Background This article considers the impact of differential task difficulty on student engagement and progression within an Irish primary school context. Gaining and maintaining student engagement during learning tasks such as homework is a significant and understandable on-going challenge for teachers. The findings of this study hold the potential to support teachers' decision making processes regarding the development of student tasks.

In this paper we introduce a new Grammatical Evolution (GE) system designed to support the specification of problem semantics in the form of attribute grammars (AG). We discuss the motivations behind our system design, from its use of shared memory spaces for attribute storage to the use of a dynamically type programming language, Python, to specify grammar semantics. After a brief analysis of some of the existing GE AG system we outline two sets of experiments carried out on four symbolic regression type (SR) problems. The first set using a context free grammar (CFG) and second using an AG. After presenting the results of our experiments we highlight some of the potential areas for future performance improvements, using the new functionality that access to Python interpreter and storage of attributes in shared memory space provides.

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In this paper we discuss the need to extend the standard types of character behaviours found in game environments if we are to create new and more compelling gaming experiences. We propose using techniques from Evolutionary Algorithms and research from Game Design to create a system that can help game designers extend standard types of behaviours. This system automatically produces behaviours that are designed to optimize predefined parameters in the game environment. We outline experiments conducted using an implementation of this system to produce behaviours for the game Ms. Pac-Man, along with providing an overview of the results obtained. Finally we discuss these results and the potential they show for our system to help game designers not only create character behaviours, but also diagnose the effect that adding or removing certain mechanics will have on the overall gaming experience.