based on a qualitative approach. The conceptual framework discussed, indicating a body of knowledge, was based on the study and empirical findings from phase one to give clear meaning and understanding regarding the research study.

  11. Increasing positive attitudes toward individuals with disabilities through community service learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawson, Janelle E; Cruz, Rebecca A; Knollman, Gregory A

    2017-10-01

    Providing equal-status contact between those with and without disabilities can improve attitudes and reduce discrimination toward individuals with disabilities. This study investigated community service learning as a means by which to provide college students with equal-status contact with individuals with disabilities and increase their positive attitudes toward those with disabilities. A total of 166 college students in one university in the United States enrolled in an Introduction to Disability course received content on disability in society and participated in community service involving 20h of direct contact with individuals with disabilities. Findings indicated that college students who had prior contact with individuals with disabilities had more positive attitudes toward individuals with disabilities than college students who did not have prior contact at the start of the course. For the college students who did not have any prior contact, their attitudes toward individuals with disabilities became significantly more positive at the end of the community service learning course. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Relationships between Teacher Value Orientations, Collegiality, and Collaboration in School Professional Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ning, Hoi Kwan; Lee, Daphnee; Lee, Wing On

    2015-01-01

    Unlike past research which has mainly examined whole school or whole department professional learning communities, this study focused on factors related to effective collaborative practices within teacher learning teams. Our main objective was to ascertain the roles of team value orientations (collectivism and power distance) and team collegiality…

  13. The Strategic Thinking and Learning Community: An Innovative Model for Providing Academic Assistance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Commander, Nannette Evans; Valeri-Gold, Maria; Darnell, Kim

    2004-01-01

    Today, academic assistance efforts are frequently geared to all students, not just the underprepared, with study skills offered in various formats. In this article, the authors describe a learning community model with the theme, "Strategic Thinking and Learning" (STL). Results of data analysis indicate that participants of the STL…

  14. Student Perceptions of a Successful Online Collaborative Learning Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waugh, Michael L.; Su, Jian

    2016-01-01

    This paper shares the perceptions of a group of 11 successful online students regarding the value of the collaborative learning community that developed as part of their participation in the first cohort of the WebIT online Master of Science Degree in Instructional Technology program, at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville during 2008-2010.…

  15. The Effects of Situated Learning Through a Community Partnership in a Teacher Preparation Program

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shelly Meyers

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the value of using an alternative approach to college course instruction in an off-campus location, an agency for individuals with developmental disabilities. The situated learning model is an alternative to the traditional college course instructional approach for preservice teachers. This model immerses students in the actual setting where they can practice the skills and apply the concepts emphasized in the curriculum. Through a partnership between the college, the community agency, and a public school, graduate students in the special education program developed and implemented a life-skills curriculum for individuals with developmental disabilities, at the same time learning essential principles of delivering instruction. The school-aged students who participated in the study were from a racially mixed urban school district, while the adult clients from the community agency attended the program at the end of their community-based workday. Based on the results of surveys and focus group discussions, participants in the study indicated that the situated learning model of instruction in a community setting better prepared them in the acquisition and application of their teaching skills, and built their competence in developing educational programs for individuals with disabilities.

  16. Reduct Driven Pattern Extraction from Clusters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuchita Upadhyaya

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available Clustering algorithms give general description of clusters, listing number of clusters and member entities in those clusters. However, these algorithms lack in generating cluster description in the form of pattern. From data mining perspective, pattern learning from clusters is as important as cluster finding. In the proposed approach, reduct derived from rough set theory is employed for pattern formulation. Further, reduct are the set of attributes which distinguishes the entities in a homogenous cluster, hence these can be clear cut removed from the same. Remaining attributes are then ranked for their contribution in the cluster. Pattern is formulated with the conjunction of most contributing attributes such that pattern distinctively describes the cluster with minimum error.

  17. Beyond Apprenticeship: Knowledge Brokers and Sustainability of Apprentice-Based Clusters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huasheng Zhu

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Knowledge learning and diffusion have long been discussed in the literature on the dynamics of industrial clusters, but recent literature provides little evidence for how different actors serve as knowledge brokers in the upgrading process of apprentice-based clusters, and does not dynamically consider how to preserve the sustainability of these clusters. This paper uses empirical evidence from an antique furniture manufacturing cluster in Xianyou, Fujian Province, in southeastern China, to examine the growth trajectory of the knowledge learning system of an antique furniture manufacturing cluster. It appears that the apprentice-based learning system is crucial during early stages of the cluster evolution, but later becomes complemented and relatively substituted by the role of both local governments and focal outsiders. This finding addresses the context of economic transformation and provides empirical insights into knowledge acquisition in apprentice-based clusters to question the rationality based on European and North American cases, and to provide a broader perspective for policy makers to trigger and sustain the development of apprentice-based clusters.

  18. The effect of an enriched learning community on success and retention in chemistry courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Willoughby, Lois Jane

    Since the mid-1990s, the United States has experienced a shortage of scientists and engineers, declining numbers of students choosing these fields as majors, and low student success and retention rates in these disciplines. Learning theorists, educational researchers, and practitioners believe that learning environments can be created so that an improvement in the numbers of students who complete courses successfully could be attained (Astin, 1993; Magolda & Terenzini, n.d.; O'Banion, 1997). Learning communities do this by providing high expectations, academic and social support, feedback during the entire educational process, and involvement with faculty, other students, and the institution (Ketcheson & Levine, 1999). A program evaluation of an existing learning community of science, mathematics, and engineering majors was conducted to determine the extent to which the program met its goals and was effective from faculty and student perspectives. The program provided laptop computers, peer tutors, supplemental instruction with and without computer software, small class size, opportunities for contact with specialists in selected career fields, a resource library, and Peer-Led Team Learning. During the two years the project has existed, success, retention, and next-course continuation rates were higher than in traditional courses. Faculty and student interviews indicated there were many affective accomplishments as well. Success and retention rates for one learning community class ( n = 27) and one traditional class (n = 61) in chemistry were collected and compared using Pearson chi square procedures ( p = .05). No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups. Data from an open-ended student survey about how specific elements of their course experiences contributed to success and persistence were analyzed by coding the responses and comparing the learning community and traditional classes. Substantial differences were found in their

  19. Learning style and concept acquisition of community college students in introductory biology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bobick, Sandra Burin

    This study investigated the influence of learning style on concept acquisition within a sample of community college students in a general biology course. There are two subproblems within the larger problem: (1) the influence of demographic variables (age, gender, number of college credits, prior exposure to scientific information) on learning style, and (2) the correlations between prior scientific knowledge, learning style and student understanding of the concept of the gene. The sample included all students enrolled in an introductory general biology course during two consecutive semesters at an urban community college. Initial data was gathered during the first week of the semester, at which time students filled in a short questionnaire (age, gender, number of college credits, prior exposure to science information either through reading/visual sources or a prior biology course). Subjects were then given the Inventory of Learning Processes-Revised (ILP-R) which measures general preferences in five learning styles; Deep Learning; Elaborative Learning, Agentic Learning, Methodical Learning and Literal Memorization. Subjects were then given the Gene Conceptual Knowledge pretest: a 15 question objective section and an essay section. Subjects were exposed to specific concepts during lecture and laboratory exercises. At the last lab, students were given the Genetics Conceptual Knowledge Posttest. Pretest/posttest gains were correlated with demographic variables and learning styles were analyzed for significant correlations. Learning styles, as the independent variable in a simultaneous multiple regression, were significant predictors of results on the gene assessment tests, including pretest, posttest and gain. Of the learning styles, Deep Learning accounted for the greatest positive predictive value of pretest essay and pretest objective results. Literal Memorization was a significant negative predictor for posttest essay, essay gain and objective gain. Simultaneous

  20. The Prevalence of Neuromyths in Community College: Examining Community College Students' Beliefs in Learning Styles and Impacts on Perceived Academic Locus of Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palis, Leila Ann

    2016-01-01

    It was not known if and to what extent there was a relationship between the degree to which community college students believed that learning was enhanced when teachers tailored instruction to individual learning styles and student perceived academic locus of control (PAC). Learning styles theory and locus of control theory formed the theoretical…

  1. Change Management in Dental Education: A Professional Learning Community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palatta, Anthony M

    2018-06-01

    Professional learning communities (PLCs) are defined as "a group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, growth-promoting way." PLCs have been found to be an effective change management strategy in business and education when confronted by rapid change. The American Dental Education Association's Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education new national program-ADEA CCI 2.0-includes the development of a PLC. By employing an "engage and learn" model PLC centered on continuous quality improvement and systems thinking, dental faculty can identify internal and external barriers to change that could lead to innovative solutions to complex issues. This article argues that a PLC is a viable change management strategy to counteract the effect of multiple external forces impacting dental education and thus to develop future-ready faculty.

