An illusion of unity: Uitlander politics before the Anglo-Boer war

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 20 August, 198

Judging the quality of teaching: local and European perspectives on the evaluation of teaching

Aim: The paper aims to demonstrate lessons that can be learnt about evaluation of schools and teachers using examples drawn from a transnational project. The paper aims to stimulate reflection amongst participants on the potential for comparative studies for personal reflection and professional development. Content: This paper will have two, interlocking components; 1. To share findings about similarities and differences in the evaluation of school leaders and of teachers drawn from a number of European countries. This section will illustrate alternatives to the evaluation of schools and teachers that demonstrate an on-going, formative approach to evaluation that is collaborative and participatory. 2. To demonstrate how comparative studies can lead to meta-cognition that goes beyond the scope of the topic that forms the focus of a transnational project. This section will draw on Mezirow’s theory of ‘perspective transition’ to illustrate the challenges and opportunities presented by reflection on transnational differences in professional practice. Reflective practice is seen as an important component of developing teaching and learning (Ghaye, 2010) and international projects create opportunities for high-quality professional learning through comparative studies of education which can provide insight into one’s own and others’ professional practices (Dale, 2007). Systems and procedures for the evaluation of school leaders and teachers’ practice vary widely from country to country (Headen, 2014; Eurydice Report, 2013). This paper will present findings drawn from a transnational Erasmus+ project on the Evaluation of School Leaders and Teachers’ Practice to reveal a variety of perspectives on the nature, purpose and characteristics of the evaluation of school leaders and teachers. The paper will draw on experiences of participants in the project to demonstrate how experience of alternative practices can be used as a basis for reflective enquiry within a process of Mezirow’s ‘perspective transformation’ to inform professional practice for a variety of stakeholders, including inspectors, school leaders and teachers. Thinking deeply about teacher education: Evaluation of school leaders and teachers is an important component of professional development (Cranston, 2013). This paper will share evidence drawn from practice that evaluation can be a collaborative and transformative element of thinking deeply about teaching and teacher education. The country/ies to which the presentation relates: The study is an Erasmus+ project with partners from England, Basque Country, Romania, Lithuania, Portugal, Italy and Cyprus. This paper draws on the experiences of this project to show the benefits and challenges of comparative studies for any country – the messages of the paper will be transferable to a range of professional contexts

Rotating Liquid Drops: Plateaus Experiment Revisited

The dynamics of liquid drops rotating in another liquid were studied experimentally with an oil drop suspended in a neutral buoyancy tank. New stable shapes not predicted by the theory were observed

Gardens and birdwatching: recreation, environmental management and human-nature interaction in an everyday location

Private, domestic gardens are important both as sites for leisure and as sites of conservation interest. Birdwatching is an important leisure activity, yet there appear to be no previous studies that combine these two themes of importance to the understanding of managed garden spaces. Semi-structured interviews were held with birdwatchers as part of a larger study of the interactions between local places and birdwatching. Respondents revealed a wide and disparate spectrum of responses to their gardens and to how they made use of their gardens in their normal birdwatching activities. The study raises questions about the extent to which gardens are viewed as sites for interactions with nature and raises challenges about the use of gardens as areas of conservation action

Logical descriptions

Call number: LD2668 .R4 1965 C18

Neighborhood diversity plays a limited role in the residential preferences of creative class workers in Chicago

Recent theories about the rise of the ‘creative class’ suggest that skilled workers in knowledge-intensive jobs are attracted to cities which contain cultural amenities and a diverse population. In new research using Chicago census tract data, Bradley Bereitschaft and Rex Cammack test this theory. They find that neighborhood diversity is a weak predictor of where creative class workers chose to live, and that more traditional factors, such as home values, schools, and transport were more likely to predict a higher proportion of creative class workers in a neighborhood

