Biometric surveillance in schools : cause for concern or case for curriculum?

This article critically examines the draft consultation paper issued by the Scottish Government to local authorities on the use of biometric technologies in schools in September 2008 (see http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/09/08135019/0). Coming at a time when a number of schools are considering using biometric systems to register and confirm the identity of pupils in a number of settings (cashless catering systems, automated registration of pupils' arrival in school and school library automation), this guidance is undoubtedly welcome. The present focus seems to be on using fingerprints, but as the guidance acknowledges, the debate in future may encompass iris prints, voice prints and facial recognition systems, which are already in use in non-educational settings. The article notes broader developments in school surveillance in Scotland and in the rest of the UK and argues that serious attention must be given to the educational considerations which arise. Schools must prepare pupils for life in the newly emergent 'surveillance society', not by uncritically habituating them to the surveillance systems installed in their schools, but by critically engaging them in thought about the way surveillance technologies work in the wider world, the various rationales given to them, and the implications - in terms of privacy, safety and inclusion - of being a 'surveilled subject'

Decay Modes of the Nuclear Continuum Excited in Proton-Nucleus Interactions

Supported by the National Science Foundation and Indiana Universit

The phenomenology of the mathematics classroom

This paper describes the mathematics classroom from the perspective of social phenomenology. Here the classroom is seen as an environment of signs, comprising things and people, which impinge on the reality of the individual child. The paper introduces a framework through which mathematical work is seen as taking place in the imagined world through the filter of the world in immediate perception. This provides an approach to structuring evolving mathematical understanding. It is suggested that mathematical ideas are contained and shaped by the child's personal phenomenology, which evolves through time. Further, I argue these ideas are never encountered directly but rather are met through a circular hermeneutic process of reconciling expectation with experience. © 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

Teachers as leaders: Leadership from the classroom in Scottish schools

This paper describes the final outcome of a mixed quantitative and qualitative research study designed to determine the degree to which experienced classroom teachers in Scotland are finding leadership roles in schools as a result of having undertaken professional development through the Chartered Teacher Programme. The standards-based Chartered Teacher development in Scotland resonates very clearly with a range of current European and worldwide conceptualisations of how and why teachers may find leadership roles in schools. The development of such roles is intended to have a major influence on the improvement of school students' learning experiences, (Smylie & Denny 1990) and that this will generate increased achievement for all (Yorke-Barr & Duke 2004). In addition, Fullan (2002) and Hargreaves (2003) argue powerfully that transformation in the learning cultures of schools is rooted in effective leadership and emphasise the centrality of improving students' learning in any such transformation. Fullan's focus on developing conditions which value learning as an individual and collective good, chimes equally clearly with the conceptual framework underpinning the Chartered Teacher development as does Hargreaves's contention that only distributed and shared leadership is likely to be a sustainable model for delivering these aspirations. In the Scottish context, Connelly and McMahon (2007) have already suggested that Chartered Teachers are beginning to appreciate the ways in which they were deriving professional benefit from their experiences but have acknowledged a weak evidence base for any impact beyond their own classrooms. While there had been clear expectations that such an impact would be evident, that is unlikely to occur without the support and nurturance of teachers who have leadership and/or management roles in their schools (Liebermann and Miller 2005). In addressing the key issue described above, the following Research Questions were posed: In what kinds of leadership do Chartered Teachers engage? What frameworks and mechanisms exist for developing leadership roles in schools for Chartered Teachers? What conflicting factors encourage and inhibit Chartered teachers from taking on such roles? The paper provides a detailed analysis of the ways in which this evolving model is supporting teachers as leaders with a view to assisting practitioners and researchers to focus on worthwhile areas of development and further enquiry. The findings indicate both positive and negative teacher experiences and may have potential relevance for practising teachers, school managers and researchers as this particular model, already attracting interest world-wide, evolves in Scotland

Optical properties of WO3 doped congruent LiNbO3 crystals

The dependence of the optical absorption band edge, ordinary and extraordinary refractive index, powder second harmonic generation and the non-linear coefficient, d33, of congruent LiNbO3 crystals doped with WO3 are reported. It has been found that the referred parameters show a clear singularity for a concentration in the range of 1.5-2%. In comparison with previous works on congruent LiNbO3 crystals doped with divalent and trivalent ions a charge compensation mechanism is proposed to explain the role of the cation. The experimental data of no and ne are described by a generalised Sellmeier equation considering the different ions sites in the sample

An electron paramagnetic resonance study on Sm3+ and Yb3+ in KY3F10 crystals

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of Sm3+ and Yb3+ ions in KY3F10 single crystals have been measured at X-band microwave frequencies and low temperatures. The EPR lines have been fitted to a tetragonal spin Hamiltonian to determine effective g-values (g, g). The observed g-values, (g=0.714(2), g=0.11(1)), for Sm3+ are in agreement with those calculated via crystal-field J-mixing of the first excited-state multiplet 6H7/2 into the groundstate multiplet 6H5/2 of Sm3+ as the second-order perturbation. On the other hand, the observed g-values, (g=5.363(5), g=1.306(2)) for Yb3+ are coincident with those calculated via mixing in only the groundstate multiplet 2F7/2 as the first-order perturbation because the first excited-state multiplet 2F5/2 lies above ~10 000 cm-1 from the groundstate. The groundstate eigenfunctions of Sm3+ and Yb3+ obtained from the EPR results are close to those calculated from a C4v symmetry crystal-field analysis applied to their optical transitions. The distortions of the Sm3+ and Yb3+ complexes in KY3F10 are discussed in the term of the crystal-field Hamiltonian in comparison with LiYF4