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Neural networks are one of the most efficient classifier methods. One of such classifying neural networks we are trying to teach in this work by using genetic algorithms. In this work we test two types of genetic algorithms. One may be called parameterized genetic algorithm. It is built on the basic ideas of genetic algorithms. The other one is called parameter less genetic algorithm. It was presented by F. G. Lobo and D. E. Goldberg. Both genetic algorithms are tested and compared to the other well known optimization methods such as Bayes and Monte Carlo search. Experiments show the relevance of use genetic algorithms in teaching classifying neural network. Also stated that parameter less genetic algorithm works more efficient than parametric genetic algorithm in general cases. Created programs will be used in future studies.

<p>The question as to which language should be used as a medium of instruction in schools in multilingual societies is a controversial one. In South Africa, the question is often posed in binary terms: Should the medium of instruction be a familiar local language such as Xhosa or a language of wider communication like English? This study is an attempt to answer the above question. The study profiled the writing abilities of Grade 4 and Grade 7 pupils at Themba Primary, a school located in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, in both their mother tongue, Xhosa, and in English, their official medium of instruction at school since Grade 4. Three written tasks, which consisted of a narrative piece of writing, a reading comprehension exercise, and an expository piece of writing, were administered to the pupils in English and Xhosa. The purpose of the exercise was to examine some of the implications for educational language policy of the differences in performance in the two languages. All the tasks were authentic, in that they were based on aspects of the pupils&rsquo / curriculum and written in the formal academic language pupils were expected to be exposed to in their respective grades. All the tasks were graded systematically under controlled conditions.</p>

Significant associations between self-reported “whole units” of work and self-reported mental task requirements as well as personal outcomes are well known. Also of interest is, however, whether a significant association also exists between the underlying objective assignment of tasks, i.e. the division of labour, and self-reported mental requirements. Such an association would represent a concrete starting point for job design or redesign. We analyzed this question for retail sale jobs as an example of the numerous human service jobs, which usually consist of customer- and object-centred tasks. The study (N = 558 employees) evaluated the potential association between documented assignments of customer-centred and goods-centred activities and employees’ perceived mental requirements, skill utilisation, and learning on the job, as well as mental difficulties. A significant association of moderate effect size between the objective division of labour and self-reported mental job requirements was shown. Theoretical and practical consequences of this association are also discussed.

A widespread and persistent memory error that people commit on a daily basis is the post-completion error (PCE; i.e., forgetting to complete the final step of a procedural task). PCEs occur in the railroad industry when a locomotive conductor changes the direction of a rail switch but fails to report this change. This particular error could contribute to unsafe conditions as another train traveling on the same track could derail. Although training can help reduce some of the factors leading to unsafe conditions on the rail, research has demonstrated that PCEs are different from other errors of omission in that they cannot be eliminated through training, which makes them a difficult problem to address. Therefore, there is a need to explore new remedial actions designed to reduce PCEs. The current study investigated the effectiveness of a theoretically motivated intervention at reducing PCEs in trainyard operations, where making these errors could be life-threatening. Twenty-eight undergraduates completed trainyard tasks within a high-fidelity simulator. Each participant received the behavioral intervention in one block and no intervention in another. Specifically, participants were required to perform an additional task designed to remind participants of the post-completion (PC) step. The intervention significantly reduced PCE rates in the context of trainyard operations, on average, by 65%. We discuss implications of these results on reducing trainyard accidents, and how this outcome can contribute to the literature on the cause of PCEs.

