University of Colorado Boulder

About: University of Colorado Boulder is a education organization based out in Boulder, Colorado, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 48794 authors who have published 115151 publications receiving 5387328 citations. The organization is also known as: CU Boulder & UCB.

The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture

Abstract: of assessments used to give grades or to satisfy the accountability demands of an external authority, but rather the kind of assessment that can be used as a part of instruction to support and enhance learning. On this topic, I am especially interested in engaging the very large number of educational researchers who participate, in one way or another, in teacher education. The transformation of assessment practices cannot be accomplished in separate tests and measurement courses, but rather should be a central concern in teaching methods courses. The article is organized in three parts. I present, first, an historical framework highlighting the key tenets of social efficiency curricula, behaviorist learning theories, and "scientific measurement." Next, I offer a contrasting socialconstructivist conceptual framework that blends key ideas from cognitive, constructivist, and sociocultural theories. In the third part, I elaborate on the ways that assessment practices should change to be consistent with and support socialconstructivist pedagogy. The impetus for my development of an historical framework was the observation by Beth Graue (1993) that "assessment and instruction are often conceived as curiously separate in both time and purpose" (p. 291, emphasis added). As Graue notes, the measurement approach to classroom assessment, "exemplified by standardized tests and teacher-made emulations of those tests," presents a barrier to the implementation of more constructivist approaches to instruction. To understand the origins of Graue's picture of separation and to help explain its continuing power over presentday practice, I drew the chronology in Figure 1. A longerterm span of history helps us see that those measurement perspectives, now felt to be incompatible with instruction, came from an earlier, highly consistent theoretical framework (on the left) in which conceptions of "scientific measurement" were closely aligned with traditional curricula and beliefs about learning. To the right is an emergent, constructivist paradigm in which teachers' close assessment of students' understandings, feedback from peers, and student self-assessments would be a central part of the social processes that mediate the development of intellectual abilities, construction of knowledge, and formation of students' identities. The best way to understand dissonant current practices, shown in the middle of the figure, is to realize that instruction (at least in its ideal form) is drawn from the emergent paradigm, while testing is held over from the past. Historical Perspectives: Curriculum, Psychology, and Measurement

Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return

Abstract: In most scholarly discussions of ethnic communities, immigrants, and aliens, and in most treatments of relationships between minorities and majorities, little if any attention has been devoted to d...

Quantum dot-induced phase stabilization of α-CsPbI3 perovskite for high-efficiency photovoltaics.

Abstract: We show nanoscale phase stabilization of CsPbI 3 quantum dots (QDs) to low temperatures that can be used as the active component of efficient optoelectronic devices. CsPbI 3 is an all-inorganic analog to the hybrid organic cation halide perovskites, but the cubic phase of bulk CsPbI 3 (α-CsPbI 3 )—the variant with desirable band gap—is only stable at high temperatures. We describe the formation of α-CsPbI 3 QD films that are phase-stable for months in ambient air. The films exhibit long-range electronic transport and were used to fabricate colloidal perovskite QD photovoltaic cells with an open-circuit voltage of 1.23 volts and efficiency of 10.77%. These devices also function as light-emitting diodes with low turn-on voltage and tunable emission.

Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences

Abstract: In the last two decades, the widespread application of genetic and genomic approaches has revealed a bacterial world astonishing in its ubiquity and diversity. This review examines how a growing knowledge of the vast range of animal–bacterial interactions, whether in shared ecosystems or intimate symbioses, is fundamentally altering our understanding of animal biology. Specifically, we highlight recent technological and intellectual advances that have changed our thinking about five questions: how have bacteria facilitated the origin and evolution of animals; how do animals and bacteria affect each other’s genomes; how does normal animal development depend on bacterial partners; how is homeostasis maintained between animals and their symbionts; and how can ecological approaches deepen our understanding of the multiple levels of animal–bacterial interaction. As answers to these fundamental questions emerge, all biologists will be challenged to broaden their appreciation of these interactions and to include investigations of the relationships between and among bacteria and their animal partners as we seek a better understanding of the natural world.

Stability and transparency in bilateral teleoperation

Abstract: Tools for quantifying teleoperation system performance and stability when communication delays are present are provided A general multivariable system architecture is utilized which includes all four-types of data transmission between master and slave: force and velocity in both directions It is shown that a proper use of an four channels is of critical importance in achieving high performance telepresence in the sense of accurate transmission of task impedances to the operator It is also shown that transparency and robust stability (passivity) are conflicting design goals in teleoperation systems The analysis is illustrated by comparing transparency and stability in two common architectures, as well as a recent passivated approach and a new transparency-optimized architecture, using simplified one-degree-of-freedom examples >