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Open‐ended tasks can be decomposed into the three levels of Newell's Cognitive Band: the Unit‐Task level, the Operation level, and the Deliberate‐Act level. We analyzed the video game Co‐op Space Fortress at these levels, reporting both the match of a cognitive model to subject behavior and the use of electroencephalogram (EEG) to track subject cognition. The Unit Task level in this game involves coordinating with a partner to kill a fortress. At this highest level of the Cognitive Band, there is a good match between subject behavior and the model. The EEG signals were also strong enough to track when Unit Tasks succeeded or failed. The intermediate Operation level in this task involves legs of flight to achieve a kill. The EEG signals associated with these operations are much weaker than the signals associated with the Unit Tasks. Still, it was possible to reconstruct subject play with much better than chance success. There were significant differences in the leg behavior of subjects and models. Model behavior did not provide a good basis for interpreting a subject's behavior at this level. At the lowest Deliberate‐Act level, we observed overlapping key actions, which the model did not display. Such overlapping key actions also frustrated efforts to identify EEG signals of motor actions. We conclude that the Unit‐task level is the appropriate level both for understanding open‐ended tasks and for using EEG to track the performance of open‐ended tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to examine whether there is a relationship between the moral understanding adopted by school administrators and teachers and the decision-making strategies. In order to achieve the purpose of the research, data collection was carried out in the 2022-2023 academic year through a group of participants selected by purposeful sampling method among school administrators and teachers working in Sivas province. Exploratory sequential mixed method was used in the research. Qualitative data was obtained using a personal information form and open-ended survey questions, and quantitative data was obtained using the School Administrators' and Teachers' Moral Understandings Scale and Decision Strategies Scale. When the qualitative findings of the research are examined; Regarding what the concept of "morality" means, it is seen that the concepts of "justice", "honesty" and "equality" come to the fore. In terms of decision-making situations, it is seen that school administrators and teachers mainly express the concepts of "justice" and "fairness". When the quantitative findings were examined, it was concluded that school administrators' and teachers' understanding of morality and some of its sub-dimensions and decision-making strategies and some of its sub-dimensions showed significant differences in terms of some of the variables of age, gender and union membership status. It has been observed that the moral understanding of school administrators and teachers significantly predicts their decision-making strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores whether mathematics tasks in primary school mathematics textbooks provide opportunities for divergent and convergent thinking. Four mathematics textbooks (one from each of first to fourth grades) are examined for this purpose. A task is divided into three segments for the analysis and the segments are named as the beginning, the intermediary, and the end. These segments are analysed in terms of the numbers of entry points, solution methods, and correct outcomes respectively. The modes of the segments enable us to identify six different tasks. Tasks that definitively have an open-ending (multiple correct outcomes) are considered to have divergent thinking features and those which have only one correct outcome are deemed to have convergent thinking characteristics. The study reveals that the textbooks provide opportunities for both divergent and convergent thinking, yet more chances are particularly given for convergent thinking. The findings are discussed in relation to divergent and convergent thinking alongside creativity and some implications are provided for textbooks studies.

