Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. Linköping : Univ., 2002.

The focus of this study is the development of an e-learning training package for the academic staff in King Faisal University (KFU) in Saudi Arabia. Evidence suggests that there is a lack of training for academic staff in Saudi Higher Education on how to integrate e-learning in their teaching. Despite this, very little attention is paid in the research literature to the design and evaluation of e-learning training. There is no clarity therefore about what constitutes effective e-learning training in higher education. This study aimed to design, implement and evaluate a training package for the academic staff. The study was conducted in two phases: 1) identifying the e-learning training needs and preferences of the academic staff in KFU; 2) designing, implementing and assessing a training package based on identified needs and preferences, e-learning training literature and common learning theories in the field. The study was qualitative. In phase one, 69 questionnaires and 17 interviews were analysed. The survey findings showed that the academic staff do suffer from the lack of training. Furthermore, the data showed a disagreement with the existing literature about the factors that limit the academic staff’s use of e-learning. The academic staff’s preferences for their future e-learning training were also determined and used to inform the design of the training package. Key design features of the training package included: covering both technical and pedagogical aspects of Blackboard; using blended delivery and using both cognitive constructivism and social constructivism to underpin its pedagogy. Evaluation data collected from a range of sources suggest that the academic staff responded well to the design features of the training package and that the training had a positive influence on their practice. The study has proposed a model for the design and evaluation of e-learning training in higher education that based on five generic criteria including ownership, intersubjectivity, contextualisation, transformational potential and evidence based.

Durante o processo de ensino-aprendizagem-treinamento (EAT), o treinador tem o papel de planejar e conduzir as atividades, principalmente no início dessa prática. No Brasil, para que se exerça essa função deve-se obrigatoriamente concluir a formação acadêmica. Especificamente no handebol enfatiza-se as vivências como atleta e profissional na atuação dos treinadores. Ainda notam-se poucos incentivos na formação desses por parte dos órgãos que regulamentam a modalidade esportiva no país, fazendo com que busque-se conhecimentos de forma particular e isolada, os quais podem não condizer com a realidade de seus ambientes profissionais. Com isso este estudo buscou compreender a atuação dos treinadores das categorias de base de handebol no Brasil, o que eles esperam de seus jogadores diante diferentes contextos e de como ensinam. Para isso realizou-se uma revisão sistemática acerca da temática, seguida da entrevista com treinadores das diferentes categorias de base do handebol no estado de São Paulo. Na tabulação e interpretação dos dados foi utilizado o método do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo (DSC). Na revisão sistemática identificou-se a necessidade de pesquisas que visem compreender a atuação dos treinadores do handebol brasileiro, principalmente nas categorias de base, uma vez que os trabalhos encontrados são predominantemente originários dos países europeus e/ou com treinadores experiente e que realizam seu trabalho com equipes adultas. Quanto à atuação dos treinadores de handebol nas categorias de base observou-se que os conteúdos exigidos pelos treinadores quando trabalhando suas equipes na fase defensiva e na fase ofensiva leva em consideração o processo maturacional e o tempo de vivência no handebol, porém ao analisarmos como são ensinados os conteúdos esperados, os discursos expressaram que o trabalho realizado pauta-se no ensino exclusivo de conteúdos específicos do handebol, o que não corresponde às demandas apresentadas em cada faixa etária, principalmente nas mais jovens. Conclui-se que no trabalho com as categorias de base do estado de São Paulo preocupa-se com a especificação da prática ao invés de diversificação, o que contrapõe os apontamentos feitos pela literatura de que esse tipo de treinamento pode levar os jogadores a praticarem o handebol de forma específica, existindo a possibilidade de conduzir os praticantes à especialização esportiva precoce. / In the Teaching-Learning-Training (TLT) process, coaches must plan and conduct the activities, mainly in the beginning of this practice. In Brazil, it is mandatory to complete the academic formation in order to perform this function. Specifically in handball it is reported that the athlete and professional experiences takes an important role in their professional activities. It is also noted that the Federations and Confederations do not help the coaches in their professional formation, making them seek for knowledge in a particular and isolated way, which may not match with their professional needs. This study look for understanding the youth teams coaches\' performance, what they expect of their players against some scenarios and how they teach those. For this, a systematic review about the theme has been made, followed by an interview with the Sao Paulo state youth team coaches. For the data tabulation and interpretation, it was used the Collective Subject Discourse (CSD). In the systematic review has been identified that there is a need for more research with to aim of understanding the coaches performance, mainly with the youth teams coaches, once that the publications about the theme are mostly from european countries and/or with experienced adult teams coaches. Concerning the youth teams coaches performance it was observed that they takes into account the maturational process and the handball experience time as they work their teams in the offensive and defensive phases, but if we analyze the way that they teach it, the discourses express that the activities are based on teaching many specific tasks, which do not correspond to the age needs, mainly in the youngers. It is concluded that Sao Paulo state youth teams work is concerned with the practice specification instead of the diversification, contrasting the literature appointments which says that this type of training may lead the players to a specific way of practice and conduct them to an early sports specialization.