  2. Learning With E-books and Project-based Strategy in a Community Health Nursing Course.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sung, Tien-Wen; Wu, Ting-Ting

    2018-03-01

    With advances in information technology, "information-assisted instruction" has been gradually introduced to nursing education curricula. Specifically, the integration of an e-book system can effectively enhance nursing students' attention and interest. Most studies on nursing education that incorporated e-books have focused on the advantages of convenience and assistance provided by e-books. Few studies have addressed community health nursing and off-campus practice activities in relation to suitable teaching strategies for learning activities. This study involved designing and planning a multimedia e-book learning system with a project-based learning activity that conforms to the curriculum and practical requirements of a community health nursing course. The purpose was to reduce the gap between theory and practice and realize an effective learning process. For learning evaluations, a final examination analysis with an independent sample t test; a scoring scheme with intrateam, interteam, and expert ratings; and Bloom's taxonomy-based analysis were conducted. The evaluation results indicated that the comprehension and learning abilities of the experimental group using the e-book system with a mobile device were effectively improved. In addition, the exploratory process involved in project-based learning can develop multiple cognitive skills and problem-solving ability, thereby realizing effective learning.

  3. A View of Professional Learning Communities through Three Frames: Leadership, Organization, and Culture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mullen, Carol A.; Schunk, Dale H.

    2010-01-01

    In this discussion of professional learning communities (PLCs) in North American public schools, we examine three theoretical frames--leadership, organization, and culture. Issues related to learning are infused throughout our presentation of the frames. Based on our analysis of the current literature on this topic, PLCs offer a promising tool for…

  4. Approximate kernel competitive learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Jian-Sheng; Zheng, Wei-Shi; Lai, Jian-Huang

    2015-03-01

    Kernel competitive learning has been successfully used to achieve robust clustering. However, kernel competitive learning (KCL) is not scalable for large scale data processing, because (1) it has to calculate and store the full kernel matrix that is too large to be calculated and kept in the memory and (2) it cannot be computed in parallel. In this paper we develop a framework of approximate kernel competitive learning for processing large scale dataset. The proposed framework consists of two parts. First, it derives an approximate kernel competitive learning (AKCL), which learns kernel competitive learning in a subspace via sampling. We provide solid theoretical analysis on why the proposed approximation modelling would work for kernel competitive learning, and furthermore, we show that the computational complexity of AKCL is largely reduced. Second, we propose a pseudo-parallelled approximate kernel competitive learning (PAKCL) based on a set-based kernel competitive learning strategy, which overcomes the obstacle of using parallel programming in kernel competitive learning and significantly accelerates the approximate kernel competitive learning for large scale clustering. The empirical evaluation on publicly available datasets shows that the proposed AKCL and PAKCL can perform comparably as KCL, with a large reduction on computational cost. Also, the proposed methods achieve more effective clustering performance in terms of clustering precision against related approximate clustering approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. “He was learning to read, but he wasn’t learning to live”: Socially inclusive learning in a community setting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Greg Marston

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available People with mental health problems, learning difficulties and poor literacy and numeracy are at risk of social exclusion, including homelessness. They are often disconnected from the formal education systems, with few opportunities for education and employment. Academic research has demonstrated a link between literacy and numeracy and social connectedness, however the pathways to enact this are not well understood. This paper presents insights into how a community based adult literacy program in Brisbane, Australia provides a successful model of socially inclusive learning. The paper is based on a 12-month action research project conducted by the Queensland University of Technology in conjunction with Anglicare Southern Queensland 2013-2014. The methodology for the project was qualitative in nature, involving participant observation of lessons, and semi-structured interviews with former and present students, volunteer tutors and the teacher.  The central research focus was how literacy education can act as an instrument of social connection to the community.

  6. Investigating Mathematics Teacher Learning within an In-Service Community of Practice: The Centrality of Confidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graven, Mellony

    2004-01-01

    This paper is part of a broader study that draws on Wenger's (Wenger, E.: 1998, "Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity", Cambridge University Press, New Work) social practice perspective to investigate teacher learning. The study extends Wenger's complex model of interrelated components of learning (as meaning, practice,…

  7. Evaluating the Impacts of Professional Development: A Mixed Method Study of Adult Education Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dilworth, Jessica S.

    2010-01-01

    Adult education programs providing classes to students preparing for high school equivalency and learning English that demonstrate characteristics of learning organizations may be better able to thrive when confronted with less-than-ideal circumstances. Many of these programs organize adult educators into learning communities as the context for…

  8. Classification and unsupervised clustering of LIGO data with Deep Transfer Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    George, Daniel; Shen, Hongyu; Huerta, E. A.

    2018-05-01

    Gravitational wave detection requires a detailed understanding of the response of the LIGO and Virgo detectors to true signals in the presence of environmental and instrumental noise. Of particular interest is the study of anomalous non-Gaussian transients, such as glitches, since their occurrence rate in LIGO and Virgo data can obscure or even mimic true gravitational wave signals. Therefore, successfully identifying and excising these anomalies from gravitational wave data is of utmost importance for the detection and characterization of true signals and for the accurate computation of their significance. To facilitate this work, we present the first application of deep learning combined with transfer learning to show that knowledge from pretrained models for real-world object recognition can be transferred for classifying spectrograms of glitches. To showcase this new method, we use a data set of twenty-two classes of glitches, curated and labeled by the Gravity Spy project using data collected during LIGO's first discovery campaign. We demonstrate that our Deep Transfer Learning method enables an optimal use of very deep convolutional neural networks for glitch classification given small and unbalanced training data sets, significantly reduces the training time, and achieves state-of-the-art accuracy above 98.8%, lowering the previous error rate by over 60%. More importantly, once trained via transfer learning on the known classes, we show that our neural networks can be truncated and used as feature extractors for unsupervised clustering to automatically group together new unknown classes of glitches and anomalous signals. This novel capability is of paramount importance to identify and remove new types of glitches which will occur as the LIGO/Virgo detectors gradually attain design sensitivity.

