Temporal representation of state transitions

This paper describes a knowledge-based temporal representation of state transitions for industrial real-time systems. To allow expression of uncertainty, we shall define fluents as disjuncts of positive/negative time-varying properties. A state of the world is represented as a collection of fluents, which is usually incomplete in the sense that neither the positive form nor the negative form of some properties can be implied from it. The world under consideration is assumed to persist in a given state until an action(s) takes place to effect a transition of it into another state, where actions may either be instantaneous or durative. High-level causal laws are characterized in terms of relationships between actions and the involved world states. An effect completion axiom is imposed on each causal law to guarantee that all the fluents that can be affected by the performance of the corresponding action are governed. This completion requirement is practical for most industrial real-time applications and in fact provides a simple and effective treatment to the so-called frame problem.

Socialising young literacy learners into a discourse of failure: Dominant discourses in literacy teaching and assessment and their impact on the progression of young literacy learners into employment

This paper argues that contemporary literacy programmes are a mismatch for the expectations of both the government and employers as well as the goals of learners. It submits that the dominant discourses in literacy provision have led to the emergence of a learning culture which not only fails the learners but is also incapable of meeting the aspirations of both the government and employers. To support this argument, the paper reports a small scale research project that analyses the perceptions of learners, teachers and employers who were involved in a work placement scheme for young literacy learners in a college of further education. Data for the study were collected through focus group and face to face interviews and analysed using the framework of discourse analysis provided by Gill (2000) with findings codified and analysed thematically. The study found that teachers were aware that their learners were not adequately prepared for the world of work because of the demands of the dominant discourses of quality and performance measurement which were most obviously manifested in their assessment, teaching methods and the attitudes of learners. It found that employers perceive young learners as inadequate in terms of the workplace expectations. Learners in the study revealed that their workplace culture and expectations were totally different from the culture to which they had been socialised in their studies. The study concludes that unless the dominance of these discourses is ameliorated, young literacy learners will continue to be socialised into a discourse of failure.