From the Preface: This book is addressed to all who are curious about the nature of mathematics and its role in society. It is neither a text book nor a specialists' book. It consists of a number of loosely linked essays that may be read independently and for which I have tried to provide a leitmotif by throwing light on the relationship between mathematics and common sense. In these essays I hope to foster a critical attitude towards both the existence of common sense in mathematics and the ambiguous role that it can play.

Ten years from now, what do you want or expect your students to remember from your course? We realized that in ten years what matters will be how students approach a problem using the tools they carry with them—common sense and common knowledge—not the particular mathematics we chose for the curriculum. Using our text, students work regularly with real data in moderately complex everyday contexts, using mathematics as a tool and common sense as a guide. The focus is on problems suggested by the news of the day and topics that matter to students, like inflation, credit card debt, and loans. We use search engines, calculators, and spreadsheet programs as tools to reduce drudgery, explore patterns, and get information. Technology is an integral part of today's world—this text helps students use it thoughtfully and wisely. This second edition contains revised chapters and additional sections, updated examples and exercises, and complete rewrites of critical material based on feedback from students and teachers who have used this text. Our focus remains the same: to help students to think carefully—and critically—about numerical information in everyday contexts.

From clones, family, abortion, terrorism, and the concept of the collective to economics, nuclear power, cap and trade, renewable energy, and the politics of climate change, Everest and Bedogne do something much needed and remarkably absent in today's media. They strip away the layers of liberal and conservative ideology to look at the most talked about topics of our time from the standpoint of what the politicians have forgotten--common sense. Brought to light by logic, history, and science, the book filters the issues that in today's world every citizen, student, and educator needs to understand through what we know to be sound--that which we have gained through our day-to-day trials--our all-too-often repressed ability to see things in a practical and matter-of-fact way.

Representations of Commonsense Knowledge provides a rich language for expressing commonsense knowledge and inference techniques for carrying out commonsense knowledge. This book provides a survey of the research on commonsense knowledge. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the basic ideas on artificial intelligence commonsense reasoning. This text then examines the structure of logic, which is roughly analogous to that of a programming language. Other chapters describe how rules of universal validity can be applied to facts known with absolute certainty to deduce other facts known with absolute certainty. This book discusses as well some prominent issues in plausible inference. The final chapter deals with commonsense knowledge about the interrelations and interactions among agents and discusses some issues in human and social interactions that have been studied in the artificial intelligence literature. This book is a valuable resource for students on a graduate course on knowledge representation.

The consideration of symbolic machine learning algorithms as an entire class will make it possible, in the future, to generate algorithms, with the aid of some parameters, depending on the initial users' requirements and the quality of solving targeted problems in domain applications. Diagnostic Test Approaches to Machine Learning and Commonsense Reasoning Systems surveys, analyzes, and compares the most effective algorithms for mining all kinds of logical rules. Global academics and professionals in related fields have come together to create this unique knowledge-sharing resources which will serve as a forum for future collaborations.

In this era of inclusive education it is essential that all teachers have a sound understanding of the nature of students’ special educational needs and how these needs may best be met in the classroom. Not only must teachers understand and accept students with disabilities and learning problems, but they must also possess a wide range of teaching and management strategies. Similar knowledge and skills are also required by classroom assistants and other personnel working in a support role in schools. This book offers sound practical advice on assessment and intervention based on the latest research evidence from the field. This fully revised and updated sixth edition includes chapters on: general and specific learning difficulties students with autism intellectual, physical or sensory impairments self-regulation social skills behaviour management literacy and numeracy curriculum adaptation teaching methods. In addition, the book presents a new chapter on the special needs of gifted and talented students. The practical advice the author gives throughout the book is embedded within a clear theoretical context supported by current research and classroom practice.

Parents want teachers to explain how they instruct children. They become annoyed when the teachers are silent or surly. Parents counter with explicit, common sense questions: how do teachers arouse interest, design curricula, reinforce discipline, assign grades, designate textbooks, and select technology? This book examines the parents' questions, the answers they elicited, the allies they attracted, and the improvements they initiated.

This fully revised and updated eighth edition of Peter Westwood’s book offers practical advice and strategies for meeting the challenge of inclusive teaching. Based on the latest international research from the field, it offers practical advice on both new and well-tried evidence-based approaches and strategies for teaching students with a wide range of difficulties. As well as covering special educational needs, learning difficulties, and disabilities in detail, chapters also explore topics such as self-management and autonomy, managing behaviour, and social skills. The book offers sound pedagogical practices and strategies for adapting curriculum content, designing teaching materials, differentiating instruction for mixed-ability classes, and implementing inclusive assessment of learning. Key features of this new edition include: Additional information on linking all aspects of teaching to a Response-to-Intervention Model A focus on the increasing importance of digital technology in supporting the learning of students with special educational needs and disabilities Up-to-date resource lists for each chapter, for those who wish to pursue a particular topic in greater depth Reflecting cutting-edge international research and teaching practices, this is an invaluable resource for practising and trainee teachers, teaching assistants, and other educational professionals looking to support students with special educational needs and disabilities.