This chapter explores “predictive coding” models, which challenge classic theories of perception and brain function. By incorporating details of both the connectivity between brain areas and the levels of microcircuitry within cortical regions, these models suggest a radical new way to conceive of perception and cognition. Whereas classic models assume that feed-forward, or bottom-up, processing is mainly responsible for our perception, predictive coding theories suggest that top-down models determine our perception, with bottom-up processing simply correcting errors in those models. Neuroscience evidence is presented for the abundance of top-down connections, the efficiency of neural coding, the role of expectancy in attention, and how the balance of top-down and bottom-up processing is related to the dysfunctional attention processes in some clinical groups. The allocation of attention is thought to be a dynamic and changing process wherein top-down hyper-priors are integrated with current priors that are being continually updated within and across levels. According to such models, attention affects the expected precision (reliability) of bottom-up information and the likelihood that this information will be used to update the current top-down models. Predictive coding theories that are opening new ways of thinking about the neural mechanisms that drive our attention are discussed.

Chapter 10 is an in-depth reflection of what constitutes meaningful participation and how to ensure participation is meaningful. Adolescent voices are heard but seldom have an impact on policy, practice and service delivery. Research should not replicate exclusion and marginalisation but instead should enable inclusion. Participation also requires structural supports that enable it and sustain it over time.

Current societal expectations, theory and research conclude that effective teachers meet students’ needs by encouraging responsibility and having active control of their class, within a context that develops positive relationships. This chapter presents corrective strategies that have been curated to be consistent with this approach. They particularly draw from research that focuses on maintaining high expectations and structure, developing positive student–teacher relationships, treating disengagement and its associated behavioural challenges in students as opportunities to teach about self and others, and maximising student autonomy wherever possible. This approach is referred to as authoritative teaching.

This chapter is an introduction to foundational communication theories, concepts and models, examining both historical and contemporary approaches to understanding communication in society, mass media, and organisations. Have a look at any job advertisement and its selection criteria; effective communication skills are almost always mentioned. Strong communication skills are recognised as an asset in business. It is how we share information, seek assistance and delegate tasks. Conversely, poor communication can result in misunderstandings or the failed transmission of vital messages.

This chapter describes the communication process through fundamental communication theories and models. The discussion will define key terms and provide information about the relationship between the various elements of a communication event. This will give you the ability to predict what may happen in a communication event and increase the effectiveness of your communication. We address the basic assumptions we make when communicating and examine the various elements of the communication process in closer detail.

Chapter 6 delves deeply into the subject of communications in groups. We discuss the factors that hamper effective communications. We also explore the effects that gender and more broadly, member diversity can have on the nature of our communications. We include a section on factors and techniques that improve the quality of member communication in a diverse society.

This chapter focuses on how governments, public organizations, and public sector employees and managers can be more innovative. In other words, the motivating question is: What are the drivers and conditions for innovations in the public sector? Conditions for innovation are also essential because public sector employees, employees’ work groups, public organizations, countries, and international and supranational organizations must innovate. Thus, an important question becomes how and why individuals, groups, organizations, countries, and international organizations achieve innovations. What are the conditions for innovation? Answering this question is vital because it explains how governments (at national, regional, state, and local levels), organizations, groups, and individuals can innovate when there are the right conditions. In other words, based on the context and actors’ involvement, public organizations may require different conditions to innovate. This chapter discusses drivers and conditions of innovations at the national, organizational, workgroup, and individual levels.

Using data from direct observations, experimental mesocosms, field experiments, and complex computer models, the IPCC has made a very strong case supporting the hypothesis that human behavior is leading to rapid and substantial climate change. One important anthropogenic effect is changes to the carbon cycle, primarily greater CO2 export into the atmosphere from industrial activity. In recent years, both oceans and terrestrial sources have taken up some of this excess CO2, but ocean uptake is particularly problematic, because it leads to acidification. There are many other important greenhouse gases that influence Earth’s surface temperatures, including methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and a diverse group of halocarbons. Though less abundant, these gases have a much greater global warming potential than CO2, on a per molecule basis. Many effects of greenhouse gases on global climate are complex; for example, a particular halocarbon can increase and decrease surface temperatures via different mechanisms. There are many different types of climate models that use the movement of the atmosphere around Earth, and the interaction of the atmosphere with the oceans and with biological processes, to project future climate. Though there are quantitative differences between the projections of each model, these models all project a much warmer and wetter global climate over the next century, with northern latitudes experiencing the greatest impact of climate change.

