We explore how to automatically detect specific phrases in audio from noisy, multi-speaker videos using deep neural networks. Specifically, we focus on classroom observation videos that contain a few adult teachers and several small children (< 5 years old). At any point in these videos, multiple people may be talking, shouting, crying, or singing simultaneously. Our goal is to recognize polite speech phrases such as "Good job", "Thank you", "Please", and "You're welcome", as the occurrence of such speech is one of the behavioral markers used in classroom observation coding via the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) protocol. Commercial speech recognition services such as Google Cloud Speech are impractical because of data privacy concerns. Therefore, we train and test our own custom models using a combination of publicly available classroom videos from YouTube, as well as a private dataset of real classroom observation videos collected by our colleagues at the University of Virginia. We also crowdsource an additional 1152 recordings of polite speech phrases to augment our training dataset. Our contributions are the following: (1) we design a crowdsourcing task for efficiently labeling speech events in classroom videos, (2) we develop a neural network-based architecture for speech recognition, robust to noise and overlapping speech, and (3) we explore methods to synthesize new and authentic audio data, both to increase the training set size and reduce the class imbalance. Finally, using our trained polite speech detector, (4) we investigate the relationship between polite speech and CLASS scores and enable teachers to visualize their use of polite language.

[pt] Com base nos estudos já realizados, onde se comprova a influência de fatores escolares no desempenho dos alunos, o estudo aborda a política de composição de turmas, estabelecida pelas escolas para os alunos que apresentam defasagem na idade adequada à série cursada. A pesquisa explora os resultados dos testes e instrumentos contextuais do Programa de Avaliação da Educação Básica (PROEB)do Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Pública de Minas Gerais (SIMAVE), realizados em 2003 e mostra, por meio de análises de modelos estatísticos multiníveis, a associação entre homogeneidade/heterogeneidade das salas de aula, em relação à defasagem idade-série, e o desempenho dos alunos. / [en] Based on previous studies which have proved the influence of school characteristics on pupils´ performance, this study examines the current policy determining classroom composition established by schools for those pupils who are older than their peer group. The study explores test results and contextualized questionnaires used by the Basic Education Evaluation Program an organ of the State Public Education Evaluation System of Minas Gerais, carried out in 2003, and which demonstrates, by means of analysis of statistical hierarchical linear models, the relationship between classroom homogeneity/heterogeneity in relation to advanced age for a specific school year and pupils´ performance.

This is a two-part study that investigated university students’ comfort with instructors’ nonverbal immediacy behaviors in a college classroom. A sample of 289 participants was drawn from a regional university in the Midwest. The participants were asked to respond to an instrument designed to measure the students’ comfort with an instructors’ nonverbal immediacy behaviors. In the first study, the results do not support the hypothesis that males are significantly more comfortable with immediacy behaviors than female students. The results also do not support the hypotheses that students of both sexes will be more comfortable with immediacy behaviors from female instructors than male instructors,or that of the four possible combinations, female students with male instructors will be the least comfortable with immediacy behaviors. In the second study, the results suggest that student gender does not have a significant effect on students’ comfort with instructor immediacy behaviors.

by Li Shing Sun. / Thesis (M.A.Ed.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 111-113.

This study served to further investigate learning and memory, and to offer a potential tool to support educational interventions. More specifically, this was accomplished by an investigation of the physiologic changes in the brain that occurred while students learned medical anatomy. A group of 29 students taking the Gross Anatomy course at Boston University School of Medicine participated in the study. Testing occurred in two sessions: prior to the course and at the completion of the course. For each session, scalp EEG was recorded while participants were shown 176 anatomical terms (132 relevant to the course and 44 obscure) and asked to respond with "Can Define", "Familiar", or "Don't Know". Behavioral results indicated a positive correlation between participants' course grades and performance on the experimental tasks. EEG results were analyzed for event-related potential (ERP) components related to two memory components: familiarity and recollection. Results had a number of indications. For Don't Know responses, a stronger early frontal, late parietal, and late frontal effect occurred more so for terms of Session 1 compared to Session 2. For an analysis of just Session 2 data, results indicated increased activity of the early frontal, late parietal, and late frontal effects for Can Define responses only. Session 2 Can Define responses elicited a stronger early frontal ERP, occurring between 300 and 500 milliseconds yet, the most post-retrieval processing and monitoring appeared for Can Define terms of Session 2. Ultimately, we focused on investigating two points: 1) the effect of classroom learning on memory, and 2) the examination of ERPs as a tool to guide education interventions. Specifically, ERPs would potentially indicate markers to predict whether students would retain materials long before behavioral measures indicate these results. This has potential to determine whether long-lasting or transient learning will occur; as well as the potential to support early intervention strategies for not just students, but also individuals with learning disabilities or memory impairments.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Teachers in schools located in disadvantaged areas are increasingly required to address poor learner behaviour, which makes teaching and the completion of the curriculum a great challenge to teachers. This raised the need to explore teacher views of the effectiveness of the different classroom management strategies teachers’ use and their value in addressing learner behaviour and achievement. This research therefore focussed on understanding classroom management issue from the perspective of teachers. The broad aim of this study was thus to compare teacher perceptions of the factors that contributed to effective classroom management practices in two public high schools located in a historically disadvantaged community. An eco-systemic theoretical lens is used to illuminate an understanding of the complexity of school systems and factors which influence classroom management (CRM). This relates to a Whole School Development (WSD), an approach in which all elements of organisational life and stakeholders are involved to find a solution for a problem – in this case reducing the complexities of the school system in addition to the factors influencing CRM by involving all stakeholders possible.