Pattern-Recognition Processor Using Holographic Photopolymer

proposed joint-transform optical correlator (JTOC) would be capable of operating as a real-time pattern-recognition processor. The key correlation-filter reading/writing medium of this JTOC would be an updateable holographic photopolymer. The high-resolution, high-speed characteristics of this photopolymer would enable pattern-recognition processing to occur at a speed three orders of magnitude greater than that of state-of-the-art digital pattern-recognition processors. There are many potential applications in biometric personal identification (e.g., using images of fingerprints and faces) and nondestructive industrial inspection. In order to appreciate the advantages of the proposed JTOC, it is necessary to understand the principle of operation of a conventional JTOC. In a conventional JTOC (shown in the upper part of the figure), a collimated laser beam passes through two side-by-side spatial light modulators (SLMs). One SLM displays a real-time input image to be recognized. The other SLM displays a reference image from a digital memory. A Fourier-transform lens is placed at its focal distance from the SLM plane, and a charge-coupled device (CCD) image detector is placed at the back focal plane of the lens for use as a square-law recorder. Processing takes place in two stages. In the first stage, the CCD records the interference pattern between the Fourier transforms of the input and reference images, and the pattern is then digitized and saved in a buffer memory. In the second stage, the reference SLM is turned off and the interference pattern is fed back to the input SLM. The interference pattern thus becomes Fourier-transformed, yielding at the CCD an image representing the joint-transform correlation between the input and reference images. This image contains a sharp correlation peak when the input and reference images are matched. The drawbacks of a conventional JTOC are the following: The CCD has low spatial resolution and is not an ideal square-law detector for the purpose of holographic recording of interference fringes. A typical state-of-the-art CCD has a pixel-pitch limited resolution of about 100 lines/mm. In contrast, the holographic photopolymer to be used in the proposed JTOC offers a resolution > 2,000 lines/mm. In addition to being disadvantageous in itself, the low resolution of the CCD causes overlap of a DC term and the desired correlation term in the output image. This overlap severely limits the correlation signal-to-noise ratio. The two-stage nature of the process limits the achievable throughput rate. A further limit is imposed by the low frame rate (typical video rates) of low- and medium-cost commercial CCDs

Depth perception in disparity-defined objects : finding the balance between averaging and segregation

The work was funded by BBSRC grant BB/J000272/1 and EPSRC grant EP/L505079/1.Deciding what constitutes an object, and what background, is an essential task for the visual system. This presents a conundrum: averaging over the visual scene is required to obtain a precise signal for object segregation, but segregation is required to define the region over which averaging should take place. Depth obtained via binocular disparity (the differences between two eyes’ views), could help with segregation by enabling identification of object and background via differences in depth. Here, we explore depth perception in disparity-defined objects. We show that a simple object segregation rule, followed by averaging over that segregated area, can account for depth estimation errors. To do this, we compared objects with smoothly varying depth edges to those with sharp depth edges, and found that perceived peak depth was reduced for the former. A computational model used a rule based on object shape to segregate and average over a central portion of the object, and was able to emulate the reduction in perceived depth. We also demonstrated that the segregated area is not predefined but is dependent on the object shape. We discuss how this segregation strategy could be employed by animals seeking to deter binocular predators.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Segregation, integration, inclusion and effective provision: a case study of perspectives from special educational needs children, parents and teachers in Bangalore, India

Educating special educational needs (SEN) children in special schools is the norm in India but there is a growing trend towards inclusive practice. Perspectives were sought from children, their parents and teachers in Bangalore, India to investigate perceptions of effective provision for SEN children using an interpretative approach to provide ‘thick descriptions’. Findings suggest that integration of SEN children in mainstream schools was not the preferred model for both the children and adults in the study. Separate schooling was cited by the majority of respondents as the most appropriate model for reasons of unsuitable pedagogy and curriculum, a lack of individualised attention for children and difficulties of social interaction. The study reveals that teacher dedication, passion and care for the SEN children in their classes is juxtaposed with an acknowledgment of their professional training and development needs. These findings provide teachers and policy makers with an in depth insight from this sample case study into the perspectives of children, their parents and teachers on appropriate SEN provision and the challenges of implementing inclusive practice

Two 'transitions': the political economy of Joyce Banda's rise to power and the related role of civil society organisations in Malawi

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Review of African Political Economy on 21/07/2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2014.90194