Language and learning preferences : a study of university students in Australia

This study sought to investigate the preferences for language use and modes of learning of university students who were completing undergraduate degrees in Australia. Of the sixty students surveyed, forty percent were international students. For seventy five percent of all students sampled, either they or their parents (or both) were bi- or multilingual. Questions which this research sought to answer were: Do the preferences for learning of university students differ according to the culture and / or language backgrounds of the students? Does an individual student’s preferred learning style influence the student’s preferences for learning in a group situation? For students whose first language is not English, do their preferences for language use vary in group learning? General findings resulting from a statistical analysis of responses to the questionnaire indicated in many, but not all, cases that the preferences for learning of university students differed according to the cultural and / or language backgrounds of the students, that an individual student’s preferred learning style influenced the student’s preferences for learning in a group situation, and that the preferences for language use of students whose first language was not English varied in group learning. Reid’s (1984 in Richards, J.C. & Lockhart, C., 1994) “Perceptual learning style preference questionnaire” comprised one section of the questionnaire for this study. This replication made possible a comparison of the findings which related to students’ learning styles from this study with findings from similar studies in which Reid’s survey instrument had been used. Findings of the present study indicate a number of differences from Reid’s findings. This study found, for example, that most language groups showed a minor preference for group learning using this survey instrument whereas Reid had found that group learning was a negligible preference for most of the language groups in her study. This study may give tertiary educators a greater understanding of their students’ preferences for group and other learning styles. It may also inform them of the likely preferences for language use of those of their students who have first languages other than English. Future students may benefit from this.

Time-to-Collision (TTC) judgements with offsize objects show that Tau needs to be intergrated with familiar size to explain TTC performance

Observers judged TTC with computer-generated displays simulating an approaching object in three familiar-size conditions:

(i) Real-size (smaller, larger objects depicted as tennis, soccer balls respectively).
(ii) Off-size (smaller, larger objects depicted as soccer, tennis balls respectively).
(iii) Ambiguous-size (smaller, larger objects depicted as texture-less black balls of different size).

Displays simulated objects approaching observersí viewpoint from 24.96 m, and disappearing at 5.76 m. Manipulation of approach velocities (4.8-19.2 msec-1) produced viewing times from 1.0 to 4.0 sec, and delays between object disappearance and tau-based TTC ranging from 0.3 to 1.2 sec. Motion characteristics of smaller and larger objects in the three familiar-size conditions simulated those of approaching real-sized tennis and soccer balls respectively; that is, for each approach velocity, tau‚-based TTC was the same across the three conditions for smaller and larger objects.

Results showed that, consistent with the proposition of tau-determined TTC, TTC estimates in the real-size condition were uninfluenced by object size. This is contrary to previous reports that TTC for larger objects is underestimated relative to TTC for smaller objects. However, such size-dependent TTC differences were found in the ambiguous-size condition, with even larger differences in the off-size condition; TTCs for the ëlargerí tennis ball were much less than TTCs to the ësmallerí soccer ball compared to corresponding TTCs in the ambiguous-size condition. These results are problematic for the proposition that tau solely determines TTC. We discuss the role of perceptual learning in resolving this problem.

An Arakawa and Gins experimental teaching space - a feasibility study

Many researchers and practitioners currently teaching at Universities use the works of Arakawa and Gins within their courses and some go as far as structuring entire courses on their work. This indcates the value of Arakawa and Gins’ insight which offers many opportunities to intensify the relationship of theory to practice, disciplinary inquiry to knowledge and art to life. Having spent time in each of Arakawa and Gins’ built works, I have experienced and evaluated the benefits of constructing relationships among bodily movement, tactically posed surrounds and the discursive sequences that best constrain them. Based on my experience, I advocate going beyond the study of finished products towards the practice of coordinating history, community, person and body that occurs when inventing and assembling architectural procedures. This paper will outline my efforts over the last eighteen months to produce a feasibility study for building an experimental teaching space at my University (Griffith University, Australia). The experimental teaching space that I am proposing would commission and enact the architectural procedures of Arakawa and Gins in a constantly changing built (in-the-process-of-being-built) environment, where the guided construction of the teaching space is the curriculum. This approach would offer an alternative to the design trend in teaching and learning environments toward technologically driven smart spaces. An experimental space based on “perceptual learning”, “sited awareness” and “daily reserach” would address the disconnection between current research from the life sciences, developmental psychology, rehabilitation science and blended learning—and the enrivonments in which learning occurs. My discussions will address two issues: the link between pedagogical concerns of advanced study with the production of commual space (organism-person-surrounds) and how these goals can be implemented within the institutional planning processes while adhering to new federal funding guidelines, new performance indicatiors, and public tender guidelines. Throughout my paper, I argue that an experimental teaching space would accentuate multidisciplinarity and offer budding teachers, life scientists, sociologists, historians, and artists the enactive tools by which to affect change and provide grounded cultural leadership.

Situating situatedness through Æffect and the architectural body of Arakawa and Gins

This paper explores the situated body by briefly surveying the historical studies of effect and of affect which converge in current work on attention. This common approach to the situated body through attention prompted the coining of a more inclusive term, Æffect, to indicate the situated body’s mode of observation. Examples from the work of artist-turned-architects, Arakawa and Gins, will be discussed to show how architectural environments can act as heuristic tools that allow the situated body to research its own conditions. Rather than isolating effect from affect, observer from subject, organism from environment, Arakawa and Gins’ work optimises the use of situated complexity in the study of the site of person. By constructing surrounding in which to observe and learn about the shape of awareness, their procedural architecture suggests ways in which the interaction of top-down conceptual knowledge and bottom-up perceptual learning may construct possibilities in emergent rather than programmatic ways.

Viewpoints, creativity and embodied learning : developing perceptual and kinaesthetic skills in non-dancers studying undergraduate university drama

Viewpoints are a structural approach to training and directing for theatre. Originating from the innovative, inventive and exploratory approach of Mary Overlie and the self- confessed scavenger approach of Anne Bogart, Viewpoints offers a practical philosophy of working. As a training approach it begins with a disciplined engagement  of the body in space and time. The tangible elements of the Viewpoints provide a set of tasks on which the student can focus, thus freeing the imagination and spirit to  create. Yet at the same time the systematic logic of Viewpoints supports novice practitioners to begin to question their perception, invest in creative practice that demands action and exploration, and to deconstruct, re-organise and rebuild scores and sequences in the pursuit of theatre that is visceral and visual. This essay reports on undergraduate student experiences of learning Viewpoints. It interrogates the demands of embodied learning of the movement/structural system on non- ancers and examines student-actor experiences of embodied learning from multiple of subject positions – observer/participant/creator/reflector/actor.  

A new fuzzy peer assessment methodology for cooperative learning of students

In this paper, a new fuzzy peer assessment methodology that considers vagueness and imprecision of words used throughout the evaluation process in a cooperative learning environment is proposed. Instead of numerals, words are used in the evaluation process, in order to provide greater flexibility. The proposed methodology is a synthesis of perceptual computing (Per-C) and a fuzzy ranking algorithm. Per-C is adopted because it allows uncertainties of words to be considered in the evaluation process. Meanwhile, the fuzzy ranking algorithm is deployed to obtain appropriate performance indices that reflect a student's contribution in a group, and subsequently rank the student accordingly. A case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology is described. Implications of the results are analyzed and discussed. The outcomes clearly demonstrate that the proposed fuzzy peer assessment methodology can be deployed as an effective evaluation tool for cooperative learning of students.