Meta-learning has been proven effective in tackling the cold-start problem of recommendation systems. Most work in this line adopts the meta-optimization idea that learns global knowledge to ...initialize the base recommender and adapts it for unseen recommendation tasks. Typically, the process is non-adaptive in the sense that both the initialization and model fitting are not task-specific. Such non-adaptive approaches do not work well for the strict cold-start problem, where historical interaction data of the new users is scarce or not available at all. In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive meta-optimization approach, called Adaptive Meta-Optimization (AdaMO), to address the problem. AdaMO is fully adaptive, namely, it simultaneously customizes the initialization and model fitting according to task-specific information. During the cold-start phase, it aggregates task-specific information with transferred knowledge from all historical tasks to tune the initialization of the base model. In the subsequent warm-up phase, AdaMO mines the adaptive transition information from the behavior patterns and parameter status to effectively fit the model using transitional learning. By making a sophisticated balance between shared knowledge and task-specific information, AdaMO outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in various cold-start scenarios.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
2.
Serial Participation in Urban Planning Cohen-Blankshtain, Galit; Gofen, Anat
Journal of the American Planning Association,
04/2022, Volume:
88, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The current focus on power relationships in planning processes emphasizes socioeconomic characteristics of the general public, whose participation is often portrayed as one-time, idiosyncratic, ...nonprofessional, and relatively powerless. To shift attention to the understudied repeated participation in the general public, we distinguish serial participation as a distinct participation pattern by focusing on an underexplored group, referred to as natural joiners or usual suspects. Our analysis focuses on Jerusalem and draws on interviews with serial participators (N = 13) who participated in at least three different planning processes and with city planners (N = 19). Becoming a serial participator emerged as an evolutionary process, during which knowledge gained triggered transitional learning, manifested by a broader perspective on planning and a transition toward locality-oriented participation. Serial participators' influence varies; it can extend beyond specific planning outcomes to the process itself and the discourse among city planners. Although it does not mitigate imbalanced power relations within the public, serial participation contributes to more balanced power relations between ordinary citizens and paid participants in planning.
Serial participators can provide planners with valuable historical perspective, local knowledge, and participation recommendations while serving as intermediaries to the local community capable of mobilizing others and activating civic networks. Planners can nurture serial participation by encouraging repeated involvement of individuals engaged in additional community spheres or passionate "anecdotal" participants. Seeking influence and not recognition, serial participators may not always fully cooperate. Planners should invest in long-term relationships that allow for reconciling inevitable disagreements.
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•We examined how zebra finches distinguish learned serial strings of vocal elements.•The birds distinguish element strings by positional and transitional cues.•They generalized transitional patterns ...to novel strings and string segments.•The sequential encoding strategy can be biased depending on the learning context.
Learning sequences is of great importance to humans and non-human animals. Many motor and mental actions, such as singing in birds and speech processing in humans, rely on sequential learning. At least two mechanisms are considered to be involved in such learning. The chaining theory proposes that learning of sequences relies on memorizing the transitions between adjacent items, while the positional theory suggests that learners encode the items according to their ordinal position in the sequence. Positional learning is assumed to dominate sequential learning. However, human infants exposed to a string of speech sounds can learn transitional (chaining) cues. So far, it is not clear whether birds, an increasingly important model for examining vocal processing, can do this. In this study we use a Go–Nogo design to examine whether zebra finches can use transitional cues to distinguish artificially constructed strings of song elements. Zebra finches were trained with sequences differing in transitional and positional information and next tested with novel strings sharing positional and transitional similarities with the training strings. The results show that they can attend to both transitional and positional cues and that their sequential coding strategies can be biased toward transitional cues depending on the learning context.
This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: In Honor of Jerry Hogan.
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The aim of the paper is to highlight the capacity of social actors, groups and communities to critically reflect on sociality and the question of how the spaces we live in together are created and ...constructed. In doing so, the contribution explores the interplay between individual and collective modes of learning. The author argues in this context that theories dealing with the dialectical relationship between structures and subjects somewhat overlook the relevance of civil spheres. Drawing on empirical research of social movements, emancipatory practices and social change, the author developed a theoretical tool which allows mapping processes of ‘rewriting sociality’ and its relation to biographical learning as well as community and societal learning. The article reviews biographicity as a rich and generative concept and will pay particular attention to questions of intersubjectivity and the social world as a relational sphere. Finally, the paper focuses on aspects of social movement practices and questions concerning the reproduction and transformation of social conventions and normative assumptions.
