The study of conceptual change in science education, specifically in the realm of physics, is not new, however, there is still much that is not well understood. Continuing with the trend of including characteristics of the learner in models of conceptual change, this study seeks to explore the role confidence plays in helping or hindering conceptual change. Current research on this topic has provided mixed conclusions. The concept of force is foundational for understanding most areas of physics, as well as other sciences. Students often lack correct understanding of this critical concept. It is important to separate students’ lack of knowledge about the topic from misconceptions, as each likely requires different types of intervention to correct. Pairing a concept inventory with a Certainty of Response Index (CRI) is one way of separating misconceptions from incomplete knowledge (Hasan, Bagayoko, & Kelley, 1999). In this study, students paired a series of multiple-choice questions about force and motion with a CRI. After each survey, students obtained feedback about correct answers followed by a discussion or a live demonstration designed to exemplify the concept in question. The study compared knowledge scores immediately after the intervention (posttest), as well as one month after the intervention (delayed posttest), between the two types of feedback (discussion and live demonstration). The results of this study support the argument to include confidence as one of the many learner characteristics that influence conceptual change. Additionally, students who viewed a demonstration had significantly greater gains in knowledge than students who participated in the discussion at posttest; however, the differences between the groups did not persist at delayed posttest. In examining CRI gain scores from pretest to delayed posttest, students who viewed a demonstration had significantly greater gains on items relating to Newton’s Third Law than the discussion group. The results taken collectively support the need to reexamine the order of the physics curriculum, particularly as it relates to Newton’s Laws. The findings suggest that Newton’s Third Law deserves much greater focus and potentially should be taught before Newton’s Second and First Laws, however, more research needs to be done to better understand the implications of such a change. / Math & Science Education

This dissertation presents an approach to robot programming by demonstration based on two key concepts: demonstrator intent is the most meaningful signal that the robot can observe, and the robot should have a basic level of behavioral competency from which to interpret observed actions. Intent is a teleological, robust teaching signal invariant to many common sources of noise in training. The robot can use the knowledge encapsulated in sensorimotor schemas to interpret the demonstration. Furthermore, knowledge gained in prior demonstrations can be applied to future sessions. I argue that programming by demonstration be organized into declarative and pro-cedural components. The declarative component represents a reusable outline of underlying behavior that can be applied to many different contexts. The procedural component represents the dynamic portion of the task that is based on features observed at run time. I describe how statistical models, and Bayesian methods in particular, can be used to model these components. These models have many features that are beneficial for learning in this domain, such as tolerance for uncertainty, and the ability to incorporate prior knowledge into inferences. I demonstrate this architecture through experiments on a bimanual humanoid robot using tasks from the pick and place domain. Additionally, I develop and experimentally validate a model for generating grasp candidates using visual features that is learned from demonstration data. This model is especially useful in the context of pick and place tasks.

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Superstitions flourish in cultures around the word and in everyday life. Superstitions are so prevalent and influence personal and political decisions, therefore, we sought to develop a classroom demonstration of superstitious behavior that could be used to show quickly and effectively how powerful adventitious reinforcement could be in modifying behavior. An online game was developed and played by one hundred thirteen university students enrolled in a class on critical thinking. Participants gained points (reinforcement) arbitrarily during either 25% or 50% of each game's (A or B) 3 minute duration. Although points were non-contingent, students often engaged in superstations rules or patterns. Results of both self-reports and computer generated data showed, the games were successful in producing superstitious behavior patterns in about 50% of our participants. More students showed superstitious behavior in the 50% game than in the 25% game. We conclude that this is due to the higher reinforcement rate of in 50% game. For future studies, rearranging the stimulus array into a pattern that does not itself strongly control behavior could help refine the results.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin, 1964. / Extension Repository Collection. Typescript (carbon copy). Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [89]-92).

Neste trabalho, buscamos propor atividades e relacionar ações que o professor de Matemática pode adotar durante as aulas, com o objetivo de propiciar a melhora do nível de argumentação e prova de seus alunos da Educação Básica. Inicialmente, pesquisamos sobre as definições de prova sob a ótica do ensino de Matemática, em que concluímos que o desenvolvimento de argumentações e provas é fundamental para que os objetivos dos PCN sejam alcançados. Com análise das avaliações do PISA, notamos que, em geral, os estudantes brasileiros possuem baixo desempenho em relação as habilidades que envolvem generalizações e desenvolvimento de provas. Na tentativa de propor melhorias a esse cenário, acreditamos que o desenvolvimento de provas na Educação Básica não deve se restringir as demonstrações aceitas pela comunidade matemática. Para isso, o professor deve conhecer e aceitar os diversos tipos de provas apresentados por seus alunos. Nesse ponto, a formação do professor de Matemática é essencial. Por fim, desenvolvemos atividades e aplicamos em uma sala do 9º ano do Ensino Fundamental, o que possibilitou, após as análises, que realizássemos conclusões sobre as características das atividades que propiciam o desenvolvimento de provas e ações que possibilitam a melhora do nível de argumentação de nossos estudantes. / In this study e seek to propose activities and to relate actions that the Mathematics teacher can adopt during the classes, seeking to improve the level of argument and proof of his students of Middle and High School. Initially, we investigated the definitions of proof from the point of view of mathematics teaching, in which we concluded that the development of arguments and proofs is fundamental for the goals of PCN been achieved. With the analysis of the PISA assessments, we noticed that, in general, Brazilian students have poor performance in relation to the skills that involve generalizations and the development of proofs. In an attempt to propose improvements to this scenario, we believe that the development of proofs in Middle and High School should not be restricted to the demonstrations accepted by the mathematical community. About that, the teacher must know and accept the different types of proofs presented by his students. At this point, the courses to the Mathematics teachers, preservice and inservice, are essential. Finally, we developed activities and applied in a class of 9th grade students, which made it possible, after the analysis, to make conclusions about the characteristics of the activities that help to the development of proofs and actions that allow the improvement of argumentations level of our students

