title: Stepping out of the "ivory tower": an initial teacher educator's experience of returning to the classroom.

authors: Petrie, Kirsten Culhane

subjects: initial teacher education

abstract: In this article I want to discuss my attempts to make sense of my role and practice as a teacher educator who helps student teachers implement the curriculum in schools and my experiences of engaging in a process of personal professional development. I will demonstrate how a six week experience as a teacher in a primary school challenged my understandings and practices of the what it means to be a teacher in this context, and what the learning experience meant for me as a teacher educator. It is work that explores what it takes to be a teacher of teaching for students who are working towards teaching in primary schools. I report that linking teacher education curriculum with the realities of primary schools has particular challenges.

text: Stepping out of the "ivory tower": an initial teacher educator's experience of returning to the classroom. In this article I want to discuss my attempts to make sense of my role and practice as a teacher educator who helps student teachers implement the curriculum in schools and my experiences of engaging in a process of personal professional development. I will demonstrate how a six week experience as a teacher in a primary school challenged my understandings and practices of the what it means to be a teacher in this context, and what the learning experience meant for me as a teacher educator. It is work that explores what it takes to be a teacher of teaching for students who are working towards teaching in primary schools. I report that linking teacher education curriculum with the realities of primary schools has particular challenges.

year: 2010

title: Large-scale attribute selection using wrappers

authors: Gutlein, Martin

subjects: computer science

abstract: Scheme-specific attribute selection with the wrapper and variants of forward selection is a popular attribute selection technique for classification that yields good results. However, it can run the risk of overfitting because of the extent of the search and the extensive use of internal cross-validation. Moreover, although wrapper evaluators tend to achieve superior accuracy compared to filters, they face a high computational cost. The problems of overfitting and high runtime occur in particular on high-dimensional datasets, like microarray data.
We investigate Linear Forward Selection, a technique to reduce the number of attributes expansions in each forward selection step. Our experiments demonstrate that this approach is faster, finds smaller subsets and can even increase the accuracy compared to standard forward selection. We also investigate a variant that applies explicit subset size determination in forward selection to combat overfitting, where the search is forced to stop at a precomputed “optimal” subset size. We show that this technique reduces subset size while maintaining comparable accuracy.

text: Large-scale attribute selection using wrappers Scheme-specific attribute selection with the wrapper and variants of forward selection is a popular attribute selection technique for classification that yields good results. However, it can run the risk of overfitting because of the extent of the search and the extensive use of internal cross-validation. Moreover, although wrapper evaluators tend to achieve superior accuracy compared to filters, they face a high computational cost. The problems of overfitting and high runtime occur in particular on high-dimensional datasets, like microarray data.
We investigate Linear Forward Selection, a technique to reduce the number of attributes expansions in each forward selection step. Our experiments demonstrate that this approach is faster, finds smaller subsets and can even increase the accuracy compared to standard forward selection. We also investigate a variant that applies explicit subset size determination in forward selection to combat overfitting, where the search is forced to stop at a precomputed “optimal” subset size. We show that this technique reduces subset size while maintaining comparable accuracy.

year: 2009

title: Taku Ara, Taku Mahara: Pākehā Family Experiences of Kaupapa Māori and Bilingual Education

authors: Barnes, Alexander Louis

subjects: Kaupapa Maori

abstract: Kaupapa Māori (indigenous Māori-centred philosophies) initiatives have transformed various social, cultural and public projects in the domains of governance and constitutional issues, health, education, the environment, community development and research in Aotearoa – New Zealand. As a Pākehā graduate of te kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori (Māori language immersion pre-school and primary school), this research is concerned with exploring the impact of kaupapa Māori and bilingual educational initiatives on my life and the lives of two other Pākehā families who share similar educational backgrounds. This foundational study utilises qualitative narrative inquiry methods as a means of understanding and analysing the implications for Pākehā as a result of their participation in kaupapa Māori and bilingual education. An intergenerational family approach is used in this research whereby the individual voices and experiences of young adults are heard equally alongside their parents’. Collectively understood, the themes represented in this research offer a unique means of understanding why Päkehä families decided to be involved in Māori immersion settings, and what these experiences mean to them now. One of the principle aims of this study is that it be used as a platform for dialogue amongst Pākehā, non-Māori and Māori about the future direction of bicultural education in Aotearoa – New Zealand.

text: Taku Ara, Taku Mahara: Pākehā Family Experiences of Kaupapa Māori and Bilingual Education Kaupapa Māori (indigenous Māori-centred philosophies) initiatives have transformed various social, cultural and public projects in the domains of governance and constitutional issues, health, education, the environment, community development and research in Aotearoa – New Zealand. As a Pākehā graduate of te kōhanga reo and kura kaupapa Māori (Māori language immersion pre-school and primary school), this research is concerned with exploring the impact of kaupapa Māori and bilingual educational initiatives on my life and the lives of two other Pākehā families who share similar educational backgrounds. This foundational study utilises qualitative narrative inquiry methods as a means of understanding and analysing the implications for Pākehā as a result of their participation in kaupapa Māori and bilingual education. An intergenerational family approach is used in this research whereby the individual voices and experiences of young adults are heard equally alongside their parents’. Collectively understood, the themes represented in this research offer a unique means of understanding why Päkehä families decided to be involved in Māori immersion settings, and what these experiences mean to them now. One of the principle aims of this study is that it be used as a platform for dialogue amongst Pākehā, non-Māori and Māori about the future direction of bicultural education in Aotearoa – New Zealand.

year: 2006