Description Of Learning Research Articles

ON THE METHOD OF DETERMINING LEARNING DESCRIPTIONS TO FORECAST NATURAL DISASTERS WITH THE PATTERN RECOGNITION SYSTEM

To forecast natural disasters (floods, mud-slides) in the fixed region and in period T0 with SPRL – the System of Pattern Recognition with Learning (elaborated by us) it is necessary to have the data of the previous 12 months of period T0 and learning descriptions (LDs). To identify this latter, the fact of occurrence or non-occurrence of disasters in the same region and the period T0 should be known in other years and also, the above mentioned 12- month date for each year. Determining LDs based on them is the aim of the article. For this purpose, the method which will be included in the first model of the SPRL is elaborated. The SPRL comprises: 1) preliminary elaboration of the initial information, 2) learning and 3) recognition models. This system is implemented on a PC. It is verified on the basis of the real data to recognize objects of different classis. Primary, additional and formal additional parameters are determined in the method given in the article. On the basis of their values in correlation with the aforementioned 12 months two matrices are determined. The first of them corresponds to the fact of occurrence of disasters and the second one – of non-occurrence. By using these parameter values given in these matrices LDs will be determined. The best LDs will be given to the learning model of the SPRL for transformation and increasing of informativity. Based on the LDs obtained after the transformation, the learning model will make knowledge and data bases.

Ten Best on Learning: A Bibliography of Essential Sources for Instructors

A recent issue of College Teaching (formerly Improv ing College and Univers ty Teaching) contains a similar bibliography of essential sources on teaching (1). That article explains efforts at Penn State to provide faculty members with material on teaching that will pos itively influence their teaching practices. We selected material to include in that bibliography based on a set of assumptions we make about faculty members and their information about instruction generally. We assume they are busy, unfamiliar with educational jargon, inter ested in teaching techniques, narrow in their knowledge of educational practices, in need of fresh perspectives, and more likely to read material they can locate easily. Favorable faculty response to that bibliography (dis tribution of it generated requests for 700 articles [2]) has prompted preparation of this companion collection on learning. Justification is easy. The separation of teach ing and learning reinforces a serious misconception. The distinction makes it appear that teaching occurs at one end of the classroom, under the aegis and control of the instructor, and learning takes place at the opposite end, under the behest of the student. As a result, classroom responsibilities solidify around what the teacher and the student are respectively supposed to do, and the trade off is a sense of interdependence. Excessive preoccupation with the teaching role dis torts an instructor's perspective and makes it possible for that person to use teaching strategies that have little connection with learning. If learning is the singular re sponsibility of students, then the learners bear no re sponsibility for sharing discoveries, and the reciprocity that makes teaching and learning a dynamic interaction is denied. In less lofty terms, when the teacher teaches and the student learns, the distance between the podium and the desk widens with each holding the other ac countable for what is or is not occurring in a course. The goal ought to be to narrow the distance, to see the relatedness that renders teaching and learning flip sides of the coin called education. And so to follow a bibliog raphy of essential sources on teaching with one on learn ing is, indeed, appropriate. The terms learning and teaching tend to be similar in that they are broad, generic descriptions of activities which include a variety of processes and products. Most instructors handle the ambiguity associated with learn ing concretely. They equate levels of learning with exam scores. Instructors and students both know that grades can be acquired without learning and vice versa, al though faculty members, especially, hope this occurs in frequently. In spite of this disconnection, instructors still tend to associate learning and evaluation more of ten than not. Educational experiences would be en hanced if that association were not as singular. A vari ety of common classroom activities affect student learn ing, and several of the sources selected for this bibliog raphy describe the learning potential inherent in activi ties like taking notes, lecturing, and paying attention. Another objective is to enlighten faculty members about learning. Their understanding of the phenome non is largely intuitive and uninformed by recent research discoveries. The challenge is to identify de scriptions of learning that will increase faculty mem bers' understanding but that do not require extensive orientation to educational psychology. Penetration of the complicated, empirical literature on learning is no easy task. It is complicated by the teaching focus of fac ulty which leaves them bereft of much in the way of rele vant background. Moreover, this teaching focus is cou pled with content specialization, honed by years of in teraction with an academic area. This makes it all but impossible for faculty to recall how they first ''learned'' the content they now teach. They can no longer remem ber not knowing the basic tenets of their disciplines. Sources on learning must reclaim that experience and make faculty aware of how their continued exploration The author is head of the Instructional Development Program at the Pennsylvania State University.