Common pressures, same results? Recent reforms in professional standards and competences in teacher education for secondary teachers in England, France and Germany

Over the last decade the introduction of professional standards and competences in Initial Teacher Education for Secondary teachers in England, France, and Germany has provided the cornerstone of education reform in all three countries. The precise number and specific content of a measurable set of skills for teachers has offered challenges for policy makers, teacher educators, student teachers, and teachers alike. The concept of standardised teacher education feeds into the idea that there is some convergence towards a uniform teacher ideal. An examination of the skills required of teachers in each of the three countries in this study reveals distinct education systems where path divergence is more evident

X-ray photometry

I describe a method for synthesizing photometric passbands for use with current and future X-ray instruments. The method permits the standardisation of X-ray passbands and thus X-ray photometry between different instruments and missions. The method is illustrated by synthesizing a passband in the XMM-Newton EPIC pn which is similar to the ROSAT PSPC 0.5-2 keV band.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

State-Sponsored Injustice: The Case of Eugenic Sterilization

In analytic political philosophy, it is common to view state-sponsored injustice as the work of a corporate agent. But as I argue, structural injustice theory provides grounds for reassessing the agential approach, producing new insights into state-sponsored injustice. Using the case of eugenic sterilization in the United States, this article proposes a structurally-sensitive conception of state-sponsored injustice with six components: authorization, protection, systemization, execution, enablement, and norm- and belief-influence. Iris Marion Young’s models of responsibility for agential and structural injustice, and the place of state-sponsored injustice with respect to these models, are also discussed

Earth-to-orbit launch for vehicles for manned Mars mission application

Manned Mars missions (MMMs) will require payloads to low Earth orbit (LEO) much heavier and larger than can be accommodated with the Shuttle. Three typical launch vehicles are described that could possibly satisfy the MMM needs. The vehicle concepts include Shuttle Derived Vehicles (SDVs), which are composed essentially of Shuttle components, and Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles (HLLVs), which utilize new and improved technologies and require additional development

Schools in the Community: Action Research on Safety (SCARS) Project. Deliverable Number 2, Report on Before Surveys

This document represents the second deliverable of the Schools in the Community: Action Research on Safety (SCARS) project. The project is a joint one between Leeds City Council's Road Safety Promotion Unit (RSPU), the Faculty of Health and Social Care at Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds (ITS). The objectives of the project are: To develop a whole school approach to road safety To raise awareness among adults about their responsibilities for road safety To evaluate the benefits of the approach This document outlines the way the project team has approached the last of these, the evaluation of the benefits. In particular it gives details on the selection of study sites, the various studies that were undertaken and some preliminary results from these studies. This document does not give information on the interventions that have and are taking place. It is inevitable that, as part of these interventions additional information about the success or otherwise of the initiative may be obtained, such as how much information has been successfully imparted to children, how many meetings of community groups have occurred etc. The studies outlined in this document, therefore, only form part of the evaluation process. As the project is only part way through, this document does not include any evaluation of the success or otherwise of the initiative as a whole for the very simple reason that no 'after' studies have yet taken place. The initiative as a whole will be evaluated in the Final Report of the project

Schools in the Community: Action Research on Safety (SCARS) Project. Deliverable Number 2, Report on Before Surveys

This document represents the second deliverable of the Schools in the Community: Action Research on Safety (SCARS) project. The project is a joint one between Leeds City Council's Road Safety Promotion Unit (RSPU), the Faculty of Health and Social Care at Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds (ITS). The objectives of the project are: To develop a whole school approach to road safety To raise awareness among adults about their responsibilities for road safety To evaluate the benefits of the approach This document outlines the way the project team has approached the last of these, the evaluation of the benefits. In particular it gives details on the selection of study sites, the various studies that were undertaken and some preliminary results from these studies. This document does not give information on the interventions that have and are taking place. It is inevitable that, as part of these interventions additional information about the success or otherwise of the initiative may be obtained, such as how much information has been successfully imparted to children, how many meetings of community groups have occurred etc. The studies outlined in this document, therefore, only form part of the evaluation process. As the project is only part way through, this document does not include any evaluation of the success or otherwise of the initiative as a whole for the very simple reason that no 'after' studies have yet taken place. The initiative as a whole will be evaluated in the Final Report of the project

Blue and purple Labour challenges to the welfare state: How should 'statist' social democrats respond?

