A Network Theory Approach to Curriculum Design.

Entropy (Basel)

Department of Mathematics, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA.

Published: October 2021

In this paper we hypothesize that education, especially at the scale of curriculum, should be treated as a complex system composed of different ideas and concepts which are inherently connected. Therefore, the task of a good teacher lies in elucidating these connections and helping students make their own connections. Such a pedagogy allows students to personalize learning and strive to be 'creative' and make meaning out of old ideas. The novel contribution of this work lies in the mathematical approach we undertake to verify our hypothesis. We take the example of a precalculus course curriculum to make our case. We treat textbooks as exemplars of a specific pedagogy and map several texts into networks of isolated (nodes) and interconnected concepts (edges) thereby permitting computations of metrics which have much relevance to the education theorists, teachers and all others involved in the field of education. We contend that network metrics such as average path length, clustering coefficient and degree distribution provide valuable insights to teachers and students about the kind of pedagogy which encourages good teaching and learning.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8534555PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e23101346DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

network theory
4
theory approach
4
approach curriculum
4
curriculum design
4
design paper
4
paper hypothesize
4
hypothesize education
4
education scale
4
scale curriculum
4
curriculum treated
4

Similar Publications

Toward a Free-Response Paradigm of Decision-Making in Spiking Neural Networks.

Neural Comput

January 2025

Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200437, China

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) have attracted significant interest in the development of brain-inspired computing systems due to their energy efficiency and similarities to biological information processing. In contrast to continuous-valued artificial neural networks, which produce results in a single step, SNNs require multiple steps during inference to achieve a desired accuracy level, resulting in a burden in real-time response and energy efficiency. Inspired by the tradeoff between speed and accuracy in human and animal decision-making processes, which exhibit correlations among reaction times, task complexity, and decision confidence, an inquiry emerges regarding how an SNN model can benefit by implementing these attributes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Replicator dynamics on heterogeneous networks.

J Math Biol

January 2025

Laboratory of Mathematics and Complex Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Networked evolutionary game theory is a well-established framework for modeling the evolution of social behavior in structured populations. Most of the existing studies in this field have focused on 2-strategy games on heterogeneous networks or n-strategy games on regular networks. In this paper, we consider n-strategy games on arbitrary networks under the pairwise comparison updating rule.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has reignited the debate on effective leadership during a crisis. The study examined healthcare leaders' experiences, challenges and responses amid the COVID-19 crisis in India and the USA.

Design/methodology/approach: Thematic analysis culminated in developing a thematic framework that encapsulates the behavior of operational healthcare leaders in India and the USA to illustrate how they responded to the global pandemic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biomarkers.

Alzheimers Dement

December 2024

Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a clinical cognitive deficit that is not severe enough to meet the threshold for Alzheimer's Disease (AD); however, MCI patients have an increased risk of developing AD. Therefore, a diagnosis of MCI may represent a critical turning point in the trajectory of developing AD. Establishing neurological signatures of MCI using network control theory (NCT) may allow more informed diagnosis, and an understanding of its underlying mechanisms could pave the way for novel treatments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In the last decade, extensive research has emerged into understanding the impact of risk factors for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) on brain function in pre-symptomatic stages. Here, we focused on the apolipoprotein e4 (APOEe4) gene, the major genetic risk factor for sporadic AD, and its effect on brain function in early adulthood.

Method: In the first part of the study, we systematically reviewed the multimodal functional neuroimaging literature, exploring its relationship with cognition, and the potential effects of other variables including the demographics, other risk factors, and methodological and analytical choices.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!