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of cooperative learning method and individualistic learning method on learning outcomes and training reactions of adults participating an in-service training course. The study was conducted with 42 adults in pilot study and 92 in main study conducted in a government bank. Subjects were randomly assigned to two pilot study groups and four main study groups. Two different training programs were developed, one for individualistic learning, and the other for cooperative learning in order to test the effect of each method on learning outcomes and training reactions. The content and length of the training programs taught were held constant, and duration of training was totally 15 hours (3 hours in each of the five days). Participants, in all groups, learned the same topic of &ldquo / Structured On-the-Job Training&rdquo / and were taught by the same trainer. Cooperative learning groups worked on the exercises structured with the five basic elements of cooperative learning, and the individualistic learning groups worked as individually with the instructor calling on participants at random. Learning Outcomes Tests were administered at the end of each day to measure cognitive learning outcomes, which learners attained during the Training. Training Reactions Questionnaire was administered at the end of the Training. A significant difference between the cooperative learning group and the individualistic learning group was examined concerning learning outcomes as a result of ANCOVA by using the age as covariate. Subjects in the cooperative learning group had a significantly higher level of Learning Outcomes Test score than did those in the individualistic learning group. However, there was no significant difference between the cooperative learning groups and individualistic learning groups based on their training reactions. This study indicated that cooperative learning appears to be a method of instruction that is well suited to the needs of adult learners. Subjects of the study learned more through the cooperative learning method than individualistic learning method that was used. They responded to training as much positive as their counterparts learning in individualistic learning group. Results of the study suggest that structuring positive social interdependence in the classroom through cooperative learning procedures can be used effectively within adult education and specifically training settings.

Individuals and organisations need to do much more if sustainable development is to be achieved. Appropriate environmental vocational education and training (EVET) is essential for current decision makers. Crucial decisions need to be made before the present generation of school and college students achieve significant positions of authority. An increasing range of EVET courses and course providers are available within the UK. However, availability is not synonymous with suitability for either the attendee and/or his/her (future) employer. Previous research indicates that, as a component of lifelong learning, EVET courses should and the methods used to evaluate them should be student-centred. This thesis describes the development and validation of a new studentcentred evaluation framework. Preliminary literature reviews identified six fundamental issues which needed to be addressed. Existing academically productive evaluation models were examined and critically appraised in the context of these problems. The output from this process was used to develop a bespoke research methodology. Empirical research on four commercial EVET programmes revealed distinct personal, teaching and work-based presage factors which influenced course attendance, individual learning and subsequent organisational learning. Modified versions of Biggs¿ 3P model and Kirkpatrick¿s Four level Evaluation Model were shown to provide an effective student-centred evaluation framework for EVET courses. Additional critical elements pertaining course utility and the student¿s long(er) term ii retention of knowledge/skill were derived from previous research by Alliger et al (1997). Work-based presage factors and the student¿s return on expectation were added as a direct consequence of this research. The resultant new framework, the Presage-Product Evaluation Framework, was positively received during an independent validation. This confirmed inter alia that the framework should also be capable of adaption for use with other VET courses. Recommendations for additional research focus on the need to demonstrate this through further empirical studies.

Thesis (M.T.S.C.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 31).

Cette recherche porte sur l’étude des spécificités liées à l’apprentissage, dans un contexte interculturel. Elle se situe à l’intersection des réflexions menées sur les champs conceptuels traitant du lexique mental de l’adolescent et de l’existence de deux grandes orientations cognitives, en liaison avec la culture locale et la culture scolaire en lycée professionnel à La Réunion. Le contexte de cette étude réside dans le constat que les apprenants activeraient préférentiellement un certain type de logique selon les contextes d’enculturation. Il existe deux systèmes de développement parallèles. L’un conditionne l’autre en fonction de sa localisation. Ainsi, il y aurait une relation entre les codes linguistiques utilisés et les performances scolaires. Deux groupes d’adolescents, scolarisés dans un lycée professionnel au Nord de l’île acceptent de se soumettre aux tests. Ce panel de données est en nombre suffisant pour décrire et observer le comportement et les relations existantes au sein de notre population. Un certain nombre d’épreuves proviennent des évaluations de l’Éducation Nationale (ce2) et (6e). Pour compléter notre étude, nous comparons celles-ci avec les épreuves de Jean Piaget et des épreuves du Binet-Simon. Les résultats montrent des différences interculturelles. Ils suggèrent une perte des performances d’environ 40 % entre le niveau ce2 et l’entrée en 6e. Moins de 1 élève sur 2 réussit les épreuves de fin de primaire. Les épreuves tirées des différentes théories (Jean Piaget et Binet-Simon) sont significatives et indiquent un âge cognitif de 9-10 ans concernant la population étudiée. / This research work is about the specific characteristics linked to learning in a multicultural context. It takes place at the crossroads between reflections on the conceptual fields dealing with the teenagers’ mental lexis and the two great existing cognitive orientations, in relation with local culture in vocational schools in Reunion Island. The context of this study lies in observing that learners might preferentially activate a certain kind of logic: whether it be an abstract logic or a natural logic depending on the contexts of integration. There exist two systems of development, which are parallel. One conditions the other according to its localization. Thus, there might be a relation between the linguistic codes used on the island and the learners’ performances at school. Two groups of teenagers attending the same vocational school in the island agreed to submit themselves to a battery of tests. This sample of data stands as numerically sufficient to describe and observe behavior and existing relations inside our population. Concerning of tests, were taken in the assessment-diagnosis implemented by the French Ministry of Education – their levels are: entering the consolidation of knowledge and the end of them. Then some Piaget’s evaluations as well as evaluations Binet-Simon were used. They suggest a loss in performance of around 40% between the level of the second year of primary school and the level at entering the first of secondary school. Less than one pupil out of two succeeds at the evaluations. The Piaget’s evaluations and the evaluation on verbal thinking linked with cognitive age would be that of a 9 year old.