  9. Large scale cluster computing workshop

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dane Skow; Alan Silverman

    2002-01-01

    Recent revolutions in computer hardware and software technologies have paved the way for the large-scale deployment of clusters of commodity computers to address problems heretofore the domain of tightly coupled SMP processors. Near term projects within High Energy Physics and other computing communities will deploy clusters of scale 1000s of processors and be used by 100s to 1000s of independent users. This will expand the reach in both dimensions by an order of magnitude from the current successful production facilities. The goals of this workshop were: (1) to determine what tools exist which can scale up to the cluster sizes foreseen for the next generation of HENP experiments (several thousand nodes) and by implication to identify areas where some investment of money or effort is likely to be needed. (2) To compare and record experimences gained with such tools. (3) To produce a practical guide to all stages of planning, installing, building and operating a large computing cluster in HENP. (4) To identify and connect groups with similar interest within HENP and the larger clustering community

  10. Co-clustering directed graphs to discover asymmetries and directional communities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rohe, Karl; Qin, Tai; Yu, Bin

    2016-10-21

    In directed graphs, relationships are asymmetric and these asymmetries contain essential structural information about the graph. Directed relationships lead to a new type of clustering that is not feasible in undirected graphs. We propose a spectral co-clustering algorithm called di-sim for asymmetry discovery and directional clustering. A Stochastic co-Blockmodel is introduced to show favorable properties of di-sim To account for the sparse and highly heterogeneous nature of directed networks, di-sim uses the regularized graph Laplacian and projects the rows of the eigenvector matrix onto the sphere. A nodewise asymmetry score and di-sim are used to analyze the clustering asymmetries in the networks of Enron emails, political blogs, and the Caenorhabditis elegans chemical connectome. In each example, a subset of nodes have clustering asymmetries; these nodes send edges to one cluster, but receive edges from another cluster. Such nodes yield insightful information (e.g., communication bottlenecks) about directed networks, but are missed if the analysis ignores edge direction.

  11. When Disney Meets the Research Park: Metaphors and Models for Engineering an Online Learning Community of Tomorrow

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chenail, Ronald J.

    2004-01-01

    It is suggested that educators look to an environment in which qualitative research can be learned in more flexible and creative ways--an online learning community known as the Research Park Online (RPO). This model, based upon Walt Disney's 1966 plan for his "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT) and university cooperative…

  12. Professional Learning Community Process in the United States: Conceptualization of the Process and District Support for Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olivier, Dianne F.; Huffman, Jane B.

    2016-01-01

    As the Professional Learning Community (PLC) process becomes embedded within schools, the level of district support has a direct impact on whether schools have the ability to re-culture and sustain highly effective collaborative practices. The purpose of this article is to share a professional learning community conceptual framework from the US,…

  13. STEM-related, Student-led Service Learning / Community Engagement Projects: Examples and Benefits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swap, R. J.; Wayland, K.

    2015-12-01

    Field-based, STEM-related service learning / community engagement projects present an opportunity for undergraduate students to demonstrate proficiencies related to the process of inquiry. These proficiencies include: appreciation of the larger project context, articulation of an informed question/hypothesis, project proposal development, interdisciplinary collaboration, project management (including planning, implementation reconfiguration and synthesis) and lastly the generation and handing off of acquired knowledge. Calls for these types of proficiencies have been expressed by governmental, non-governmental as well as the private sector. Accordingly, institutions of higher learning have viewed such activities as opportunities for enriching the learning experience for undergraduate students and for making such students more marketable, especially those from STEM-related fields. This institutional interest has provided an opportunity to support and expand field-based learning. Here we present examples of student-led/faculty-mentored international service learning and community engagement projects along the arc of preparation, implementation and post-field process. Representative examples that draw upon environmental science and engineering knowledge have been selected from more than 20 international undergraduate student projects over past decade and include: slow-sand water filtration, rainwater harvesting, methane biodigesters, water reticulation schemes and development and implementation of rocket stoves for communal cooking. We discuss these efforts in terms of the development of the aforementioned proficiencies, the utility of such proficiencies to the larger enterprise of STEM and the potential for transformative student learning outcomes. We share these experiences and lessons learned with the hope that others may intelligently borrow from our approach in a manner appropriate for their particular context.

  14. Creating a Connected Community: Lessons Learned from the Western New York Beacon Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maloney, Nancy; Heider, Arvela R.; Rockwood, Amy; Singh, Ranjit

    2014-01-01

    Introduction: Secure exchange of clinical data among providers has the potential to improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce duplication. Many communities are experiencing challenges in building effective health information exchanges (HIEs). Previous studies have focused on financial and technical issues regarding HIE development. This paper describes the Western New York (WNY) HIE growth and lessons learned about accelerating progress to become a highly connected community. Methods: HEALTHeLINK, with funding from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) under the Beacon Community Program, expanded HIE usage in eight counties. The communitywide transformation process used three main drivers: (1) a communitywide Electronic Health Record (EHR) adoption program; (2) clinical transformation partners; and (3) HIE outreach and infrastructure development. Results: ONC Beacon Community funding allowed WNY to achieve a new level in the use of interoperable HIE. Electronic delivery of results into the EHR expanded from 23 practices in 2010 to 222 practices in 2013, a tenfold increase. There were more than 12.5 million results delivered electronically (HL7 messages) to 222 practices’ EHRs via the HIE in 2013. Use of a secure portal and Virtual Health Record (VHR) to access reports (those not delivered directly to the EHR) also increased significantly, from 13,344 report views in 2010 to over 600,000 in 2013. Discussion and Conclusion: The WNY Beacon successfully expanded the sharing of clinical information among different sources of data and providers, creating a highly connected community to improve the quality and continuity of care. Technical, organizational, and community lessons described in this paper should prove beneficial to others as they pursue efforts to create connected communities. PMID:25848618

  15. Service-Learning Enriches Advertising Knowledge, Builds Students' Portfolios, and Promotes Community Engagement after Graduation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tucciarone, Krista

    2012-01-01

    This study investigated the influence of a service-learning component in an advertising course, specifically examining its ability to enrich advertising knowledge, build students' portfolios, and influence students' community engagement after graduation. The research revealed that service-learning positively affects students' understanding of…

  16. In-Course Instructor-Guided Service Learning in a Community College General Psychology Class

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goomas, David T.; Weston, Melissa B.

    2012-01-01

    Students enrolled in two general psychology classes at El Centro College (ECC) of the Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) were offered the opportunity to earn extra credit by performing up to 20 hours of service learning. Benefits of service learning were observed in student development, including exploration of career possibilities,…

  17. Lessons learned from community-based approaches to sodium reduction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Heather; Strazza, Karen; Losby, Jan L; Lane, Rashon; Mugavero, Kristy; Anater, Andrea S; Frost, Corey; Margolis, Marjorie; Hersey, James

    2015-01-01

    This article describes lessons from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative encompassing sodium reduction interventions in six communities. A multiple case study design was used. This evaluation examined data from programs implemented in six communities located in New York (Broome County, Schenectady County, and New York City); California (Los Angeles County and Shasta County); and Kansas (Shawnee County). Participants (n = 80) included program staff, program directors, state-level staff, and partners. Measures for this evaluation included challenges, facilitators, and lessons learned from implementing sodium reduction strategies. The project team conducted a document review of program materials and semistructured interviews 12 to 14 months after implementation. The team coded and analyzed data deductively and inductively. Five lessons for implementing community-based sodium reduction approaches emerged: (1) build relationships with partners to understand their concerns, (2) involve individuals knowledgeable about specific venues early, (3) incorporate sodium reduction efforts and messaging into broader nutrition efforts, (4) design the program to reduce sodium gradually to take into account consumer preferences and taste transitions, and (5) identify ways to address the cost of lower-sodium products. The experiences of the six communities may assist practitioners in planning community-based sodium reduction interventions. Addressing sodium reduction using a community-based approach can foster meaningful change in dietary sodium consumption.

  18. A cluster randomized controlled trial of a brief tobacco cessation intervention for low-income communities in India: study protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarkar, Bidyut K; Shahab, Lion; Arora, Monika; Lorencatto, Fabiana; Reddy, K Srinath; West, Robert

    2014-03-01

    India has 275 million adult tobacco users and tobacco use is estimated to contribute to more than a million deaths in the country each year. There is an urgent need to develop and evaluate affordable, practicable and scalable interventions to promote cessation of tobacco use. Because tobacco use is so harmful, an increase of as little as 1 percentage point in long-term quit success rates can have an important public health impact. This protocol paper describes the rationale and methods of a large randomized controlled trial which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief scalable smoking cessation intervention delivered by trained health professionals as an outreach programme in poor urban communities in India. This is a pragmatic, two-arm, community-based cluster randomized controlled trial focused on tobacco users in low-income communities. The treatment arm is a brief intervention comprising brief advice including training in craving control using simple yogic breathing exercises (BA-YBA) and the control arm is very brief advice (VBA). Of a total of 32 clusters, 16 will be allocated to the intervention arm and 16 to the control arm. Each cluster will have 31 participants, making a total of 992 participants. The primary outcome measure will follow the Russell Standard: self-report of sustained abstinence for at least 6 months following the intervention confirmed at the final follow-up by salivary cotinine. This trial will inform national and international policy on delivery of scalable and affordable brief outreach interventions to promote tobacco use cessation in low resource settings where tobacco users have limited access to physicians and medications. © 2014 Society for the Study of Addiction.

