Developing an inter-university partnership: The importance of relationally-connected leaders

We have been involved in an inter-university partnership that supports, contributes to, and influences our own and others’ thinking and actions. As we have collaborated on teaching, learning, and research in the field of educational leadership, we recognise that we have developed our own leadership practice and created opportunities for others to do so. The partnership in which academics and students from the University of Central Oklahoma and the University of Waikato have been participating has evolved as a flexible and innovative endeavor over an eighteen month period. In this relatively brief time, we have discovered there are considerable possibilities for the partnership to be developed in a number of ways that will benefit academics, students, and our respective institutions. In this paper, we examine and discuss the findings generated by our initial inquiry as we seek to make sense of our inter university partnership in order to sustain and progress it. Our leadership during the initial phases of the partnership appears to have been a key element in its success. We have found that the presence of a relational connectedness has influenced and enhanced our own leadership practice and subsequently the quality of the partnership. It has enabled us to facilitate the growth of a community of practice and generate academic collaboration

The role of professional development and learning in the early adoption of the New Zealand curriculum by schools.

This paper is set in the context of Phase One of the Ministry of Education Curriculum Implementation Exploratory Studies (CIES) project. The schools selected for this study were considered early adopters of the revised New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) (Ministry of Education, 2007). The paper provides theoretical insights and research evidence related to the role of professional development and learning in the early stages of implementation of the revised curriculum. A key finding common to most schools was the progressive development of a professional learning culture led by the principal that focused on pedagogy and student achievement prior to the introduction of the curriculum. The establishment of this culture involved processes that were task-oriented, reflective, consultative and collaborative. While there are strong parallels between the experiences of primary and secondary schools in the study, some important differences have also been noted

HYPOTHESIS TESTING USING NUMEROUS APPROXIMATING FUNCTIONAL FORMS

While the combination of several or more models is often found to improve forecasts (Brandt and Bessler, Min and Zellner, Norwood and Schroeder), hypothesis tests are typically conducted using a single model approach 1 . Hypothesis tests and forecasts have similar goals; they seek to define a range over which a parameter should lie within a degree of confidence. If it is true that, on average, composite forecasts are more accurate than a single model's forecast, it might also be true that hypothesis tests using information from numerous models are, on average, more accurate in the sense of lower Type I and Type II errors than hypothesis tests using a single model.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

MODEL SELECTION CRITERIA USING LIKELIHOOD FUNCTIONS AND OUT-OF-SAMPLE PERFORMANCE

Model selection is often conducted by ranking models by their out-of-sample forecast error. Such criteria only incorporate information about the expected value, whereas models usually describe the entire probability distribution. Hence, researchers may desire a criteria evaluating the performance of the entire probability distribution. Such a method is proposed and is found to increase the likelihood of selecting the true model relative to conventional model ranking techniques.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Synthesis of greatest linear feedback for timed-event graphs in dioid

This paper deals with the synthesis of greatest linear causal feedback for discrete-event systems whose behavior is described in dioid. Such a feedback delays as far as possible the input of the system while keeping the same transfer relation between the input and the output. When a feedback exists in the system, the authors show how to compute a greater one without decreasing the system\u27s performance

Model reference control for timed event graphs in dioids

This paper deals with feedback controller synthesis for timed event graphs in dioids. We discuss here the existence and the computation of a controller which leads to a closed-loop system whose behavior is as close as possible to the one of a given reference model and which delays as much as possible the input of tokens inside the (controlled) system. The synthesis presented here is mainly based on residuation theory results and some Kleene star properties

Geometrical dependence of decoherence by electronic interactions in a GaAs/GaAlAs square network

We investigate weak localization in metallic networks etched in a two dimensional electron gas between $25\:$mK and $750\:$mK when electron-electron (e-e) interaction is the dominant phase breaking mechanism. We show that, at the highest temperatures, the contributions arising from trajectories that wind around the rings and trajectories that do not are governed by two different length scales. This is achieved by analyzing separately the envelope and the oscillating part of the magnetoconductance. For $T\gtrsim0.3\:$K we find \Lphi^\mathrm{env}\propto{T}^{-1/3} for the envelope, and \Lphi^\mathrm{osc}\propto{T}^{-1/2} for the oscillations, in agreement with the prediction for a single ring \cite{LudMir04,TexMon05}. This is the first experimental confirmation of the geometry dependence of decoherence due to e-e interaction.Comment: LaTeX, 5 pages, 4 eps figure

Rare-Earth-Doped Low Phonon Energy Halide Crystals for Mid-Infrared Laser Sources

International audienceSince ~15 years, solid state lasers emitting in bands II (2.7-4.3, 4.5-5.2 µm) and III (8-14 m) of the atmosphere transparency spectral range are being developed for imaging, polluting species detection as well as military NRBC detection and optronic countermeasures. Because most of these applications require highly brilliant and/or important peak power laser sources, several RE$^{3+}$-doped (RE=rare earth) low phonon energy (ħ$\omega$<400 cm$^{-1}$) chloride and bromide crystals, such as APb$_2$X$_5$ (A=K,Rb;X=Cl,Br) or CsCdBr$_3$, stand out as promising laser gain media in the mid-infrared (MIR) spectral range [Doualan & Moncorgé, 2003; Isaenko et al., 2008