Building on the success in a previous study in engaging the underserved middle-school population in the practice of science through individualized scaffolding, the current study sought to examine an automated-agent, Astro-world, developed to provide real-time guidance to students in order to increase the scalability of the intervention while maintaining the benefits of the individualized format. Through practices of argument and counterargument in advancing and challenging claims, the agent focused on coordination of multiple variables affecting an outcome, rather than only the foundational and more extensively studied strategy of controlled experimentation, in the context of a scenario in which students had to investigate multiple factors affecting the performance of potential astronauts in a space simulator. The intervention sought to help students see the purpose and value of scientific practices using social science content rather than traditional science topics. In addition to adapting the technology into a regular classroom setting in which the teacher is actively engaged (teacher-involved condition), the study included a second condition to determine if the technology could be used effectively without active teacher involvement (tech-only condition). Delayed far-transfer assessments showed that only students in the teacher-involved condition (but not the tech-only condition) outperformed those in a non-participating control group in recognizing the need for evidence and considering all contributing factors in making predictions. Furthermore, post-hoc analysis showed that these significant differences occurred predominantly among those who mastered the foundational control of variable skills. Possibilities are considered as to why teacher involvement was critical to effectiveness, and implications for classroom practice are addressed.

Extensive attention is given to the significance of promoting thinking skills in education. However, very little research has attempted to explore EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher cognition of thinking skills, even it directly influences children’s thinking and learning. In recent years, promoting thinking skills has become an educational goal in the Chinese English Curriculum (MOE, 2010). In order to bridge the gap between the desired outcome and current practice, this study aims to investigate Chinese EFL teachers’ conceptions and teaching beliefs about thinking skills, and to explore the opportunities for, and obstacles to, developing students’ thinking skills in primary EFL classrooms. Four EFL primary school teachers, with more than three years of teaching experience each, participated in this case study. Semi-structured interviews and video recordings were used to collect the qualitative data. The interview data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Teaching practices were video recorded and examined through a think-led methodological framework developed in this study. The analysis revealed a new concept - “English thinking”, as subject-specific thinking. The findings also showed that teachers’ conceptions of thinking skills were fragmented and that they felt unprepared to teach thinking skills, although they all had a positive attitude towards integrating thinking skills into their teaching. The conflicting beliefs around promoting thinking skills were influenced by teachers' previous language learning experiences and by the challenges they come across. Opportunities for promoting thinking skills are identified from teacher-students interaction, including the use of teacher questioning and feedback, collaborative learning, increase of wait time, authentic topics, and teaching creatively. Teachers’ insufficient knowledge of thinking skills and other contextual factors such as the exam-oriented education system constrained the successful implementation of thinking skills in class. Pedagogical suggestions are put forward for policy makers, teacher educators, and teachers. Implications for future research indicate a need to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions of thinking skills, and to develop a framework for the development of thinking skills in foreign language curricula.