  19. Event Streams Clustering Using Machine Learning Techniques

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hanen Bouali

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Data streams are usually of unbounded lengths which push users to consider only recent observations by focusing on a time window, and ignore past data. However, in many real world applications, past data must be taken in consideration to guarantee the efficiency, the performance of decision making and to handle data streams evolution over time. In order to build a selectively history to track the underlying event streams changes, we opt for the continuously data of the sliding window which increases the time window based on changes over historical data. In this paper, to have the ability to access to historical data without requiring any significant storage or multiple passes over the data. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for clustering multiple data streams using incremental support vector machine and data representative points’ technique. The algorithm uses a sliding window model for the most recent clustering results and data representative points to model the old data clustering results. Our experimental results on electromyography signal show a better clustering than other present in the literature

  20. The Sea Floor: A Living Learning Residential Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guentzel, J. L.; Rosch, E.; Stoughton, M. A.; Bowyer, R.; Mortensen, K.; Smith, M.

    2016-02-01

    Living learning communities are collaborations between university housing and academic departments designed to enhance the overall student experience by integrating classroom/laboratory learning, student life and extracurricular activities. At Coastal Carolina University, the residential community associated with the Marine Science program is known as the Sea Floor. Students selected to become members of the Sea Floor remain "in residence" for two consecutive semesters. These students are first-time freshman that share a common course connection. This course is usually Introduction to Marine Science (MSCI 111) or MSCI 399s, which are one credit field/laboratory centered internships. The common course connection is designed so residents can establish and maintain an educational dialog with their peers. Activities designed to enhance the students' networking skills and educational and social development skills include monthly lunches with marine science faculty and dinner seminars with guest speakers from academia, industry and government. Additionally, each semester several activities outside the classroom are planned so that students can more frequently interact with themselves and their faculty and staff partners. These activities include field trips to regional aquariums, local boat trips that include water sample collection and analysis, and an alternative spring break trip to the Florida Keys to study the marine environment firsthand. The resident advisor that supervises the Sea Floor is usually a sophomore or junior marine science major. This provides the residents with daily communication and mentoring from a marine science major that is familiar with the marine science program and residence life. Assessment activities include: a university housing community living survey, student interest housing focus groups, fall to spring and fall to fall retention, and evaluation of program advisors and program activities.

  1. Análise de conglomerados em curvas de aprendizado para formação de agrupamentos homogêneos de trabalhadores Cluster analysis of learning curves for grouping workers with homogeneous learning profiles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renato Eduardo Stroieke

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Em diversos setores da indústria é desejado que trabalhadores reunidos em uma estação de trabalho apresentem perfil de aprendizado similar. O presente artigo apresenta um método de agrupamento de trabalhadores utilizando modelagem por curva de aprendizado e técnicas de clusterização. O método modela dados de desempenho de trabalhadores por intermédio de diversos modelos de curvas de aprendizado; os parâmetros de aprendizado dos modelos testados permitem predizer o desempenho dos trabalhadores em intervalos de tempo pré-determinados. Os valores preditos são agrupados através de ferramentas de clusterização. O maior índice de ajuste (IA, gerado a partir do Silhouette Index e do coeficiente de determinação, indica o modelo de curva mais consistente em termos de aderência aos dados e qualidade de agrupamento de perfis de aprendizado. Ao ser aplicado em dados de uma indústria de calçados, o método gerou agrupamentos consistentes de trabalhadores com base nos distintos perfis de aprendizado.In many industrial segments, it is desirable to allocate workers with similar learning profiles in the same workstation. This paper presents a method that groups workers based on learning curve modeling and clustering techniques. Workers' performance data are modeled through several learning curve models; learning parameters allow for workers' performance prediction at intervals of predetermined time. The predicted values are then grouped by clustering techniques. The largest Adjustment Index (AI, derived from the Silhouette Index and Coefficient of Determination, indicates the model yielding superior adherence to data and better clustering of learning profiles. When applied to a shoe manufacturing process, the method generated consistent groups of workers based on their learning profiles.

  2. Relationship between Active Learning Methodologies and Community College Students' STEM Course Grades

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesk, Cherish Christina Clark

    2017-01-01

    Active learning methodologies (ALM) are associated with student success, but little research on this topic has been pursued at the community college level. At a local community college, students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses exhibited lower than average grades. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the use…

  3. Intraindividual differences in motivation and cognition in students with and without learning disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pintrich, P R; Anderman, E M; Klobucar, C

    1994-01-01

    The present study examines several cognitive and motivational variables that distinguish children with learning disabilities (n = 19) from children without learning disabilities (n = 20). The total sample included 30 males and 9 females and was composed of white, fifth-grade students from a middle-class community in the Midwest. Results showed that although the students with learning disabilities displayed lower levels of metacognitive knowledge and reading comprehension, they did not differ from the students without learning disabilities on self-efficacy, intrinsic orientation, or anxiety. In addition, they did not show any signs of learned helplessness, although they did tend to attribute success and failure to external causes more often than the students without learning disabilities. Using a cluster analysis that grouped individuals, we found that differences in the motivational and cognitive variables cut across a priori categories of children with and without learning disabilities. Three clusters were formed: one with high comprehension, motivation, and metacognition (mostly children without learning disabilities); one with low levels of comprehension and metacognition but high intrinsic motivation (all children with learning disabilities); and one with low intrinsic motivation but average comprehension, metacognition, and attributional style (approximately equal numbers of children with and without learning disabilities). Implications for diagnosis and intervention for students with learning disabilities are discussed.

  4. It takes a village: supporting inquiry- and equity-oriented computer science pedagogy through a professional learning community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ryoo, Jean; Goode, Joanna; Margolis, Jane

    2015-10-01

    This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers' professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers' professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science.

  5. Familial Clustering of Mitral Valve Prolapse in the Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Delling, Francesca N.; Rong, Jian; Larson, Martin G.; Lehman, Birgitta; Osypiuk, Ewa; Stantchev, Plamen; Slaugenhaupt, Susan A.; Benjamin, Emelia J.; Levine, Robert A.; Vasan, Ramachandran S.

    2014-01-01

    Background Knowledge of mitral valve prolapse (MVP) inheritance is based on pedigree observation and M-mode echocardiography. The extent of familial clustering of MVP among unselected individuals in the community based on current, more specific echocardiographic criteria is unknown. In addition, the importance of non-diagnostic MVP morphologies (NDM; first described in large pedigrees) has not been investigated in the general population. We hypothesized that parental MVP and NDM increase the risk of offspring MVP. Methods and Results Study participants were 3679 Generation 3 individuals with available parental data in the Offspring or the New Offspring Spouse cohorts. MVP and NDM were distinguished by leaflet displacement > 2 mm versus ≤ 2 mm beyond the mitral annulus, respectively. We compared MVP prevalence in Generation 3 participants with at least one parent with MVP (n=186) with that in individuals without parental MVP (n=3493). Among 3679 participants (53% women; mean age 40±9 years), 49 (1%) had MVP. Parental MVP was associated with a higher prevalence of MVP in Generation 3 participants (10/186 [5.4%]) compared to no parental MVP (39/3493 [1.1%] - adjusted odds ratio [OR], 4.51, 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.13–9.54; pMVP remained higher (12/484 [2.5%]) compared to those without parental MVP or NDM (27/3009 [0.9%] - adjusted OR 2.52, 95% CI, 1.25–5.10; p=0.01). Conclusions Parental MVP and NDM are associated with increased prevalence of offspring MVP, highlighting the genetic substrate of MVP and the potential clinical significance of NDM in the community. PMID:25361552

  6. Evaluation of the Implementation of Professional Learning Communities and the Impact on Student Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bostic, Cristi M.