The purpose of the study was to investigate teachers' use of open-ended questions in classrooms. The study was conducted by using a mixed-methods design. The quantitative and qualitative parts of the study were carried out with 212 teachers and 65 teachers, respectively. A scaling form developed by using the rank-order scaling method was employed to collect the quantitative data. The scaling form helped to determine important factors to design open-ended questions for teachers. The qualitative data were collected by an open-ended question form and analyzed with the content analysis technique. While open-ended questions related to teaching objective(s) were identified as the most important factor, identifying time limit and point value was determined as the least important factor in the preparation of open-ended questions for teachers. The qualitative data results of the study revealed that teachers' designing of open-ended question tasks related to learning goals specifically focusing on students' higher-order skills was essential. Conversely, most of the teachers felt that they have difficulties with their use of open-ended questions/tasks. This suggested that providing professional development for both preservice and inservice teachers would be useful for developing and assessing open-ended questions/tasks effectively in classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology‐based, open‐ended learning environments (OELEs) can capture detailed information of students' interactions as they work through a task or solve a problem embedded in the environment. This information, in the form of log data, has the potential to provide important insights about the practices adopted by students for scientific inquiry and problem solving. How to parse and analyse the log data to reveal evidence of multifaceted constructs like inquiry and problem solving holds the key to making interactive learning environments useful for assessing students' higher‐order competencies. In this paper, we present a systematic review of studies that used log data generated in OELEs to describe, model and assess scientific inquiry and problem solving. We identify and analyse 70 conference proceedings and journal papers published between 2012 and 2021. Our results reveal large variations in OELE and task characteristics, approaches used to extract features from log data and interpretation models used to link features to target constructs. While the educational data mining and learning analytics communities have made progress in leveraging log data to model inquiry and problem solving, multiple barriers still exist to hamper the production of representative, reproducible and generalizable results. Based on the trends identified, we lay out a set of recommendations pertaining to key aspects of the workflow that we believe will help the field develop more systematic approaches to designing and using OELEs for studying how students engage in inquiry and problem‐solving practices. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Research has shown that technology‐based, open‐ended learning environments (OELEs) that collect users' interaction data are potentially useful tools for engaging students in practice‐based STEM learning.More work is needed to identify generalizable principles of how to design OELE tasks to support student learning and how to analyse the log data to assess student performance.What this paper adds We identified multiple barriers to the production of sufficiently generalizable and robust results to inform practice, with respect to: (1) the design characteristics of the OELE‐based tasks, (2) the target competencies measured, (3) the approaches and techniques used to extract features from log files and (4) the models used to link features to the competencies.Based on this analysis, we can provide a series of specific recommendations to inform future research and facilitate the generalizability and interpretability of results: Making the data available in open‐access repositories, similar to the PISA tasks, for easy access and sharing.Defining target practices more precisely to better align task design with target practices and to facilitate between‐study comparisons.More systematic evaluation of OELE and task designs to improve the psychometric properties of OELE‐based measurement tasks and analysis processes.Focusing more on internal and external validation of both feature generation processes and statistical models, for example with data from different samples or by systematically varying the analysis methods.Implications for practice and/or policy Using the framework of evidence‐centered assessment design, we have identified relevant criteria for organizing and evaluating the diverse body of empirical studies on the topic and that policy makers and practitioners can use for their own further examinations.This paper identifies promising research and development areas on the measurement and assessment of higher‐order constructs with process data from OELE‐based tasks that government agencies and foundations can support.Researchers, technologists and assessment designers might find useful the insights and recommendations for how OELEs can enhance science assessment through thoughtful integration of learning theories, task design and data mining techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon Darvin and Norton's framework of investment, this article explores the multiple factors underlying parents' commitment to bilingual education. I use open-ended responses on a survey to report on the motivations and experiences of parents who have enrolled their child in a French-English dual language immersion program. Findings indicate how parents' investment played out in issues surrounding identity, capital and ideology. Parents deemed it a success when their imagined identity for their child coincided with the child's experience in the program, whereas challenges occurred when this identity conflicted with the child's attitude. French linguistic capital was a salient issue, since opportunities to practice French outside of school remained limited, including for children from French-speaking households. Indeed, the major structural barrier was the hegemony of English. This discussion raises questions about the extent to which parents' investment influences children's experiences with bilingual education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logical thinking represents an important process of reasoning and a basic skill in building students' knowledge and experience which should accompany the learning process and develop students' potential at all levels of education. The program of teaching and learning mathematics in primary education in Serbia contains a large number of topics that support the goal of learning mathematics, but there is also room for improvement. The paper deals with the possibility of propaedeutics of logic and the encouragement of logical thinking, the application of open-ended tasks in the initial teaching of mathematics. Respectively to the program contents of the mathematics class, examples of open-ended tasks are presented, as support and analog to teachers in creating teaching practice, in order to promote the development of students' logical thinking, as an important component of mathematics learning outcomes.

