The Characteristics of Successful and Effective Teachers of the Gifted

The purpose of this study was to determine the defining qualities of teachers of the gifted. Five teachers of gifted students in the Knox County System were identified as being successful and effective based on supervisor and administrator evaluation. A series of structured interviews and observations were conducted. A rubric was also completed by the TAG supervisor. The researcher completed a thick description of each TAG teacher’s classroom. Based on the analysis of interviews, observations, and rubric data, the researcher attempted to identify and describe the characteristics, which contributed to the effectiveness of those teachers. The researcher concluded from the data that successful teachers of the gifted seemed to be more flexible or adaptable than their less successful counterparts, had a rich variety of experience, had broad and varying interests, were open and approachable, demonstrated a variety of teaching styles, and considered themselves knowledgeable or interested in research pertaining to gifted education. Neither age nor gender appeared to be a factor

The impact of New Labour's educational policy on primary schools

About the book: Michael Fielding looks at what the Labour Government has achieved in the last four years with its policy of 'education, education, education'. There has been widespread disappointment in New Labour's education policies, which on the whole have not steered too far wide of those put in place by Margaret Thatcher, including issues of marketisation, testing and performativity. Michael Fielding has called on the key policy thinkers in education to offer their opinions on what has happened in education over the first three to four years of the New Labour Government. Education policy is a controversial subject and with a General Election expected within the next few months, this book will be read widely by people within education, politicians and journalists and by others anxious to get to facts and avoid the spin. The subject matter and the presence of so many high profile educationalists make this an essential read

Thermomechanical response of HTPB-based composite beams subjected to near-resonant inertial excitation

At this time, there is a pressing need to develop new technologies capable of detecting, identifying, and potentially neutralizing energetic materials, preferably from a stand-off distance. To address this need, an improved understanding of the mechanics of energetic materials, prior to detonation or deflagration, must be developed. In light of this, the present effort seeks to characterize the thermomechanical response of a polymer-based composite material, which is a mechanical surrogate for a traditional composite explosive or propellant. This research focus is motivated by the fact that many polymer-based materials demonstrate significant self-heating when subjected to dynamic loading, due to the combination of appreciable internal dissipation and poor thermal diffusion. Such self-heating has the potential to enhance existing stand-off, vapor-based detection systems, due to the temperature sensitivity of vapor pressure attendant to many polymer-based energetic materials. In this effort, a thermomechanical model of a polymer-based composite beam is developed. The composite is modeled as a homogenized linear viscoelastic material and the mechanical response is determined using Euler–Bernoulli beam theory in conjunction with a harmonic base excitation. The system is excited near its first resonant frequency to elicit large mechanical responses and, thus, maximum heating. The heat generation resulting from the harmonic loading is derived using the hysteretic characteristics of the system. The Fourier Law of Conduction is then used in conjunction with the derived heat source, as well as numerical solvers, to obtain the thermal response. In addition to the aforementioned modeling efforts, experiments were conducted using a HTPB-based beam with embedded ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) crystals. The sample was subjected to harmonic base excitation and the thermal and mechanical responses were recorded using infrared thermography and scanning laser Doppler vibrometry, respectively. Direct comparisons of the results obtained through theory and experiments are presented for several distinct forcing levels. The acquired results show a strong dependence of the temperature distribution on the stress and strain fields produced by the mechanical loading. The effect of convection at the surfaces is also evident in the thermal response. Close agreement between the model predictions and experimental results is observed. In conclusion, by adopting a unified research approach, the authors hope to build upon recent research efforts related to explosives detection by bridging the substantial gap that exists between theory and experiments. The authors also hope that this effort will advance the worldwide research effort aimed at detecting and defeating hidden explosive materials

Creative teaching and learning: towards a common discourse and practice

There has recently been a call for more pedagogic comparative research to counter the dominance of structural and policy led studies. At the same time there is also a necessity to provide alternative comparative research to that concerned with global standardising performance and performativity strategies. The research, on which this paper is based, fulfils both these aims by investigating creative teaching and learning in nine European countries at classroom level using ethnographic methods in a small number of sites for each partner. The research partners share a common discourse of pedagogy that we are calling creative teaching and learning, a common humanitarian discourse and the ethnographic methodology for the research was a strong framework to counter differing cultural approaches to research. The article analytically characterises some significant strategies used by teachers, the creative learning experienced and the meaning that the experiences had for the students involved. We conclude that this research has laid the basis for a common discourse for further research in a comparative approach that will investigate commonalities to build an understanding of international creative pedagogy and investigate differences to enhance the conceptualisation of it