    2013-01-01

    This dissertation evaluated the implementation of professional learning communities in a large suburban school district in North Carolina. The presence of shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application, shared personal practice, supportive conditions for relationships, and supportive conditions for…

  7. Student profiling on university co-curricular activities using cluster analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rajenthran, Hemabegai A./P.; Shaharanee, Izwan Nizal Mohd; Jamil, Jastini Mohd.

    2017-11-01

    In higher learning institutions, the co-curricular programs are needed for the graduation besides the standard academic programs. By actively participating in co-curricular, students can attain many of soft skills and proficiencies besides learning and adopting campus environment, community and traditions. Co-curricular activities are implemented by universities mainly for the refinement of the academic achievement along with the social development. This studies aimed to analyse the academic profile of the co-curricular students among uniform units. The main objective of study is to develop a profile of student co-curricular activities in uniform units. Additionally, several variables has been selected to serve as the characteristics for student co-curricular profile. The findings of this study demonstrate the practicality of clustering technique to investigate student's profiles and allow for a better understanding of student's behavior and co-curriculum activities.

  8. Combining Project-Based Learning and Community-Based Research in a Research Methodology Course: The Lessons Learned

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arantes do Amaral, João Alberto; Lino dos Santos, Rebeca Júlia Rodrigues

    2018-01-01

    In this article, we present our findings regarding the course "Research Methodology," offered to 22 first-year undergraduate students studying Administration at the Federal University of São Paulo, Osasco, Brazil. The course, which combined community-based research and project-based learning, was developed during the second semester of…

  9. Computational intelligence for technology enhanced learning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xhafa, Fatos [Polytechnic Univ. of Catalonia, Barcelona (Spain). Dept. of Languages and Informatics Systems; Caballe, Santi; Daradoumis, Thanasis [Open Univ. of Catalonia, Barcelona (Spain). Dept. of Computer Sciences Multimedia and Telecommunications; Abraham, Ajith [Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIR Labs), Auburn, WA (United States). Scientific Network for Innovation and Research Excellence; Juan Perez, Angel Alejandro (eds.) [Open Univ. of Catalonia, Barcelona (Spain). Dept. of Information Sciences

    2010-07-01

    E-Learning has become one of the most wide spread ways of distance teaching and learning. Technologies such as Web, Grid, and Mobile and Wireless networks are pushing teaching and learning communities to find new and intelligent ways of using these technologies to enhance teaching and learning activities. Indeed, these new technologies can play an important role in increasing the support to teachers and learners, to shorten the time to learning and teaching; yet, it is necessary to use intelligent techniques to take advantage of these new technologies to achieve the desired support to teachers and learners and enhance learners' performance in distributed learning environments. The chapters of this volume bring advances in using intelligent techniques for technology enhanced learning as well as development of e-Learning applications based on such techniques and supported by technology. Such intelligent techniques include clustering and classification for personalization of learning, intelligent context-aware techniques, adaptive learning, data mining techniques and ontologies in e-Learning systems, among others. Academics, scientists, software developers, teachers and tutors and students interested in e-Learning will find this book useful for their academic, research and practice activity. (orig.)

  10. Innovation, learning and cluster dynamics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    B. Nooteboom (Bart)

    2004-01-01

    textabstractThis chapter offers a theory and method for the analysis of the dynamics, i.e. the development, of clusters for innovation. It employs an analysis of three types of embedding: institutional embedding, which is often localized, structural embedding (network structure), and relational

  11. Finding local communities in protein networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voevodski, Konstantin; Teng, Shang-Hua; Xia, Yu

    2009-09-18

    Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play fundamental roles in nearly all biological processes, and provide major insights into the inner workings of cells. A vast amount of PPI data for various organisms is available from BioGRID and other sources. The identification of communities in PPI networks is of great interest because they often reveal previously unknown functional ties between proteins. A large number of global clustering algorithms have been applied to protein networks, where the entire network is partitioned into clusters. Here we take a different approach by looking for local communities in PPI networks. We develop a tool, named Local Protein Community Finder, which quickly finds a community close to a queried protein in any network available from BioGRID or specified by the user. Our tool uses two new local clustering algorithms Nibble and PageRank-Nibble, which look for a good cluster among the most popular destinations of a short random walk from the queried vertex. The quality of a cluster is determined by proportion of outgoing edges, known as conductance, which is a relative measure particularly useful in undersampled networks. We show that the two local clustering algorithms find communities that not only form excellent clusters, but are also likely to be biologically relevant functional components. We compare the performance of Nibble and PageRank-Nibble to other popular and effective graph partitioning algorithms, and show that they find better clusters in the graph. Moreover, Nibble and PageRank-Nibble find communities that are more functionally coherent. The Local Protein Community Finder, accessible at http://xialab.bu.edu/resources/lpcf, allows the user to quickly find a high-quality community close to a queried protein in any network available from BioGRID or specified by the user. We show that the communities found by our tool form good clusters and are functionally coherent, making our application useful for biologists who wish to

  12. Finding local communities in protein networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teng Shang-Hua

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Protein-protein interactions (PPIs play fundamental roles in nearly all biological processes, and provide major insights into the inner workings of cells. A vast amount of PPI data for various organisms is available from BioGRID and other sources. The identification of communities in PPI networks is of great interest because they often reveal previously unknown functional ties between proteins. A large number of global clustering algorithms have been applied to protein networks, where the entire network is partitioned into clusters. Here we take a different approach by looking for local communities in PPI networks. Results We develop a tool, named Local Protein Community Finder, which quickly finds a community close to a queried protein in any network available from BioGRID or specified by the user. Our tool uses two new local clustering algorithms Nibble and PageRank-Nibble, which look for a good cluster among the most popular destinations of a short random walk from the queried vertex. The quality of a cluster is determined by proportion of outgoing edges, known as conductance, which is a relative measure particularly useful in undersampled networks. We show that the two local clustering algorithms find communities that not only form excellent clusters, but are also likely to be biologically relevant functional components. We compare the performance of Nibble and PageRank-Nibble to other popular and effective graph partitioning algorithms, and show that they find better clusters in the graph. Moreover, Nibble and PageRank-Nibble find communities that are more functionally coherent. Conclusion The Local Protein Community Finder, accessible at http://xialab.bu.edu/resources/lpcf, allows the user to quickly find a high-quality community close to a queried protein in any network available from BioGRID or specified by the user. We show that the communities found by our tool form good clusters and are functionally coherent

  13. Virtual communities as educational potential of collaborative learning through ICT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M.ª Ángeles REBOLLO CATALÁN

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents some results of an educational innovation based on the use of ICT as a learning environment. The main aim of this study is to describe an experience based collaborative learning in virtual communities of learning and reciprocal teaching and assessing students’ knowledge. For that, we design an educational proposal with three didactic units, which includes a kit of tasks and resources for learning. This study adopts a quantitative and qualitative methodology, applying attitudes scales, interviews and analysis of messages from online discussion forums. The study involved 56 students in first year of Pedagogy. We apply a Likert scale and a semantic differential about the learning experience and the methodology used. Also we conducted semi-structured group interviews to understand the perceptions and students’ evaluations about the methodology. The results show a very positive assessment about the learning experience and the methodology used. Peer interaction is focused on resolving technical queries, although there are also other forms of collaboration focused on joint interpretation and understanding of learning activities and assessment of the learning process. The results show that the intervention centers on teacher feedback and monitoring of learning tasks, reinforcing positive actions of the students and guiding the learning process. Finally, as to the benefits received by students, the results show that not only is development of social and communication skills, but also conceptual and emotional changes related to the subject.