With the rapid growth of information technology and geographic information science, many map-based visualization applications for decision-making have been proposed. These applications are used in various contexts. Our study provides empirical evidence of how domain experts utilize map-based data visualization for generating insights into vitality with respect to health-related concepts. We conducted a study to understand domain experts' knowledge, approach, and experience. Nine domain experts participated in the study, with three experts each from the fields of government, business, and research. The study followed a mixed-methods approach involving an online survey, open-ended tasks, and semi-structured interviews. For this purpose, a map-based data visualization application containing various vitality-related datasets was developed for the open-ended tasks. Our study confirms the importance of maps in this domain but also shows that vitality is strongly geographical. Furthermore, we found that map-based visualizations require multiple data sources and dimensions to enhance the utilization of them in the context of vitality. Therefore, our study suggests the necessity of a combination of multiple datasets as 'vitality themes' to efficiently communicate this particular subject to experts. As such, our results provide guidelines for designing map-based data visualizations that support the decision-making process across various domain experts in the field of vitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background In the rapidly changing industrial environment and job market, engineering profession requires a vast body of skills, one of them being decision making under uncertainty. Knowing that misunderstanding of probability concepts can lead to wrong decisions, the main objective of this study is to investigate the presence of probability misconceptions among undergraduate students of electrical engineering. Five misconceptions were investigated: insensitivity to sample size, base rate neglected, misconception of chance, illusory correlation, and biases in the evaluation of conjunctive and disjunctive events. The study was conducted with 587 students who attended bachelor schools of electrical engineering at two universities in Serbia. The presence of misconceptions was tested using multiple-choice tasks. This study also introduces a novel perspective, which is reflected in examination of the correlation between students’ explanations of given answers and their test scores. Results The results of this study show that electrical engineering students are, susceptible to misconceptions in probability reasoning. Although future engineers from the sample population were most successful in avoiding misconceptions of chance, only 35% of examinees were able to provide a meaningful explanation. Analysis of students’ explanations, revealed that in many cases majority of students were prone to common misconceptions. Among the sample population, significant percentage of students were unable to justify their own answers even when they selected the correct option. The results also indicate that formal education in probability and statistics did not significantly influence the test score. Conclusions Results of the present study indicate a need for further development of students’ deep understanding of probability concepts, as well as the need for the development of competencies that enable students to validate their answers. The study emphasizes the importance of answer explanations, since they allow us to discover whether students who mark the correct answer have some misconceptions or may be prone to some other kind of error. We found that the examinees who failed to explain their choices had much lower test scores than those who provided some explanation.

To better understand the processing of e-cigarette prevention messages, we conducted a content analysis of 1,968 participants' open-ended responses to one of four messages, which focused on industry manipulation (Big tobacco), financial and psychological cost of vaping (Can't afford), harmful chemicals in e-cigarettes (Formaldehyde), or uncertainty about the ingredients of e-liquids (Top secret). Health Belief Model (HBM) and perceived message effectiveness (PME) constructs were coded and the frequency of each variable was compared across message conditions. Among the HBM constructs, perceived health threat had the most mentions overall (38.8%). Self-efficacy of staying away from vaping had the fewest mentions across all messages (0.56%). For PME, participants more frequently mentioned message perceptions (15.75% positive message perceptions, 8.38% negative) than effect perceptions (3.46% positive effect perceptions, 1.37% negative). Big tobacco received the highest number of mentions for positive message perceptions and Formaldehyde received the highest number of mentions for positive effect perceptions. Future anti-vaping messages are recommended to address the efficacy element and to combine different themes to communicate harms of e-cigarettes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The important role of student agency in collaborative problem-solving has been acknowledged in previous mathematics education research. However, what remains unknown are the processes of agency in open-ended tasks that draw on real-life contexts and demand argumentation beyond "mathematical". In this study, we analyse a video recording of two student groups (each consisting of four students) taking part in collaborative problem-solving. We draw on the framework for collaborative construction of mathematical arguments and its interplay with student agency by Mueller et al. (2012). This original framework is supplemented by (i) testing and revising it in the context of open-ended real-life tasks, with (ii) student groups rather than pairs working on the tasks, and by (iii) offering a strengthened methodological pathway for analysing student agency in such a context. Based on our findings, we suggest that the framework suits this new context with some extensions. First, we note that differences in student agency were not only identified in terms