this paper investigates learner-initiated responses to english language teachers’ referential questions and learner initiatives after teachers’ feedback moves in meaning-focused question-answer sequences to analyze how interactional practices of language teachers, their initiation and feedback moves, facilitate learner initiatives. classroom discourse research has largely neglected learner init...

Predictive user models often require a phase of effortful supervised training where cases are tagged with labels that represent the status of unobservable variables. We formulate and study principles of lifelong learning where training is ongoing over a prolonged period. In lifelong learning, decisions about extending a case library are made continuously by balancing the cost of acquiring value...

Multi-robot inverse reinforcement learning (mIRL) is broadly useful for learning, from passive observations, the behaviors of multiple robots executing fixed trajectories and interacting with each other. In this paper, we relax a crucial assumption in IRL to make it better suited for wider robotic applications: we allow the transition functions of other robots to be stochastic and do not assume...

Hidden Markov random fields (HMRFs) are conventionally assumed to be homogeneous in the sense that the potential functions are invariant across different sites. However in some biological applications, it is desirable to make HMRFs heterogeneous, especially when there exists some background knowledge about how the potential functions vary. We formally define heterogeneous HMRFs and propose an E...

Reflection on one’s own behaviour and practice is an important aspect of lifelong learning. However, such practice and the underlying assumed principles are often hidden from the learner’s vision, and are therefore difficult to evaluate. Social interactions with others stimulate the learner to re-asses and reflect on the nature of the learner’s own behaviour and practice, such as in professiona...

This paper describes the formulation of decision agenda “Río Sonora” Trust (FRS)’s Technical Committee (TC), established in 2014 to compensate for damage caused by Buenavista del Cobre Company’s copper leach spill Sonora River Basin. The Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) (Kingdon, 2014) was used analyze participation and criteria technical feasibility anticipation future limitations alternatives ...

This paper investigates a gradual on-line learning algorithm for Harmonic Grammar. By adapting existing convergence proofs for perceptrons, we show that for any nonvarying target language, Harmonic-Grammar learners are guaranteed to converge to an appropriate grammar, if they receive complete information about the structure of the learning data. We also prove convergence when the learner incorp...

This paper demonstrates the generality of the hidden Markov model approach for exploratory sequence analysis by applying the methodology to study students’ learning behaviors in a new domain, i.e., an asynchronous, online environment that promotes an explicit inquiry cycle while permitting a great deal of learner control. Our analysis demonstrates that the high-performing students have more lin...