Bakalauro darbe analizuojami mokinių, turinčių specifinių mokymosi sutrikimų, gebėjimas spręsti ekonominio pobūdžio matematinius uždavinius. Teorinėje darbo dalyje pabrėžiama, kad vienas iš veiksmingiausių ekonominio pobūdžio matematinio raštingumo ugdymo aspektų – mokymas spręsti gyvenimiško turinio tekstinius uždavinius, kuriuose vyrauja veiksmai su procentais. Empiriniu tyrimu siekiama įvertinti dešimtos klasės mokinių, turinčių specifinių mokymosi sutrikimų, gebėjimą spręsti ekonominio pobūdžio matematinius uždavinius. Tyrimui atlikti naudojama anketa/kontrolinis testas. Kiekybiniame tyrime (anketinėje apklausoje) dalyvavo 34 Panevėžio bendrojo ugdymo mokyklose dešimtose klasėse besimokantys šešiolikos-septyniolikos metų mokiniai, turintys specifinių mokymosi sutrikimų. Visiems mokiniams nustatyti nedideli specialieji ugdymosi poreikiai. Tyrimu nustatyta, kad geriausiai mokiniams sekėsi atlikti atlyginimo ir atskaitymo, asmens ir šeimos pajamų, išlaidų, santaupų bei praktines biudžeto planavimo bei skaičiavimo užduotis. Šias užduotis mokiniai atliko gana produktyviai ir pakankamai savarankiškai. Daugiausia keblumų iškilo skaičiuojant paprastųjų palūkanų normą, sudėtines palūkanas, pirkimo išsimokėtinai, sudėtinių procentų skaičiavimo uždavinius. Didžiajai daliai prireikė skirtingo intensyvumo mokytojo pagalbos, o nemaža dalis mokinių užduočių net ir po suteiktos pagalbos nesugebėjo atlikti. Tyrimo metu išryškėjo, kad pasiekę dviejų metų laikotarpiui nurodytus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Pupils who have specific learning disorders and their ability to solve Mathematics Tasks of Economic nature is analyzed in this bachelor‘s thesis. The theoretical part of the final work emphasizes that one of the most effective economic nature mathematical literacy education‘s aspect is a teaching how to solve the real-life content‘s text tasks in which dominate operations with percentages. It is seeked to evaluate students of the tenth grades who have specific learning disorders to solve mathematics tasks of economic nature by empirical research. Questionnaire and control test are used to accomplish the research. In the quantitative investigation (questionnaire interrogation) participated 34 pupils of sixteen-seventeen years of age who are studying in the tenth forms at Panevėžys co- educational schools and have specific learning disorders. There are determined minor special educational needs for all these students. According to research it‘s determined that the most successful tasks for students were: remuneration and deduction, person and family proceeds, expenditure, savings, practical budget planning and counting. The students accomplished these tasks sufficiently productive and by one selves. The biggest quandaries came to the front, when schoolchildren had to count the simple interest rate, compound interest, hire purchase composite percent tasks. The most students needed the different intensity of the teacher‘s help, unfortunately a considerable part of the students... [to full text]

Eine Kompetenz beschreibt im Kontext eines Lehr-/Lernprozesses fachliche und fachübergreifende Basisqualifikationen. Als latente Fähigkeit kann sie jedoch nicht direkt beobachtet werden. Eine indirekte Beobachtung ist möglich, indem sie durch eine Menge valider Aufgaben beschrieben wird, die nur erfolgreich bearbeitet werden können, wenn die Kompetenz existiert. Werden diese Aufgaben durch einen Lernenden bearbeitet, so liefert ihm das Ergebnis der Bearbeitung ein unmittelbares Feedback über seinen aktuellen Lernerfolg. Der Lehr-/Lernprozess verhält sich dabei wie ein Regelkreis, in dem das Feedback als Regelgröße Einfluss auf verschiedene Aspekte des Lernens nimmt, zum Beispiel die Motivation. Wurde eine Aufgabe nicht korrekt gelöst, wünschen sich die Lernenden Feedback, welches ihnen hilft, das Problem zu erkennen, zu verstehen und zu lösen. Dabei kann sie ein Tutor unterstützen. Betreut der Tutor jedoch mehrere Lernende gleichzeitig, zum Beispiel während einer Übung, kann es zu einer Verringerung der individuellen Betreuungszeit kommen. Dadurch fällt es dem Tutor schwerer, ein individuelles, ausführliches und sofortiges Feedback im Anschluss an die Aufgabenbearbeitung zu geben. Es wird anhand mehrerer empirischer Studien untersucht, ob zuvor entwickeltes FCF einen Beitrag zur Bewältigung dieser Herausforderung bei kompetenzorientierten Programmieraufgaben leisten kann.

