SoS Faculty Research Colloquium

April 25, 2017
12:30 – 1:30pm
SCP – 101

Dr. Sejong Yoon, Department of Computer Science

“Computational Modeling of the High-level Human Cognition”

Abstract:

Sometimes, human decision-making processes are not as rational as it seems. Each person has his/her own experience, knowledge, and preference on things and events surrounding us. This idiosyncratic behavior is hard to quantify and analyze and thus exists as an important obstacle to the complete understanding of human decision process and the implementation of more realistic artificial intelligence. Understanding high-level concepts, e.g., interestingness, aesthetic beauty, atypicality, memorability, etc., and computational models to automatically estimate such concepts from complex input data are the essential steps to reach the goal of understanding the irrational human behavior and decision making processes. In this talk, I would introduce recent advances in this area including my on-going effort in pursuit of filling this semantic gap, focusing on the problem of memorability prediction.

 

Dr. Rachel Snider, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

“Examining the Intersection of Teacher Knowledge and Teaching Practices in Secondary Mathematics”

Abstract:

Recent research has focused separately on mathematics teachers’ knowledge and teaching practices. However, the field of mathematics education lacks understanding of how teachers coordinate knowledge in teaching, where knowledge and teaching practices are closely intertwined. For example, when selecting an example to use in class, a teacher must think about the key mathematical ideas they want to exemplify and how they can make the example accessible to students. Drawing on the theory of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT), this talk presents results from an investigation of Algebra II teachers’ enactments of different teaching practices, including selecting examples and giving explanations. I consider how teachers draw on multiple sources of knowledge in enacting teaching practices and examine closely the components of the specific teaching practices. Implications for teacher education and mathematics teaching will be discussed, along with directions for future research.