Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-114). Also available on the Internet.

Nesta dissertação destacamos nossa preocupação com o ensino e aprendizagem da álgebra elementar, sempre muito presente em nossa prática docente. Nosso principal objetivo foi a elaboração, implementação e validação de uma proposta didática para o desenvolvimento de um ensino que promovesse a compreensão das operações básicas com expressões algébricas no Ensino Fundamental. De acordo com os referenciais teóricos utilizados buscamos construir uma proposta que contemplasse a produção de significados para a atividade algébrica em um ambiente de aprendizagem cooperativa, fazendo uso de representações múltiplas e de materiais manipulativos juntamente com a resolução de situações-problema. A implementação da proposta foi desenvolvida em duas fases: a primeira, enfocando o uso das letras em álgebra e a segunda voltada para a produção de significados para as operações com expressões algébricas. Apresentamos o resultado da investigação realizada com um grupo de alunos do segundo ano do terceiro ciclo (equivalente à 7ª série) do Ensino Fundamental numa escola da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Porto Alegre. Este estudo mostrou que a proposta implementada contribuiu para o aprimoramento do pensamento algébrico dos alunos que produziram significados para as operações realizadas com expressões algébricas, adquiriram desenvoltura no uso das letras e compreenderam algumas propriedades algébricas, dentre elas a comutatividade da multiplicação e a distributividade da multiplicação em relação à adição, além de estabelecerem condições para a realização da adição e subtração entre expressões algébricas. Notamos, ainda, o progresso dos alunos quanto à autonomia presente nos processos de observação, levantamento de hipóteses, elaboração de conclusões e de justificações. Concluímos, destacando a relevância desta pesquisa no âmbito do trabalho do professor, relacionada à construção de uma atitude de busca de compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem de seus alunos. / This work emphasizes the concern about teaching and learning elementary algebra. The main purpose was the elaboration, implementation and legalization of a didatic proposal having in mind a teaching development that would promote the understanding of basic expressions with algebraic operations in the Elementary School. Based on the chosen theoretical references forementioned, we intended to motivate students to learn algebra in a cooperative directed way through the use of multiple representative allusions with a wide deversity of symbolic, visual and material resources. This proposal implementation was developed in two phases: First it emphasized the algebra letter usage and second the significance production related to algebraic expressions. The accomplished investigation result was presented with a first grade group of students in a county school. This investigation showed that the implemented proposal improved the students algebraic thinking, also they started giving significance to the accomplished operation with algebraic expressions and acquired agility in using letters and understanding some of the algebraic properties including commutation in multiplication and distributions related to multiplication and additions besides establishing conditions to elaborate addition and subtraction among algebraic expressions. It was also noticed the students progress concerning the observation process, hipothesis, propositions, feeling of accomplisments and justifications autonomy. This research took into account the teacher’s work considering the construction of an inquisitive searching attitude and a comprehensive understanding.

Nesta dissertação destacamos nossa preocupação com o ensino e aprendizagem da álgebra elementar, sempre muito presente em nossa prática docente. Nosso principal objetivo foi a elaboração, implementação e validação de uma proposta didática para o desenvolvimento de um ensino que promovesse a compreensão das operações básicas com expressões algébricas no Ensino Fundamental. De acordo com os referenciais teóricos utilizados buscamos construir uma proposta que contemplasse a produção de significados para a atividade algébrica em um ambiente de aprendizagem cooperativa, fazendo uso de representações múltiplas e de materiais manipulativos juntamente com a resolução de situações-problema. A implementação da proposta foi desenvolvida em duas fases: a primeira, enfocando o uso das letras em álgebra e a segunda voltada para a produção de significados para as operações com expressões algébricas. Apresentamos o resultado da investigação realizada com um grupo de alunos do segundo ano do terceiro ciclo (equivalente à 7ª série) do Ensino Fundamental numa escola da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Porto Alegre. Este estudo mostrou que a proposta implementada contribuiu para o aprimoramento do pensamento algébrico dos alunos que produziram significados para as operações realizadas com expressões algébricas, adquiriram desenvoltura no uso das letras e compreenderam algumas propriedades algébricas, dentre elas a comutatividade da multiplicação e a distributividade da multiplicação em relação à adição, além de estabelecerem condições para a realização da adição e subtração entre expressões algébricas. Notamos, ainda, o progresso dos alunos quanto à autonomia presente nos processos de observação, levantamento de hipóteses, elaboração de conclusões e de justificações. Concluímos, destacando a relevância desta pesquisa no âmbito do trabalho do professor, relacionada à construção de uma atitude de busca de compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem de seus alunos. / This work emphasizes the concern about teaching and learning elementary algebra. The main purpose was the elaboration, implementation and legalization of a didatic proposal having in mind a teaching development that would promote the understanding of basic expressions with algebraic operations in the Elementary School. Based on the chosen theoretical references forementioned, we intended to motivate students to learn algebra in a cooperative directed way through the use of multiple representative allusions with a wide deversity of symbolic, visual and material resources. This proposal implementation was developed in two phases: First it emphasized the algebra letter usage and second the significance production related to algebraic expressions. The accomplished investigation result was presented with a first grade group of students in a county school. This investigation showed that the implemented proposal improved the students algebraic thinking, also they started giving significance to the accomplished operation with algebraic expressions and acquired agility in using letters and understanding some of the algebraic properties including commutation in multiplication and distributions related to multiplication and additions besides establishing conditions to elaborate addition and subtraction among algebraic expressions. It was also noticed the students progress concerning the observation process, hipothesis, propositions, feeling of accomplisments and justifications autonomy. This research took into account the teacher’s work considering the construction of an inquisitive searching attitude and a comprehensive understanding.