The use of computers and algorithms to deal with human language, in both spoken and written form, is summarized by the term natural language processing (nlp). Modeling language in a way that is suitable for computers plays an important role in nlp. One idea is to use formalisms from theoretical computer science for that purpose. For example, one can try to find an automaton to capture the valid written sentences of a language. Finding such an automaton by way of examples is called training. In this work, we also consider the structure of sentences by making use of trees. We use weighted tree automata (wta) in order to deal with such tree structures. Those devices assign weights to trees in order to, for example, distinguish between good and bad structures. The well-known expectation-maximization algorithm can be used to train the weights for a wta while the state behavior stays fixed. As a way to adapt the state behavior of a wta, state splitting, i.e. dividing a state into several new states, and state merging, i.e. replacing several states by a single new state, can be used. State splitting, state merging, and the expectation maximization algorithm already were combined into the state splitting and merging algorithm, which was successfully applied in practice. In our work, we formalized this approach in order to show properties of the algorithm. We also examined a new approach – the count-based state merging algorithm – which exclusively relies on state merging. When dealing with trees, another important tool is binarization. A binarization is a strategy to code arbitrary trees by binary trees. For each of three different binarizations we showed that wta together with the binarization are as powerful as weighted unranked tree automata (wuta). We also showed that this is still true if only probabilistic wta and probabilistic wuta are considered.:How to Read This Thesis 1. Introduction 1.1. The Contributions and the Structure of This Work 2. Preliminaries 2.1. Sets, Relations, Functions, Families, and Extrema 2.2. Algebraic Structures 2.3. Formal Languages 3. Language Formalisms 3.1. Context-Free Grammars (CFGs) 3.2. Context-Free Grammars with Latent Annotations (CFG-LAs) 3.3. Weighted Tree Automata (WTAs) 3.4. Equivalences of WCFG-LAs and WTAs 4. Training of WTAs 4.1. Probability Distributions 4.2. Maximum Likelihood Estimation 4.3. Probabilities and WTAs 4.4. The EM Algorithm for WTAs 4.5. Inside and Outside Weights 4.6. Adaption of the Estimation of Corazza and Satta [CS07] to WTAs 5. State Splitting and Merging 5.1. State Splitting and Merging for Weighted Tree Automata 5.1.1. Splitting Weights and Probabilities 5.1.2. Merging Probabilities 5.2. The State Splitting and Merging Algorithm 5.2.1. Finding a Good π-Distributor 5.2.2. Notes About the Berkeley Parser 5.3. Conclusion and Further Research 6. Count-Based State Merging 6.1. Preliminaries 6.2. The Likelihood of the Maximum Likelihood Estimate and Its Behavior While Merging 6.3. The Count-Based State Merging Algorithm 6.3.1. Further Adjustments for Practical Implementations 6.4. Implementation of Count-Based State Merging 6.5. Experiments with Artificial Automata and Corpora 6.5.1. The Artificial Automata 6.5.2. Results 6.6. Experiments with the Penn Treebank 6.7. Comparison to the Approach of Carrasco, Oncina, and Calera-Rubio [COC01] 6.8. Conclusion and Further Research 7. Binarization 7.1. Preliminaries 7.2. Relating WSTAs and WUTAs via Binarizations 7.2.1. Left-Branching Binarization 7.2.2. Right-Branching Binarization 7.2.3. Mixed Binarization 7.3. The Probabilistic Case 7.3.1. Additional Preliminaries About WSAs 7.3.2. Constructing an Out-Probabilistic WSA from a Converging WSA 7.3.3. Binarization and Probabilistic Tree Automata 7.4. Connection to the Training Methods in Previous Chapters 7.5. Conclusion and Further Research A. Proofs for Preliminaries B. Proofs for Training of WTAs C. Proofs for State Splitting and Merging D. Proofs for Count-Based State Merging Bibliography List of Algorithms List of Figures List of Tables Index Table of Variable Names

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