of the discourse students drew on, but in how students were able to shift between various discourses, such as between "mathematical" and "non-mathematical" discourses. We identify a novel discourse reflecting student agency, invalidation discourse, which refers to denying other students' agency by framing their contribution as invalid. Finally, we discuss the need to reframe "mathematical" arguments—and indeed student agency—while the task at hand is open-ended and concerns real-life contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-service training is the most important stage when teachers learn about integrating technology into their teaching. Pre-service teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of technologies can be used to predict their intention of including technology in their classrooms in the future. Having the necessary technical equipment available is considered important by these teachers to deal with current educational problems, and find solutions. Therefore, pre-service teachers' educational activities were studied in this study and the use of new technologies in education was discussed. The contribution of different methods regarding the use of digital technologies for instructional purposes by pre-service teachers in different departments was investigated. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the different methods have an effect on the teachers' technology integration self-efficacy (TISE), motivation, satisfaction and attitude towards the use of technology. The opinions of the pre-service teachers about the technologies used in the lessons were also analyzed. This study employed a mixed-method methodology. The sample in this study comprised 96 pre-service teachers at a university in Turkey who were divided into groups. The study involved a personal information form, semi-structured interview form, and four different scales. An ANCOVA analysis and descriptive statistics were used with the quantitative data, and content analysis was used in the analysis of the qualitative data. The results of this research show that a significant difference exists between the technology integration exercises performed using different methods, the students' level of contribution to TISE and their motivation and technology use attitudes (TUA). The motivation and satisfaction levels were higher in the groups where authentic task-based instruction was used. It has been observed that closed-ended practical tasks support students' self-efficacy to integrate technology. On the other hand, open-ended task-based activities were found to support an increase in attitudes towards technology use more than in the other groups. The group where closed-ended applications for technology integration self-efficacy, motivation, satisfaction and use of technology were performed differed in terms of gender, department and grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an increase in technology to mediate learning and a shift to more student-centred approaches, open-ended online assignment tasks are becoming more common in higher education. Open-ended tasks offer opportunities for students to develop their own interpretations of the requirements, and online technologies offer greater flexibility and afford new types of interactions with teachers and other students. This paper presents a study of students' task interpretation and self-set goals in the context of five open-ended online assignment tasks. The findings presented in this paper demonstrate the importance of a high-quality task understanding for goal setting and suggest practical implications for task design and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the rapidly changing industrial environment and job market, engineering profession requires a vast body of skills, one of them being decision making under uncertainty. Knowing that misunderstanding of probability concepts can lead to wrong decisions, the main objective of this study is to investigate the presence of probability misconceptions among undergraduate students of electrical engineering. Five misconceptions were investigated: insensitivity to sample size, base rate neglected, misconception of chance, illusory correlation, and biases in the evaluation of conjunctive and disjunctive events. The study was conducted with 587 students who attended bachelor schools of electrical engineering at two universities in Serbia. The presence of misconceptions was tested using multiple-choice tasks. This study also introduces a novel perspective, which is reflected in examination of the correlation between students' explanations of given answers and their test scores. Results: The results of this study show that electrical engineering students are, susceptible to misconceptions in probability reasoning. Although future engineers from the sample population were most successful in avoiding misconceptions of chance, only 35% of examinees were able to provide a meaningful explanation. Analysis of students' explanations, revealed that in many cases majority of students were prone to common misconceptions. Among the sample population, significant percentage of students were unable to justify their own answers even when they selected the correct option. The results also indicate that formal education in probability and statistics did not significantly influence the test score. Conclusions: Results of the present study indicate a need for further development of students' deep understanding of probability concepts, as well as the need for the development of competencies that enable students to validate their answers. The study emphasizes the importance of answer explanations, since they allow us to discover whether students who mark the correct answer have some misconceptions or may be prone to some other kind of error. We found that the examinees who failed to explain their choices had much lower test scores than those who provided some explanation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a series of open-ended tasks exploring the development of algebraic expressions suitable for exploration with Year 7 students. The tasks use a familiar tool, the hundreds