In the current study differences between primary school teachers classified as high-performing in their implementation of cooperative learning (CL) in their classrooms and teachers who were less successful in implementing cooperative learning were investigated. The levels of implementation of cooperative learning differed significantly between teachers, especially in teaching students the needed cooperative behaviours. Based on semi-structured interviews, it was found that low-performing CL teachers struggle more with student behaviour during cooperative learning, while high-performing CL teachers feel more able to regulate student behaviour. We concluded that teachers who differed in their teacher performance of implementation of cooperative learning also differed in their attitudes and beliefs about this approach. An integrated model on professional development and teacher change is proposed to interpret the results of differences between teachers. This model shows that positive attitudes and beliefs before implementation, but also experiencing positive student outcomes (incl. positive student behaviour) during implementation are important factors in making cooperative learning successful in practice. We suggest that teachers should be prevented from entering a negative spiral in which they experience student behaviour during cooperative learning only as difficult and, therefore, do not succeed in improving students’ cognitive and behavioural outcomes.
The methodology of biomimicry design thinking is based on and builds upon the overarching patterns that all life abides by. “Cultivating cooperative relationships” within an ecosystem is one such pattern we as humans can learn from to nurture our own mutualistic and symbiotic relationships. While form and process translations from biology to design have proven accessible by students learning biomimicry, the realm of translating biological functions in a systematic approach has proven to be more difficult. This study examines how higher education students can approach the gap that many companies in transition are struggling with today; that of thinking within the closed loops of their own ecosystem, to do good without damaging the system itself. Design students should be able to assess and advise on product design choices within such systems after graduation. We know when tackling a design challenge, teams have difficulties sifting through the mass of information they encounter, and many obstacles are encountered by students and their professional clients when trying to implement systems thinking into their design process. While biomimicry offers guidelines and methodology, there is insufficient research on complex, systems-level problem solving that systems thinking biomimicry requires. This study looks at factors found in course exercises, through student surveys and interviews that helped (novice) professionals initiate systems thinking methods as part of their strategy. The steps found in this research show characteristics from student responses and matching educational steps which enabled them to develop their own approach to challenges in a systems thinking manner. Experiences from the 2022 cohort of the semester “Design with Nature” within the Industrial Design Engineering program at The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands have shown that the mixing and matching of connected biological design strategies to understand integrating functions and relationships within a human system is a promising first step. Stevens LL, Whitehead C, Singhal A. Cultivating Cooperative Relationships: Identifying Learning Gaps When Teaching Students Systems Thinking Biomimicry. Biomimetics. 2022; 7(4):184. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7040184
Key to reinforcement learning in multi-agent systems is the ability to exploit the fact that agents only directly influence only a small subset of the other agents. Such loose couplings are often modelled using a graphical model: a coordination graph. Finding an (approximately) optimal joint action for a given coordination graph is therefore a central subroutine in cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). Much research in MARL focuses on how to gradually update the parameters of the coordination graph, whilst leaving the solving of the coordination graph up to a known typically exact and generic subroutine. However, exact methods { e.g., Variable Elimination { do not scale well, and generic methods do not exploit the MARL setting of gradually updating a coordination graph and recomputing the joint action to select. In this paper, we examine what happens if we use a heuristic method, i.e., local search, to select joint actions in MARL, and whether we can use outcome of this local search from a previous time-step to speed up and improve local search. We show empirically that by using local search, we can scale up to many agents and complex coordination graphs, and that by reusing joint actions from the previous time-step to initialise local search, we can both improve the quality of the joint actions found and the speed with which these joint actions are found.
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Het project AI hub Noord is gericht op het ontwikkelen van het Noordelijk AI-ecosysteem. Het consortium met partners zoals Astron, RuG, UMCG, TNO, Wetsus, Life Cooperative, etc is gefinancierd vanuit een React EU aanvraag.Doelstellingen zijn het voorbereiden van gezamenlijke onderzoeksprojecten, het creëren van learning communities en het versterken van het netwerk.
Hotelschool The Hague (HTH) was founded and funded in 1929 by the hospitality industry to create a hub where industry partners could gain and share new insights, skills and knowledge. Since then, it has become a professional operation with a solid international reputation in hospitality management. Though HTH has expanded considerably over the years, it has always remained true to its original mandate with a clear commitment to hospitality and a strong connection with the industry. Since its establishment, HTH has sharpened its focus, remaining regionally rooted with an increasingly concentrated international outlook. In line with its heritage, HTH established an ambitious research and internationalisation strategy through its Research Center in 2010 and has pursued that strategy ever since. The goals of the strategy are clear: to achieve international recognition for high quality research that has immediate practical application in the real world while driving towards sustainable development facilitated by an expansive international network and learning community. In pursuit of this ambition, HTH finds the perfect opportunity in this Pilot Richting Europa project to advance the progress made in its established research and internationalisation strategy and to focus the expansion of its international network towards industrial, governmental, and other private and public sector partners. Through this project, it is the ambition of HTH to increase the impact of its research area, City Hospitality. City Hospitality is mainly a nationally focussed initiative which would significantly benefit from international exchange with other European cities engaging in hospitality efforts. This will be achieved through (1) the expansion of its network of industrial and governmental partners and networks across Europe and (2) by increasing its participation in cooperative European projects, with the ultimate aim of leading a consortium for a European project by the end of the project year.
The PANTOUR consortium builds on previous knowledge and tools produced by the Blueprint for Sectoral Skills project/NTG Alliance and will develop new tools and methodology to address strategic and sustainable approaches and cooperation between vocational education, training, higher education, enterprises of the tourism sector, looking to boost innovation in Europe (in tourism, leisure and hospitality).Societal IssueThe aim of this project is to map and bridge the existing skills gaps in Green, Social and Digital skills of workforce in tourism, leisure and hospitality.Benefit to societyMaking lifelong learning and mobility a reality, developing innovative learning solutions and promoting inclusiveness and access to education. Promoting active citizenship, building equal opportunities and addressing gender equality, diversity and inclusiveness in targeted actions.The consortium aims especially at designing innovative and cooperative solutions to address skills needs in the tourism ecosystem, with the development of outputs such as: the Sectoral Skills Intelligence Monitor, the Tourism Skills Lab, Resource Books for Trainers, the implementation of the National Skills Groups, a Skills Strategy Plan for 2026-2036, among others. With the exploitation of its outputs, PANTOUR seeks to benefit job seekers, unemployed and employed workers from the industry, employers, SMEs and micro entrepreneurs, dedicating a special attention in reskilling and upskilling the workforce on future skills needs in digital, green and social skills.The number of people benefiting from this proposal will be over 10 million that work across the tourism and leisure sector in Europe.The consortium is a multi-disciplinary partnership which comprises 13 European partners: Industry Partners and Tourism Sector Representatives, Universities and Transnational partners. Project lead is CEHAT (Spain). The other partners are GESTLABOR (Spain), Turismo de Portugal (Portugal), Zangador Research Institute (Bulgaria), Technological University Dublin (Ireland), Federturismo Confindustria (Italy), VIMOSZ (Hungary), European Tourism Association ETOA (Transnational), Satakunta University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Ruraltour (Transnational), Landurlaub (Germany), University of the Aegan (Greece).