Learning to be a professional child welfare worker involves learning counseling skills. In Norway, these skills have long been taught by teachers, but recent reforms in higher education initiated by ...the Bologna Process encourage giving more responsibility to students for their own learning. This paper describes one of these new initiatives-a peer tutoring program of counseling skills for students training to be child protection workers. Using the results of a series of questionnaires administered to and qualitative interviews with students who participated in the program from 2003 to 2009, this paper provides a summary account of the experiences of student tutees and tutors in the program-especially their evaluations of this alternative way of learning counseling skills. Analyses of the qualitative and quantitative data yielded by the study indicated that peer tutoring programs led to a number of positive effects, especially in terms of increased feelings of security and freedom in exploring different fields of knowledge. In addition, the program's collaborative and dialogical processes worked to incorporate tutors and tutees into a transitional learning community.
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The credibility of short-term undergraduate research as a paradigm for effective learning within Medicine has been recognized. With a view to strengthening this paradigm and enhancing ...research-teaching linkages, this study explores whether particular types of research supervisor are pre-disposed to providing supportive learning environments. Correspondingly, a novel solution is offered to addressing clinical governance concerns about failings in preparing students for a supercomplex world. While recommendations for addressing these concerns have previously focused on curriculum delivery and assessment, this study affords a fresh perspective through consideration of research supervisor attributes, behaviours and experiences. Using statistical analyses of response data from a large cohort of experienced research supervisors who completed an online survey, evidence is found to suggest that staff involvement in personal research ought to enhance student learning through research. In turn, the supervisor factors which are most supportive of this effect may vary according to how we measure higher forms of learning. Supervisors are advised to design successive follow-on research projects to facilitate cross-disciplinary research. In preparing medical graduates for survival in a super-complex world, more needs to be done, however, to investigate why supervisors who see their students more regularly are more likely to provide cross-disciplinary research opportunities. By contrast, potential to engage in risk-taking behaviours and maintain or progress to an advanced stage of learning may originate more precisely with the student.
This survey-based study investigates the plausibility of the existence of a research-teaching nexus specifically within the context of supervised senior undergraduate medical student research. This ...particular nexus is defined in terms of benefits to teaching arising a) directly, through the supervisor designing the research environment as a pedagogical tool to enhance student learning and b) indirectly, through curriculum revisions arising from student research. Informed by the writings of Marcia B. Baxter Magolda and Ron Barnett, survey questions were designed to measure evidence for higher forms of learning and preparation for a supercomplex world. Supervisors were also invited to reflect on curriculum re-design as a product of student research. The study findings confirm the potential of supervised student research as an effective pedagogical tool in medical education. Nevertheless, there is scope for developing a more cohesive research-teaching nexus through improving supervisor training to provide the necessary rationale for mainstreaming student research.
The purpose of this case study was to understand faculty perspectives on how to improve the pass rates of developmental education students. Pass rates of developmental education students are markedly ...and notably low among those in higher education. What has been a small problem for decades has now evolved into a significant problem, one worth calling a crisis. This case study examined the perspectives of eight experienced faculty at Butler County Community College (BC3). It was guided by one central research question and four subquestions. The study consisted Zoom interviews with each of the eight faculty members as well as member checks following the data analysis of each interview. Themes emerged from the data analysis and aligned with each research subquestion. The results of the study indicated that the most common challenges developmental education students face which impedes their success is low motivation, lack of preparation, poor time management skills, low reading comprehension and critical thinking skills, and a transitional learning curve from high school to college. Results of the study also identified several instructor best practices for teaching developmental education classes including small class sizes, conducting the class in a computer lab, and focusing on project-based learning activities as opposed to traditional textbook readings and assignments. Faculty recommended integrating both the developmental reading class and developmental writing class into one course.
This article describes musicians' lifelong and lifewide learning as it was investigated through biographical research. Key developments in the professional lives of 32 musicians were examined, ...focusing on critical incidents and educational interventions in their life, educational and
career span. The main thread was the question of how these musicians learn. After analysis, three conceptual entities were established in the biographies, the first being musicians' artistic, generic and educational leadership; second, the interconnection between their varied learning styles;
and third, their need for an adaptive and responsive learning environment within a reflexive and reflective institutional culture. Two biographical examples of musicians suffering from performance anxiety are described, focusing on their leadership, learning styles and subsequent transformative
and transitional learning when developing coping strategies. The article concludes with directions for teaching and learning that can be extrapolated from the findings of biographical research.
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