title: Professional learning in mathematics with primary-trained teachers:  A flipped approach

authors: Stensness, Angela Dorothy

subjects: Professional Learning

abstract: Teachers of mathematics in New Zealand are critical to the success of their students.  In order for teachers to improve student outcomes, it is important for them to have the necessary skills and knowledge relating to mathematics and mathematics pedagogy, but also a positive disposition towards mathematics.  Of concern are the many primary-trained teachers who enter their classrooms each day with negative dispositions towards mathematics, even fearing the subject area.  This often dates back to their own schooling experiences.  Changing these attitudes, along with levels of confidence and understanding, would appear to be crucial.  Professional learning is one method for achieving this outcome.   

Unfortunately, for teachers with low self-efficacy in mathematics, engaging in a professional learning experience relating to mathematics may be considered a threatening experience.  Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the ways in which a flipped professional learning programme might improve these dispositions of primary-trained teachers, along with their skills and understanding in mathematics, termed “teacher capacity” by Zhang and Stephens (2013).  

This study adopted an action research approach, due to the alignment of this methodology with the desire to utilise volunteer participant teachers as co-researchers and for them to reflect on and change their practice.  Qualitative data collection methods were used as the four participants engaged in a flipped professional learning experience.  These qualitative data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with individual participants, blogs, and whole group participation in cluster meetings. 

Following from this study it was found that the use of this flipped professional learning experience increased the self-efficacy ratings of participants in the focus area of their intervention.  It was also found that the flipped approach to professional learning had the potential to allow for and encourage teachers to take greater control of their learning journey in and for the teaching of mathematics, thus encouraging teacher agency.  It also had the potential to allow for this learning to occur just-in-time, that is, as and when required by the teachers.  Therefore, it is the contention of this thesis that a flipped professional learning programme in mathematics could be beneficial to improving the teacher capacity of primary-trained teachers in mathematics.

text: Professional learning in mathematics with primary-trained teachers:  A flipped approach Teachers of mathematics in New Zealand are critical to the success of their students.  In order for teachers to improve student outcomes, it is important for them to have the necessary skills and knowledge relating to mathematics and mathematics pedagogy, but also a positive disposition towards mathematics.  Of concern are the many primary-trained teachers who enter their classrooms each day with negative dispositions towards mathematics, even fearing the subject area.  This often dates back to their own schooling experiences.  Changing these attitudes, along with levels of confidence and understanding, would appear to be crucial.  Professional learning is one method for achieving this outcome.   

Unfortunately, for teachers with low self-efficacy in mathematics, engaging in a professional learning experience relating to mathematics may be considered a threatening experience.  Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the ways in which a flipped professional learning programme might improve these dispositions of primary-trained teachers, along with their skills and understanding in mathematics, termed “teacher capacity” by Zhang and Stephens (2013).  

This study adopted an action research approach, due to the alignment of this methodology with the desire to utilise volunteer participant teachers as co-researchers and for them to reflect on and change their practice.  Qualitative data collection methods were used as the four participants engaged in a flipped professional learning experience.  These qualitative data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with individual participants, blogs, and whole group participation in cluster meetings. 

Following from this study it was found that the use of this flipped professional learning experience increased the self-efficacy ratings of participants in the focus area of their intervention.  It was also found that the flipped approach to professional learning had the potential to allow for and encourage teachers to take greater control of their learning journey in and for the teaching of mathematics, thus encouraging teacher agency.  It also had the potential to allow for this learning to occur just-in-time, that is, as and when required by the teachers.  Therefore, it is the contention of this thesis that a flipped professional learning programme in mathematics could be beneficial to improving the teacher capacity of primary-trained teachers in mathematics.