Nesta dissertação destacamos nossa preocupação com o ensino e aprendizagem da álgebra elementar, sempre muito presente em nossa prática docente. Nosso principal objetivo foi a elaboração, implementação e validação de uma proposta didática para o desenvolvimento de um ensino que promovesse a compreensão das operações básicas com expressões algébricas no Ensino Fundamental. De acordo com os referenciais teóricos utilizados buscamos construir uma proposta que contemplasse a produção de significados para a atividade algébrica em um ambiente de aprendizagem cooperativa, fazendo uso de representações múltiplas e de materiais manipulativos juntamente com a resolução de situações-problema. A implementação da proposta foi desenvolvida em duas fases: a primeira, enfocando o uso das letras em álgebra e a segunda voltada para a produção de significados para as operações com expressões algébricas. Apresentamos o resultado da investigação realizada com um grupo de alunos do segundo ano do terceiro ciclo (equivalente à 7ª série) do Ensino Fundamental numa escola da Rede Municipal de Ensino de Porto Alegre. Este estudo mostrou que a proposta implementada contribuiu para o aprimoramento do pensamento algébrico dos alunos que produziram significados para as operações realizadas com expressões algébricas, adquiriram desenvoltura no uso das letras e compreenderam algumas propriedades algébricas, dentre elas a comutatividade da multiplicação e a distributividade da multiplicação em relação à adição, além de estabelecerem condições para a realização da adição e subtração entre expressões algébricas. Notamos, ainda, o progresso dos alunos quanto à autonomia presente nos processos de observação, levantamento de hipóteses, elaboração de conclusões e de justificações. Concluímos, destacando a relevância desta pesquisa no âmbito do trabalho do professor, relacionada à construção de uma atitude de busca de compreensão dos processos de aprendizagem de seus alunos. / This work emphasizes the concern about teaching and learning elementary algebra. The main purpose was the elaboration, implementation and legalization of a didatic proposal having in mind a teaching development that would promote the understanding of basic expressions with algebraic operations in the Elementary School. Based on the chosen theoretical references forementioned, we intended to motivate students to learn algebra in a cooperative directed way through the use of multiple representative allusions with a wide deversity of symbolic, visual and material resources. This proposal implementation was developed in two phases: First it emphasized the algebra letter usage and second the significance production related to algebraic expressions. The accomplished investigation result was presented with a first grade group of students in a county school. This investigation showed that the implemented proposal improved the students algebraic thinking, also they started giving significance to the accomplished operation with algebraic expressions and acquired agility in using letters and understanding some of the algebraic properties including commutation in multiplication and distributions related to multiplication and additions besides establishing conditions to elaborate addition and subtraction among algebraic expressions. It was also noticed the students progress concerning the observation process, hipothesis, propositions, feeling of accomplisments and justifications autonomy. This research took into account the teacher’s work considering the construction of an inquisitive searching attitude and a comprehensive understanding.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Diane McGrath / This naturalistic case study was designed to provide descriptive data to examine the possible role of student learning styles in their collaborative participatory behaviors in an online text-based learning environment; and whether the technology-rich environment that promotes collaborative, project-based learning can have an effect on learners’ participation behavior from the point of view of learning styles. In this study, graduate and advanced undergraduate students’ discussion posts, project reports, reflections, and archived chat records were carefully analyzed. The research results indicated that, in an online collaborative learning environment participants were observed to use the Convergent, Divergent and Accommodating learning styles more often than Assimilating learning styles. Indeed, participants with the Assimilating learning style did not show a positive attitude towards online collaboration. Moreover, students who took a leadership role had their learning style kite shape close to the Concrete Experience learning mode; others who were more supportive had their kite shape close to the Reflective Observation “watching”; and those usually took both a leadership role and a supportive role and were comfortable with a variety of learning modes had their kite shape balanced along two or more dimensions of the learning cycles. The discussion of identified themes in this study is related to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory framework. The study provides extended implications and suggestions for future research.

