The educational thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge studied in the light of his own times

IN each age there has arisen a small number of thinkers who have analysed the prevailing philosophies of their age and who have formulated educational principles which if followed would lead to an ideal valued by such thinkers. Yet educational thought is often coloured by social, political and even economic considerations. In their turn such considerations are themselves effected by world events. Consequently the early part of this thesis examines the broad effects upon thinking which took place at the time of the French and Early Industrial Revolutions. A man such as Coleridge was alive to the fact that old traditions were being questioned as a new and mechanical philosophy came into being. He looked to thinkers of his age for guidance on the nature and indeed the rights of man.The thoughts of such men as Descartes, Locke and Hartley each had their formative effect in turn. Yet we see how by intuition and self examination, Coleridge was able to see the limitation of the line of thought of which they are representative figures. Due in part to his own education and the wide and varied reading which he undertook and due also to his knowledge of scientific progress as well as literature he was able to see the dangers of arid materialism which he saw in the world around him. In common with other romantics he was a protagonist of the imagination and intuition. He saw that those who appealed to reason or the intellect only were considering only a part of man and that any true basis for education should consider the 'whole' nature of man. In accordance with this idea of the whole man Coleridge saw the value of an education which took into account the child's sense of wonder and fed this sense with works of true imagination. Any system which did not take account of this would stifle any potential in the child. The child would learn much for itself, it was the teacher's responsibility to aid the learning till ultimately all knowledge was seen as one organic unity. As Coleridge developed these views so his appreciation of the educational practice of his time changed. He was an early advocator of Bell's Monitorial System but he later saw its severe limitations. His interest in the relationship between Church and State led him to write about an ideal in which the Church had responsibility for the nation's learning and was seen as the leaven which leavened the lump of society. Coleridge's writings of the whole nature of man and the value of the unconscious and of introspection are shown to be prophetic of much later psychological theory. In particular the similarity to later Gestalt psychology is noted. Finally, since Coleridge was critical of Utilitarian philosophies, the thought of several later nineteenth century thinkers is examined. The similarity between some of Coleridge's and Matthew Arnold's ideas can hardly be coincidental, and John Stuart Mill, perhaps best known as an ardent Benthamite also recognised much of value in Coleridge's thought

Estimating Environmental Conditions Affecting Protozoal Pathogen Removal in Wetland Systems Using a Multi-Scale, Model-Based Approach

Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia lamblia, and Toxoplasma gondii are waterborne protozoal pathogens distributed worldwide and empirical evidence suggests that wetlands reduce the concentrations of these pathogens under certain environmental conditions. The goal of this study was to evaluate how protozoal removal in surface water is affected by the water temperature, turbidity, salinity, and vegetation cover of wetlands in the Monterey Bay region of California. To examine how protozoal removal was affected by these environmental factors, we conducted observational experiments at three primary spatial scales: settling columns, re-circulating wetland mesocosm tanks, and an experimental research wetland (Molera Wetland). Simultaneously, we developed a protozoal transport model for surface water to simulate the settling columns, the mesocosm tanks, and the Molera Wetland. With a high degree of uncertainty expected in the model predictions and field observations, we developed the m odel within a Bayesian statistical framework. We found protozoal removal increased when water flowed through vegetation, and with higher levels of turbidity, salinity, and temperature. Protozoal removal in surface water was maximized (~0.1 hr-1) when flowing through emergent vegetation at 2% cover, and with a vegetation contact time of ~ 30 minutes compared to the effects of temperature, salinity, and turbidity. Our studies revealed that an increase in vegetated wetland area, with water moving through vegetation, would likely improve regional water quality through the reduction of fecal protozoal pathogen loads

The Effect of Graphic Organizers on the Writing of Students in a Second Grade Classroom

This study was designed to investigate the effect of the use of graphic organizers on the complexity of second grade students\u27 writing. Twenty-two second grade students between the ages of seven and eight from a rural western New York school district participated in this study. The study involved having each student compose two separate writing samples that were then analyzed to determine their grade level complexity. A counterbalance design was used. On the first writing sample twelve randomly selected students wrote stories using a graphic organizer while eleven did not. On the second writing sample the student groups were switched. The original twelve randomly selected students now wrote stories without a graphic organizer while the other ten students wrote stories using a graphic organizer. The writing samples were then analyzed to determine a Bormuth Grade Level. A t test was used to analyze the data. Results from the t test indicated that there was no statistically significant mean score difference between the writings created with graphic organizers and the writings created without the use of graphic organizers

Isotope study on organic nitrogen of Westphalian anthracites from the Western Middle field of Pennsylvania (U.S.A.) and from the Bramsche Massif (Germany)

