Students’ conceptual knowledge about workplace pedagogies and applications to learning in the workplace

The development of effective workplace pedagogies is integral to work-integrated and work-based learning. The workplace pedagogies that facilitate and support learning include: activities in which individuals engage such as daily work practices, questioning; observing, and listening; interactions with more experienced workers through coaching and modelling; and referencing documented procedures. Each of these dimensions is significant in enhancing processes of workplace learning. Learning can be optimised when these pedagogies are appropriately embedded in the context of and process of participating in normal work activities. Yet learners need to understand the nature of these pedagogies, and how and for what purposes to use these to achieve a range of learning outcomes. This is because it is the worker-learners who play the key roles in the process and outcomes of learning through work. A pilot study was conducted on students’ conceptions of how each of these dimensions of workplace pedagogy help their learning, by providing examples of learning from these sources; and stating their preferences for learning in the workplace. A sample of seventeen students, enrolled in the second year of a Diploma in Nursing course at a Technical and Further Education institution, participated in a survey intended to capture these conceptions and the importance attached to each of them. The findings indicate that these students have basic understanding of how each of seven workplace pedagogic practices can contribute to their learning. They reported relying mostly on daily practices, observing and listening to others, modelling, coaching, and other workers. Their selection of these contributions emphasise significant opportunities for guided learning by others, yet suggest fewer student-initiated interactions, less intensity in interactions, and likelihood that learning is more passive. The data also suggests that these students rely mostly on using academic learning skill, and limited workplace learning skills. It is proposed, therefore, that the knowledge and understandings about workplace learning and pedagogies might be best embedded in the full curriculum and not become add-on shortly before students go on work placement. This approach will allow students to appreciate the significance and use of workplace pedagogies for learning.

Discussions on conceptual knowledge and the use of blogs

In both Australia and Norway and through a number of Technology projects conducted since 2007, the authors – together and with other collaborators - have attempted to create positive learning environments supported by Web 2.0 communication tools. Through protected public sites and the oz-Teachernet [http://www.otn.edu.au], we have consistently chosen to use blogs to support the social construction of knowledge, that is, to allow students the opportunity to discuss, share and collaborate on their classroom activities and engagement with Technology artefacts and processes. Through comparisons with findings from a small-scale project in Norway and a large-scale project in Australia, this paper will argue for the potential of discussion through blogs but recommend that the purposeful use of scientific language in student communication will not occur without teacher intervention and scaffolding.

A latent feature analysis of the neural representation of conceptual knowledge

Bayesian probabilistic analysis offers a new approach to characterize semantic representations by inferring the most likely feature structure directly from the patterns of brain activity. In this study, infinite latent feature models [1] are used to recover the semantic features that give rise to the brain activation vectors when people think about properties associated with 60 concrete concepts. The semantic features recovered by ILFM are consistent with the human ratings of the shelter, manipulation, and eating factors that were recovered by a previous factor analysis. Furthermore, different areas of the brain encode different perceptual and conceptual features. This neurally-inspired semantic representation is consistent with some existing conjectures regarding the role of different brain areas in processing different semantic and perceptual properties. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

Conceptual knowledge discovery with frequent concept lattices

Knowledge discovery support environments include beside classical data analysis tools also data mining tools. For supporting both kinds of tools, a unified knowledge representation is needed. We show that concept lattices which are used as knowledge representation in Conceptual Information Systems can also be used for structuring the results of mining association rules. Vice versa, we use ideas of association rules for reducing the complexity of the visualization of Conceptual Information Systems.

Conceptual knowledge discovery and data analysis

In this paper, we discuss Conceptual Knowledge Discovery in Databases (CKDD) in its connection with Data Analysis. Our approach is based on Formal Concept Analysis, a mathematical theory which has been developed and proven useful during the last 20 years. Formal Concept Analysis has led to a theory of conceptual information systems which has been applied by using the management system TOSCANA in a wide range of domains. In this paper, we use such an application in database marketing to demonstrate how methods and procedures of CKDD can be applied in Data Analysis. In particular, we show the interplay and integration of data mining and data analysis techniques based on Formal Concept Analysis. The main concern of this paper is to explain how the transition from data to knowledge can be supported by a TOSCANA system. To clarify the transition steps we discuss their correspondence to the five levels of knowledge representation established by R. Brachman and to the steps of empirically grounded theory building proposed by A. Strauss and J. Corbin.

Conceptual knowledge processing with formal concept analysis and ontologies

Among many other knowledge representations formalisms, Ontologies and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) aim at modeling ‘concepts’. We discuss how these two formalisms may complement another from an application point of view. In particular, we will see how FCA can be used to support Ontology Engineering, and how ontologies can be exploited in FCA applications. The interplay of FCA and ontologies is studied along the life cycle of an ontology: (i) FCA can support the building of the ontology as a learning technique. (ii) The established ontology can be analyzed and navigated by using techniques of FCA. (iii) Last but not least, the ontology may be used to improve an FCA application.

