Responsibilities of subject mentors, professional mentors and link tutors in secondary physical education initial teacher education

Legislative changes in England, most notably the publication of Initial teacher training (Secondary phase) (Circular 9/92) by the Department for Education (DfE, 1992), have resulted in the reorganisation of initial teacher education (ITE), including the introduction of school-based ITE. In school-based ITE, the responsibilities of higher education institution (HEI) and school-based staff have been reorganised and responsibility for mentoring of students in school has become key. Although there has been much research on the effectiveness of school-based ITE, and on the effectiveness of partnerships and of school-based mentors, there has been little research on whether perceptions of staff as to their own and others responsibilities are compatible and whether these match those identified in role descriptions for various staff involved with the course. The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions of which staff had major and which had supporting responsibility for specific aspects of ITE courses, for supporting students in their development as teachers and to meet the standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and to compare these perceptions (i) among staff and students, and (ii) with the responsibilities as identified in course documentation. Subject mentors, professional mentors, link tutors and students on four secondary physical education Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses answered a questionnaire identifying their perceptions of responsibilities for different aspects of the course. Course documentation that identified the responsibilities of the three groups of staff on the four courses included in the study was also considered. Results showed that perceptions of staff about their own and others responsibilities for different aspects of the course do not always match perceptions of other members of staff about responsibilities but perceptions of their own responsibilities generally match those identified in course documentation except in two specific areas; major responsibility for supporting students in their actual teaching in school and supporting students to reach the standards for further professional requirements. Results are considered in relation to implications for supporting students in their development as teachers. Implications for further research are also identified

Secondary PGCE PE students’ perceptions of their subject knowledge

PE teachers in England are required to teach a wide range of physical activities in order to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE). The content or subject knowledge necessary to teach all areas of activity in the NCPE is acknowledged as important, both in its own right and as giving students confidence and accuracy for subject application. Subject knowledge is identified as one of the standards for the award of qualified teacher status on completion of an initial teacher education course in England. However, students entering secondary Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) PE courses bring with them a variety of experiences, qualifications and subject knowledge to teach the areas of activity in the NCPE. Most students have a sports-related degree. However, such degrees may not include subject knowledge appropriate to teach all six areas of activity in the NCPE. Students, therefore, are required to gain subject knowledge on their one year PGCE course. The purpose of this study was to look at secondary PGCE PE students’ perceptions of amount of subject knowledge in the six areas of activity that comprise the NCPE. Twenty-seven students completed a questionnaire at the beginning of each of the second and third terms of their course (January and April). The questionnaire included a question about knowledge in the six areas of activity in the NCPE and in specific Games taught in many schools in England. Results suggested that there were differences in students’ perceptions of amount of subject knowledge. The highest percentage of students perceived good subject knowledge in traditional team Games. The highest percentage of students perceived little subject knowledge in Outdoor and Adventurous Activities (OAA) and Dance. There were significant differences between male and female students’ perceptions of knowledge in OAA, Swimming, Football, Netball and Rounders. There were also significant differences in students’ perceptions of knowledge in Dance, Gymnastics, OAA and Volleyball between the beginning of the second and third terms. Implications of the results are considered in relation to: (i) experiences which students require on PGCE courses to develop subject knowledge; (ii) selection procedures for secondary PGCE PE courses; and (iii) preparation of students for secondary PGCE PE courses on sports-related degree courses

Reconciling Coulomb breakup and neutron radiative capture

The Coulomb-breakup method to extract the cross section for neutron radiative capture at astrophysical energies is analyzed in detail. In particular, its sensitivity to the description of the neutron-core continuum is ascertained. We consider the case of 14C(n, $\gamma$)15C for which both the radiative capture at low energy and the Coulomb breakup of 15C into 14C+n on Pb at 68 MeV/nucleon have been measured with accuracy. We confirm the direct proportionality of the cross section for both reactions to the square of the asymptotic normalization constant of 15C observed by Summers and Nunes [Phys. Rev. C 78, 011601 (2008)], but we also show that the 14C-n continuum plays a significant role in the calculations. Fortunately, the method proposed by Summers and Nunes can be improved to absorb that continuum dependence. We show that a more precise radiative-capture cross section can be extracted selecting the breakup data at forward angles and low 14C-n relative energies.Comment: Erratum added in the Appendix

From the Coulomb breakup of halo nuclei to neutron radiative capture

Coulomb breakup is used to infer radiative-capture cross sections at astrophysical energies. We test theoretically the accuracy of this indirect technique in the particular case of 15C, for which both the Coulomb breakup to ^{14}C+n and the radiative capture 14C(n,{\gamma})15C have been measured. We analyse the dependance of Coulomb-breakup calculations on the projectile description in both its initial bound state and its continuum. Our calculations depend not only on the Asymptotic Normalisation Coefficient (ANC) of the 15C ground state, but also on the 14C-n continuum. This questions the method proposed by Summers and Nunes [Phys. Rev. C 78, 011601 (2008), ibid. 78, 069908 (2008)], which assumes that an ANC can be directly extracted from the comparison of calculations to breakup data. Fortunately, the sensitivity to the continuum description can be absorbed in a normalisation constant obtained by a simple {\chi}2 fit of our calculations to the measurements. By restricting this fit to low 14C-n energy in the continuum, we can achieve a better agreement between the radiative-capture cross sections inferred from the Coulomb-breakup method and the exact ones. This result revives the Coulomb-breakup technique to infer neutron radiative-capture capture to loosely-bound states, which would be very useful for r- and s-process modelling in explosive stellar environments.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the 54th International Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics (25-29 January 2016, Bormio, Italy

