Heterogeneous Proxytypes as a Teaching Tool in Learning Science and Education
The post is to share an update about an (unexpected) outcome of one of my main research outputs: the Heterogeneous Proxytypes (HP) hypothesis.
A brief recap before going to the point: back in 2014 I proposed heterogeneous proxytypes as a framework (alternative and integrative with respect to other approaches based on prototypes, exemplars, model-theory etc.) for conceptual representation and processing in cognitive science and artificial intelligence research (here the original paper http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050914015233, presented at BICA 2014 held at the MIT in Boston).
Such a proposal has led to the design and development of categorization systems like DUAL-PECCS (the main references of such a cognitively-inspired knowledge representation and processing framework, and of its computational counterpart, are reported below):
- Antonio Lieto, "A Computational Framework for Concept Representation in Cognitive Systems and Architectures: Concepts as Heterogeneous Proxytypes" in Proceedings of BICA 2014, 5th Int. Conference of Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, Boston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, 7-9 November 2014. Elsevier Procedia Computer Science, Vol. 41 (2014), pp. 6-14.
- Antonio Lieto, Daniele P. Radicioni and Valentina Rho, A Common-Sense Conceptual Categorization System Integrating Heterogeneous Proxytypes and the Dual Process of Reasoning". In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Buenos Aires, July 2015, pp. 875-881. AAAI press.
- Antonio Lieto, Daniele P. Radicioni and Valentina Rho "Dual PECCS: A Cognitive System for Conceptual Representation and Categorization" in Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence (JETAI), Vol. 29(2), pp. 433-452.
- Antonio Lieto, "Heterogeneous Proxytypes Extended: Integrating Theory-like Representations and Mechanisms with Prototypes and Exemplars", in Proceedings of BICA 2018, Springer Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 2019.
The fact: in the past few days, thanks to a late notification by Google Scholar, I have discovered that HP hypothesis has been proposed, in a 2017 Ph.D Thesis at the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg entitled "Towards a Science Education Learning Environment for Student Teachers of the Foundation Phase" (by E.C.A. Kok), as a tool for "foundation phase school teachers" (that I have just discovered being "school teachers teaching children the foundations of reading, writing and literacy and are also responsible for helping children to develop their thinking skills") to reflect on what kind of stimulus to present in order to let the students to activate the "right proxy-representation" in their working memory (by using the HPH terminology) as a trigger for letting learning take place.
Below an excerpt directly taken from the above-mentioned Ph.D. Thesis
I have to say that I did not think (at all) to the possible implications of the HP in the context of teaching and of science education and I am really honored that such a model has been considered as a possible teaching tool. Probably this could be an area of application to explore further (in particular for the conceptual change issue) in the next future and, hopefully, it could be a nice example of cross-fertilization between different disciplines. Let's see...
P.S. Below a couple of photos of the original "drawings" where the idea of concepts as "heterogeneous proxytypes" was conceived. I was having breakfast with a cappuccino and asked for a take-away chocolate croissant. At the moment when the barista gave me the croissant, this simple idea came to my mind and I draw some notes directly on the croissant "envelope" (that I have kept since then).
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| First diagram sketch of the heterogeneous proxytypes hypothesis (on a croissant take-away "envelope"). Click to see the entire picture. |