The network "Developing Quality in Mathematics Education II" is a continuation of the associated project "Developing Quality in Mathematics Education" (http://www.dqime.unidortmund. de). In this project participate universities, teacher education institutions and schools from 11 European countries. Cross-cultural cooperation and exchange of ideas, materials, teachers and pupils support developing quality in mathematics education, especially in the area of mathematical modelling. The quality and application of the developed learning materials is also guaranteed by using, comparing and modifying them in eleven different countries. This comparison leads to an agreement about contents of mathematical learning and teaching in eleven European countries. Thus we want to establish a "European Curriculum for the teaching and learning of mathematics" in the 21st century. A special feature of this project is the strong connection between theory and practice and between the research and development of mathematics education. In this project our Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University Bratislava manage testing of translated teaching materials at the high school „Gymnazium Sturovo“. We know that using ICT and didactical software in schools is almost present and wide spread. So we try to focus on several possibilities in solving real-life tasks using this technologies, regard to the fact technologies are hard upon the young generation of students.

The Comenius Network Project “Developing Quality in Mathematics Education II” funded by the European Commission consists of partners from schools, universities and teacher training centres from eleven European countries. One advantage of the project is the mutual exchange between teachers, teacher trainers and researchers in developing learning material. To support the teachers most effectively the researchers asked the teachers what they wanted the researchers to do. The answer was also a question: How can we identify (good) modelling tasks? A discussion ensued in the research group of this project which resulted in a list of descriptors characterising modelling tasks. This paper focuses on the theoretical background of mathematical modelling and will thereby substantiate the list of descriptors for modelling tasks.