  14. Learning from lives together: medical and social work students' experiences of learning from people with disabilities in the community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, E S; Smith, R; Thorpe, L N

    2010-05-01

    The study aims to evaluate an interprofessional community-based learning event, focussing on disability. The learning opportunity was based on the Leicester Model of Interprofessional Education, organised around the experiences and perceptions of service users and their carers. Programme participants were drawn from medicine and social work education in Leicester, UK, bringing together diverse traditions in the care of people with disabilities. Small student groups (3-4 students) worked from one of the eight community rehabilitation hospitals through a programme of contact with people with disabilities in hospital, at home or in other community settings. The evaluation, in March 2005, used a mixed methods approach, incorporating questionnaire surveys, focus group interviews with students and feedback from service users. Responses were collated and analysed using quantitative and qualitative measures. Fifty social work and 100 medical students completed the first combined delivery of the module. The findings indicated that the merging of social work and medical perspectives appear to create some tensions, although overall the student experience was found to be beneficial. Service users (16 responses) valued the process. They were not concerned at the prospect of meeting a number of students at home or elsewhere and were pleased to think of themselves as educators. Problems and obstacles still anticipated include changing the mindset of clinicians and practising social workers to enable them to support students from each other's disciplines in practice learning. The generally positive outcomes highlight that disability focussed joint learning offers a meaningful platform for interprofessional education in a practice environment.

  15. Student nurses' experiences of community-based practice placement learning: a qualitative exploration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baglin, M R; Rugg, Sue

    2010-05-01

    United Kingdom (UK) health policy has adopted an increasing community and primary care focus over recent years (Department of Health, 1997; Department of Health, 1999. Making a Difference: Strengthening the Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visitor Contribution to Health and Health Care. Department of Health, London; Department of Health, 2004. The NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (NHS KSF). Department of Health, London). Nursing practice, education and workforce planning are called upon to adapt accordingly (Department of Health, 2004. The NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (NHS KSF). Department of Health, London; Kenyon, V., Smith, E., Hefty, L., Bell, M., Martaus, T., 1990. Clinical competencies for community health nursing. Public Health Nursing 7(1), 33-39; United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting, 1986. Project 2000: A New Preparation for Practice. UKCC, London). Such changes have major implications for pre-registration nursing education, including its practice placement element. From an educational perspective, the need for increased community nursing capacity must be balanced with adequate support for student nurses' learning needs during community-based placements. This qualitative study explored six second year student nurses' experiences of 12 week community-based practice placements and the extent to which these placements were seen to meet their perceived learning needs. The data came from contemporaneous reflective diaries, completed by participants to reflect their 'lived experience' during their practice placements (Landeen, J., Byrne, Brown, B., 1995. Exploring the lived experiences of psychiatric nursing students through self-reflective journals. Journal of Advanced Nursing 21(5), 878-885; Kok, J., Chabeli, M.M., 2002. Reflective journal writing: how it promotes reflective thinking in clinical nursing education: a students' perspective. Curationis 25(3), 35-42; Löfmark, A., Wikblad, K., 2001. Facilitating and

  16. The Negative Impact of Community Stressors on Learning Time: Examining Inequalities between California High Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mirra, Nicole; Rogers, John

    2015-01-01

    Allocated classroom time is not the same as time available for learning--a host of economic and social stressors undermine learning time in schools serving low-income students. When time is limited, it is hard to meet rigorous learning standards. The challenge is compounded in high-poverty schools where community stressors place additional demands…

  17. Interdisciplinary Connections and Academic Performance in Psychology-English Learning Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grose-Fifer, Jillian; Helmer, Kimberly A.; Zottoli, Tina M.

    2014-01-01

    We investigated whether students in psychology-based learning communities (LCs; i.e., cohorts who took introductory psychology and English together) performed better on psychology tests than those in standard classes. There were two types of LC; in one (connected LC), we created links between English and psychology by using English class readings…

  18. A Cohort-based Learning Community Enhances Academic Success and Satisfaction with University Experience for First-Year Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Corey A. Goldman

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Assessment of a successful cohort-based learning communities program for first-year undergraduate students shows that students in the program perform better academically and also report a higher level of satisfaction with their university experience than students who are not in the program. Students enrolled in arts and science at the University of Toronto, who take several large-enrolment courses in their first year, may optionally participate in the First-Year Learning Communities (FLC program, designed to assist with the academic and social transition from high school to university. In this Freshman Interest Group model of learning community, the curriculum across the clustered courses is not linked. The FLC program was assessed over a five-year period, using student academic records and self-reported survey data. This paper also provides details on program design and implementation.L’évaluation d’un programme de communautés d’apprentissage fondées sur les cohortes pour les étudiants de première année du premier cycle qui a obtenu du succès montre que ceux qui sont inscrits à ce programme ont de meilleurs résultats scolaires et sont plus satisfaits de leur expérience universitaire que les autres. Les étudiants inscrits en arts et sciences à l’Université de Toronto, qui suivent plusieurs cours de première année où il y a de nombreux inscrits, peuvent participer au programme de communautés d’apprentissage la première année (CAPA qui vise à les aider à effectuer la transition entre l’école secondaire et l’université sur le plan scolaire et social. Dans ce modèle de communautés d’apprentissage destiné au groupe d’intérêts particuliers des étudiants de première année, il n’y a pas de lien entre les programmes d’études des participants. Les chercheurs ont évalué le programme pendant cinq ans à partir des dossiers scolaires des étudiants et des données d’un sondage réalisé auprès d

  19. A Distributed Algorithm for the Cluster-Based Outlier Detection Using Unsupervised Extreme Learning Machines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xite Wang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Outlier detection is an important data mining task, whose target is to find the abnormal or atypical objects from a given dataset. The techniques for detecting outliers have a lot of applications, such as credit card fraud detection and environment monitoring. Our previous work proposed the Cluster-Based (CB outlier and gave a centralized method using unsupervised extreme learning machines to compute CB outliers. In this paper, we propose a new distributed algorithm for the CB outlier detection (DACB. On the master node, we collect a small number of points from the slave nodes to obtain a threshold. On each slave node, we design a new filtering method that can use the threshold to efficiently speed up the computation. Furthermore, we also propose a ranking method to optimize the order of cluster scanning. At last, the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approaches are verified through a plenty of simulation experiments.

  20. Knowledge Sharing, Communities of Practice, and Learning Asset Integration - DAU's Major Initiatives

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Hickok, John

    2005-01-01

    The concepts of Knowledge Management (KM) and knowledge communities have matured over the past decade and are being recognized as major enablers for personal learning and job performance in achieving organizational business objectives...

  1. Managing Dynamics of Power and Learning in Community Development: A Case Study of Iowan Farmers in Uganda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephen, Lauer; Owusu, Francis Y.

    2015-01-01

    Extension professionals facilitate community development through the strategic manipulation of learning and power in peer-to-peer learning partnerships. We discuss the relationship between empowerment and power, highlight relevant literature on the difficulties power presents to learning and the efficacy of service learning tools to facilitate…

  2. Semi-supervised Probabilistic Distance Clustering and the Uncertainty of Classification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iyigun, Cem; Ben-Israel, Adi

    Semi-supervised clustering is an attempt to reconcile clustering (unsupervised learning) and classification (supervised learning, using prior information on the data). These two modes of data analysis are combined in a parameterized model, the parameter θ ∈ [0, 1] is the weight attributed to the prior information, θ = 0 corresponding to clustering, and θ = 1 to classification. The results (cluster centers, classification rule) depend on the parameter θ, an insensitivity to θ indicates that the prior information is in agreement with the intrinsic cluster structure, and is otherwise redundant. This explains why some data sets (such as the Wisconsin breast cancer data, Merz and Murphy, UCI repository of machine learning databases, University of California, Irvine, CA) give good results for all reasonable classification methods. The uncertainty of classification is represented here by the geometric mean of the membership probabilities, shown to be an entropic distance related to the Kullback-Leibler divergence.

