Teaching and Professional Fellowship Report 2004/5 : Designing effective curriculum for dyslexic students within Art and Design in Higher Education

In the first instance, it is worthwhile examining the context for curriculum changes in 2005. The Higher Education Statistics Agency in 2004 recorded the number of dyslexic undergraduates in the U.K. as 11,865,clearly illustrating the growth rate from the total dyslexic undergraduate population in 1994 of 1,679 students (HESA, 2004). Art led Higher Education institutions should also be aware that the Creative Arts and Design subject areas attracted the highest percentage of dyslexic students at 5.59% Even if the new Disabilities Discrimination Act 2005 did not require a mandatory focus on changes to the curriculum, the reality of a changing audience would force the issue onto the agenda. In seeking accommodation for dyslexic students it would seem beneficial to examine the whole curriculum as perhaps in redressing the balance, the Art curriculum designers will find a mode of delivery and assessment which benefits an increasingly diverse student population

Impacts of coastal realignment on intertidal sediment dynamics: Freiston Shore, the Wash

The impacts of land reclamation and managed realignment on saltmarsh and the adjacent intertidal flats at Freiston Shore (The Wash) are investigated. The hydrodynamic and sediment dynamics over the intertidal flats and a managed realignment site are discussed, with an extensive set of hydrodynamic, sediment dynamic and geomorphological data presented. The managed realignment has improved the coastal defence of the area; the site has been colonised by vegetation, accreted sediment and experienced limited wave activity. However, the channels within the breaches in the embankment were eroded, and a creek system over the adjacent intertidal flats experienced an enhancement in its development. This has allowed the natural and enhanced development of the creek system to be described and compared. These impacts were caused by the managed realignment site being at a lower elevation than the adjacent saltmarsh, causing high tidal current speeds as water flowed into the site and prolonged drainage of the site. This resulted in sheetflow over the intertidal flats, which caused an enhancement to the natural creek development. The water and sediment interaction between this creek system and the adjacent intertidal flats are discussed; the creeks were net exporters of sediment, while the intertidal flats were importers. The most rapid period of change was in the 2 months immediately after breaching the old embankment. The ‘Regime Theory’ was used to predict the equilibrium size of the channels within the breaches, and the time for this to be attained. Some 36 months after the initiation of the scheme, the adjacent intertidal flats appear to have adjusted to a new dynamic equilibrium, related to the managed realignment. The sheetflow over the intertidal flats has stopped and, consequently, the enhanced creek development has ceased and the creeks silted up. Despite the impacts of the managed realignment scheme, no obvious changes have been identified in the pattern or strength of tidal currents and sediment transport, over the intertidal flats adjacent to the managed realignment. In contrast, the previous creation of the embankment (for land reclamation purposes) led to an increase in tidal current speeds and erosion of the intertidal flats. Hydrodynamic and suspended sediment measurements show that, over the intertidal flats, the suspended sediment concentration increases exponentially with an increase in tidal current speed; similarly, linearly with wave height. The majority of wave activity over the intertidal zone is dissipated over the saltmarsh, with the mudflats causing little wave attenuation. Based upon the results of the present study, it appears that managed realignments can provide a successful future coastal defence, as long as certain guidelines for site selection are followed

On the construction of permutation complexes for profinite groups

Goerss, Henn, Mahowald and Rezk construct a complex of permutation modules for the Morava stabilizer group G_2 at the prime 3. We describe how this can be done using techniques from homological algebra.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology Monographs on 14 November 200

Putting it together and finishing the hat? Deconstructing the art of making art

Contemporary Theatre Review is one of the leading peer-reviewed academic journals in the field of theatre studies. This special issue, ‘The Broadway Musical: New Approaches’, was put together by contributing editors Dominic Symonds and Dan Rebellato. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George dramatises the life and work of Georges Seurat, inventor of pointillism. This neo-impressionist style of painting constructs the image out of tiny pixels of different coloured paint, a technique that Sondheim's musical was to portray both mimetically and stylistically. In doing this, Sondheim constructs a rhetoric of composition that consolidates conventional wisdom on how art is created: the artist starts with nothing and creates something. The musical is littered with references to this, not least in the titles of two of its most celebrated numbers, 'Putting it together' and 'Finishing the hat'. However, Sondheim's show offers more complexity than this, and its culmination in the whiteness of 'a blank page or canvas' asks us to reconsider this rhetoric. This article deconstructs the rhetoric of composition, asking whether the 'putting together' of dots or notes actually serves to reveal meaning, or whether it obscures, paints over or drowns out what is beyond the dots

Teaching and Professional Fellowship Report 2004/5 : Structured vivas as accommodated assessment for dyslexic students

The central goal of this report was to produce guidelines in audio and written form for dyslexic students wishing to undertake accommodated assessment, specifically the viva voce within creative degrees at UAL. The avenues of exploration were to work with course teams and students in advancing the accessibility of the viva. This was ambitious and only one team within one school had to review their learning outcomes and participate in the process of implementing the viva. One case study was documented and completed as the time frame and support did not permit any other candidates to apply for accommodation. An innovative approach to teaching, learning and assessment was achieved and dissemination of material has started to take place. Contributions to CLTAD and other conferences were made as noted and referenced. Staff development will be undertaken on the teaching certificate programme at CLTAD. Planned developments arising from the fellowship include the compilation of an educational pack, which will be distributed internally within the University and sold externally

Formal Learning in an Informal Setting – The First Semester Student Learning Experience Outside the Classroom.

During a visit to the Centre for Active Learning at the University of Gloucestershire by members of the Information and Learning Service staff, a common interest in the student learning experience outside the formal classroom setting was identified. Both universities were undertaking extensive work on their provision of informal learning environments and it was felt a joint project to investigate the students’ learning experience and preferences would be useful to inform these developments with a specific focus on e-learning and active learning

Death of mixed methods?: Or the rebirth of research as a craft

The classification by many scholars of numerical research processes as quantitative and other research techniques as qualitative has prompted the construction of a third category, that of ‘mixed methods’, to describe studies that use elements from both processes. Such labels might be helpful in structuring our understanding of phenomena. But they can also inhibit our activities when they serve as inaccurate or limiting descriptors. Based on the observation that mixed methods is fast becoming a common research approach in the social sciences, this paper questions whether the assumptions that are used and perpetuated by mixed methods are valid. The paper calls for a critical change in how we perceive research, in order to better describe actual research processes. A more ethological taxonomy of the mechanisms underlying research structures and processes is posited to encourage creative thinking around alternatives to the three purported paradigms of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. This ‘return to basics’ seeks to encourage new and innovative research designs to emerge, and suggests a rebirth of research from the ashes of mixed methods

Brauer Theory for Profinite Groups

Brauer Theory for a finite group can be viewed as a method for comparing the representations of the group in characteristic 0 with those in prime characteristic. Here we generalize much of the machinery of Brauer theory to the setting of profinite groups. By regarding Grothendieck groups as functors we describe corresponding Grothendieck groups for profinite groups, and generalize the decomposition map, regarded as a natural transformation. We discuss characters and Brauer characters for profinite groups. We give a functorial description of the block theory of a profinite group. We finish with a method for computing the Cartan matrix of a finite group $G$ given the Cartan matrix for a quotient of $G$ by a normal $p$-subgroup.Comment: 16 page