chart, to aid the transition between representational tools and abstract ways of working. The tasks outline a developmental progression of patterns and relationships found in the hundreds chart, providing students with the opportunity to generalise and use algebraic language and notation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for students to exhibit an in-depth understanding of scientific inquiry practices, including direct observation, creative design thinking, and argumentation based on evidential learning. To support academic equity for multilingual learners, these new expectations require reconceptualization of science teacher education and classroom instruction, whereby emphasis is placed on incorporating the linguistic and cultural repertoires of learners through multimodal and open-ended learning activities. To support this shift in practices, this paper presents a culturally sustaining systemic functional linguistics (CS SFL) framework for science teachers and multilingual classrooms. CS SFL praxis emphasizes three intersecting areas: language development, knowledge development, and cultural sustenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Promoting mathematical creativity is an important aim of mathematics education, which may be promoted by engaging students with open-ended tasks. Most studies of students' creativity have investigated the creativity of students working individually. This study concerns the mathematical creativity of students working as individuals as compared with those working in groups. Participants were 92 post–high school students, separated into two heterogeneous classes. Both classes engaged with the same three geometric open-ended tasks. For the first two tasks, one class worked individually, while the second worked in small groups of four to six students. For the third task, all students worked individually. Results were analyzed in terms of fluency, flexibility, and originality. No significant differences were found between classes for fluency and flexibility on the first task. However, for the second and third tasks, there were greater fluency and flexibility among those who worked or had worked in groups. For all three tasks, no significant differences between the classes were found regarding originality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a persistent suggestion that the lack of men who choose to work with young children (0–5 years) is detrimental to children's learning and development. This study analysed whether practitioners believed that men who work with young children adopt specific approaches within a play pedagogy. Practitioner beliefs about how their gender influences their practices were gathered through qualitative surveys and open-ended, photo-based interviews. This paper argues that practitioners use conflicting scripts to discuss their gendered approaches to play; it proposes that opportunities to explore gender critically, through gender sensitivity training, are vital for ECEC practitioners to ensure that a high-quality workforce is developed that can be flexible in its practices and pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to stress the relationship between individual metacognitive accuracy and academic performance. Moreover, we tested the relationship between the accuracy, items difficulty and bias score and exam results. Metacognitive monitoring calibration of 100 university students was tested in exam settings, using postdated confidence judgments. Absolute local and global accuracy and total bias score were related with test performance, difficulty and types of the items: multiple choice and open ended items. The most important results show local and local inaccuracy or overconfidence, but also an unexpected greater accuracy on low performing subjects compared with there's more performing counterparts. The open ended items low, but positively correlate with metacognitive monitoring inaccuracy, both local and global, a possible illustration of the hard-easy effect. The bias score is globally negatively related with performance, but the more the subjects respond to the difficult open-ended items, the lower the bias in selfappreciation. We conclude that there is a global expected relationship between test results and both accuracy and bias score. Also, particular results show a more nuanced relationship between local and global accuracy, items difficulty and type and bias score. Some theoretical and methodological issues are discussed and futures research direction is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A DEM simulation of the installation process of open-ended pile is conducted by means of the particle flow code PFC 2D. Focus is placed on the investigation of the soil plug behavior, from both macroscopic and microscopic perspectives. A soil assembly with natural initial stress state is first generated and the validity of the numerical installation process is further checked. Afterwards, a macroscopic analysis is performed based on the porosity and stress state. Numerical results indicate that a dense zone, with the length about half the pile diameter, has formed at the pile tip. A dramatic load transfer is observed at the bottom of the soil plug, where the lateral pressure coefficient peaks at around 2.4. From a microscopic perspective, two modes of soil layer deflection exist for soil mass inside and under the pile, respectively. Different particle displacement patterns indicate that with increasing penetration depth and resistance accumulation, soil mass flows into the pile with a lower rate. Further analysis based on the distribution of contact force chain and principal stress rotation show that soil particles, when subjected to external disturbance, tend to rearrange to the most stable structure, which is in the arch shape. Finally, an improved arch model based on the numerical results is proposed to facilitate the understanding of the plug behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first aim of this study is to try to find out the levels of the dispositions and skills of critical thinking in the students who were in their last year of education