Autobiographical memory and amnesia: using conceptual knowledge to ground the self

A case of retrograde amnesia, PJM, elucidated the relationship between self, episodic memory and autobiographical knowledge. Results from a variety of measures including the I Am Memory Task (IAM Task), where memories are cued by self-generated self concepts, demonstrate that PJM has a coherent, continuous sense of self, despite having lost episodic memories for an 18-month period. Her use of conceptual autobiographical knowledge, in episodic tasks and to support aspects of identity, shows how autobiographical knowledge can support the self when episodic memories are inaccessible. These results are discussed with relation to current neuropsychological models of self and memory.

Developing media production skills for literacy in a primary school classroom : digital materials, embodied knowledge and material contexts

This chapter investigates the relationship between technical and operational skills and the development of conceptual knowledge and literacy in Media Arts learning. It argues that there is a relationship between the stories, expressions and ideas that students aim to produce with communications media, and their ability to realise these in material form through technical processes in specific material contexts. Our claim is that there is a relationship between the technical and the operational, along with material relations and the development of conceptual knowledge and literacy in media arts learning. We place more emphasis on the material aspects of literacy than is usually the case in socio-cultural accounts of media literacy. We provide examples from a current project to demonstrate that it is just as important to address the material as it is the discursive and conceptual when considering how students develop media literacy in classroom spaces.

Knowledge Building in Landscape Architecture

The objective of this study was to develop an internet-based seminar framework applicable for landscape architecture education. This process was accompanied by various aims. The basic expectation was to keep the main characteristics of landscape architecture education also in the online format. On top of that, four further objectives were anticipated: (1) training of competences for virtual team work, (2) fostering intercultural competence, (3) creation of equal opportunities for education through internet-based open access and (4) synergy effects and learning processes across institutional boundaries. This work started with the hypothesis that these four expected advantages would compensate for additional organisational efforts caused by the online delivery of the seminars and thus lead to a sustainable integration of this new learning mode into landscape architecture curricula. This rationale was followed by a presentation of four areas of knowledge to which the seminar development was directly related (1) landscape architecture as a subject and its pedagogy, (2) general learning theories, (3) developments in the ICT sector and (4) wider societal driving forces such as global citizenship and the increase of open educational resources. The research design took the shape of a pedagogical action research cycle. This approach was constructive: The author herself is teaching international landscape architecture students so that the model could directly be applied in practice. Seven online seminars were implemented in the period from 2008 to 2013 and this experience represents the core of this study. The seminars were conducted with varying themes while its pedagogy, organisation and the technological tools remained widely identical. The research design is further based on three levels of observation: (1) the seminar design on the basis of theory and methods from the learning sciences, in particular educational constructivism, (2) the seminar evaluation and (3) the evaluation of the seminars’ long term impact. The seminar model itself basically consists of four elements: (1) the taxonomy of learning objectives, (2) ICT tools and their application and pedagogy, (3) process models and (4) the case study framework. The seminar framework was followed by the presentation of the evaluation findings. The major findings of this study can be summed up as follows: Implementing online seminars across educational and national boundaries was possible both in term of organisation and technology. In particular, a high level of cultural diversity among the seminar participants has definitively been achieved. However, there were also obvious obstacles. These were primarily competing study commitments and incompatible schedules among the students attending from different academic programmes, partly even in different time zones. Both factors had negative impact on the individual and working group performances. With respect to the technical framework it can be concluded that the majority of the participants were able to use the tools either directly without any problem or after overcoming some smaller problems. Also the seminar wiki was intensively used for completing the seminar assignments. However, too less truly collaborative text production was observed which could be improved by changing the requirements for the collaborative task. Two different process models have been applied for guiding the collaboration of the small groups and both were in general successful. However, it needs to be said that even if the students were able to follow the collaborative task and to co-construct and compare case studies, most of them were not able to synthesize the knowledge they had compiled. This means that the area of consideration often remained on the level of the case and further reflections, generalisations and critique were largely missing. This shows that the seminar model needs to find better ways for triggering knowledge building and critical reflection. It was also suggested to have a more differentiated group building strategy in future seminars. A comparison of pre- and post seminar concept maps showed that an increase of factual and conceptual knowledge on the individual level was widely recognizable. Also the evaluation of the case studies (the major seminar output) revealed that the students have undergone developments of both the factual and the conceptual knowledge domain. Also their self-assessment with respect to individual learning development showed that the highest consensus was achieved in the field of subject-specific knowledge. The participants were much more doubtful with regard to the progress of generic competences such as analysis, communication and organisation. However, 50% of the participants confirmed that they perceived individual development on all competence areas the survey had asked for. Have the additional four targets been met? Concerning the competences for working in a virtual team it can be concluded that the vast majority was able to use the internet-based tools and to work with them in a target-oriented way. However, there were obvious differences regarding the intensity and activity of participation, both because of external and personal factors. A very positive aspect is the achievement of a high cultural diversity supporting the participants’ intercultural competence. Learning from group members was obviously a success factor for the working groups. Regarding the possibilities for better accessibility of educational opportunities it became clear that a significant number of participants were not able to go abroad during their studies because of financial or personal reasons. They confirmed that the online seminar was to some extent a compensation for not having been abroad for studying. Inter-institutional learning and synergy was achieved in so far that many teachers from different countries contributed with individual lectures. However, those teachers hardly ever followed more than one session. Therefore, the learning effect remained largely within the seminar learning group. Looking back at the research design it can be said that the pedagogical action research cycle was an appropriate and valuable approach allowing for strong interaction between theory and practice. However, some more external evaluation from peers in particular regarding the participants’ products would have been valuable.

