The research in this dissertation consists of two parts: An active learning algorithm for hierarchical labels and an embedding-based retrieval algorithm. In the first part, we present a new approach for learning hierarchically decomposable concepts. The approach learns a high-level classifier (e.g., location vs. non-location) by separately…

This paper explores the efficacy of ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence in educational contexts, particularly concerning its potential to assist students in overcoming academic challenges while highlighting its limitations. ChatGPT is suitable for solving general problems. When a student comes across academic challenges, ChatGPT may…

Reform is often associated with anticipated changes aimed at altering and improving social structures. Revealing the outcomes of reform initiatives, as well as identifying key facilitators and circumstances that contributed to their success or failure, can provide a deeper understanding of this distinct social phenomenon. Social transformations…

Computational thinking (CT) activities are increasingly being integrated into early childhood schools. We focus on studying children's learning using an "unplugged" (non-computational) learning unit that considers a teacher's knowledge and classroom space and affords seamless adaptation into the classroom given the objects used in the…

Background: Prior research suggests that the teaching of abstract concepts can be enhanced by the use of concrete examples, but there are few controlled studies. Objective: To replicate key findings from experiment one from Rawson et al. (2015). Method: Experiment participants studied definitions of abstract concepts from psychology, either with…

This paper compares website usability--specifically library users' understanding of library terms--for fifty-one original research studies between 2012-2021, with the findings of John Kupersmith's 2011 white paper "Library Terms That Users Understand." Studies reported approximately twice as many terms that users didn't understand than…

Today, more than ever, there is a need to uncover the patterns of thinking that shape the rationality of the leader cohort to aid them in their role-making of the challenging niche truly. This Husserlian phenomenological inquiry purported to explore the individual and collective lived experiences of nine (9) purposively selected Filipino academic…

This two-part dissertation centers on a re-examination of the role of book indexes in information retrieval research on full-text digital book collections in digital libraries. Early research focused on information retrieval and book indexes (in addition to other parts of books) in the 2000s when the Google Books corpus was first released to the…

In this study, we introduced a cross-classified multidimensional nominal response model (CC-MNRM) to account for various response styles (RS) in the presence of cross-classified data. The proposed model allows slopes to vary across items and can explore impacts of observed covariates on latent constructs. We applied a recently developed variant of…

A mixture of salt water and isopropyl alcohol is immiscible, forming two separate liquids with the organic layer on top and aqueous layer on bottom. When universal indicator is added to such a mixture, all of the indicator compounds in the universal indicator preferentially dissolve in the alcohol--except for phenolphthalein at high pH. Mixtures…

Quality of universities is best viewed through the eyes of stakeholders. Yet, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, rankings conducted by various agencies purport to provide one overall measure of university quality. This article re-examines some of the data used by university rankers. In so doing, it shows that their information can be repackaged…

Color terms divide the color spectrum differently across languages. Previous studies have reported that speakers of languages that have different words for light and dark blue (e.g., Russian "siniy" and "goluboy") discriminate color chips sampled from these two linguistic categories faster than speakers of languages that use…

A crucial bottleneck in medical artificial intelligence (AI) is high-quality labeled medical datasets. In this paper, we test a large variety of wisdom of the crowd algorithms to label medical images that were initially classified by individuals recruited through an app-based platform. Individuals classified skin lesions from the International…

Whilst teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is a significant goal of science education, there remains debate about specifying the NOS and appropriate pedagogies and approaches to researching the NOS. A neglected, but conceptually and practically significant, problem is the proliferation of NOS-related learning goals such as NOS beliefs,…

The paper presents a framework for school guidance in the twenty-first century that focuses the guidance approach, on promoting lifelong learning and takes into account the impact of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). It outlines the goals, objectives, and key players involved in guidance approach and provides a structured…