  3. Evaluating a virtual learning environment in the context of its community of practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachel Ellaway

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available The evaluation of virtual learning environments (VLEs and similar applications has, to date, largely consisted of checklists of system features, phenomenological studies or measures of specific forms of educational efficacy. Although these approaches offer some value, they are unable to capture the complex and holistic nature of a group of individuals using a common system to support the wide range of activities that make up a course or programme of study over time. This paper employs Wenger's theories of ‘communities of practice' to provide a formal structure for looking at how a VLE supports a pre-existing course community. Wenger proposes a Learning Architecture Framework for a learning community of practice, which the authors have taken to provide an evaluation framework. This approach is complementary to both the holistic and complex natures of course environments, in that particular VLE affordances are less important than the activities of the course community in respect of the system. Thus, the VLE's efficacy in its context of use is the prime area of investigation rather than a reductionist analysis of its tools and components. An example of this approach in use is presented, evaluating the VLE that supports the undergraduate medical course at the University of Edinburgh. The paper provides a theoretical grounding, derives an evaluation instrument, analyses the efficacy and validity of the instrument in practice and draws conclusions as to how and where it may best be used.

  4. TU-F-BRF-06: 3D Pancreas MRI Segmentation Using Dictionary Learning and Manifold Clustering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gou, S; Rapacchi, S; Hu, P; Sheng, K

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: The recent advent of MRI guided radiotherapy machines has lent an exciting platform for soft tissue target localization during treatment. However, tools to efficiently utilize MRI images for such purpose have not been developed. Specifically, to efficiently quantify the organ motion, we develop an automated segmentation method using dictionary learning and manifold clustering (DLMC). Methods: Fast 3D HASTE and VIBE MR images of 2 healthy volunteers and 3 patients were acquired. A bounding box was defined to include pancreas and surrounding normal organs including the liver, duodenum and stomach. The first slice of the MRI was used for dictionary learning based on mean-shift clustering and K-SVD sparse representation. Subsequent images were iteratively reconstructed until the error is less than a preset threshold. The preliminarily segmentation was subject to the constraints of manifold clustering. The segmentation results were compared with the mean shift merging (MSM), level set (LS) and manual segmentation methods. Results: DLMC resulted in consistently higher accuracy and robustness than comparing methods. Using manual contours as the ground truth, the mean Dices indices for all subjects are 0.54, 0.56 and 0.67 for MSM, LS and DLMC, respectively based on the HASTE image. The mean Dices indices are 0.70, 0.77 and 0.79 for the three methods based on VIBE images. DLMC is clearly more robust on the patients with the diseased pancreas while LS and MSM tend to over-segment the pancreas. DLMC also achieved higher sensitivity (0.80) and specificity (0.99) combining both imaging techniques. LS achieved equivalent sensitivity on VIBE images but was more computationally inefficient. Conclusion: We showed that pancreas and surrounding normal organs can be reliably segmented based on fast MRI using DLMC. This method will facilitate both planning volume definition and imaging guidance during treatment

  5. TU-F-BRF-06: 3D Pancreas MRI Segmentation Using Dictionary Learning and Manifold Clustering

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gou, S; Rapacchi, S; Hu, P; Sheng, K [UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

    2014-06-15

    Purpose: The recent advent of MRI guided radiotherapy machines has lent an exciting platform for soft tissue target localization during treatment. However, tools to efficiently utilize MRI images for such purpose have not been developed. Specifically, to efficiently quantify the organ motion, we develop an automated segmentation method using dictionary learning and manifold clustering (DLMC). Methods: Fast 3D HASTE and VIBE MR images of 2 healthy volunteers and 3 patients were acquired. A bounding box was defined to include pancreas and surrounding normal organs including the liver, duodenum and stomach. The first slice of the MRI was used for dictionary learning based on mean-shift clustering and K-SVD sparse representation. Subsequent images were iteratively reconstructed until the error is less than a preset threshold. The preliminarily segmentation was subject to the constraints of manifold clustering. The segmentation results were compared with the mean shift merging (MSM), level set (LS) and manual segmentation methods. Results: DLMC resulted in consistently higher accuracy and robustness than comparing methods. Using manual contours as the ground truth, the mean Dices indices for all subjects are 0.54, 0.56 and 0.67 for MSM, LS and DLMC, respectively based on the HASTE image. The mean Dices indices are 0.70, 0.77 and 0.79 for the three methods based on VIBE images. DLMC is clearly more robust on the patients with the diseased pancreas while LS and MSM tend to over-segment the pancreas. DLMC also achieved higher sensitivity (0.80) and specificity (0.99) combining both imaging techniques. LS achieved equivalent sensitivity on VIBE images but was more computationally inefficient. Conclusion: We showed that pancreas and surrounding normal organs can be reliably segmented based on fast MRI using DLMC. This method will facilitate both planning volume definition and imaging guidance during treatment.

  6. Exploring the Use of Electronic Mobile Technologies among Distance Learners in Rural Communities for Safe and Disruptive Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ntloedibe-Kuswani, Gomang Seratwa

    2013-01-01

    Several studies indicated the potential of electronic mobile technologies in reaching (safe learning) under-served communities and engaging (disruptive learning) disadvantaged peoples affording them learning experiences. However, the potential benefits of (electronic mobile learning) e-mobile learning have not been well understood from the…

  7. Facilitating Cluster Evolution in Peripheral Regions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christensen, Jesper Lindgaard; Störring, Dagmara

    2010-01-01

    This paper discusses the feasibility and dilemmas in stimulating high-tech clusters in peripheral regions. In recent years innovation and cluster policy to a large extend has been focused upon stimulating collective learning processes and building social capital. This has in turn accentuated a ne...

  8. A community-based cluster randomised trial of safe storage to reduce pesticide self-poisoning in rural Sri Lanka

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pearson, Melissa; Konradsen, Flemming; Gunnell, David

    2011-01-01

    . One approach to reducing access to pesticides is for households to store pesticides in lockable "safe-storage" containers. However, before this approach can be promoted, evidence is required on its effectiveness and safety. Methods/Design A community-based cluster randomised controlled trial has been...... at the 5% significance level. Secondary outcomes will include the incidence of all pesticide poisoning and total self-harm. Discussion This paper describes a large effectiveness study of a community intervention to reduce the burden of intentional poisoning in rural Sri Lanka. The study builds on a strong...... partnership between provincial health services, local and international researchers, and local communities. We discuss issues in relation to randomisation and contamination, engaging control villages, the intervention, and strategies to improve adherence. Trial Registritation The trial is registered...

