What really matters about teacher education at Cathedrals Group Universities: volume 1 final report

An investigation into [perceptions of] the features of Christian foundation universities’ Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes that are particular to the university’s Christian foundation. We are grateful to the Cathedrals Group of Universities and Colleges, for funding the first stage of this project and the Church of England University and College Fund for funding the second stage, through grant funding. This report contains the outcomes of the research which took place between November 2016 and January 2018. A separate document, What really matters about teacher education at Cathedrals Group universities and college? Volume 2: The Case Studies, provides profiles of the findings from the five different institutions. This is the substantive report. The aims: 1. To investigate why ITE trainees choose Christian foundation university teacher training programmes 2. To investigate why schools choose Christian foundation universities as training programme partners 3. To investigate what Christian foundation universities claim is particular to their Christian foundation, what is particularly or deeply Christian about their ITE provision with a focus on: • the underpinning values • the content and methodology of ITE training • how trainees are supported and challenged in the partnership aspects 4. To investigate what Christian foundation universities, ITE trainees and partnership schools claim about ITE trainees at the point of qualification, that is particular to the institutions’ Christian foundation

Disconnected and unplugged: experiences of technology induced anxieties and tensions while traveling

The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of being disconnected while traveling for technologically savvy travelers. This paper will explore how new technologies ‘separate’ travelers from the physical and embodied travel experience, and how experiences and tensions caused by being disconnected or unplugged are negotiated. For this study, travelers’ experiences were elicited through a series of online interviews conducted primarily through email and Facebook. Pearce and Gretzel (2012)’s technology-induced tensions and recent literature on internet/technology addiction provide a conceptual framework for the analysis

Prioritising a sense of belonging within the rural nexus: An empirical study of five rural church primary schools

The rural church primary school exists in a nexus of connections between school, home, and the institutional Church (parochial, diocesan, and national). This article applies Walker’s model of belonging to God through church to the sense of belonging expressed by families whose children attend a rural Church of England primary school. The data drawn from the Faith in the Nexus project undertaken at Canterbury Christ Church University, consists of 24 semi-structured focus group interviews, and 8 individual interviews with school and church leaders from parents, school staff, clergy, and governors across five rural Church of England primary schools. The findings highlight how rural church school families develop and sustain a sense of belonging through events, people, place, and activities. The discussion considers the value of Walker’s model of belonging, the fragility of the rural nexus and a need to acknowledge the relational nature of belonginess expressed by parents and pupils

Faith in the nexus: Church schools and children’s exploration of faith in the home: A NICER research study of twenty church primary schools in England

A nexus is a focus for connection, where multiple lines from different places come into relationship around a point of focus. In this project, the Nexus refers to the connections between church school, the local church, and the home. The Faith in the Nexus project aimed to reveal the influence of these connections in children’s developing spiritual life, and, specifically, how what happens in school (collaboration with church and others) impacts on children’s faith and spiritual life at home

Topological quantum D-branes and wild embeddings from exotic smooth R^4

This is the next step of uncovering the relation between string theory and exotic smooth R^4. Exotic smoothness of R^4 is correlated with D6 brane charges in IIA string theory. We construct wild embeddings of spheres and relate them to a class of topological quantum Dp-branes as well to KK theory. These branes emerge when there are non-trivial NS-NS H-fluxes where the topological classes are determined by wild embeddings S^2 -> S^3. Then wild embeddings of higher dimensional $p$-complexes into S^n correspond to Dp-branes. These wild embeddings as constructed by using gropes are basic objects to understand exotic smoothness as well Casson handles. Next we build C*-algebras corresponding to the embeddings. Finally we consider topological quantum D-branes as those which emerge from wild embeddings in question. We construct an action for these quantum D-branes and show that the classical limit agrees with the Born-Infeld action such that flat branes = usual embeddings.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Wearable EEG: what is it, why is it needed and what does it entail?

Published versio

Algorithm for AEEG data selection leading to wireless and long term epilepsy monitoring

Published versio

An analogue bandpass filter realisation of the Continuous Wavelet Transform

The Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) is a highly useful signal processing technique for which low power implementations are desirable, for example to allow the transform to be used in battery powered, portable devices. This paper describes a Low Power CWT (LPCWT) implementation that is based around the mathematical approximation of a mother wavelet and uses application specific information to guide the approximation process. Simulations comparing the LPCWT and CWT are carried out with the two giving equivalent signal processing performance. The LPCWT is suitable for realisation in any desired circuit topology.Published versio

Children’s conversations about faith and spirituality (family)

Research findings from Faith in the Nexus project on children's conversations about faith