at the department of Religious Culture and Ethics (RCE) Education. The second aim is to reveal if there were any changes in the levels of critical thinking dispositions and skills of the students at the end of these four years of Religious Culture and Ethics education. For this purpose, at the end of the eighth semester a Turkish Adaptation of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (TACCTDS) was applied to teacher candidates. Besides, through open ended questions, the students were asked to evaluate themselves. The same scale had been applied to the students at the beginning of the first semester, as well. The computer-mediated evaluation of the analysis of the research data was conducted through SPSS 25.0 package software. According to TACCTDS results, the scores of all candidates were observed to be medium level in all subcategories except for truth seeking. whereas it is not, according to the answers of the open-ended questions. Because the results of the open-ended questions indicate that the teacher candidates had better skills of critical thinking in accordance with different variables. The difference between the critical thinking disposition levels of the teacher candidates at the beginning of the first and at the end of the eighth semester was aimed to be determined through TACCTDS results and it was observed that there was a slight decline in all the subcategories except for analytical. Despite this decline, the scores in all subcategories were observed to be still on the medium level in accordance with several different variables, except for truth seeking. However, in their answers to the open-ended questions, they claimed to have the skills of truth seeking, open-mindedness, self-esteem and curiosity in high numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open-endedness is often considered a prerequisite property of the whole evolutionary system and its dynamical behaviors. In the actual history of evolution on Earth, however, there are many examples showing that open-endedness is rather a consequence of evolution. We suggest that this view, which we call evolved open-endedness (EOE), be incorporated more into research on open-ended evolution. This view should allow for systematic investigation of more nuanced, more concrete research questions about open-endedness and its relationship with adaptation and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature's spectacular inventiveness, reflected in the enormous diversity of form and function displayed by the biosphere, is a feature of life that distinguishes living most strongly from nonliving. It is, therefore, not surprising that this aspect of life should become a central focus of artificial life. We have known since Darwin that the diversity is produced dynamically, through the process of evolution; this has led life's creative productivity to be called Open-Ended Evolution (OEE) in the field. This article introduces the first of two special issues on current research on OEE and on the more general concept of open-endedness. Most of the papers presented in these special issues are elaborations of work presented at the Third Workshop on Open-Ended Evolution, held in Tokyo as part of the 2018 Conference on Artificial Life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building more open-ended evolutionary systems can simultaneously advance our understanding of biology, artificial life, and evolutionary computation. In order to do so, however, we need a way to determine when we are moving closer to this goal. We propose a set of metrics that allow us to measure a system's ability to produce commonly-agreed-upon hallmarks of open-ended evolution: change potential, novelty potential, complexity potential, and ecological potential. Our goal is to make these metrics easy to incorporate into a system, and comparable across systems so that we can make coherent progress as a field. To this end, we provide detailed algorithms (including C++ implementations) for these metrics that should be easy to incorporate into existing artificial life systems. Furthermore, we expect this toolbox to continue to grow as researchers implement these metrics in new languages and as the community reaches consensus about additional hallmarks of open-ended evolution. For example, we would welcome a measurement of a system's potential to produce major transitions in individuality. To confirm that our metrics accurately measure the hallmarks we are interested in, we test them on two very different experimental systems: NK landscapes and the Avida digital evolution platform. We find that our observed results are consistent with our prior knowledge about these systems, suggesting that our proposed metrics are effective and should generalize to other systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is often characterised by three components: fluency, flexibility, and originality. Specifically, in the mathematics classroom, in order to promote these aspects of creativity, educators recommend engaging students with multiple-solution tasks and open-ended tasks. In the past, various methods were used to measure fluency, flexibility and originality. This study raises questions and dilemmas regarding these methods and measures, and illustrates the complexity of these issues with data collected from fifth-grade students engaging with three such tasks. Some of the questions raised are related to differences between multiple-solution tasks and open-ended tasks, and between creative process and creative outcomes. In addition, the gap between the potential embedded within a task and its actual results is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A central challenge for the common model and for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the development of functional human-like agents capable of performing complex tasks in dynamic real-world environments. The cognitive test-bed model approach is a method of applying Allen Newell's Single Complex Task Analysis method to create a human-like AGI. In addition to the environment, we include expertise in the test-bed. The expertise is placed in the agent, and the agent is