Media Framing and Sources Quoted in Coverage of the Name, Image, and Likeness Debate

Athletes competing at NCAA institutions acquired the ability to profit from the use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) on July 1, 2021. The time period leading up to this point was marked by contentious debate about college athletes and “amateurism” in the sports media. To better understand the nature of this mediated debate, the current study investigated framing in media coverage of NIL rights with a particular focus on the types of sources quoted by journalists during a two-year period from 2019-2021. A total of 113 media articles were identified for analysis. NCAA officials were the most consistently quoted sources in this media coverage, appearing in 59.3% of articles. Overall, media coverage often privileged the NCAA’s viewpoint that any disruption to the amateur “collegiate model” would be detrimental to the future of college sport. In contrast, current college athletes were quoted in just 5.3% of articles. Although other sources, such as politicians (quoted in 47.5% of articles), often spoke on behalf of college athletes about the rights they should be entitled to, the actual voices of athletes themselves were largely absent from this mediated debate. The exclusion of athletes’ voices is relevant given ongoing discussion about amateurism and the rights of college athletes

Correlates to Performance on Field Tests of Muscular Strength

Field tests of upper body muscular strength and endurance (UBMSE) are often administered to children, but little is known about the determinants of performance on these tests. Therefore the purpose of this investigation was to examine potential determinants of performance on several common field tests of UBMSE including pull-ups, flexed-arm hang, push-ups, and two types of modified pull-ups. Subjects were 56 girls, and 38 boys, ages 9 to 11 years. Potential determinants assessed were age, height, weight, gender, % fat, physical activity, and laboratory measures of muscular strength and endurance. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the laboratory measures of UBMSE failed to account for significant fractions of variance in performance on four of the five tests. However, % fat was significantly associated with performance on four of five tests. These results indicate that factors other than muscular strength and endurance account for most of the variance in performance, and that % fat appears to be a particularly important determinant of performance

Enhanced Acoustic Transmission Into Dissipative Solid Materials Through The Use Of Inhomogeneous Plane Waves

A number of applications, for instance ultrasonic imaging and nondestructive testing, involve the transmission of acoustic energy across fluid–solid interfaces into dissipative solids. However, such transmission is generally hindered by the large impedance mismatch at the interface. In order to address this problem, inhomogeneous plane waves were investigated in this work for the purpose of improving the acoustic energy transmission. To this end, under the assumption of linear hysteretic damping, models for fluid–structure interaction were developed that allow for both homogeneous and inhomogeneous incident waves. For low-loss solids, the results reveal that, at the Rayleigh angle, a unique value of the wave inhomogeneity can be found which minimizes the reflection coefficient, and consequently maximizes the transmission. The results also reveal that with sufficient dissipation levels in the solid material, homogeneous incident waves yield lower reflection values than inhomogeneous waves, due to the large degrees of inhomogeneity inherent in the transmitted waves. Analytical conditions have also been derived which predict the dependence of the optimal incident wave type on the dissipation level and wave speeds in the solid medium. Finally, implications related to the use of acoustic beams of limited spatial extent are discussed

Use of Evanescent Plane Waves for Low-Frequency Energy Transmission Across Material Interfaces

The transmission of sound across high-impedance difference interfaces, such as an air-water interface, is of significant interest for a number of applications. Sonic booms, for instance, may affect marine life, if incident on the ocean surface, or impact the integrity of existing structures, if incident on the ground surface. Reflection and refraction at the material interface, and the critical angle criteria, generally limit energy transmission into higher-impedance materials. However, in contrast with classical propagating waves, spatially decaying incident waves may transmit energy beyond the critical angle. The inclusion of a decaying component in the incident trace wavenumber yields a nonzero propagating component of the transmitted surface normal wavenumber, so energy propagates below the interface for all oblique incident angles. With the goal of investigating energy transmission using incident evanescent waves, a model for transmission across fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interfaces has been developed. Numerical results are shown for the air-water interface and for common air-solid interfaces. The effects of the incident wave parameters and interface material properties are also considered. For the air-solid interfaces, conditions can be found such that no reflected wave is generated, due to impedance matching among the incident and transmitted waves, which yields significant transmission increases over classical incident waves