Investigation of the flaw growth characteristics of 6Al-4V titanium used in the Apollo spacecraft pressure vessels

Failure analysis of flaw growth characteristics of 6Al-4V titanium forgings used in Apollo spacecraft propellant tank

SpecPro: An Interactive IDL Program for Viewing and Analyzing Astronomical Spectra

We present an interactive IDL program for viewing and analyzing astronomical spectra in the context of modern imaging surveys. SpecPro's interactive design lets the user simultaneously view spectroscopic, photometric, and imaging data, allowing for rapid object classification and redshift determination. The spectroscopic redshift can be determined with automated cross-correlation against a variety of spectral templates or by overlaying common emission and absorption features on the 1-D and 2-D spectra. Stamp images as well as the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a source can be displayed with the interface, with the positions of prominent photometric features indicated on the SED plot. Results can be saved to file from within the interface. In this paper we discuss key program features and provide an overview of the required data formats.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP) journal. Website: specpro.caltech.ed

Assessing end-of-school attainment

Is there a ‘best’ way to establish the levels of knowledge, understanding and skill that students have attained in a subject by the end of Year 12

Using Research to Advance Professional Practice

This paper discusses quality in professional practice - whether as an engineer, accountant or orthopaedic surgeon - and how it depends on expert knowledge of the field, a deep understanding of underlying principles, accumulated experience in the practice of the profession, a familiarity with recent advances in the professional knowledge base, and mastery of the best available techniques and tools. Teaching qualifies as a profession to the extent that it requires the application of specialised knowledge and skill developed through research and high-level education and training. Quality in teaching practice depends on familiarity with recent advances in the professional knowledge base, and mastery of the best available techniques and tools. The author identifies and discusses a number of categories of professional knowledge that applies to development of the teaching profession

Reform challenges in school education

The central thesis of this paper has been that the challenges now confronting schools globally will require fundamental reforms of the external frameworks within which schools work. Today’s challenges to better prepare young people for the future and to ensure that every student learns successfully will not be met by simply expecting teachers to change what they do or by making minor adjustments to current curricula, assessment, examination, reporting and credentialling arrangements. Today’s challenges require deep reforms and a willingness to reimagine—in other words, to ‘transform’ existing learning systems. This is essential because the external frameworks within which teachers and students work are such strong determinants of day-to-day practice. Three principles with the potential to guide transformation efforts were outlined. Each principle challenges features of existing learning systems, including a widespread emphasis on passive, reproductive learning at the expense of more holistic student development; an emphasis on timed, lock-step learning at the expense of flexibility in the timing and rate of learning; and an emphasis on grading students on how well they have learnt bodies of taught content at the expense of understanding individual learning needs and monitoring students’ long-term growth. The paper has argued that deep reforms guided by these principles are urgently required if progress is to be made in addressing the two global challenges

Against the grade: in search of continuity in schooling and learning

Learning is enhanced when learning opportunities are matched to individuals\u27 current levels of knowledge, skill and understanding, so classroom activities are likely to be most effective in raising achievement levels if they are differentiated, in other words, if teachers recognise the wide variation in children\u27s levels of progress; if they identify individuals\u27 interests and current levels or attainment; and if they expect different kinds of learning from different students. Uniformly high expectations and a common curriculum for all may be less effective, and ultimately more inequitable, than providing differentiated learning and differentiate expectations of individual progress towards the same high performance standards. Issues addressed in this article include: variability within grades, condition for learning, classroom structures, standards-based reforms, achieving continuity, deep learning, shared maps of learning, assessment for learning, flexible learning arrangements, and monitoring growth

Building a world-class learning system: Insights from some top-performing school systems

The result of a multi-year study, this book explores how five school systems - British Columbia, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong and South Korea - have been rethinking and reforming their schools systems. It addresses questions including: What policies need to be in place for every child to experience an engaging and supportive learning environment that motivates not only high performance but a desire to keep learning? What do students really need to know and be able to do to thrive in a changing world? How can systems engage in ongoing improvement while also cultivating innovation? The book provides a framework for looking at learning systems comprehensively, with chapters focused on system aspirations; curriculum and assessment; student, teacher, and leader support; and the ecosystem that supports learning

Is there another way to think about schooling?

Traditional ways of organising and delivering school education are sometimes failing students at both ends of the achievement spectrum. We need to think to think differently about the nature of learning; the characteristics of learners; the school curriculum; what it means to ‘teach’; the role of assessment; and the nature of ‘reporting’ – in short, to think differently about schooling itself

Measuring and rewarding school improvement

There is now a widely held view that the most effective strategy for improving countries’ educational performances is to improve the day-to-day work of schools. This view follows several decades of significant increases in government expenditure on school education in developed countries, often with little or no accompanying evidence of improvements in the quality or equity of educational provision. A number of countries have introduced incentives – both rewards and sanctions – in an attempt to ‘drive’ improvements in the work of schools. Many of these incentive schemes have followed the model adopted in business of specifying and measuring desired outcomes, holding employees accountable for delivering those outcomes through a system of rewards and/or sanctions, and leaving it to employees to decide on the best strategies to maximise the desired results. Two decades of experience in the implementation of incentive schemes of this kind in the United States were reviewed recently. The review committee concluded that the benefits of incentive programs that hold schools accountable for student outcomes had been ‘quite small’ and that the research evidence on whether such schemes are capable of producing meaningful increases in student achievement was ‘not encouraging’. Equally concerning was the committee’s finding that incentive schemes sometimes distort the work of schools. At a fundamental level, the theory of action underpinning incentive schemes of this kind is now being questioned. At the same time, there is growing questioning of the appropriateness of the business model adopted by outcomes-based incentive schemes. This paper argues for the use of ‘practice-based’ measures of school improvement to complement ‘outcomes-based’ measures. Given that the ultimate purpose of rewards for school improvement is to improve practices and processes in schools, it seems logical to use evidence of improved practices and processes in making judgements about school improvement. This discussion paper uses judgements made as part of one Australian education system’s school review processes to explore the feasibility of developing ‘practice-based’ measures of school performance and improvement. During 2010, each of the 1257 schools in this system was evaluated on eight different aspects of school practice. For each aspect, practices were judged as Low, Medium, High or Outstanding. Preliminary analyses suggest that useful practice-based measures could be constructed from judgements of this kind

Educational measurement: Assessment Resource Kit.

Educational measurement is the process of estimating students\u27 locations (abilities) on a measurement variable from their responses to a set of items. Educational measurement is one in a series of magazines in the ACER Assessment Resource Kit (ARK). It contains five chapters: 1. What is \u27measurement\u27?; 2. Aspiring to measure; 3. A model for measuring; 4. Mapping variables; 5. Reporting measures.https://research.acer.edu.au/ark/1001/thumbnail.jp