International audienceThe objective of this study was to examine an aspect of the thermal cycling of organic nitrogen in sediments and metasediments. The cycling of organic nitrogen is important because sedimentary organic matter is a shuttle of nitrogen from the atmosphere to the lower crust and thermal decomposition of organic matter is a critical step in the recycling of nitrogen between the different nitrogen pools. Abundance and isotopic composition of organic nitrogen were determined in the particular case of two low sulfur Westphalian anthracites series from Pennsylvania and Bramsche Massif. They represent good examples of Euramerica coals spanning the whole range of anthracitization in single fields. Gold cell experimental simulation of the denitrogenation process was conducted at moderate pressure to show that both suites make ideal metamorphic profiles without any shift due to change of facies or to hydrothermal disturbance. During anthracitization, organic nitrogen content decreases rapidly while organic nitrogen isotopic composition does not change with rank increase. The preservation of the isotopic signature implies that organic nitrogen isotopes could be used as indicators for the paleoecological and paleodepositional history reconstruction of the basins. The striking contrast between the rapid and sharp decrease of nitrogen organic content and the invariance of its isotopic composition during the whole anthracitization suggests that ammonia is an important product of the denitrogenation process

Article Are Hydrogen Bonds Unique among Weak Interactions in Their Ability to Mediate Electronic Coupling?

Superexchange effects on the electronic coupling element for electron transfer are investigated using water dimers and atomic donors and acceptors. We compare the electronic coupling elements obtained with H-bonded dimers to those obtained for other water dimer geometries at given donor−acceptor and oxygen−oxygen distances. The H-bonded orientation does not yield significantly different coupling elements from non-H-bonded orientations at a given oxygen−oxygen distance. In addition, the distance dependence of the coupling mediated by H-bonds is not significantly different from that for other dimer geometries. It is found that protonation of the intervening waters has a significant effect on coupling elements for donor/acceptor pairs with low ionization potentials. The implications of these results are discussed for condensed-phase ground- and excited-state electron transfers

Laser and electron deflection from transverse asymmetries in laser-plasma accelerators.

We report on the deflection of laser pulses and accelerated electrons in a laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) by the effects of laser pulse front tilt and transverse density gradients. Asymmetry in the plasma index of refraction leads to laser steering, which can be due to a density gradient or spatiotemporal coupling of the laser pulse. The transverse forces from the skewed plasma wave can also lead to electron deflection relative to the laser. Quantitative models are proposed for both the laser and electron steering, which are confirmed by particle-in-cell simulations. Experiments with the BELLA Petawatt Laser are presented which show controllable 0.1-1 mrad laser and electron beam deflection from laser pulse front tilt. This has potential applications for electron beam pointing control, which is of paramount importance for LPA applications

Bostonia: 1998-1999, no. 1, 3-4

Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs

Use of an isothermal microcalorimetry assay to characterize microbial oxalotrophic activity

Isothermal microcalorimetry (IMC) has been used in the past to monitor metabolic activities in living systems. A few studies have used it on ecological research. In this study, IMC was used to monitor oxalotrophic activity, a widespread bacterial metabolism found in the environment, and particularly in soils. Six model strains were inoculated in solid angle media with K-oxalate as the sole carbon source.Cupriavidus oxalaticus,Cupriavidus necator, andStreptomyces violaceoruber presented the highest activity (91, 40, and 55 μW, respectively) and a maximum growth rate (μmax h−1) of 0.264, 0.185, and 0.199, respectively, among the strains tested. These three strains were selected to test the incidence of different oxalate sources (Ca, Cu, and Fe-oxalate salts) in the metabolic activity. The highest activity was obtained in Ca-oxalate forC. oxalaticus. Similar experiments were carried out with a model soil to test whether this approach can be used to measure oxalotrophic activity in field samples. Although measuring oxalotrophic activity in a soil was challenging, there was a clear effect of the amendment with oxalate on the metabolic activity measured in soil. The correlation between heat flow and growth suggests that IMC analysis is a powerful method to monitor bacterial oxalotrophic activit

Precision Targets: GPS and the Militarization of Everyday Life

This article explores the militarization of everyday life through the emergence of a dual-use technology, the Global Positioning System (GPS), in the 1990s and first decade of the twenty-first century. It was launched in April 2010 as a Web-based multimedia piece funded by a Digital Innovation Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. During the fellowship year and for several years afterward, author Caren Kaplan worked with programmer/designer Erik Loyer to produce a piece that would address the multiple social and political valences of GPS in a graphically dramatic but academically substantial manner. Ezra Claytan Daniels provided the artwork that illustrates Erik Loyer’s innovative digital “cube” design. Loyer and Kaplan developed the six storylines for the piece, and Kaplan wrote the text (see www.precisiontargets.com)