placed within the environment and provided with complex tasks to perform. The agent development process and agent task performance was gauged for backwards compatibility in the performance of open-ended tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open-ended problems are a very effective tool for engaging student interest. In this paper, we report a physics activity that provides insight into the lifestyle of theropod dinosaurs. This activity generates great enthusiasm among the students since virtually everyone is interested in dinosaurs. In the spirit of the “spherical cow” approach to difficult problems, we consider the problem at the simplest level. This type of approach is very important since it helps students learn how to estimate answers for many “real-world” problems. At the end of the activity, we discuss how the calculations could be improved by including more effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To work flexibly with the sound design for The Locust Wrath, a multimedia dance performance on the topic of climate change, the author developed software for interactive sonification of climate data. An open-ended approach to parameter mapping allowed tweaking and improvisation during rehearsals, resulting in a large range of musical expression. The sonifications represented weather systems pushing through Southeast Asia in complex patterns. The climate was rendered as a piece of electroacoustic music, whose compositional form--gesture, timbre, intensity, harmony, spatiality--was determined by the data. The article discusses aspects of aesthetic sonification, reports the process of developing the present work and contextualizes the design decisions within theories of cross-modal perception and listening modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale measuring Chinese preservice physical education teachers’ beliefs about the physical education profession (PPET-BPEP). The domains and items were created from a conceptual analysis of the previous literature and PPETs’ responses to an open-ended survey. Six experts in the field of physical education and educational psychology evaluated the content validity of the scale. The reliability and factorial validity of the scale were examined utilizing a sample of 696 Chinese PPETs. The PPET-BPEP scale with 12 items embedded in two domains revealed acceptable content validity, internal structure validity, and internal consistency. The two domains were labeled as “sense of calling” and “value of physical education profession” based on the shared content of items in each domain. We recommend using PPET-BPEP scale for PPET recruitment and preparation. The scale can also help establish teacher belief scales in other subject matters. Future validation of the scale is needed in different countries and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ratchet effect–the gradual accumulation of changes within a cultural trait beyond a level that individuals can achieve on their own–arguably rests on two key cognitive abilities: high-fidelity social learning and innovation. Researchers have started to simulate the ratchet effect in the laboratory to identify its underlying social learning mechanisms, but studies on the developmental origins of the ratchet effect remain sparse. We used the transmission chain method and a tower construction task that had previously been used with adults to investigate whether “generations” of children between 4 and 6 years were able to make a technological product that individual children could not yet achieve. 21 children in a baseline and 80 children in transmission chains (each consisting of 10 successive children) were asked to build something as tall as possible from plasticine and sticks. Children in the chains were presented with the constructions of the two preceding generations (endstate demonstration). Results showed that tower heights did not increase across the chains nor were they different from the height of baseline towers, demonstrating a lack of improvement in tower height. However, we found evidence for cultural lineages, i.e., construction styles: towers within chains were more similar to each other than to towers from different chains. Possible explanations for the findings and directions for future research are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined student mathematical engagement through the intended and enacted lessons taught by two teachers in two different middle schools in Indonesia. The intended lesson was developed using the ELPSA learning design to promote mathematical engagement. Based on the premise that students will react to the mathematical tasks in the forms of words and actions, the analysis focused on identifying the types of mathematical engagement promoted through the intended lesson and performed by students during the lesson. Using modified Watson's analytical tool (2007), students’ engagement was captured from what the participants’ did or said mathematically. We found that teachers’ enacted practices had an influence on student mathematical engagement. The teacher who demonstrated content in explicit ways tended to limit the richness of the engagement; whereas the teacher who presented activities in an open-ended manner fostered engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary curriculum demands the development of both problem solving skills and negotiative skills required for collaborative group work. Tasks are required that create the best possible conditions for students to develop both of these skill sets. Open-ended tasks have been shown to provide these conditions, but they also require the teacher to relinquish some level of control over student activity, since the open-endedness of the tasks provides students with the opportunity to realize their intentions rather than just the teacher's. It is necessary to investigate the nature of the affordances created by the use of open-ended tasks in order to anticipate how they might best be used for both instruction and learning. What is needed is a structured way to identify the affordances offered by open-ended tasks. This paper reports a study conducted in a laboratory