Tutors as learners: overcoming barriers to learning ICT skills

This paper explores the use of ICT to provide distance training for UK Open University (OU) Associate lecturers (ALs) and identifies the range of outcomes and issues which emerged. There is an increasing demand from many of our students for the University to provide more facilities and functions (both administrative or course-related) online or by electronic mail. To this end the University has attempted to increase the awareness of these computing-related issues with ALs by offering various methods of increasing ICT skills. One programme involved a contingent of ALs participating in an online short course. This paper will summarise some of the qualitative feedback along with the quantitative results in order to establish whether this course did indeed assist in tutors gaining some new computing skills. Furthermore, tutors made many additional comments about the process of learning and the experience of being a learner. Many of the issues raised were found to be important when designing a programme of study for those who take courses as a form of staff development

Mother Tongue Tuition in Sweden - Curriculum Analysis and Classroom Experience

The model of Mother Tongue Tuition (MTT) which has developed in Sweden since the 1970’s offers speakers of languages other than Swedish the opportunity to request tuition in their mother tongue, from kindergarten through to year 12. It is unique among the major immigrant-receiving countries of the world yet little is known about MTT and its syllabus outside of its Nordic context. This article examines the syllabus for MTT from two perspectives; firstly using the framework of Constructive Alignment, secondly from the perspective of what is hidden. The intended syllabus is revealed as well-aligned, but the hidden curriculum impedes successful enactment in many contexts. Examples from case studies in a larger on-going research project offer an alternate approach to syllabus implementation when the negative effects of the hidden curriculum are challenged. While highly context-specific, this model may represent a step in the right direction for implementation of the syllabus

The Positive Alternative Credit Experience (PACE) Program A Quantitative Comparative Study

The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to evaluate the Positive Alternative Credit Experience (PACE) Program using an objectives-oriented approach to a formative program evaluation. The PACE Program was a semester-long high school alternative education program designed to serve students at-risk for academic failure or dropping out and was operated by a large suburban school district located in St. Louis, Missouri. The outcome objectives of the program were to improve student success as measured by (a) an increase in grade point average (GPA), (b) an increase in attendance rate, (c) a decrease, or elimination of out-of-school suspension (OSS) rate, and (d) a decrease or elimination of dropout rate. Outcome data collected from a sample of students who attended the PACE Program in 2008-2009 were compared to outcome data collected from a Matched Sample of students with matching descriptive and demographic characteristics who did not participate in the program in 2008-2009. Data analysis determined if there was a significant difference in measured student success when comparing the PACE Sample (students who attended the PACE Program and subsequently returned to their home schools for one semester), with a Matched Sample (students who attended a traditional high school during this same timeframe). Purposive sampling was used to select the PACE Sample, and stratified random sampling was used to select the Matched Sample. The PACE Sample of 36 students was comprised of a Semester I PACE Cohort of 18 students and a Semester II PACE Cohort of 18 students. The Matched Sample and Semester I and II Matched Cohorts were identical in size. iii When the descriptive and demographic characteristic variables of the PACE and Matched Cohorts and Samples were statistically compared, there were no significant differences on the descriptive characteristic variables of cumulative GPA, attendance rate, and OSS rate. The descriptive characteristic variable of current GPA of the Matched Sample was significantly higher, however, than the current GPA of the PACE Sample. When demographic characteristic variables of the PACE and Matched Samples were statistically compared there were no significant differences in grade level, ethnicity, residence, gender, Individualized Education Plan (IEP) status, and Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) status. The results of data analysis did not show statistically significant differences in the outcome variables of GPA (cumulative and current), attendance rate, and OSS rate of the PACE or Matched Samples. However, when the outcome variable of dropout rate was analyzed, there was a statistically significant increase in the dropout rate of the Matched Sample. The results of data analysis also revealed that the Matched Sample had a higher dropout when compared to the PACE Sample, and this difference was also statistically significant

Concepts of judgement and salvation with special reference to the work of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, John McLeod Campbell, and F. D. Maurice

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Probabilistic lower bounds on maximal determinants of binary matrices

Let ${\mathcal D}(n)$ be the maximal determinant for $n \times n$ $\{\pm 1\}$-matrices, and $\mathcal R(n) = {\mathcal D}(n)/n^{n/2}$ be the ratio of ${\mathcal D}(n)$ to the Hadamard upper bound. Using the probabilistic method, we prove new lower bounds on ${\mathcal D}(n)$ and $\mathcal R(n)$ in terms of $d = n-h$, where $h$ is the order of a Hadamard matrix and $h$ is maximal subject to $h \le n$. For example, $\mathcal R(n) > (\pi e/2)^{-d/2}$ if $1 \le d \le 3$, and $\mathcal R(n) > (\pi e/2)^{-d/2}(1 - d^2(\pi/(2h))^{1/2})$ if $d > 3$. By a recent result of Livinskyi, $d^2/h^{1/2} \to 0$ as $n \to \infty$, so the second bound is close to $(\pi e/2)^{-d/2}$ for large $n$. Previous lower bounds tended to zero as $n \to \infty$ with $d$ fixed, except in the cases $d \in \{0,1\}$. For $d \ge 2$, our bounds are better for all sufficiently large $n$. If the Hadamard conjecture is true, then $d \le 3$, so the first bound above shows that $\mathcal R(n)$ is bounded below by a positive constant $(\pi e/2)^{-3/2} > 0.1133$.Comment: 17 pages, 2 tables, 24 references. Shorter version of arXiv:1402.6817v4. Typos corrected in v2 and v3, new Lemma 7 in v4, updated references in v5, added Remark 2.8 and a reference in v6, updated references in v

Stereospondyl amphibians from the Elliot Formation of South Africa

This paper documents the first members of the Chigutisauridae (Amphibia, Stereospondyli) from southern Africa and the first post-Triassic stereospondyls from that region. The material, from the Lower and Upper Elliot Formation, was associated with a diverse fauna including early mammals and dinosaurs. Most temnospondyls known to have survived the Triassic are brachyopoids, with large members of the Chigutisauridae present in the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Gondwana, and smaller members of the Brachyopidae in the Jurassic of Eurasia.The Council's Research Committe, University of the Witwatersrand; National Science Foundation; Australian Research Council Grant No. A3960215