This article explores two influential strands of thinking about the welfare state, Blue Labour and Purple Labour, that have emerged following New Labour's defeat at the 2010 General Election. It is argued that although both of these new approaches raise some important issues about the relational and associational dimensions of social welfare as well as diversity and pluralism, those committed to universal and egalitarian goals should not abandon the ‘statist’ social democratic approach to the welfare state

Cycling & Urban Commuting: Results of Behavioural Mode and Route Choice Models

The research reported here was undertaken as part of an Economic and Social Research Council Project (R000237103) entitled Cycling and Urban Mode Choice. The scope of the study is entirely commuting within an urban context. The objectives of the study were: • to better understand the interactions between car, bus, cycle and walk in an urban context and to explain observed variations in cycle trip rates across towns. • to be able to forecast the effect of a range of improvements to cycling facilities on mode choice • to use the estimated models to evaluate some actual schemes • to provide end users (eg consultants, local authorities, cycling organisations) with a tool to determine the effect of policy measures. In particular, to create models which will enhance the performance of strategic, integrated transport studies. The objectives of this paper are: • to describe the methodology that was used to examine cycling within an urban mode choice context • to outline the collection of data required to estimate behavioural models • to report the results of the estimated mode and route choice models • to provide illustrations of how the model can be used to appraise improvements to cycle facilities and cycling conditions. The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 2 gives a brief overview of the policy context of work on cycling in the UK and previous work in the area. Section 3 describes the methodology used to collect the Revealed Preference (RP) and Stated Preference (SP) data necessary for the model. Section 4 describes the data that was collected. Section 5 gives details of the development of the model and some empirical results from the model that was developed. Section 6 illustrates how the model could be used to appraise improvements in cycle facilities and cycling conditions. Section 7 draws some conclusions from the work

Propensity to Consider Cycling for Commuting Trips

The British Government launched the National Cycling Strategy (NCS) in July 1996. The aims of this strategy are to establish a culture favourable to the increased use of bicycles for all age groups, to develop sound policies and good practice, and to seek out innovative and effective means of fostering accessibility by bicycle. The central target is to double the amount of cycle trips on 1996 figures by 2002; and double it again by 2012. It is hoped that these increases in cycle trips are as a result of people switching their current mode to bicycle. With this increased interest from national and local governments, there is likely to be increasing demand for rigorous evaluation of proposed schemes in terms of increases in levels of cycling, modal shift and, ultimately, the quantified benefits to existing and potential cyclists. Yet, in contrast to the vast amount of research which has been done on enhancing our understanding of the demand for motorised vehicles, relatively little attention has been paid to the slow modes (i.e. walk and cycle). Furthermore, most studies on existing and potential demands for cycling are qualitative rather than quantitative in nature. For instance, attitudinal factors of choosing or not choosing cycling are well documented. However, magnitudes of different factors are seldom calculated. An Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) sponsored project entitled “Cycling and Urban Mode Choice” (Grant Number: R000237103) started in mid-1997, aiming to identify and quantify the factors that might influence people’s decision to travel to work in urban areas. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of the first stage study of this research project. The first stage study of the “Cycling and Urban Mode Choice” project was to identify and measure the proportion of the general population who would or would not consider cycling to work in urban areas. This study was based on detailed surveys (door-to-door and telephone interviews) of people’s actual mode choices on two what-if situations. The first hypothetical situation is based on provisions of cycle facilities and routes, and the second rests on drastic changes of the current situations of journey to work. Models were built on the survey data to explain people’s choices between driving car, getting a lift, bus, walk and cycle for the journey to work trips

Biologically Significant Illinois Streams: An Evaluation of the Streams of Illinois based on Aquatic Biodiversity: Part 1

Part 1: Text. See Reference ID-1365 for Part 2: AtlasReport issued on: December 31, 1991INHS Technical Report prepared for Illinois Dept. of Conservation, Illinois Dept. of Energy and Natural Resource