classroom equipped to record classroom social interactions in great detail using advanced video technology. The reported analysis addresses the following question: What are the foci of the students' social interactions during collaborative problem solving while attempting open-ended mathematical tasks? Analysis was carried out in relation to each type of data generated: written response, transcripts and videos. Our research has identified structures to represent these affordances so that teachers can both anticipate them and draw on them in monitoring and facilitating student collaborative problem solving. The structured identification of affordances in relation to (a) written product and (b) negotiative focus provides teachers with two frameworks by which to scaffold student collaborative work while attempting open-ended tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language maps signals onto meanings through the use of two distinct types of structure. First, the space of meanings is discretized into categories that are shared by all users of the language. Second, the signals employed by the language are compositional: The meaning of the whole is a function of its parts and the way in which those parts are combined. In three iterated learning experiments using a vast, continuous, open-ended meaning space, we explore the conditions under which both structured categories and structured signals emerge ex nihilo. While previous experiments have been limited to either categorical structure in meanings or compositional structure in signals, these experiments demonstrate that when the meaning space lacks clear preexisting boundaries, more subtle morphological structure that lacks straightforward compositionality-as found in natural languages-may evolve as a solution to joint pressures from learning and communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classroom instructors implementing pedagogical strategies for embodied learning about sexuality and religion need institutional support and assistance from colleagues and mentors to be successful. One means of providing institutional and peer support for classroom instructors is to host and lead a pedagogy workshop. Building on the work of Ott and Stephens on embodied learning and other articles and teaching tactics found throughout this issue of Teaching Theology and Religion, this article presents a sample design for a two-hour workshop with faculty and/or graduate teaching assistants on the topic of teaching sexuality and religion. Non-expert facilitators can lead this workshop and it is intended to start a conversation about pedagogy rather than to provide definitive answers to end the discussion. The goals are to demystify a taboo topic and to provide concrete strategies for teaching that will promote responsible engagement and a better-integrated learning experience for students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the applicability of the push-pull-mooring (PPM) migration theory to travelers' airline selection in order to clarify their switching behavior. Based on the extensive review of the literature and open-ended survey, we identified the constituents of four push, three pull, and four mooring factors. A field survey was conducted at an international airport in South Korea, and a total of 529 complete responses were used for data analysis. Our results showed that the PPM model comprising the second-order factor structure provided an acceptable representation of the observed variables in a comparison with the first-order construct model. Results of the structural analysis also indicated that all PPM categories directly affected switching intention. In addition, mooring dimension had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between pull category and switching intention. However, no moderating effect of mooring factor on the relationship between push factor and switching intention was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematics programmes in basic education are currently undergoing reform in Portugal. This paper sets out to see how teachers are putting the new guidelines for the teaching of mathematics intopractice, with particular emphasis on maths communication in the classroom. To achieve this, an experiment in teaching the topic 'Sequences and Regularities' with open-ended tasks, using a qualitative and interpretative approach, is reported. Data were collected during two class observations, from two interviews and by analysing the activities of the students. An exploratory task was chosen in the first lesson and a investigative one in the second. One month separated the two lessons, and during this time the teacher read and discussed texts on mathematics communication. Observation of the first lesson showed that the communication in the classroom was mostly focused on the teacher, which provided little student-student and student-class interaction. In the second observed lesson, the teacher changed the attention she paid to what each student said and did, encouraging the students to ask each other and encouraged student-class and the student-student communication.

Although asking questions is the most frequently named disciplinary practice included in the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards , little is known about how elementary-aged students learn to develop inquiry questions. In this study, we analyzed how 19 third-grade students in the U.S. Midwest Region developed questions related to economics, geography, history, and political science across five months during the 2017–2018 school year. We found that students were generally successful with developing questions related to the disciplines, but their questions were most often closed-ended. We provide implications for supporting students' learning as they generate inquiry questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers tips for mathematics teachers to develop a discourse community in the classroom by several methods that include giving open tasks to students, asking the students to think about a problem and then share their solution, and defining what will be a contribution in the class.