Multiple Learning Strategies Research Articles

Using a Site Visit to a Contaminated Location as a Focus for Environmental Health Education for Academic and Public Health Nurses

We describe a conference initiative that is distinguished by the use of a "community case study" to increase the knowledge and skills of nursing faculty and public health nurses in environmental health and to provide networking support to facilitate infusion of environmental health into nursing curricula and public health nursing practice. The Institute of Medicine's (1995) general environmental health competencies for nurses provided the conference framework. Woburn, Massachusetts, a Superfund site, served as the community case study to illustrate a complex environmental health problem. Over an extended period of time, Woburn was contaminated with multiple chemicals that eventually contaminated the drinking water supply; a cluster of childhood leukemia cases was linked subsequently to the Superfund site contaminants. A 6-hr interpreted walking and bus tour of the Superfund site enabled us to visit the premises of responsible parties, the vapor extraction fields, the capped Well H in the wooded wetlands, and to tour the affected neighborhood. This intensive, hands-on approach to learning environmental health content and skills that incorporated multiple learning strategies serves as a model for developing future conferences for public health nurses and nursing faculty.

Plasticity of spatial learning strategies in the common cuttlefish

Several studies have demonstrated that mammals, birds, fishes and insects use comparable spatial learning strategies. Unfortunately, few studies have investigated spatial learning mechanisms in marine invertebrates. Our study aimed to identify the strategies used by a cephalopod (Sepia officinalis) to solve a spatial task. A new spatial learnings procedure using a T-maze was designed. In this maze, a cuttlefish learns to enter a dark and sandy compartment. By providing different visual cues (proximal or distal ones) to the cuttlefish, we demonstrated in our experiments that their strategies to solve the maze seem to be sex- and age-dependent. Our study demonstrates for the first time the presence of multiple spatial learning strategies in cuttlefish that appear to closely relative to those previously described in vertebrates.

THE DISCIPLE-RKF LEARNING AND REASONING AGENT

Over the years we have developed the Disciple theory, methodology, and family of tools for building knowledge-based agents. This approach consists of developing an agent shell that can be taught directly by a subject matter expert in a way that resembles how the expert would teach a human apprentice when solving problems in cooperation. This paper presents the most recent version of the Disciple approach and its implementation in the Disciple–RKF (rapid knowledge formation) system. Disciple–RKF is based on mixed-initiative problem solving, where the expert solves the more creative parts of the problem and the agent solves the more routine ones, integrated teaching and learning, where the agent helps the expert to teach it, by asking relevant questions, and the expert helps the agent to learn, by providing examples, hints, and explanations, and multistrategy learning, where the agent integrates multiple learning strategies, such as learning from examples, learning from explanations, and learning by analogy, to learn from the expert how to solve problems. Disciple–RKF has been applied to build learning and reasoning agents for military center of gravity analysis, which are used in several courses at the US Army War College.

The sectored foraging field: A novel design to quantify spatial strategies, learning, memory, and emotion

Although Norway rats are naturally gregarious, males typically live alone at some point during adulthood. Different social ecologies often require different learning strategies and also modulate response to stressors and gonadal development. To measure effects of the social environment on the interaction between cognition and emotion during aging, we focused on a natural learning context and devised the sectored foraging field, a progressively difficult spatial navigation task. Here, we describe how this apparatus and protocol permits multiple learning strategies in a minimally stressful environment, enabling finely graded analyses of cognition and emotionality. Male Sprague–Dawley rats living alone throughout adulthood adopted a sex-typic discernible spatial strategy. In contrast, males housed in group contexts utilized an algorithmic kinesthetic strategy, repeating the same motor action until they found food. Removal of food and distal, but not local cues, elicited anxious alertness, particularly in group-housed males. Cognitive performance of group-housed rats subsequent to food and cue removal was significantly impaired, yet enhanced in isolates.