year: 2018

title: Prompt-GAN – Customisable hate speech and extremist datasets via radicalised neural language models

authors: Govers, Jarod

subjects: Artificial Intelligence

abstract: Online hate speech and violent extremism knows no borders, no political boundaries, no remorse. Researchers face an uphill battle to collect hate speech data in volumes and topical diversity suitable for training state-of-the art content-moderation systems. Neural language models ushered in a new era of synthetic data generation in use across various businesses, all despite calls for research to protect against unintended toxic output. We present a method for radicalising pre-trained neural language models to identify real online hate speech, as well as present the risks of rouge radicalised AI bots which could undermine our trust in social media. We present Prompt-GAN, a prompt-tuning adversarial approach with three achievements. We demonstrate prompt-tuning’s ability to generate realistic types of hate and non-hate speech which mimics political extremist discourse. Prompt-GAN’s architecture offers a twofold reduction in memory and runtime requirements compared to fine-tuning. Finally, Prompt-GAN improves hate speech classification F1-scores by up to 10.1% and sets a new record in neural language simulation compared to the current state-of-the-art across three benchmark datasets.

text: Prompt-GAN – Customisable hate speech and extremist datasets via radicalised neural language models Online hate speech and violent extremism knows no borders, no political boundaries, no remorse. Researchers face an uphill battle to collect hate speech data in volumes and topical diversity suitable for training state-of-the art content-moderation systems. Neural language models ushered in a new era of synthetic data generation in use across various businesses, all despite calls for research to protect against unintended toxic output. We present a method for radicalising pre-trained neural language models to identify real online hate speech, as well as present the risks of rouge radicalised AI bots which could undermine our trust in social media. We present Prompt-GAN, a prompt-tuning adversarial approach with three achievements. We demonstrate prompt-tuning’s ability to generate realistic types of hate and non-hate speech which mimics political extremist discourse. Prompt-GAN’s architecture offers a twofold reduction in memory and runtime requirements compared to fine-tuning. Finally, Prompt-GAN improves hate speech classification F1-scores by up to 10.1% and sets a new record in neural language simulation compared to the current state-of-the-art across three benchmark datasets.

year: 2022

title: Anhedonia: He kohinga whiti mai i te tirohanga o ngā wahanga e rima o te pōuri / A collection of poetry themed around loss presented through the lens of the five stages of grief

authors: Nicholls, Rawiri Rangihouhiri Terrence

subjects: Grief

abstract: Anhedonia is a collection of personal experiences centred around loss examined through the lens of the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) and framed within a personal confessional postmodernism style. It was also influenced by the collected works of Federico Garcia Lorca, Sylvia Plath, Cassandra Barnett (Ngāti Huri, Raukawa), Kirsty Dunn (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa), and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe).

While loss and grief are intrinsically linked to death, within this collection, I further explore other forms of loss and grief. I touch on my loss of cultural identity, mind, and self. As a student, I have been diving deeper into my cultural identity of being Māori and what that means to me. I have lost many things throughout my life at the hands of abuse, depression, grief, and mental health. The poetry within this collection will continue to serve as a blunt reminder of the experiences (both positive and negative) that I have endured or witnessed over the last couple of decades.

I have seen a multitude of losses (in its many variations) as I continue the dance to discover what the mortality of not only myself but those around me means to me. While everyone will experience feelings of grief and loss, I have framed my own experiences in my interpretation of our collective mortality.

text: Anhedonia: He kohinga whiti mai i te tirohanga o ngā wahanga e rima o te pōuri / A collection of poetry themed around loss presented through the lens of the five stages of grief Anhedonia is a collection of personal experiences centred around loss examined through the lens of the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) and framed within a personal confessional postmodernism style. It was also influenced by the collected works of Federico Garcia Lorca, Sylvia Plath, Cassandra Barnett (Ngāti Huri, Raukawa), Kirsty Dunn (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa), and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe).

While loss and grief are intrinsically linked to death, within this collection, I further explore other forms of loss and grief. I touch on my loss of cultural identity, mind, and self. As a student, I have been diving deeper into my cultural identity of being Māori and what that means to me. I have lost many things throughout my life at the hands of abuse, depression, grief, and mental health. The poetry within this collection will continue to serve as a blunt reminder of the experiences (both positive and negative) that I have endured or witnessed over the last couple of decades.

I have seen a multitude of losses (in its many variations) as I continue the dance to discover what the mortality of not only myself but those around me means to me. While everyone will experience feelings of grief and loss, I have framed my own experiences in my interpretation of our collective mortality.

year: 2024