Assembling different kinds of items, everything from furniture to hobby models, takes a certain process to complete and this process can vary in complexity. An interesting aspect of this process is what components are available during assembly. The optimal scenario would be to have all required components available but sometimes that might not be the case. For a computer, this problem can be difficult to solve and requires specific environments to complete an assembly task. In this thesis work, block puzzles with various blueprints were used to complete assemblies with two different lists of components; one whole set of correct components and one with mixed that may or may not work for a blueprint. Three different methods were used to conduct the assemblies, one random based method, one that used the informed search method iterative deepening A* and one reinforcement learning method that used dueling deep Q-networks. The assembly time and accuracy between a completed configuration and the blueprint were measured for each method, where the informed search performed best in terms of accuracy but had a long assembly time. The reinforcement learning method did not perform well in terms of accu-racy between blueprint and configuration, but had fast assembly time, and in its current state would not be suitable to use to solve the given problem. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

Emerging haptic devices have granted individuals who are blind the capabilities to explore images in real-time, which has always been a challenge for them. However, when only haptic-based interaction is available, and no visual feedback is given, image comprehension demands time and major cognitive resources. This research developed an approach to improve blind people’s exploration performance by providing assisting strategies in various sensory modalities, when certain exploratory behavior is performed. There are three fundamental components developed in this approach: the user model, the assistance model, and the user interface. The user model recognizes users’ image exploration procedures. A learning framework utilizing spike-timing neural network is developed to classify the frequently applied exploration procedures. The assistance model provides different assisting strategies when certain exploration procedure is performed. User studies were conducted to understand the goals of each exploration procedure and assisting strategies were designed based on the discovered goals. These strategies give users hints of objects’ locations and relationships. The user interface then determines the optimal sensory modality to deliver each assisting strategy. Within-participants experiments were performed to compare three sensory modalities for each assisting strategy, including vibration, sound and virtual magnetic force. A complete computer-aided system was developed by integrating all the validated assisting strategies. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the complete system with each assisting strategy expressed through the optimal modality. Performance metrics including task performance and workload assessment were applied for the evaluation.

Since the introduction of mobile devices, alternative language learning methods have been developed and have evolved alongside traditional language classroom education. This has presented academics with the unique opportunity to study new methods of second language acquisition compared to more traditional face-to-face language instruction. The growing technology possibilities have contributed to what is called Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), where learners can easily study a new language with the use of a personal electronic device such as a laptop or phone. Studies about such learning tools, for example Rosetta Stone, Duolingo or Babbel have been carried out for several years to for example test their effectiveness. Among research studies, one well-known study by Vesselinov and Grego (2012) looked at the effectiveness of Duolingo, evaluating the statement Duolingo makes that 34 hours of studying with the tool is equivalent to a semester in a university classroom (Vesselinov & Grego, 2012). Even though various studies about the well-known language learning application (app) Duolingo have been conducted, gaps in research are still present.The current study aims to find out if studying German for one semester (14 weeks) with Duolingo is equivalent to one semester in a beginner face-to-face class, German 101, at a university level. At the end of the semester, both groups took the German 101 final exam and the Duolingo placement test to measure German learning. After analyzing results of the German 101 exam, results showed that learners from the face-to-face class achieved higher language knowledge in the tested skills writing and reading than the participants who studied with Duolingo for the same period of time. However, no substantial differences were found between groups for the vocabulary and grammar section of the final exam and the Duolingo test. The survey reported that participants who studied with Duolingo all agreed that they liked the experience, especially studying at their own pace. Concerns were also mentioned, however, for example that Duolingo is only good for beginner learners, it doesn’t provide interactions with others, and there is no teacher to ask for explicit feedback.

<div>Measurement of vital cardiovascular health attributes, e.g., pulse rate variability, and estimation of exertion level of a person can help in diagnosing potential cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal injuries and thus monitoring an individual's well-being. Cumulative exposure to repetitive and forceful activities may lead to musculoskeletal injuries which not only reduce workers' efficiency and productivity, but also affect their quality of life. Existing techniques for such measurements pose a great challenge as they are either intrusive, interfere with human-machine interface, and/or subjective in the nature, thus are not scalable. Non-contact methods to measure these metrics can eliminate the need for specialized piece of equipment and manual measurements. Non-contact methods can have additional advantages since they are potentially scalable, portable, can be used for continuous measurements, and can be used on patients and workers with varying levels of dexterity and independence, from people with physical impairments, shop-floor workers to infants. In this work, we use face videos and the photoplethysmography (PPG) signals to extract relevant features and build a regression model that can predict pulse rate, and pulse rate variability, and a classification model that can predict force exertion levels of 0%, 50%, and 100% (representing rest, moderate effort, and high effort), thus providing a non-intrusive and scalable approach. Efficient feature extraction has resulted in high accuracy for both the models.</div>

Early identification and detection of abnormal time series patterns is vital for a number of manufacturing. Slide shifts and alterations of time series patterns might be indicative of some anomaly in the production process, such as machinery malfunction. Usually due to the continuous flow of data monitoring of manufacturing processes requires automated Control Chart Pattern Recognition(CCPR) algorithms. The majority of CCPR literature consists of supervised classification algorithms. Less studies consider unsupervised versions of the problem. Despite the profound advantage of unsupervised methodology for less manual data labeling their use is limited due to the fact that their performance is not robust enough for practical purposes. In this study we propose the use of a consensus clustering framework. Computational results show robust behavior compared to individual clustering algorithms.