E-Learning under WebCT

With the introduction of Web-Based Instruction (WBI) the traditional classroom-based higher education could be made more effective form of instruction. But the studies have shown the negative results (1) . On the other hand the distance education has derived the direct benefit of WBI through extending classroom instruction in online to reach every remote student. However researchers have identified reasons for the lack of effectiveness of WBI in both classroom and distance education. WBI along with a suitable learning strategy is a tangible solution. As the learning strategy based entirely on the constructivists approach may not be feasible for the students with less or no experience our studies recommend a hybrid strategy called Integrating Multiple Learning Strategies (IMLS) that can be implemented to achieve the effect of e-Learning. This study presents the issues identified with the WBI-based learning paradigm and WebCT, various learning approaches and feasible e-Learning models around WebCT for IMLS approach.

Merging Social Justice and Accountability: Educating Qualified and Effective Teachers

This article proposes that teacher education programs be developed to promote social justice and accountability. Teacher educators must prepare teachers by (a) inspiring them with experiences of schools and classrooms where the achievement gap is disappearing, (b) preparing them to use curriculum standards and assessments, as well as multiple pedagogical and learning theories and strategies, (c) equipping them to work closely with families and communities, (d) teaching them how schools and classrooms promote and end educational inequities, and (e) inspiring them to do the hard work necessary to close the achievement gap. This requires teacher educators who are committed to the same. The article describes a few instructive events that influenced changes in a particular teacher education program and concludes with ten paradoxes used to build the new program focus on equity, excellence, and integrity.

Managing the new service development process: towards a systemic model

PurposeWhen compared with the field of new product development, research on new services has seen fewer developments and offers less comprehensive insights. This paper tries to fill this gap by providing empirical findings from two qualitative longitudinal case studies of new service development. Knowledge on the management issues for developing new bank offerings efficiently is limited. Furthermore, recent research suggests that organisational learning can contribute greatly to the success of innovation projects. The aims of this paper are to provide a detailed description of the development process of a new financial product and to identify learning actions that may contribute to its effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports findings from a qualitative, longitudinal case study of a well‐known French bank, and of a retailer. The research focuses on the description of the process, the organisational issues involved and the decision making during the development process.FindingsThe findings lead to the proposition of a model of new service development comprising a strong organisational learning component. Research and managerial implications are discussed for ways to better understand the new service development process and to enhance its effectiveness. The results reveal an informal development process consisting of a sequence of issues to solve and decisions to make. Multiple learning actions and strategies are identified that enhance the process's effectiveness and efficiency.Research limitations/implicationsGeneralisation of the proposed NSD model will require further qualitative and quantitative investigations. For the qualitative part, observations of the development of standardised offers are necessary to enrich the initial framework. Furthermore, non‐standardised offers would constitute a specific research field, given the dimensions of complexity and divergence of the delivery processes. For the quantitative part, the impact of learning process on results of the development may be assessed on the basis of measurements used in similar contexts, such as the impact of learning on the success of joint ventures.Originality/valueFindings suggest that learning during innovation should be supported for banks and retailers. Several opportunities for further research are therefore suggested.

Learning during developing and implementing new bank offerings

PurposeKnowledge of the management issues for developing new bank offerings efficiently is limited. Furthermore, recent research suggests that organisational learning can contribute greatly to the success of innovation projects. The aims of this paper are to provide a detailed description of the development process of a new financial product and to identify learning actions that may contribute to its effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachReports findings from a qualitative, longitudinal case study of a well‐known French bank.FindingsThe results revealed an informal development process consisting of a sequence of issues to solve and decisions to make.Research limitations/implicationsThough observations fit with the theoretical model, the findings cannot be generalized due to the use of a qualitative methodology. Thus, selecting a development project that brings variance to the scope and degree of innovativeness could enrich the observed learning mechanisms. Second, as services are very heterogeneous, further research should be done on the development processes of different new services, for example standardised versus customised. Third, mechanisms of adoption or avoidance of learning procedures remain to be explored extensively. Understanding the reasons of choice and adoption of learning strategies according to the environment and nature of the project could lead to further managerial recommendations.Practical implicationsImplications for banks to encourage learning during innovation are discussed and several opportunities for further research are suggested.Originality/valueAn informal development process is revealed, consisting of a sequence of issues to solve and decisions to make. Multiple learning actions and strategies are identified that enhance process effectiveness and efficiency.