Note on the difference between the a-cyclic and c-cyclic version of the XY model

The transverse susceptibility of the c-cyclic version of the one-dimensional XY model with respect to an infinitesimal magnetic field in the x-direction is investigated in more detail. Special attention is paid to the c-cyclic version of the one-dimensional Ising model. The c-cyclic susceptibility χxx is evaluated explicitly. The autocorrelation function of the magnetization Mx turns out to be time dependent in the c-cyclic Ising model

Open issues in extracting nuclear structure information from the breakup of exotic nuclei

The open issues in the development of models for the breakup of exotic nuclei and the link with the extraction of structure information from experimental data are reviewed. The question of the improvement of the description of exotic nuclei within reaction models is approached in the perspective of previous analyses of the sensitivity of these models to that description. Future developments of reaction models are suggested, such as the inclusion of various channels within one model. The search for new reaction observables that can emphasise more details of exotic nuclear structure is also proposed.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, submitted as a contribution to the Secial Issue on "Nuclear reaction theory" of the Journal of Physics G, guest edited by R.C. Johnson and F.M. Nune

Stress in physical education teachers in Qatar

Stress is an area of interest among researchers and practitioners in many fields – including teaching. Much of the research on causes of stress for teachers has focused on teachers in general; only a few studies have focused on physical education teachers. Although there have been a few studies of causes of stress for physical education teachers in the Middle East, no studies have been conducted on physical education teachers in Qatar. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify causes of stress for physical education teachers in Qatar at the beginning and end of the school year as well as any changes over the course of the year. A second purpose was to try to explain any differences in causes of stress according to: gender; nationality; type of school; and amount of experience. Results showed that there were different causes of stress for different groups of teachers which could be related to different backgrounds and experiences and different roles and responsibilities in society as a result of different cultural and social expectations and environmental factors

S=1 kagom\'e Ising model with triquadratic interactions, single-ion anisotropy and magnetic field: exact phase diagrams

We consider a S=1 kagom\'e Ising model with triquadratic interactions around each triangular face of the kagom\'e lattice, single-ion anisotropy and an applied magnetic field. A mapping establishes an equivalence between the magnetic canonical partition function of the model and the grand canonical partition function of a kagom\'e lattice-gas model with localized three-particle interactions. Since exact phase diagrams are known for condensation in the one-parameter lattice-gas model, the mapping directly provides the corresponding exact phase diagrams of the three-parameter S=1 Ising model. As anisotropy competes with interactions, results include the appearance of confluent singularities effecting changes in the topology of the phase diagrams, phase boundary curves (magnetic field vs temperature) with purely positive or negative slopes as well as intermediate cases showing nonmonotonicity, and coexistence curves (magnetization vs temperature) with varying shapes and orientations, in some instances entrapping a homogeneous phase.Comment: 14 pages plus 11 figures; to be published in Physica

Approximate tensorization of the relative entropy for noncommuting conditional expectations

In this paper, we derive a new generalisation of the strong subadditivity of the entropy to the setting of general conditional expectations onto arbitrary finite-dimensional von Neumann algebras. The latter inequality, which we call approximate tensorization of the relative entropy, can be expressed as a lower bound for the sum of relative entropies between a given density and its respective projections onto two intersecting von Neumann algebras in terms of the relative entropy between the same density and its projection onto an algebra in the intersection, up to multiplicative and additive constants. In particular, our inequality reduces to the so-called quasi-factorization of the entropy for commuting algebras, which is a key step in modern proofs of the logarithmic Sobolev inequality for classical lattice spin systems. We also provide estimates on the constants in terms of conditions of clustering of correlations in the setting of quantum lattice spin systems. Along the way, we show the equivalence between conditional expectations arising from Petz recovery maps and those of general Davies semigroups.Comment: 31 page

Time-dependent analysis of the nuclear and Coulomb dissociation of 11Be

The breakup of 11Be on carbon and lead targets around 70 MeV/nucleon is investigated within a semiclassical framework. The role of the 5/2+ resonance is analyzed in both cases. It induces a narrow peak in the nuclear-induced breakup cross section, while its effect on Coulomb breakup is small. The nuclear interactions between the projectile and the target is responsible for the transition toward this resonant state. The influence of the parametrization of the 10Be-n potential that simulates 11Be is also addressed. The breakup calculation is found to be dependent on the potential choice. This leads us to question the reliability of this technique to extract spectroscopic factors.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the Second Argonne/MSU/JINA/INT RIA Workshop on Reaction Mechanisms for rare Isotope Beams (2005