Towards a model of poetry writing development as a socially contextualised process

Theoretical explanations of learners' poetry writing development are relatively new and, compared to other genres, rare. Neither the cognitive models of writing development, nor the descriptions of poet-practitioners or inspired experts give a fully nuanced representation of the complexity at play in poetry composition. Also missing from these models is the social context of learning to write poetry. We link Vygotsky's work on the symbolic function of inner speech to documented accounts of poets 'answering' the social world to which they belong. We propose a theoretical model of development in poetry writing that takes into account learners’ fluid social contexts, and which draws on Schultz and Fecho's survey of writing development. This fusion is a new contribution to theorisations of writing development

Poet-academics and academic-poets: writing identities, practices and experiences within the academy

This paper reports on a pilot project which investigates the writing identity construction, writing practices and experiences of 17 authors from varied subject disciplines in Higher Education, whose publications include poetry and academic writing. We have defined the writers as poet-academics or academic-poets according to their perceptions of place of comfort, default position or natural 'go-to' place as a writer. We consider the writing practices and experiences of both groups: poet-academics who see their primary writing as poetry (but who also write academic research and other prose forms) and academic-poets who view their primary writing as academic research (but who also write and publish poetry). Given that these two groups have different writing priorities and write from different generic starting points, we question how such authors construct their identities as writers within the Academy and consider if and how they experience these different writing selves as a separation. We explore the contrasting writing challenges, pressures and pleasures apparent in these two domains, reflect on synergies in practice and point to potential implications for research accountability, writing, mentoring and professional development within institutions

Primary physical education, coaches and continuing professional development

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Sport, Education and Society, 16(4), 485 - 505, 2011, copyright @ Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13573322.2011.589645.Physical education (PE) in primary schools has traditionally been taught by qualified primary teachers. More recently, some teaching of PE in primary schools has been undertaken by coaches (mostly football coaches). These coaches hold national governing body awards but do not hold teaching qualifications. Thus, coaches may not be adequately prepared to teach PE in curriculum time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of a group of community-based football coaches working in primary schools for the impact of a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme on their ability to undertake ‘specified work’ to cover PE in primary schools. The programme focused on four areas identified as important to enable coaches to cover specified work: short- and medium-term planning, pedagogy, knowledge of the curriculum and reflection. Results showed that for the majority of coaches the CPD programme had made them more aware of the importance of these four areas and had helped to develop their knowledge and ability to put this into practice in covering planning, preparation and assessment time. However, further input is still required to develop coaches’ knowledge and understanding in all four areas, but especially their curriculum knowledge, as well as their ability to put these into practice consistently. These findings are discussed in relation to the implications of employing coaches to cover the teaching of PE in primary schools and, if employed, what CPD coaches need to develop the necessary knowledge, skill and understanding for covering specified work in schools

Real-time time-domain fluorescence lifetime imaging including single-shot acquisition with a segmented optical image intensifier

Published versio

Design and implementation of Dilation X-ray Imager for NIF "DIXI"

Abstract not provide

A review and synthesis of the use of social media in Initial Teacher Education

Several previous studies have reviewed the literature surrounding the use of technology in teacher education. This literature review takes a specific focus as it addresses the use of social media in initial teacher education. It seeks to explore what constitutes effective use of social media in supporting the development of new teachers in all sectors of initial teacher education (ITE), including Primary, Secondary, English Language Teaching (ELT) and Lifelong Learning. We seek to develop and share a deeper understanding of the relationship between social media and the participation and collaboration of pre-service teachers in initial teacher education. The findings of the review include issues surrounding community, pedagogy and design, and this synthesis provides a significant exploratory contribution to the development of effective teacher education and training across the UK curriculum

A history of high-power laser research and development in the United Kingdom

The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years