Information extraction with automatic knowledge expansion

POSIE ( POSTECH Information Extraction System) is an information extraction system which uses multiple learning strategies, i.e., SmL, user-oriented learning, and separate-context learning, in a question answering framework. POSIE replaces laborious annotation with automatic instance extraction by the SmL from structured Web documents, and places the user at the end of the user-oriented learning cycle. Information extraction as question answering simplifies the extraction procedures for a set of slots. We introduce the techniques verified on the question answering framework, such as domain knowledge and instance rules, into an information extraction problem. To incrementally improve extraction performance, a sequence of the user-oriented learning and the separate-context learning produces context rules and generalizes them in both the learning and extraction phases. Experiments on the “continuing education” domain initially show that the F1-measure becomes 0.477 and recall 0.748 with no user training. However, as the size of the training documents grows, the F1-measure reaches beyond 0.75 with recall 0.772. We also obtain F-measure of about 0.9 for five out of seven slots on “job offering” domain.

Designing a multi-strategic intelligent tutoring system for training in industry

One of the advantages provided by Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) is it allows a flexible pedagogical approach according to the characteristics of the learner. This flexibility can be enhanced using multiple learning strategies that can be successively triggered depending on the progression of learning. For industrial purposes it is not always necessary to develop all the knowledge-based components of an ITS. In the present paper we describe both the elements of an architecture we have progressively designed and a methodology of development we have used in a cooperative project between universities and industries. Particularly, we highlight positive results but also problems that have to be avoided to maintain a coherent and progressive development approach. After reviewing the needs of the industry in terms of training systems and performance objectives, we describe the most important components of the architecture to retain, and comment on the progression of the project. We detail the different learning strategies that can be deployed within an important new concept of actors, which are intelligent agents able to handle pedagogical strategies.

Unfolding cases: an experiential learning model.

The focus of education has changed from teaching to learning. This educational model stresses student outcomes that include critical thinking, effective communication, and students' ability to reflect their own learning. This article describes "unfolding cases," a comprehensive plan of learning that allows student practice time to solve individually and collectively problems they may encounter in clinical situations. It combines a variation and extension of the frequently used strategy of case study with multiple cooperative learning strategies, culminating in an individual reflective writing experience.

Integrating Multiple Learning Strategies in First Order Logics

This paper describes a representation framework that offers a unifying platform for alternative systems, which learn concepts in First Order Logics. The main aspects of this framework are discussed. First of all, the separation between the hypothesis logical language (a version of the VL21 language) and the representation of data by means of a relational database is motivated. Then, the functional layer between data and hypotheses, which makes the data accessible by the logical level through a set of abstract properties is described. A novelty, in the hypothesis representation language, is the introduction of the construct of internal disjunction; such a construct, first used by the AQ and Induce systems, is here made operational via a set of algorithms, capable to learn it, for both the discrete and the continuous-valued attributes case. These algorithms are embedded in learning systems (SMART+, REGAL, SNAP, WHY, RTL) using different paradigms (symbolic, genetic or connectionist), thus realizing an effective integration among them; in fact, categorical and numerical attributes can be handled in a uniform way. In order to exemplify the effectiveness of the representation framework and of the multistrategy integration, the results obtained by the above systems in some application domains are summarized.

Development and Evaluation of a Contemporary Topics in Pharmacy Practice Course Integrating Multiple Active Learning Strategies

ABSTRACTA two-credit Contemporary Topics in Pharmacy Practice course for Pharm.D. students is described and evaluated. The course was developed to increase students' understanding of current trends, issues, and developments in contemporary pharmacy practice. The content of the course lends itself well to the development of many of the curricular outcomes outlined by the AACP Commission to Implement Change in its Background Paper II. Multiple active learning strategies are employed to require students to think critically about contemporary issues and to communicate their viewpoints and evaluations in both written and oral form. Teaching strategies used include minimal lecturing, assigned literature readings, student presentations, classroom discussions, and group and individual projects. The students contract for grade desired using a performance proposal. They are also required to keep a written journal of activities and perspectives on the issues discussed.