Patterns of regional brain hypometabolism associated with knowledge of semantic features and categories in Alzheimer's disease

The study of semantic memory in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) has raised important questions about the representation of conceptual knowledge in the human brain. It is still unknown whether semantic memory impairments are caused by localized damage to specialized regions or by diffuse damage to distributed representations within nonspecialized brain areas. To our knowledge, there have been no direct correlations of neuroimaging of in vivo brain function in AD with performance on tasks differentially addressing visual and functional knowledge of living and nonliving concepts. We used a semantic verification task and resting 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in a group of mild to moderate AD patients to investigate this issue. The four task conditions required semantic knowledge of (1) visual, (2) functional properties of living objects, and (3) visual or (4) functional properties of nonliving objects. Visual property verification of living objects was significantly correlated with left posterior fusiform gyrus metabolism (Brodmann's area [BA] 37/19). Effects of visual and functional property verification for non-living objects largely overlapped in the left anterior temporal (BA 38/20) and bilateral premotor areas (BA 6), with the visual condition extending more into left lateral precentral areas. There were no associations with functional property verification for living concepts. Our results provide strong support for anatomically separable representations of living and nonliving concepts, as well as visual feature knowledge of living objects, and against distributed accounts of semantic memory that view visual and functional features of living and nonliving objects as distributed across a common set of brain areas.

A Knowledge-Oriented Technology of System-Objective Analysis and Modelling of Business-Systems

A new original method and CASE-tool of system analysis and modelling are represented. They are for the first time consistent with the requirements of object-oriented technology of informational systems design. They essentially facilitate the construction of organisational systems models and increase the quality of the organisational designing and basic technological processes of object application developing.

Multilingualism and conceptual modelling

One of the leading motivations behind the multilingual semantic web is to make resources accessible digitally in an online global multilingual context. Consequently, it is fundamental for knowledge bases to find a way to manage multilingualism and thus be equipped with those procedures for its conceptual modelling. In this context, the goal of this paper is to discuss how common-sense knowledge and cultural knowledge are modelled in a multilingual framework. More particularly, multilingualism and conceptual modelling are dealt with from the perspective of FunGramKB, a lexico-conceptual knowledge base for natural language understanding. This project argues for a clear division between the lexical and the conceptual dimensions of knowledge. Moreover, the conceptual layer is organized into three modules, which result from a strong commitment towards capturing semantic knowledge (Ontology), procedural knowledge (Cognicon) and episodic knowledge (Onomasticon). Cultural mismatches are discussed and formally represented at the three conceptual levels of FunGramKB.

Relaciones entre el conocimiento conceptual y el procedimental en el aprendizaje de las fracciones

El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar las relaciones entre el conocimiento conceptual y el procedimental de las fracciones durante su aprendizaje. Para esto se efectuó una búsqueda bibliográfica en las bases de datos ERIC, PsycInfo, Scielo y Redalyc, con los siguientes términos en español y sus equivalentes en inglés: fracciones (fractions), conocimiento conceptual (conceptual knowledge), conocimiento procedimental (procedural knowledge) y niños (children), combinados de diferente forma con el operador booleano AND (Y). Los resultados de esta búsqueda permitieron hallar quince artículos empíricos que pueden clasificarse en cuatro grupos de investigaciones: las que indican una relación bidireccional, las que sugieren una relación unidireccional, las que muestran cierta independencia o restricciones en su vinculación y, por último, las que señalan que las relaciones varían según los sujetos. Esta falta de acuerdo podría explicarse por ciertas diferencias metodológicas de los estudios, por ejemplo, diferencias en el grado de consolidación del conocimiento de las fracciones de los participantes, el sentido conceptual o la habilidad procedimental estudiada, el tipo de enseñanza matemática recibida, etc. Por ello se sugiere que, para profundizar la comprensión de las relaciones entre el conocimiento conceptual y procedimental de las fracciones, estos aspectos metodológicos deben ser controlados.