Traditional methods for Learning from Demonstration require users to train the robot through the entire process, or to provide feedback throughout a given task. These previous methods have proved to be successful in a selection of robotic domains; however, many are limited by the ability of the user to effectively demonstrate the task. In many cases, noisy demonstrations or a failure to understand the underlying model prevent these methods from working with a wider range of non-expert users. My insight is that in many mobile pick-and-place domains, teaching is done at a too fine grained level. In many such tasks, users are solely concerned with the end goal. This implies that the complexity and time associated with training and teaching robots through the entirety of the task is unnecessary. The robotic agent needs to know (1) a probable search location to retrieve the task's objects and (2) how to arrange the items to complete the task. This thesis work develops new techniques for obtaining such data from high-level spatial and temporal observations and demonstrations which can later be applied in new, unseen environments. This thesis makes the following contributions: (1) This work is built on a crowd robotics platform and, as such, we contribute the development of efficient data streaming techniques to further these capabilities. By doing so, users can more easily interact with robots on a number of platforms. (2) The presentation of new algorithms that can learn pick-and-place tasks from a large corpus of goal templates. My work contributes algorithms that produce a metric which ranks the appropriate frame of reference for each item based solely on spatial demonstrations. (3) An algorithm which can enhance the above templates with ordering constraints using coarse and noisy temporal information. Such a method eliminates the need for a user to explicitly specify such constraints and searches for an optimal ordering and placement of items. (4) A novel algorithm which is able to learn probable search locations of objects based solely on sparsely made temporal observations. For this, we introduce persistence models of objects customized to a user's environment.

While many educators suggest active, rather than passive learning, this is not always the best solution, especially when learners are novices. Sweller and Cooper found learners who passively studied worked examples were significantly more efficient than those who actively solved problems (Cooper & Sweller, 1987; Sweller & Cooper, 1985) later described as the "worked-example effect" (Sweller & Chandler, 1991). The current study tested the claims of Lewis (2005) who suggested animated demonstrations act as worked examples. It compared the performance of groups of preservice teachers who: studied animated demonstrations (demo); studied animated demonstrations and practiced procedures (demo+practice & demo2+practice), or practiced procedures (practice). Two MANOVAs were used to compare group performance. During week one, it was hypothesized that the demonstration learners would out-perform those in the practice condition given performance time and accuracy. It was found that there was a significant difference between groups, Wilks’ Λ=0.68, F (2, 68) = 6.83, p <0.0001, η 2 =0.32. Post hoc comparisons with Scheffé’s test (p<0.025) revealed that the demonstration groups (demo+practice and demo2+practice groups) assembled the problem, in significantly less time than the practice group, which is positive evidence for the worked-example effect (Sweller & Chandler, 1991) given animated demonstrations. During week two, a similar MANOVA revealed no differences between groups. While this study considered learner performance from a human computer interaction (HCI) perspective, it also considered learners from a cognitive load perspective, by measuring relative condition efficiency (Paas & van Merriënboer, 1993). In addition, it developed a new measure called performance efficiency. During week one, the demonstration conditions were found to be significantly different F (2, 68) = 3.69, p =0.03, given relative condition efficiency. This is positive evidence of the variability effect. However in post hoc comparisons these instructional conditions were not found to differ. Performance efficiency was found to be significantly different, during week one, F (2, 68) = 12.95, p<0.0001, and post hoc comparisons with Scheffé’s test (p<0.05) revealed the demonstration learners were significantly more efficient, than the practice learners. During week two, groups were not significantly different, so once learners had practiced procedures, they performed equally well.

This test demonstration was intended to develop a modern management program to improve broiler production in Nigeria through extension teaching methodology. The management programs included animal health, nutrition, and general care. Some of the factors that limit broiler production in Nigeria are associated with the management strategy presently adopted by Nigerian subsistence farmers. This report considers the effect of different protein sources on broiler nutrition and the techniques necessary to get the farmers to practice the result of up-to-date research findings. The extension teaching demonstration reported here is based on 60 day-old chicks. Chicks were randomly assigned to two pens, Pen A and Pen B at the Utah State University poultry farm. Pen A had 40 chicks and Pen B had 20 chicks. Chicks in Pen A received Diet #1 (corn-cottonseed meal). Chicks were weighed weekly starting on July 2, 1983 which was the third week of the demonstration. The difference between the weekly weight gain was obvious. Birds fed corn-soybean diet were superior to those fed corn-cottonseed meal diet. The birds in Pen A were marketable at eight weeks whereas those in Pen B were not marketable at the same chronological age. A field day was conducted at the poultry farm to report the results of the demonstration.