Telencephalic ablation in goldfish impairs performance in a ‘spatial constancy’ problem but not in a cued one

This work was aimed to study if goldfish telencephalon is involved differentially in spatial and cue learning. With this purpose, animals were assigned to two learning conditions, ‘spatial constancy’ and ‘directly cued’, and their performance was recorded before and after ablation of the telencephalon. During the presurgical acquisition period, animals of both groups learned to solve the task with accuracy, and reached the goal in transfer tests, even though they were released from new starting positions and the response requirements were changed. Ablation impaired selectively the solution of the spatial constancy problem, but had no significant effects on the cued condition. However, with additional training, performance of the ablated animals in the spatial constancy condition improved to control levels. The above data suggest that fishes can implement multiple spatial learning strategies which have different neural substrata. These results are discussed in relation to the possible nature of the representation underlying each task.

Learning to Troubleshoot: Multistrategy Learning of Diagnostic Knowledge for a Real‐World Problem‐Solving Task

This article presents a computational model of the learning of diagnostic knowledge, based on observations of human operators engaged in real‐world troubleshooting tasks. We present a model of problem solving and learning in which the reasoner introspects about its own performance on the problem‐solving task, identifies what it needs to learn to improve its performance, formulates learning goals to acquire the required knowledge, and pursues its learning goals using multiple learning strategies. The model is implemented in a computer system which provides a case study based on observations of troubleshooting operators and protocol analysis of the data gathered in the test area of an operational electronics manufacturing plant. The model not only addresses issues in human learning, but, in addition, is computationally justified as a uniform, extensible framework for multistrategy learning.

Student and Teacher Perceptions of Courseware

AbstractThis study was based on the implementation by teachers and their students of a systematic courseware review process that involved classroom trials. It was found that there was no significant difference between the average opinion of student groups (classes) and their teachers concerning the overall merit of the courseware, but that there were significant differences within classes between the opinions of individual students and their teachers. The two major implications for teachers are that they should recognize the importance of considering multiple computer-based learning strategies, and that students’ opinions regarding a courseware package should be considered when selecting courseware.

Explanation-based learning:A problem solving perspective

This article outlines explanation-based learning (EBL) and its role in improving problem solving performance through experience. Unlike inductive systems, which learn by abstracting common properties from multiple examples, EBL systems explain why a particular example is an instance of a concept. The explanations are then converted into operational recognition rules. In essence, the EBL approach is analytical and knowledge-intensive, whereas inductive methods are empirical and knowledge-poor. This article focuses on extensions of the basic EBL method and their integration with the prodigy problem solving system. prodigy's EBL method is specifically designed to acquire search control rules that are effective in reducing total search time for complex task domains. Domain-specific search control rules are learned from successful problem solving decisions, costly failures, and unforeseen goal interactions. The ability to specify multiple learning strategies in a declarative manner enables EBL to serve as a general technique for performance improvement. prodigy's EBL method is analyzed, illustrated with several examples and performance results, and compared with other methods for integrating EBL and problem solving.

Buchbesprechung

One of the challenges faced by university today is how to develop in students the necessary attitudes and competences to become those leaders who will transform their social environment in the short future. An efficient professional qualification is required as well as providing them with scenarios suitable for the acquisition of social and service competences. This paper analyses the results of a project carried out by a group of engineering undergraduate students from the Catholic University of Avila in the University of Experience in Arevalo, a town in the north of Avila (Spain). The interest of this experience lies in its piloting character in our University, together with the multiple learning strategies practiced. The fact that it is the university students that teach the senior citizens offers a valuable pedagogical potential. Besides, it turned out to be a powerful bridge-building experience, strengthening intergenerational relations. Both groups benefited from this service learning project, as it is shown by the results from the surveys, open questions and students’ final personal reports.

Special Education and Vocational Education Compatibility

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsMyrtle E. YoshinagaMyrtle E. Yoshinaga is psychologist and project coordinator of the Multiple Learning Strategies Project, Division of Vocational Education, Mason, Michigan.James R. KallmanJames R. Kallman is a psychologist with the Division of Special Education, Mason, Michigan. This article was condensed from a presentation made by the authors at the 1977 convention of the National Association of School Psychologists in Cincinnati, Ohio.