Orientador: Célia Maria Carcagnolo Gil / Banca: Loredana Límoli / Banca: Luiz Alberto Pilatti / Banca: Diva Lea Batista da Silva / Banca: Vilma Fernandes Neves / Resumo: Esta pesquisa objetivou investigar o processo de produção, leitura e compreensão do texto Sala-de-aula. Para sua efetivação, acompanhamos, durante um ano letivo, uma turma de alunos de 2ª série do Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica (CEFET-PR). Esse acompanhamento nos permitiu coletar dados para a organização do material documentário - relato de narrativas de vida dos participantes, registro das observações realizadas em sala de aula, diário de campo do pesquisador - o qual desencadeou o processo de reflexão. Desenvolvemos nossa reflexão tendo como suporte a teoria lingüística de Mikhail Bakhtin e as opções metodológicas - Estudo de caso, Paradigma indiciário e Pesquisa narrativa. Esse suporte teórico nos possibilitou reconhecer o Sala-de-aula como um texto polifônico, ou seja, no qual vozes se encontram, entrecruzam-se, chocam-se, demonstrando a relevância da interação dialógica que ocorre em cada aula. Para compreender o texto Sala-de-aula foi necessário ouvir estórias singulares, por serem elas reveladoras das ações atuais. A sala de aula é local de desvelamento de estórias, nele está presente o ser humano que é, por sua natureza social e histórica, ser narrativo. Sendo assim, todas as ações humanas são resultados de experiências partilhadas em nossos atos dialógicos. Essas ações, essas experiências não se efetivam sem a presença da linguagem. Ela esteve ali, a cada encontro, a cada contato humano, gesto ou olhar. Sendo o texto Sala-de-aula resultado de atos dialógicos, ou seja, atos entremeados de estórias, está recheado de linguagem, diríamos que é a linguagem a se materializar nessa produção. Esses atos dialógicos, todavia, representam apenas uma fração de uma corrente comunicativa, como se fora um elo, uma extensão de atos dialógicos anteriores ...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research aimed at investigating the creation process, reading and comprehension of the text "Sala de Aula" (Classroom). To accomplish this objective, a class of junior high school students ( 2 grade) at the Federal Center of Technological Education (CEFET-PR) was observed during one academic year. Data to organize documentary material was collected from : life accounts of the participants, records of the notes taken in the classroom and evidences obtained during fieldwork. The linguistic theory developed by Mikhail Bakhtin provided the theoretical underpinnings upon which this research was carried out as well as the following methodological procedures: case study, evidential paradigm and narrative research. Such theory enabled us to see the text "Sala de aula" as "polyphonic", that is, a text where different voices meet, intersect, clash, demonstrating thus how important and relevant interaction between students in each class is. A deep insight into the text in question was obtained by hearing singular stories that shed a great deal of light upon students' current attitudes. It is in human's nature, from a social and historical point of view, to be given to narrating stories which explains the fact that the classroom is the place where stories are told. Therefore, all human actions are the result of experiences shared in our interactions by means of language that makes itself present in each encounter, contact, action and look. The fact that the text " Sala de aula" is the product of interactions interspersed with stories entitles us to say that language materializes in this creative process. Such interactions, however, reveal only a small fraction of a communicative process, as if it were a link, an extension of past interactions and, consequently ...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below) / Doutor

O presente estudo apresenta indícios de um aprender como ato a partir de um trajetar da pesquisadora nos ambientes escolares e, em especial, em turmas do segundo ano do Ensino Fundamental, numa escola municipal localizada no Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Com uma proposta vinculada ao projeto Civitas – LELIC/PPGEDU/UFRGS, as tessituras do escrito dialogam com a produção do filósofo russo Mikhail Bakhtin, tendo como objeto de análise os enunciados produzidos pelos sujeitos atuantes na pesquisa (alunos/as; professorapesquisadora). Nessa perspectiva, a metodologia utilizada, singularmente, se apresenta como um ato ético-estético que se entrelaça, acolhe e enuncia modos singulares de ver, conceber e sentir o processo de aprendizagem e, mais precisamente, ao ato de aprender, revelando o inusitado de novas vizinhanças: e, neste sentido, aponta para as possibilidades da invenção fugindo do hábito para leituras originais do que se dá “às vistas” e “às escutas”, aos acabamentos estéticos provisórios possibilitados pelos excedentes de visão, também, como plano de produção de si numa arquitetônica coletiva de produção do conhecimento. Uma tessitura ao mesmo tempo ética (pelo encontro com o outro) e estética (na busca de lhe dar, à experiência, um acabamento) pelos quais os sujeitos situados se relacionam e produzem a sala de aula como lugar coletivo. / This study presents evidence of learning as an act from the researcher's transit in school environments and in particular in the second year classes of an elementary school, a public school located in the Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. With a proposal linked to the Civitas project - LELIC / PPGEDU / UFRGS, the interwoven of the written dialogues with the production of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, which has as object of analysis the utterances produced by the acting subjects in this research (students; the teacher-researcher). From this perspective, the methodology used is uniquely presented as an ethic-aesthetic act that intertwines, welcomes and sets unique ways of seeing, and feeling the learning process development, and more specifically the act of revealing the unusual learning of new neighborhoods. And in this sense it points to possibilities of the invention escaping from the current, original readings of what gives "the sights" and "the listenings" the provisional aesthetic completion made possible by the exceding vision as well as a production plan in itself, an architectural collective production of knowledge. A fabric that is at the same time ethic (in the meeting with the other) and aesthetic (in the quest of giving the other the experience, a completion) in which situated subjects relate and produce a classroom as a collective place.