A case study of case studies: producing real world learning within the business classroom

Teaching and learning about business organisations and the environment in which they operate is contained within a curriculum but context and events in which they operate is constantly changing. In responding to this context one solution is to construct and use case-studies, but these are (a) time-consuming and expensive to produce (b) need constant up-dating (c) may be unsuited for classrooms. This paper shows how these problems have been overcome by using a innovative methodology based in a continuing public-private partnership (1994-present) between H.E., schools and business organisations. The organisations pay to contribute - and distribute - the case-studies which must conform to requirements which ensure classroom materials are relevant, rigorous, up-to-date, and unbiased: cross-referenced to the curriculum; both practical and theoretical; designed to enrich classroom experiences; ethically-based, taking into account the advice of teachers. The paper argues for a way of producing curriculum materials which itself constitutes a methodological contribution to the uses of case-study in research-based learning

Uncovering the truth behind Vygotsky's cognitive apprenticeship: engaging reflective practitioners in the 'master-apprentice' relationship

In recent years theories of situated cognition sharing the idea that learning and doing are inseparable as part of a process of enculturation, largely based upon the work of Vygotsky in developing a model of ‘cognitive apprenticeship’, have received much attention in education (Vygotsky, 1978) as an insightful model underpinning forms of learning and teaching. The master-apprentice relationship using techniques of apprenticeship such as modelling, scaffolding and reflection has since been used as a base for considerable research helping researchers and practitioners to understand teacher-student action across a range of different teaching situations (Collins et al., 1989; Hennessy, 1993; Jarvela, 1995; Rojewski et al., 1994). The focus of much of this research has explored the efficacy of the model when set against the question of how to improve forms of learning and teaching in particular settings

Breaking out from the straitjacket: an appreciation of the art of teaching in a business classroom within a scientifically-based teaching environment

Teachers might develop a wonderful feeling that many young people have understood a lesson and have not just enjoyed the experience but done so in a way that has created some 'thing' special for all of those involved ('thing' is highlighted in this instance as it is a tangible event taking place and not any attempt to represent it). Some teachers describe this as a buzz; in other words, like nature itself, as something education. The paper argues that scientific enframing not only puts a straitjacket on teachers within the UK, it also makes it difficult for them to develop and appreciate the 'art of teaching'. unquestionably unique that justifies their commitment to their teaching and their students. No matter how much we know about botany and genes, every flower is unique and blooms because it blooms. As Angelus Silesius indicates within his poetry "The rose is without why; it blooms because it blooms, It pays no attention to itself, ask not whether it is seen." (Heidegger,1991) The United Kingdom education system has existed under the hammer of transformation, with a National Curriculum (1988), a rigorous inspection regime (Woodward, 2001) and countless changes in curriculum and associated assessments (QCA, 2004), as well as a substantive apparatus that makes many assumptions about how teachers should operate within the classroom. The primary concern of this paper is to question how the 'scientific framing' of teaching through competences and other measures of accountability has influenced the work of teachers within the context of business

Dynamics of Conformal Maps for a Class of Non-Laplacian Growth Phenomena

Time-dependent conformal maps are used to model a class of growth phenomena limited by coupled non-Laplacian transport processes, such as nonlinear diffusion, advection, and electro-migration. Both continuous and stochastic dynamics are described by generalizing conformal-mapping techniques for viscous fingering and diffusion-limited aggregation, respectively. A general notion of time in stochastic growth is also introduced. The theory is applied to simulations of advection-diffusion-limited aggregation in a background potential flow. A universal crossover in morphology is observed from diffusion-limited to advection-limited fractal patterns with an associated crossover in the growth rate, controlled by a time-dependent effective Peclet number. Remarkably, the fractal dimension is not affected by advection, in spite of dramatic increases in anisotropy and growth rate, due to the persistence of diffusion limitation at small scales.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (six color plates

The unsteady flow of a weakly compressible fluid in a thin porous layer. I: Two-dimensional theory

We consider the problem of determining the pressure and velocity fields for a weakly compressible fluid flowing in a two-dimensional reservoir in an inhomogeneous, anisotropic porous medium, with vertical side walls and variable upper and lower boundaries, in the presence of vertical wells injecting or extracting fluid. Numerical solution of this problem may be expensive, particularly in the case that the depth scale of the layer h is small compared to the horizontal length scale l. This is a situation which occurs frequently in the application to oil reservoir recovery. Under the assumption that epsilon=h/l<<1, we show that the pressure field varies only in the horizontal direction away from the wells (the outer region). We construct two-term asymptotic expansions in epsilon in both the inner (near the wells) and outer regions and use the asymptotic matching principle to derive analytical expressions for all significant process quantities. This approach, via the method of matched asymptotic expansions, takes advantage of the small aspect ratio of the reservoir, epsilon, at precisely the stage where full numerical computations become stiff, and also reveals the detailed structure of the dynamics of the flow, both in the neighborhood of wells and away from wells

Updated geometry description for the LHCb Trigger Tracker

The XML based detector description for the Trigger Tracker (TT) station has been updated. A more realistic version has been implemented in which volumes for frames, readout cables, balconies, jackets, cooling plates and elements have been added in addition to a detailed description of the detector modules. In this note an overview of the updated description is presented

Provisions for oil and gas decommissioning costs: compliance with disclosure requirements by oil and gas companies listed in the UK

Due to their complications in terms of uncertainty and calculations provisions for oil and gas decommissioning costs are not easy to be understood and interpret by users of no accounting and finance background. Furthermore, due to their significant sizes, cash outflow effect and importance for decision making disclosing more detailed information seem to be ideal requirement to simplify these complications. This study raises, almost for the first time, queries about compliance, sufficiency, uniformity and fairness of oil and gas companies' disclosure practices with regard to provisions for decommissioning costs. In order to provide answers to the research quires, annual reports of 69 oil and gas companies listed in the UK were analysed and thirteen interviews with different professionals were conducted. Our results reveal that whilst there is sufficient standards to regulate accounting for provisions for decommissioning costs there seems to be lack of compliance with requirements of international accounting standards in terms of disclosing information on provisions for decommissioning costs. In many cases, and probably due to their sensitive nature, we found that oil and gas companies tend to disclose a minimum amount of information about provisions for decommissioning costs

Applicability and Utility of the Astromaterials X-Ray Computed Tomography Laboratory at Johnson Space Center

The Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASAs Johnson Space Center is responsible for curating all of NASAs astromaterial sample collections (i.e. Apollo samples, Luna Samples, Antarctic Meteorites, Cosmic Dust Particles, Microparticle Impact Collection, Genesis solar wind atoms, Stardust comet Wild-2 particles, Stardust interstellar particles, and Hayabusa asteroid Itokawa particles) [1-3]. To assist in sample curation and distribution, JSC Curation has recently installed an X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scanner to visualize and characterize samples in 3D. [3] describes the instrumental set-up and the utility of XCT to astromaterials curation. Here we describe some of the current and future projects and illustrate the usefulness of XCT in studying astromaterials