This chapter looks at early interactions between parent and infant, from joint looking at faces, gaze following, and attention to hands and gestures, to later interactions where infants and adults readily capture each other’s attention. It examines the ways adults modify their speech to infants and young children, e.g., with short, grammatical utterances, formulaic routines, repetitions in variation sets, higher pitch, slower rate, and pausing at the ends of utterances. Adults adjust their speech to what their children understand and provide feedback on children’s errors, checking up to make sure they have understood them and so offering them a conventional way to say what they appear to intend. Adults establish joint attention and engage with infant and child activities, anchoring their conversational contributions to what is physically present and visible, and talking about the child’s current activities. And infants become adept at attracting adult attention and enlisting their help in different activities. In child-directed speech, adults focus on what is physically and conversationally present, and respond to the topics children introduce. They choose short, high-frequency words, with high neighborhood density, many with concrete referents present in the here and now. Conversational interactions provide the setting for acquisition.

Language use is a skill that requires exposure to language, feedback on usage, and practice. So children need exposure from expert speakers, feedback on the language being acquired, and on any errors children produce, and practice along the way. Languages differ, so the paths children follow within and across languages may vary, and some constructions may be harder to acquire in one language, easier in another. The goal is to learn to use language for communication. Language is essentially social, relying on common ground. Part I (Chapters 2-6) focusses on how adults talk with children; children’s analysis of the speech stream; their first production of words; and how they assign meanings to words. Part II (Chapters 7-11) focusses on children’s acquisition of structure: elaborations of information inside clauses, and combinations of clauses. They also rely on structure when coining new words. Part III (Chapters 12-14) looks at turn-taking, learning to be polite, persuasive, and informative, and how to tell stories. Children who hear two languages have two such systems to learn. Part IV (Chapters 15-16) summarizes evidence for biological specialization for language and considers how continuity and change are reflected in language processing.

How do children process language as they get older? Is there continuity in the functions assigned to specific structures? And what changes in their processing and their representations as they acquire more language? They appear to use bracketing (finding boundaries), reference (linking to meanings), and clustering (grouping units that belong together) as they analyze the speech stream and extract recurring units, word classes, and larger constructions. Comprehension precedes production. This allows children to monitor and repair production that doesn’t match the adult forms they have represented in memory. Children also track the frequency of types and tokens; they use types in setting up paradigms and identifying regular versus irregular forms. Amount of experience with language, (the diversity of settings) plus feedback and practice, also accounts for individual differences in the paths followed during acquisition. Ultimately, models of the process of acquisition need to incorporate all this to account for how acquisition takes place.

This chapter introduces structures and structural interconnections for LTI systems and then considers several examples of digital filters. Examples include moving average filters, difference operators, and ideal lowpass filters. It is then shown how to convert lowpass filters into other types, such as highpass, bandpass, and so on, by use of simple transformations. Phase distortion is explained, and linear-phase digital filters are introduced, which do not create phase distortion. The use of digital filters in noise removal (denoising) is also demonstrated for 1D signals and 2D images. The filtering of an image into low and high-frequency subbands is demonstrated, and the motivation for subband decomposition in audio and image compression is explained. Finally, it is shown that the convolution operation can be represented as a matrix vector multiplication, where the matrix has Toeplitz structure. The matrix representation also shows us how to undo a filtering operation through a process called deconvolution.

Learning is a process. It takes time and often involves a degree of challenge. But how do students know that their learning is progressing? How do they identify ways to improve their learning? How do educators know whether the strategies and activities that they are using are helping students? This is the role of assessment – it helps students and educators to gauge progress and identify opportunities for improvement.

In Chapters 5, 6 and 7 we explored how to use digital technologies in the learning and teaching of the three domains of knowledge. In this chapter, we will close the loop by focusing on assessment and how digital technologies can help. We will start by considering the important role of assessment in learning and teaching. Following this, we will explore how to capture evidence of learning, assess learning and provide feedback using digital technologies. The chapter will conclude by exploring how to store and analyse assessment data using digital technologies.