Exploring Art Student Teachers’ Fictions of Teaching: Strategies for Teacher Educators

Using portions of my research involving three art student teachers, I provide suggestions for strategies to examine preservice art student teachers’ fictions about teaching (art). First, I begin by briefly introducing my three participants and listing my research methods. Next, I describe three of the most common teaching fictions I found through analyzation of the data. I discuss the productive usefulness, as well as a few procedures, of employing visual culture as a catalyst for unfolding student teachers’ (un)conscious pedagogical fictions. Then, I describe how creating illustrations of the self as art teacher can further help explore fictions of teaching. Lastly, I end by discussing how important it is to have a supportive space to talk and theorize with student teachers about their continuous processes of identity (re)formation and to work through the anxieties of the profession of teaching art

Smeared Gauge Fixing

We present a new method of gauge fixing to standard lattice Landau gauge, Max Re Tr $\sum_{\mu,x}U_{\mu,x}$, in which the link configuration is recursively smeared; these smeared links are then gauge fixed by standard extremization. The resulting gauge transformation is simultaneously applied to the original links. Following this preconditioning, the links are gauge fixed again as usual. This method is free of Gribov copies, and we find that for physical parameters ($\beta \geq 2$ in SU(2)), it generally results in the gauge fixed configuration with the globally maximal trace. This method is a general technique for finding a unique minimum to global optimization problems.Comment: 3 pages, 4 PostScript figures; Poster presented at LAT9

Aspects of Confinement and Chiral Dynamics in 2-d QED at Finite Temperature

We evaluate the Polyakov loop and string tension at zero and finite temperature in $QED_2.$ Using bozonization the problem is reduced to solving the Schr\"odinger equation with a particular potential determined by the ground state. In the presence of two sources of opposite charges the vacuum angle parameter $\theta$ changes by $2\pi (q/e)$, independent of the number of flavors. This, in turn, alters the chiral condensate. Particularly, in the one flavor case through a simple computer algorithm, we explore the chiral dynamics of a heavy fermion.Comment: 4 pages, 2 ps files, uses sprocl.sty. To appear in Proceedings of DPF96 (August, Minnesota

Representations of the SU(N)SU(N) TT-algebra and the loop representation in 1+11+1-dimensions

We consider the phase-space of Yang-Mills on a cylindrical space-time ($S^1 \times {\bf R}$) and the associated algebra of gauge-invariant functions, the $T$-variables. We solve the Mandelstam identities both classically and quantum-mechanically by considering the $T$-variables as functions of the eigenvalues of the holonomy and their associated momenta. It is shown that there are two inequivalent representations of the quantum $T$-algebra. Then we compare this reduced phase space approach to Dirac quantization and find it to give essentially equivalent results. We proceed to define a loop representation in each of these two cases. One of these loop representations (for $N=2$) is more or less equivalent to the usual loop representation.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX, 1 postscript figure included, uses epsf.sty, G\"oteborg ITP 93-3

Confinement and Chiral Dynamics in the Multi-flavor Schwinger Model

Two-dimensional QED with $N$ flavor fermions is solved at zero and finite temperature with arbitrary fermion masses to explore QCD physics such as chiral condensate and string tension. The problem is reduced to solving a Schr\"odinger equation for $N$ degrees of freedom with a specific potential determined by the ground state of the Schr\"odinger problem itself.Comment: 9 pages. 3 ps files and sprocl.sty attached. To appear in the Proceedings of the QCD 96 workshop (March, Minnesota

Three topics in the Schwinger model

1. We compare Monte Carlo results with analytic predictions for the fermion condensate, in the massive one-flavour Schwinger model. 2. We illustrate on the Schwinger model how to facilitate transitions between topological sectors by a simple reweighting method. 3. We discuss exact, non-perturbative improvement of the gauge sector.Comment: Three-page contribution to Lat '97 by A.J. van der Sijs. Colourful typo (IR -> UV) correcte

Element-centric clustering comparison unifies overlaps and hierarchy

Clustering is one of the most universal approaches for understanding complex data. A pivotal aspect of clustering analysis is quantitatively comparing clusterings; clustering comparison is the basis for many tasks such as clustering evaluation, consensus clustering, and tracking the temporal evolution of clusters. In particular, the extrinsic evaluation of clustering methods requires comparing the uncovered clusterings to planted clusterings or known metadata. Yet, as we demonstrate, existing clustering comparison measures have critical biases which undermine their usefulness, and no measure accommodates both overlapping and hierarchical clusterings. Here we unify the comparison of disjoint, overlapping, and hierarchically structured clusterings by proposing a new element-centric framework: elements are compared based on the relationships induced by the cluster structure, as opposed to the traditional cluster-centric philosophy. We demonstrate that, in contrast to standard clustering similarity measures, our framework does not suffer from critical biases and naturally provides unique insights into how the clusterings differ. We illustrate the strengths of our framework by revealing new insights into the organization of clusters in two applications: the improved classification of schizophrenia based on the overlapping and hierarchical community structure of fMRI brain networks, and the disentanglement of various social homophily factors in Facebook social networks. The universality of clustering suggests far-reaching impact of our framework throughout all areas of science

Renormal-order improvement of the Schwinger mass

The massive Schwinger model may be analysed by a perturbation expansion in the fermion mass. However, the results of this mass perturbation theory are sensible only for sufficiently small fermion mass. By performing a renormal-ordering, we arrive at a chiral perturbation expansion where the expansion parameter remains small even for large fermion mass. We use this renormal-ordered chiral perturbation theory for a computation of the Schwinger mass and compare our results with lattice computations.Comment: Latex file, 13 pages, 3 figures, needed macro: psbox.te

Magnetic moment interaction in the anyon superconductor

Magnetic moment interaction is shown to play a defining role in the magnetic properties of anyon superconductors. The necessary condition for the existence of the Meissner effect is found.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, to appear in Phys. Rev. B, corrected typo