過去十年，翻譯學習已成為外文系大學生學習的重點之一，但是許多研究發現教師仍使用傳統的翻譯教學法。在傳統的教室，學生過度依賴以教師為中心的學習，教師本身亦接受或間接鼓勵被動的學習方式。學生只想聽取教師的建議，而鮮少了解自己的翻譯過程、翻譯風格及自我解決問題的方法。 本研究的目的在設計一個翻譯學習活動：「合作式翻譯任務」。此設計經過三個階段：(一) 初步設計；(二) 施實「合作式翻譯任務」的二個原型；(三) 完成合作式翻譯任務的設計。本研究採用設計本位研究方法 (Design-based research method)，並試圖對真實學習情境作深入地了解。在原型(一)共有五個活動：活動一為書面同儕回饋、活動二為組內討論及翻譯者研討會、活動三為口頭同儕回饋、活動四為口頭教師回饋、活動五為最終校正。 研究的參與者為科技大學的外語系學生，在第一循環共有56位學生參加，在第二循環有25位學生參加，另有二位翻譯教師參與此研究。本研究採用三角測量研究法 (triangulation) 來收集資料，包含影片、訪談及學生的翻譯文本等。研究分析的工具為「活動理論」，並從社群、分工、媒介三方面進行分析，以尋求可能解決設計問題的方法。 經過二個原型的實施，本研究設計出「合作式的翻譯任務」。活動一為訓練學生描述及解釋翻譯錯誤的能力。活動二為個人的書面同儕回饋，學生需使用文書處理軟體中的「新增註解」功能給予回饋。活動三為學生研討會及教師研討會。每位學生需記錄自己在研討會的討論結果。教師研討會的時間較短，以便讓與會的學生回學生研討桌分享研討的結果。活動四為學生翻譯員上台分享在學生研討會中得到的回饋及達成的共識。活動五為二個教師給予口頭回饋。活動六為學生使用「新增註解」註明所收集到的回饋、是否接受建議及理由。每組需交出一份校正後的翻譯，及附有註解的檔案。 研究發現學生較相信教師的評語，但是對同儕評語的不信任卻增加學習自主性。學生經分析同儕建議的翻譯、重組或修改後才採用。影響學生互動的因素為問答的溝通模式、同儕間的熟悉度及對同儕回饋的信念。學生的回饋方式傾向於找出有問題的翻譯、提供建議的翻譯及給予讚許。但他們很少給予針對自己的評語作解釋。 本研究提供理論上及實務教學的建議。在理論方面，本研究提出三種理論：領域理論、設計框架、及設計實施方法。在實務教學方法，合作式翻譯任務提供翻譯教師另一種教學模式，以期達到最佳的教學成效。 / For the past decade, translation learning has been one of the main foci for university language learners, but a number of studies have found that many translation teachers still utilize traditional translation teaching methods (Chang, Yu, Li & Peng, 1993; Dai, 2003; Mu, 1992). In traditional classrooms, students tend to depend heavily on teacher-centered instruction, and teachers accept or encourage the students’ passive learning attitudes (Kiraly, 1995). As a result, students only follow the teachers’ suggestions and rarely reflect up their own translating process, translation styles, and problem-solving approaches. The goal of this study was to design a translation learning task called the Cooperative Translation Task (CoTT). It was achieved in three phases: (a) the initial design of the CoTT; (b) the implementations of two prototypes of the CoTT and (c) the finalized CoTT. The current study followed a design-based research (DBR) framework to clarify the complicated interactions in an authentic learning environment. In total, there were five sessions in Prototype I:Session 1: Written Peer Response; Session 2: Within-group Discussion & Translator Seminar; Session 3: Oral Peer Response; Session 4: Oral Teacher Response; and Session 5: Final Revisions. The student participants in both cycles were technological university students, including 56 students in Cycle I and 25 in Cycle II. Two translation teachers participated in the study. For data collection, triangulation data were collected, including videos, interviews, and student documents. The data was put into the framework of Activity theory to diagnose implementation problems in terms of community, division of labor, and mediating artifacts, and innovations with solutions were provided. Following the second prototype, the latest version of the CoTT has been constructed. In Session 1, training in describing and explaining errors is conducted. In Session 2, a peer group gives written responses for the translator group to make revisions. To encourage students to give explanations to their own peers, individual accountability is included. The peer group uses the Comment function in the word-processing software to identify, describe, and explain the agreeable and disagreeable translations. In Session 3, a student seminar and a teacher seminar are conducted simultaneously. To help students take organized notes on the results of their discussions, and to prevent students from not accepting responsibility in the discussions, an individual seminar sheet is given to each student. The teacher seminar finishes earlier than the student seminar so that the members can return to the original seminar and share the teachers’ suggestions with the group. In Session 4, the translator group needs to present the comments from each seminar. In Session 5, the two teachers can use multiple criteria for error analysis. In Session 6, translator members use the Comment function in the word-processing software to insert collected comments, their acceptance level, and the reasons why they accept or reject each suggestion. Each group needs to turn in the final product, one copy with and one without the comments, to the instructor. The present study has found that students have a tendency to trust and use the teachers’ comments. However, this distrust of peers’ review increased students’ autonomy. Students underwent a process of analysis of the suggested translations and reformation of the translation. The influential factors in student-student interaction are an Asking and Answering communication mode and Acquaintance (2A), and students’ values in peer response. When giving a linguistic-level evaluation, students provided the most comments on mechanics, then comments vocabulary and sentences. As for the types of responses, they focused mainly on the identification of translations, provision of suggested translations, and some compliments on agreeable translations. They seldom gave explanations for either agreeable or disagreeable translations. The present study has both its theoretical and practical implications. This design-based study offers three kinds of theories: domain theories, a design framework, and design methodologies. The CoTT and its six sessions provide translation teachers an alternative way to teach, especially for teachers trained in other professions.