  9. Lessons Learned From Community-Based Approaches to Sodium Reduction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Heather; Strazza, Karen; Losby PhD, Jan L.; Lane, Rashon; Mugavero, Kristy; Anater, Andrea S.; Frost, Corey; Margolis, Marjorie; Hersey, James

    2017-01-01

    Purpose This article describes lessons from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initiative encompassing sodium reduction interventions in six communities. Design A multiple case study design was used. Setting This evaluation examined data from programs implemented in six communities located in New York (Broome County, Schenectady County, and New York City); California (Los Angeles County and Shasta County); and Kansas (Shawnee County). Subjects Participants (n = 80) included program staff, program directors, state-level staff, and partners. Measures Measures for this evaluation included challenges, facilitators, and lessons learned from implementing sodium reduction strategies. Analysis The project team conducted a document review of program materials and semi structured interviews 12 to 14 months after implementation. The team coded and analyzed data deductively and inductively. Results Five lessons for implementing community-based sodium reduction approaches emerged: (1) build relationships with partners to understand their concerns, (2) involve individuals knowledgeable about specific venues early, (3) incorporate sodium reduction efforts and messaging into broader nutrition efforts, (4) design the program to reduce sodium gradually to take into account consumer preferences and taste transitions, and (5) identify ways to address the cost of lower-sodium products. Conclusion The experiences of the six communities may assist practitioners in planning community-based sodium reduction interventions. Addressing sodium reduction using a community-based approach can foster meaningful change in dietary sodium consumption. PMID:24575726

  10. Lifelong Learning Experience and Level of Social Exclusion or Inclusion of Asian Communities Living in Denmark and the United Kingdom

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Singla, Rashmi; Klein, Sonia; Panesar, Jasbir

    2005-01-01

    This article reflects the situation of Asian communities in Denmark and the United Kingdom which is influenced by global trends, the patterns of differing learning they participate in which are influenced by the concept of LifeLong Learning within each country, educational opportunities, socio......-economic positions of this target group and entrepreneurship activities taking place. Global trends influence disadvantaged learners level of participation in learning within Europe. The Asian communities in Denmark and the United Kingdom, despite the differences in migration period, have made the decision to live......, including Asian communities, have been negatively affected in the recent years due to the increased political restrictions and media coverage. In comparison, despite the recent immigration policies in the UK, many members of the Asian communities have embraced the opportunities LifeLong Learning has...

  11. The Art and Science of Leadership in Learning Environments: Facilitating a Professional Learning Community across Districts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hands, Catherine; Guzar, Katlyn; Rodrigue, Anne

    2015-01-01

    A professional learning community (PLC) is one of the most promising strategies for effecting change in educational practices to improve academic achievement and wellbeing for all students. The PLC facilitator's role in developing and leading blended (online and face-to-face) PLCs with members from Ontario's school districts was examined through a…

  12. Learning in/through Everyday Resistance: A Cultural-Historical Perspective on Community Resources and Curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pacheco, Mariana

    2012-01-01

    This essay addresses the value of leveraging the unique learning, thinking, and knowledge students develop in home-community spaces for school curriculum. The author explores "everyday resistance" to highlight a particular set of enacted political actions and practices in which students, families, and communities participate to negotiate the…

  13. "The Next Level": Investigating Teaching and Learning within an Irish Traditional Music Online Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kenny, Ailbhe

    2013-01-01

    Online music communities offer a new context and culture for musical participation globally. This article, employing a socio-cultural theoretical lens, examines how the Online Academy of Irish Music (OAIM) functions as a teaching and learning online community for Irish traditional music. Findings from qualitative case study research present…

  14. Beyond Low-Rank Representations: Orthogonal clustering basis reconstruction with optimized graph structure for multi-view spectral clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yang; Wu, Lin

    2018-07-01

    Low-Rank Representation (LRR) is arguably one of the most powerful paradigms for Multi-view spectral clustering, which elegantly encodes the multi-view local graph/manifold structures into an intrinsic low-rank self-expressive data similarity embedded in high-dimensional space, to yield a better graph partition than their single-view counterparts. In this paper we revisit it with a fundamentally different perspective by discovering LRR as essentially a latent clustered orthogonal projection based representation winged with an optimized local graph structure for spectral clustering; each column of the representation is fundamentally a cluster basis orthogonal to others to indicate its members, which intuitively projects the view-specific feature representation to be the one spanned by all orthogonal basis to characterize the cluster structures. Upon this finding, we propose our technique with the following: (1) We decompose LRR into latent clustered orthogonal representation via low-rank matrix factorization, to encode the more flexible cluster structures than LRR over primal data objects; (2) We convert the problem of LRR into that of simultaneously learning orthogonal clustered representation and optimized local graph structure for each view; (3) The learned orthogonal clustered representations and local graph structures enjoy the same magnitude for multi-view, so that the ideal multi-view consensus can be readily achieved. The experiments over multi-view datasets validate its superiority, especially over recent state-of-the-art LRR models. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Continuous Inquiry Meets Continued Critique: The Professional Learning Community in Practice and the Resistance of (Un)Willing Participants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elbousty, Youness; Bratt, Kirstin

    2010-01-01

    The term Professional Learning Community is commonplace, and it holds many meanings and suggestions. For the purpose of this essay, however, we discuss a specific Professional Learning Community (PLC) that was established in a high school, fifteen months prior to the application of a survey instrument to evaluate participants' perceptions on the…

  16. Reproducibility of Cognitive Profiles in Psychosis Using Cluster Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewandowski, Kathryn E; Baker, Justin T; McCarthy, Julie M; Norris, Lesley A; Öngür, Dost

    2018-04-01

    Cognitive dysfunction is a core symptom dimension that cuts across the psychoses. Recent findings support classification of patients along the cognitive dimension using cluster analysis; however, data-derived groupings may be highly determined by sampling characteristics and the measures used to derive the clusters, and so their interpretability must be established. We examined cognitive clusters in a cross-diagnostic sample of patients with psychosis and associations with clinical and functional outcomes. We then compared our findings to a previous report of cognitive clusters in a separate sample using a different cognitive battery. Participants with affective or non-affective psychosis (n=120) and healthy controls (n=31) were administered the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, and clinical and community functioning assessments. Cluster analyses were performed on cognitive variables, and clusters were compared on demographic, cognitive, and clinical measures. Results were compared to findings from our previous report. A four-cluster solution provided a good fit to the data; profiles included a neuropsychologically normal cluster, a globally impaired cluster, and two clusters of mixed profiles. Cognitive burden was associated with symptom severity and poorer community functioning. The patterns of cognitive performance by cluster were highly consistent with our previous findings. We found evidence of four cognitive subgroups of patients with psychosis, with cognitive profiles that map closely to those produced in our previous work. Clusters were associated with clinical and community variables and a measure of premorbid functioning, suggesting that they reflect meaningful groupings: replicable, and related to clinical presentation and functional outcomes. (JINS, 2018, 24, 382-390).

  17. Robust continuous clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shah, Sohil Atul; Koltun, Vladlen

    2017-09-12

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

  18. Team Learning: Through the Relational Dynamics of Co-operation and Rivalry in Team Communities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lotz, Maja

    2010-01-01

    This paper explores the constructive links between cooperation, rivalry, and learning within the structure of team communities. Drawing upon social learning theory and qualitative data from case studies conducted in Danish team-based firms, the main purpose is to argue that both cooperation and rivalry are important triggers for mobilizing…

  19. Writing-to-learn in undergraduate science education: a community-based, conceptually driven approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds, Julie A; Thaiss, Christopher; Katkin, Wendy; Thompson, Robert J

    2012-01-01

    Despite substantial evidence that writing can be an effective tool to promote student learning and engagement, writing-to-learn (WTL) practices are still not widely implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, particularly at research universities. Two major deterrents to progress are the lack of a community of science faculty committed to undertaking and applying the necessary pedagogical research, and the absence of a conceptual framework to systematically guide study designs and integrate findings. To address these issues, we undertook an initiative, supported by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the Reinvention Center, to build a community of WTL/STEM educators who would undertake a heuristic review of the literature and formulate a conceptual framework. In addition to generating a searchable database of empirically validated and promising WTL practices, our work lays the foundation for multi-university empirical studies of the effectiveness of WTL practices in advancing student learning and engagement.

  20. Formation of community-based hypertension practice networks: success, obstacles, and lessons learned.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dart, Richard A; Egan, Brent M

    2014-06-01

    Community-based practice networks for research and improving the quality of care are growing in size and number but have variable success rates. In this paper, the authors review recent efforts to initiate a community-based hypertension network modeled after the successful Outpatient Quality Improvement Network (O'QUIN) project, located at the Medical University of South Carolina. Key lessons learned and new directions to be explored are highlighted. ©2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.